Holi colour fesitval part 3 and another trip to Laos

Back to 35-38 degrees during the day and 24 at night took some getting use to, as the cold weather stint, really did just stick around for 4 weeks, then like a snap, back to insane heat during the day. The baby talcing powder is working overtime. It is funny when you hear Thais saying they don't like the sun and prefer the cold as we always preach the opposite. Maybe every one gets bored quickly of the same things and craves change, that and the fact no one here wants

darker skin as the whiter you are the more your viewed as higher status. Not us however we could live with this heat easily as it opens the world up to so much more activities outside of the house. This place has something to do every single night with weekly evening concerts, markets, shows, sports events, art displays etc.


So at the start of February Supans was hosting another Holi colour festival which I've explained in a previous blog but a quick run down is roughly 100 people partying and throwing coloured paint over each other for the night. The festival originates from India were the whole country has this paint war and celebrates the night before with songs and bonfires. I can only imagine the clean up job after.
There was a huge turn out for the night, bringing in people from a lot of other provinces as well as a few teachers we had met at the last party,so was good to catch up. We found out there is a group of maybe 25 students from America also staying not far from us who all turned up after Supans owner went around advertising and have said they will be back for more events.

However unaware to us, there was currently government elections going on in Thailand and if you haven't heard anything on the news back home, Google it, as leading up to it there was huge protests in Bangkok between the 2 factions and after some trouble a curfew was placed on all of Bangkok and most roads closed to the public only allowing pre-checked taxis to collect and transport westerners and tourists.


Because of the election the whole country was on a dry rule for the night before, stating that no one could serve alcohol and what we found out later also meant could not drink alcohol. With the event in full swing I was standing chatting at the bar with a guy from the Philippines, when I turned around and to see a police officer taking my picture and another holding a video camera up to my face. Slightly shocked and confused I stepped back as he asked the owner why she was serving alcohol as its illegal.

But she had advertised it as a private party not for Thais so shouldn't effect foreigners. The rule was brought in, as far as I was told to not sway anyone's judgement and make sure everyone turned up to vote the following day. She explained we couldn't vote but they said it was not allowed for anyone to drink and shut the party down. Luckily one of the guys from Supan's lived close by and invited everyone back to his place and we continued the party in his large one room apartment cramming about 25-30 people in there but still had a great night as he has a fair bit of space and his neighbors were also at the party so no noise issues.

Unfortunately the next day I had to make the trip BACK to Laos again, as my 15 days were running out on my visa. Not something I should have done with a hang over I would later learn. I got my bus ticket again another 180 baht and had paid for yet another Laos visa 1600 baht, all because the Thai embassy in Ireland had put the wrong date on my visa. I got across the border and the bus driver who had hurried me earlier to fill in my forms at the crossing asked me if I'd like to jump off before we got to the bus terminal in Laos close to the western bars and hostels. I said yes and jumped off without asking which direction and finding myself in a very dark shady part of town on a junction not knowing which way to go, no street lights to be found in this area added to my nightmare journey. I asked a Laotian guy by saying "Mekong river" a few times and he pointed me in the general direction. After 50 minutes of walking and cursing the bus driver with every step as I  knew the bus station is only 25 minute walk from where I wanted to go and still being very hungover I thought I'd never reach my destination. In the 1 hour journey to my hostel I had to walk along the Mekong river having no idea if I was going the right direction with no one around to ask. To add to the ordeal while I

was walking, a small fluffy white dog starting barking aggressively at me, running in circles so I barked back at him loudly.. big mistake, like something from a movie, the moment I barked, I heard two more much louder barks coming from behind a car and 2 much larger more vicious looking dogs came charging out and started barking and growling at me on this dark street with no one around. I took off my bag as one was trying to bite the back of my legs and swung it at him with every advance. They followed me for an additional 20 meters until they got bored of me and walked away. “I really hate this place” I muttered under my breath and continued to the hostel.

I stayed in the Funky Monkey backpackers costing 500 baht per night but it was nice to get a bed to lie down on.The next morning (I'll spare you the full story as its similar to the last blog) but i went to the embassy to do the usually queue for 4 hours as this time I got ticket 272... I really hate this place. Now I'm sure if I was just there for a holiday it would be fine but the stress of getting your visa ruined it for me and the journey in.


