Chiang Mai

The beauty of Chiang Mai
is sparkles in a tiger's eye.
A land of elephants, temples, dragons and the jungle,
a good place to get a massage or a jade bangle.
Chiang Mai is where I learnt to cook Thai,
met new friends, now I'm off to Pai!

Bangkok

I never thought I would consider Bangkok to be clean but that was my first impression going from India to Thailand.

Bangkok airport is clean and modern with an easy train heading straight into the city. Even the taxi from the train station was easy - it was metered so we didn't have to hassle on a price and he even drove in between the lines!

I can definitely recommend http://www.theoverstay.com/ as a place to stay. It's a bit far from the Ko San Road (we got very lost trying to find our way back) but has cool graffiti all over the walls (such a creative vibe that I got back into painting and put a big faerie on the wall in our bedroom) and while we were there had live hip hop, comedy and d+b nights -  reminds me of being back in Bristol!

My favorite part of Bangkok (other than the cheap beer) was the Museum of Siam which has to be the best interactive history museum I've ever been to. The museum gave a complete history of SE Asia from a room where you could learn about archeology by using a brush on a screen and "uncover" artifacts that teach about the early civilizations to a life size cannon attached to a computer game in the "war room", cool videos on everything from Buddhism to trade routes, clothes from the 1920s that you could dress up in and finally a wall which projected your comments on the exhibition. 

Live Music in India

From Guns and Roses in Bangalore to a reggae festival in Goa, jam sessions in Hampi, and now Snoop Dog in Pune, I have had a good selection of live music in India!

We found out about Live from the Console in Goa while we were still in England as Bristol based band 

DUB MAFIA were playing but while travelling around India in the month before no one seemed to have heard of it, everyone that was going to Goa where there for Sunburn (a trance festival). The promoters could definitely learn a thing or two from the UK and initially this showed in the crowd  size - the place was basically empty when we arrived!

The first few acts were singer songwriters so it didn't really matter that there weren't people dancing, but the last of them, Sid Siddharth Basrur, had us all singing along to "make me a sandwich, with chicken and cheese, make me a sandwich, i'll make some watered down tea". After that Tough on Tobacco, Dubblestandart, Dub Mafia, and Julian Marley had us dancing solidly throughout the night and the place started to fill up (although there was still space to dance at the front).

Security was pretty tight at the Goa festival, they had guys with guns on a lookout point near the entrance and no smoking allowed anywhere in the outdoor venue (although that was only mildly enforced) but at the Snoop Dog gig it was ridiculous. Not only did I get searched on the way in, which is pretty standard, I also got searched again going into the toilets! They were also confiscating people's lighters and cigarettes but then selling cigarettes inside (but not lighters, you had to get a match from the bar person and give it back ...). Generally logic didn't seem to be present in the logistics of the organising. There was a bar to buy drinks but you couldn't take them out of the cornered off area, and security weren't even letting people take water into the dance area by the stage. The general vibe that the security team were creating, combined with some terrible djs as support acts made me very disapointed with the whole event initially but when Snoop Dog came on stage it made it all worth while. Again, the lack of people meant that we were able to be right up near the front and still have space to dance! Loved it :)

Gokarna and Hampi (Karnataka)

I have now spent almost a month between Gokarna and Hampi, where apart from a brief stint in Goa for New Year, I've generally avoided technology and spent my days very chilled.

On Om beach, Gokarna, we rented kayaks to explore the coast, seeing dolphins in between Om beach and half moon beach and then carrying on around to paradise beach where there were no guesthouses but a community of travellers were living in hammocks on the beach (and one guy selling coconuts and Snickers).

Since leaving Gokarna I have been told that the police evicted everyone living on paradise beach but this may have just been for the Christmas/ New Year period.

In Hampi there is even more to do. We spent one day exploring temples and ruins, but would've needed a lot longer to see it all. We spent must of put time on the other side of the river where all the tourists stay and rented motorbikes most days to explore the surrounding countryside. The countryside here is something completely unique - as far as the eye can see are massive boulders and palm trees and makes you feel like your on the set of the Flintstones. Most evenings could be spent climbing a massive pile of rocks to watch the sunset and listen to someone playing the guitar or drums.

Travelling around the local villages was the first place where I encountered children asking for pens, and sods law, I only had 2 on me and 20 children asking (even though I had intentionally brought loads of pens with me from England).

One downfall for Hampi was that during the Christmas season the police were imposing a 10pm curfew on all the cafes. Generally we were able to find somewhere that had paid them off but locals or anyone that looked Indian seemed to get a lot more trouble, with one Indian looking tourist even being asked to leave.

While we were there we also heard stories of what has happened in Hampi over the last 10 years. It was made a world herratige site, which you would think is a good thing, but it means that all of the villagers that had been living in the ruins have been moved out. They were given compensation but this did not vary according to the size of family and a lot of people that used to have quite a good quality of life now have a lot less. People that saw out last year also say that the ruins have lost their character without the people and it does seem that in trying to protect buildings the government has lost the culture ...

One final point to consider if you plan to visit Hampi is that power is scarce, with electric only being available for a few hours in the morning and evening. This was not much of a promblem though, and gave me an excuse to let my phone die and have no instrument for knowing what time it was, let alone the day.