Tad Sae & Kouang Xi waterfalls

Today Ciaran and I headed to see Kouang Xi and Tad Sae waterfalls. Heading to the smaller of the two first (Tad Sae) we passed the elephant camp and went for a swim at the interesting falls that rush through the trees into various blue pools. Heading back from here we stopped at a pineapple market and bought a full pineapple to eat for around 13 cents! And it was one of the most delicious pineapples i've eaten! Arriving at Kuoang Xi waterfall we could see the place was much more popular with the tourists and there were lots of people around. This had no effect on the majesty of the place however, as the enormous cascading waterfall was absolutely breathtaking. Taking a heap of photos and following the trail right to the top of the falls I took in the view for a while before heading back down to one of the busy pools for a jump off the jump tree and a swim in the cool waters. Riding back to town in the back of our truck Ciaran and I slept on the comfy bench seats and then headed to dinner at a cheap vegetarian stall my beautiful girlfriend had recommended. An excellent day!

Up the Mekong to Luang Prabang

From Chiang Mai I took an overnight bus to the Lao Border and then took a slow boat up river for two days to reach Luang Prabang. Visa entry for Australians was five dollars cheaper than for Poms or Americans and on taking my passport the Border official greeted me with a big 'G'day Mate'. Travelling up the Mekong on the first day was nice, but my fatigue from a sleepless night on the bus made for a long day. Arriving for the night in Pakbeng, we payed just over a dollar for our nights accomodation and had a huge delicious meal with two American girls we had met along the way.
Feeling much better after a nights sleep, the next day on the boat was very relaxing watching the river and reading my book or writing in my journal. Pulling into Luang Prabang around 5:30 I could tell straight away that this would be a place I liked and having spent a few days here now I can say that my first impression was not wrong...
Monks wander the streets all day and I got up early one morning to watch them doing their alms rounds. People are friendly and don't hassle you to buy things and the river setting is a great place to relax. If time were not an issue I could spend a long time in Luang Prabang with its surrounding waterfalls and caves..

Chiang Mai

Having finished all I needed to do in Bangkok (including getting two fillings without anesthetic but for only $50), I was ready to move on from the money draining city and head north to Chiang Mai. The overnight bus was the cheapest option but it was also very cramped, cold, and had two annoying English piss heads on board. Sleep was not possible.
Once in Chiang Mai I headed out with Ciaran and two Polish girls we had met on the bus to book a hill-tribe trek for the next day. Having done this, we had a chilled out afternoon catching up on some sleep before Ciaran and I headed out for a few drinks. Bumping into a mate from my home town, a few drinks turned into a few more and leaving him to go home me and Ciaran headed to several more bars for a night that ended up being way too big for a prequel to three days trekking. We awoke the next morning feeling REALLY hungover but soldiered on and visited a butterfly garden on the way to the beginning of our trek. Normally, I would say that the trek would have been easy, but in the state I was in it was pretty tough. Beautiful scenery and villages though, and by late afternoon I was feeling good enough to take the locals on in a game of Takro.
The next day we headed off to the Elephant camp for some elephant back riding and then walked to another village where we could swin in the local river that flowed from a natural spring. It was a slow and relaxing day. In the morning we walked to visit a waterfall that was not incredibly impressive but was over 6ft deep at the base and was good for swimming. From here we headed to do some whitewater rafting that had pretty low level rapids but was good fun nonetheless. this was followed up with some bamboo rafting and our time in the hills was then over. Tonight I head to Laos so posting may be less frequent for the next month or so....

Muay Thai

So how can i start the post about watching the kickboxing in Bangkok? How about the first fight ending in a knock out that left the fighter needing to be stretchered out! Seated ringside, Daniel, Ash, Paul, and I watched the nights proceedings from as close as you could get. Fight 7 was the title fight for the night and the battle was between a fighter who loved to kick and a fighter who loved to punch. It was a great battle with the kicker winning on points in the end. Not much more to say here really, except if you're in Bangkok pay the money to go and watch the real kickboxing at the real stadiums..

Bako National Park

After spending a few days relaxing, shopping, and catching up on emails I decided I needed some adventure again. To fill this desire I headed out with two others from my group to Bako National Park, a trip that took just 1hr by bus and 1/2 by boat. Once in Bako we trekked to Kecil beach and the place was absolutely beautiful. Deep Blue water, hardly anyone about, and some great places to jump off the rocks/ cliffs. I actually climbed up one cliff that, once on top, had the local boat drivers yelling at me "you first man ever on top!". This thought had me feeling pretty good about myself and gave me a lot of extra motivation to make the jump off this cliff. The jump itself was loads of fun but I did land hard and bruise my tail bone, making sitting a painful experience for the next few days. Still as I swam to shore the boat drivers called me over and asked me how i got on top of the cliff. I Climbed I told them, and it wasn't overly difficult. Again they told me I was the first bloke up there and when I was walking off one guy yelled out and asked me my name. I told him, and pointing at the cliff he said "Kearrin rock". So i'm famous at Baku now, hahaha.
The rest of the day was spent lazing on the beach and taking photos before heading back for our afternoon boat and coming across some beautiful Silver Langur mothers with their newborn babies. I would recommend Baku park to everyone who has the time when in Kuching as Kecil beach is just so beautiful. Arriving back late afternoon we all felt it had been a fantastic day.

Semengohh Orang utan Rehabilitation Centre

Not to far out of the beautiful Kuching is Semengohh orang utan rehabilitation centre, a centre that in my opinion is much better the Sepilok. While at Semengohh I got to see Ritchie, the dominant male and he is MASSIVE. All the park rangers are quick to move everyone along if Ritchie comes your way, not that you need them to tell you to move! And I also got to sit about a metre away from a 38yr old wild orang utan. If you are on a limited time stretch in Borneo go to Semengohh over Sepilok. Anyway, thats all the writing i'm going to put on this post, I will let the photos show you how cool this place was!