On my second night I went to play some pool and met a bunch of westerners in the Funky Monkey backpackers which I would definitely recommend as every one is friendly even the owner and he serves drink and lets you play pool all night if you want or if you want a good night a place called "Bor Pen Yang" bar and restaurant and is on the fourth floor over looking the Mekong river, it offers your average pub and falang  food , nothing to write home about but the bar and views are nice at night and you can people watch over the large night market along the river, they also have pool tables and show all sports games. Beware the bar girls are expert pool players but only charge 3000 kip per game which is only 10 baht but I held my own, enough for them to fetch the bar owner to play me.

I went to the park at the end of the street to sit by the river having a beer with a group of falangs from Australia, America. Italy, Germany and Ireland. There was a playground there and after a few goes on the slide :) we were getting ready to finish our drinks, when suddenly we looked up to see 7 or 8 guys all in black standing around us, they had appeared like a silent swat team as not one of us noticed them til they were there and all around us. One walked up and said "police we have to search you". Now given none of them showed badges or guns we figure something wasn't right but not sure what to do . I stood up and said I've nothing in my pockets, making sure to grab my phone and wallet in my hand as he patted me down.
 I said we just came down to finish our beers we can go if you wants.  He said quite angrily" This is my park" and I said hey no worries we can go if you want we just had a few beers on the way home as drinking on the streets is not an issue here. We walked out of the park a bit unsure of what could have happened and guessed they where hoping to find something on us in order to ask for money or else they would arrest us. This town during the day is quiet and nice but once it goes dark as I've mentions the prostitutes and junkies come out and all the tuk tuks shout as you pass "TUK TUK" and then under their breath “ drugs, prostitutes anything you like sir” So it was our belief the tuk tuk drivers sell drugs then tell police to whom, Im sure they get it back with a nice bribe thrown in for good measure.

We went back to the hostel and finished our drinks and played some pool. The following day I went to collect my visa and another fun filled wait, but this time a guy from Italy was standing at the front of the crowd doing some amazing magic and card tricks to keep spirits high. He said he would give 100 baht if some one could guess a trick and one English guy stood up and told him how it was done, then admitting he was also an amateur magician and proceeded to do a few tricks himself. he did the large coin trick (making a dollar change to a coin twice its size and then again with some slight of hand movement into a coin the size of an ashtray) and all I could think of was the movie "40 year old virgin" when he does the trick and is asked " so your a grown man and you carry a huge coin in your pocket just for a chance you'll run into some people who want to see magic" :)

Back in Khon Kean now and firstly greeted by the fact that our apartment neighbors have added 4 new puppy dogs to their collection so now we have 2 beagle pups and 3 small bulldog type pups and a few others running around. I was starting to think the dogs were taking over and walked to the local shop to find the owner had been replaced by a dog... its happening. The invasion begins now!!

 And some very good news is that Kristine has her work permit sorted and can now have a Thai bank account and we get cheaper entry to the gym so joining on Monday. I heard from one of my bosses that she wants to take me on full time in march meaning a work permit, but no way am I going back to Vientiane, this time I'm going to either Cambodia or Vietnam as we haven't seen either yet and they  both have embassy's we can visit.

Back to Laos and Kristine getting her work permit. January

 So it was close to the end of January and my triple entry tourist visa required another border hop to get my last 3 months before having to apply for another tourist visa. Kristine also needed to go as she had her paper work confirmed and was now doing her trip to get a non immigrant B visa which is a bridging visa and allows you to get your work permit through your employer. So we said we could use it as a mini holiday and we booked 3 days off.


I had no time restrictions but as Kristine had to visit the embassy to get her new visa, so we took the few extra days. We traveled by bus and a few days prior had to do the usual trip to the Laos embassy in Khon Kaen to get another Laos visa (number 3) just to cross the border for 2 days costing me 1600 again and Kristine 1300 baht. 
The Laos visa is for 3 months but we would be using it for only 3 days and its cancelled once you come back across the border, always seemed like bit of a waste to us. We took a bus from Khon Kaen to Vientiane costing 180 baht each for a VIP bus taking 4-5 hours.


On arrival in Vientiane we had no time to get our money changed to Laos Kip and went out for dinner hoping to transfer some money but the whole city has weak wi-fi, so I couldn't get online to transfer, so with the food ordered and us panicking I set out into the night to find an Internet cafe. After running around for a half an hour and finding everywhere closed I was getting worried we may have to wash dishes. 

At night the city gets a lot darker and druggies appear and prostitutes on mopeds work the streets trying to pick up drunken foreigners. One pulled into the side and asked where I was going. She had bigger hands than Mike Tyson and an Adam's apple bigger than mine. She/he said “hey honey, I bring you where you want to go, you come with me”. I declined saying I have to get back to my girlfriend, but they drive beside you for a few minutes saying inappropriate, be it hilarious things. I asked if she knew a 24 hour Internet cafe and she replied "of course jump on", I declined again this time staring at her/his 5 o clock shadow, saying I was happy to walk and she went to drive off and I shouted "but do you know where there is a Internet cafe" and she shouted back “ no idea” and drove off into the night.


I was exhausted and still lost as Kristine rang me saying "foods arrived" and that they except American dollars. So thankfully, we still had American dollars that a good friend had given us as a farewell gift and we used it til we could exchange money the following day, saved our asses. Thanks Bren and Laura. See you soon :)

The next morning we had to go to the Embassy for a soon to be painstaking process. Firstly the process is sooo overly dragged out with absolutely no need to be. To apply for a visa you can only do so between 9 am and 11.30 am on weekdays. So we chose Monday and on arrival there was already 300 people standing ready to sprint once the gates open. We ran up and got our number which was 162. We watched as they took a painful 30 Min's to call 10 people to the window and realised we had plenty of time to head off and get some breakfast. As we arrived back an hour later and they were only calling numbers 70-80 we knew we were here for the long run. The joyous moment when they call your number and the sense of relief knowing you don't have to wait around in the 34 degree heat is short lived, as they then direct you over to another building were again our hearts sank slightly as the Thai official behind the counter shouted "now calling number 80-90", this round was thankfully a lot quicker and as you got to the counter you handed over 2000 Baht for this particular visa and were told to come back tomorrow between 1 pm and 3 pm to collect.


After we walked around for a while and checked out the Mekong river separating Thailand and Laos. We were tempted to join in some free aerobics that was going on all along the river next to  huge night market.

We did some sightseeing of Vientiane, the capitol but as we had been there before it was more out of boredom as we had seen most of it. For a capital city it hasn't got too much to offer accept some amazing western food that we had missed and made sure to get our fill before leaving and some nice buildings and river views.
The french influence in the cityis everywhere, so there are cafes and baguette stands everywhere and they have a large Indian restaurant selection with some amazing food from India to Bangladesh that we always try when visiting.


We arrived back the next day to collect Kristine's visa and again had to wait at the gate, then run in and get a number but as we arrived people were just queuing up so we joined them and collected the visa which only took 10 minutes this time.


Kristine was over the moon and we were both so happy as this meant Kristine didn't have to to a visa run for another year as her visa allows her to work in Thailand without the frequent visa runs to Laos. We went out to have a few drinks and were joined by a friend of ours who was there doing the same thing. We had a few drinks and went to a bar that stays open a bit later. Another thing I couldn't work out was why everything closed at 10 or max midnight in some areas as the place got very quiet at night.

As we arrived at the border to come back, Kristine proudly displayed her new visa and I showed my triple entry visa worth 9 months using the last entry on this time. The immigration officer reviewed it stamped it and said harshly “no visa for you”. Confused we showed him the visa with triple entry and the price paid and how its only been 3 and a half months. He said the enter before date was set as 3 months from entry. I explained that's for the first entry but he kept shouting at me saying "no visa". So after speaking with 2 other managers and officers they all said "no visa" for me. We reviewed it and it showed that the embassy in Dublin had put the wrong enter before date on my visa. So they allowed me the usually 15 day visa you get for crossing by land. Its 30 days by air but more expensive to fly. I crossed the border and immediately contacted my embassy at home. They apologised and said they were at fault and after a few emails they sent me a letter saying that if I bring it to the embassy I could get another visa and it shouldn't be an issue.


So in less than 2 weeks, I have to go back to poxy Vientiane for 3 days on my own as Kristine can't get the time off work. Paper work in this country could sent you barmy if you don't have a large amount of patience. You cant even get mad at the embassy's staff or border controls cos is they loose face its a big issue for you I've seen some tourists do it and they end up having to wait another few hours or being refused outright.

So that was fun :(

Our crazy New Years, at a festival on the island of Koh Tao

Ok, so the start off the craziest new years we have ever had it began with a 6 hour bus journey from Khon Kaen to Bangkok. This set us back only 420 baht ( €10.50) for a VIP air con bus with reclining massage chairs and food given to you every 2 hours, it had a touch screen on the back of the chair in front with all the games and movies you would get on a long haul flight , the company is Nakcorn Chai Air and we were advised it's the safest one to go by as the drivers are fined if they arrive to early, as it shows they were speeding. We arrived in Bangkok and had to wait 12 more hours for our next bus which we had to get from Bangkok to Chumpon, then a ferry from Chumpon for 2 hours to our destination on the Island of Koh Tao. We booked into a hostel as we arrived in Bangkok at 1 am. This worked out well as we stayed on Koh San road, it was weird to see that many foreigners in one place, as in Khon Kaen you see a new Falang maybe once a week, in Koh San it was nothing but Falangs. But we did find an Irish restaurant which had full Irish breakfast with pudding and the sun newspaper - be it a week old. The fry was amazing and set us up for the day. We got a taxi to the bus station and the bus to the ferry. This is where the journey took a nasty turn. We arrived at the ferry to find 100's of people waiting to get across, we had paid for the bus and fairy totaling 8 hours with a 2 hour wait in between at 5am, but alot of others had just turned up hoping to get a ticket to find them all sold out. It was new years weekend after all.

Then the Ferry arrived. We had noticed the water was a bit choppy and the catamaran held about 500 people, of that 500 I'd say at least 200 were violently sick due to the non stop bouncing of this huge boat over massive waves big enough to splash onto the top deck where we were sitting. A young Thai guy was handing out black sick bags and there was Thai girls praying at the bottom of the steps. As most of the people on board were heading to the festival a lot of them were already drinking and in the party mood and somehow all the drinkers, bar one, was absolutely fine... so forget sea sickness tablets, just get tanked before taking a boat ride. Hangovers not advised.

We had met two friends in Bangkok who had put us onto the festival we were off to and were travelling with us, one of them went downstairs on the boat to get a more comfortable seat but staring at the horizon is suppose to suppress sea sickness so we stayed up top, while down there he witnessed a true pioneer of a man who had a Chang beer in one hand and a sick bag in the other who was taken turns sipping and em.. well you know in concession. This guy was not going to let a few waves stop the start of his new years partying. :)

 First thing we did on arrival was head up to the camp site to set up our two person tent ( which we had brought with us after buying it from Tesco for 300 baht ( €7). We had purchased the tickets at the entrance but we'll give you a quick over view of the festival. Its called the experience festival and its a trance/dance music festival, costing 2500 baht (€55) for 6 days of camping and 4 nights 5 days of non stop festival music that's on an island. Not bad deal.
The island of only maybe 1300 people living there had to put up with it but we were at the peak of the mountain in the middle of the island. There was free shuttle bus taxis which later turned out to be just 4x4 jeeps that you would sit in the back, to climb the 60 degree hills for about 5 minutes up to the festival grounds. They had over 50 Dj's who would play the 4 day festival non stop.. yep non stop for the whole time and DJ s from all around the world.

The camp site was only a few minute walk from the chill out stage and a bit further from the main stage so people would party the whole time in the festival and also in the camp site, which made trying to sleep some times intolerable as our tent would have 6 drunk french travelers stumbling close to our tent and even falling into it the odd time.We had a word and they were happy to move away. We even ended up dinking with them the following night.
The forrest got packed out with tents and hammocks as some backpackers had only brought clothes, money and a hammock which they could set up on all the trees as it was warm enough at night to sleep under the stars. There was plenty of spaces between tents were we would sit and play music and having a drink before heading into the festival made for a good way to meet some amazing people from around the world as they would just join us for a beer. Half the festival goers would be going to bed at 5/6 am or they would be getting up to party during the day with the amazing surrounding views of the forrest and ocean, but we found it was to hot to drink and dance during the day. I've had sun stroke before and I'm not a fan.

So the great thing is you could leave the festival anytime so during the day we would head to the beach for some swimming, relaxing and some cocktails :). The beach was beautiful and being an island,  it's surrounded by them, so we found a lot of smaller secluded beaches to hang out during the day with other festival goers who needed a break from the non stop partying.

When we first arrived, we checked out the dance floor as we had one night before the mayhem would start, some of the backpackers in our group decided to do some yoga on top of the mountain over looking the forrest and we joined in. I was in agony the next day from not having done stretches like this before and if you haven't tried yoga.. Its bloody tough and requires you to be very flexible and bendy,which I found out I wasn't. Kristine had it down though.

On new years night, we were sitting on a mat on the sand covered dance floor at the Chill out stage . It was really laid back dance music from around the world and we spent the night cheersing a guy from Zimbabwe and a guy from Bahrain as well as some other random nations. All 3 of us had never met any one from either country before so it was an amazing experience.

Most people stayed up for the sunset of the new years and shortly after then we made our way back to the tent. The place was very well set up and they had good shower facilities and toilets which where cleaned regularly. The place was covered in UV lights and they had amazing art work set up all around the site that came up pretty bright on the camera but it all looked amazing using the black lights to illuminate them..
They had a 3 bar set up and even a small area of stalls selling the usual festival foods from fruit shakes to burgers and chips and Thai food stalls of course and a coktail bar but it was a bit more pricey. Throughout the day and nights the place was full of performers with LED hoops, juggling acts, poi performers and people doing acrobatic yoga which is crazy to see. Everyone we met was very nice and there was no trouble at all.nothing like the Full moon party which can be too crowded at times.

This is the 6th year its been held there and they had police sitting at the entrance but this was all for show as they had been paid off  and only there for any big trouble but it was a great atmosphere and they never had to lift a finger all week. Most times we would be going back to the camp site they would be sitting drinking beer and listening to the music. I cheersed them every time and they would smile back and raise their beers.
They had a chill out stage playing much lighter music which had a dance floor made of sand and at night it would be full of mats so we could grab some beers chill out while meeting other backpackers on the top of a mountain and stare at the amazing night sky of stars. This is were we would get chatting with people who had come their from all around the world for new years at this festival were as the main stage was more for dancing but also had some hammocks set up around the outside for flaking.

 We spent the last day on the beach and got together for a Sunday roast in one of the bars which still had their Xmas decorations up so it was kind of a christmas dinner but still doesn't compare to the one back home (That's for you mam ☺). The beaches all had adjacent restaurants serving western food so we got our last few meals in before going back to a Thai diet in Khon Kaen which we started missing near the end.

 We took the same journey back which I can tell you from the camp site involved : A 4x4 back of the truck taxi down to the pier then a 2 hour ferry to Chumpon followed by a 2 hour wait then a bus ride for 6 hours to Bangkok with another 4 hour wait and finally 6 hour bus back to Khon Kaen arriving at 7 am and feeling like we needed another holiday to get over that one.

Happy days ,Kristine got all her paper work sorted for her working permit meaning she wont have to do border trips for a year so we have to make a trip to Laos in the New Year to come back across the border for me and a trip tot he embassy there for her.. so we will turn it into a small holiday for the two of us to relax and have some of Vientiane's famous French.,Indian and Turkish food.

Christmas in Thailand & Kristine's Xmas play

So in the few days leading up to Christmas, Kristine was getting nervous as she had just been informed that in 1 week she would be organizing the kids, with her fellow teachers in a school Christmas play in front of all the teachers and parents. Oh and also starring in it as Mrs Claus, being the only female teacher.

I'm guessing if she hadn't had started working there it would have been more of a Christmas meets rocky horror, with one of the male teachers playing the roll. :-) So she asked and it was allowed that I (Stephen) could come down to watch the show and I was so glad I did. It was really well put together and I got to go back stage to see the magic. I say magic, more like 30 screaming kids dressed as elves and reindeer running in circles screaming, as the teachers tried to get them into costume.

I must admit it felt weird being there to record and support Kristine in her fist school play. Felt like a proud parent taking all the snaps :) But all the kids were well behaved when it came to starting the show and the back room was filled with proud parents as their children had been chosen to be in the show. Well, some of them demanded it, and you have to keep the parents happy.

The story of the play was that all the kids were in bed waiting for Santa, who arrived with his elves, so they could make the presents (seemed like he had all year to make them but who am I to judge), but then mean old Jack Frost comes along with his evil elves and steals the presents and kidnaps Santa.

This is were Kristine comes in she ran out on stage to wake Santa and later she had to pretend to call Frosty the Snowman to come and save Christmas. There was then an epic battle between Jack Frost and Frosty the Snowman, accompanied by batman sound bites of "Whack..., Kapow..., Pop..." and other Looney Toon's noises. "She wasn't too happy about me putting videos up but she is asleep now so moo hoo haha :) So check them out.

So then the good guys prevailed and Christmas was saved. I have a few videos of Kristine in action and the epic battle between the other teachers seen in the videos here :) First video - Kristine's Xmas show
Second video - Kristine's Xmas play and Third video - Kristine's Xmas show . ( Just click the links to watch the video) The kids all loved it when Santa and Mrs. Claus went into the crowd handing out sweets and I have to say Kristine's acting was amazing, for some one standing in front of 1000 parents and kids doing a kindergarten Christmas play, I would have been very nervous as all the parents pay a lot of money to send their kids to this school as its seen as one the best in Khon Kaen.

 My phone memory died for most of her speaking parts so I was a bit gutted but managed to delete a few pictures to get the videos .
 Also with the families of the school being a well off , Kristine has been given a number of expensive gifts from the parents of her students, which is surprising as Christmas is not celebrated here but it is everywhere in the shops and streets. She had one student break her heart, a girl who had lived in Canada for the past few years so had gotten presents from santa and was accustomed to the whole idea, said to Kristine " Teacher, I wrote a letter to Santa Claus last year, how come he never came" this girl is 5 by the way :(

Then came our turn for Christmas as we were not feeling very christmassy and we're missing home a bit, but we came down to Supan's on Christmas Eve and Rainny had decorated the place and we even helped paint a sign on the front of Supan's house using her logo on a white wall which wasn't being used. While enjoying a few beers in the sun, Gagan and Kristine did most the work and I joined in after my class to help out. I said in the new year I'm going to definitely paint more as canvas here is quite cheep and the same with supplies as there is a fine arts course in Khon kaen university.

That night we made a list of all our favourite x-mas movies, from Bad Santa to Gremlins (yes, it's a Christmas movie as well as Die Hard) and we set the projector up inside. Dylan and Rainny made hot peppermint chocolate cocktails which started to bring the x-mas feelings back while watching.Rainny also dressed as Santa Claus and surprised us all with presents which blew us away from herself and Dylan. We were not expecting it but it made the night so much better.

We got a new toaster oven as we had mentioned we missed being able to have cheesy toast at home :-)
On Christmas day we wanted to return the favour and Supan's was hosting a food buffet and cocktail buffet where you pay 12 euro yep €12 euro for all you can eat and drink for 4 hours... so we went and bought 5 litres of red wine and wrapped it and when we gave it to them Kristine, as an addition to the present, said she would make mulled wine, which if you haven't had before, is heated wine with oranges, brown, sugar, cinnamon and cloves and tastes of Christmas.

We said they could sell it or keep it and once all the Thais arrived and tried it, they added it to the menu as people seemed to love it, especially as at night it had gotten nippy for us and when we say nippy we mean we were very cold and that was at 18 degrees.. it was so weird going from getting use to wearing a suit in 35 degree and 28 at night to 21 during the day and 18 at night.
I know people at home will laugh at that but our bodies have acclimatized enough were it was gloves and jacket time at night and still shivering. We had an awesome Thai style Christmas and hung out with some of the locals watching them try their first "on fire" absinthe from the bar. 
I was shown up by one Thai girl who had learned Irish dancing in Japan and advised me of my mistakes when I tried making it up on the spot. I figured its just keep your upper body straight and flail your legs around like your standing bare foot on hot coal.
They all had a good night and said they would start coming back to the bar to hang out more often.
There is also a veterinarian course in the university so they have some (unusual for Thailand) animals in big fields around the complex and they happened to  have couple of reindeer just to bring Christmas to Thailand.

With Christmas over we were packing our bags to head on a 24hr bus and ferry journey from Khon Kaen to the island of Koh Tao for a new years experience of camping on the side of a mountain at a 4 day non stop festival that has 2 stages and we would be camping in the forest beside it and hitting the beach during the day. Koh Tao has some of the most famous places for diving and beaches so we will have the story in the next blog