Chris Allan

Over the past 2 months my office has moved, almost on a daily basis, from sweaty, smelly, mosquito ridden internet cafes, to dark damp hotel rooms with plumbing issues. From airport lounges, to bumpy bus seats. From noisy pubs, to the deck of a dive boat. Today I sit on the deck of a beach bar, sipping a strawberry milkshake and listening to the reggae music playing behind me. The sea water laps at the white coral sand 5 metres away, and in the distance a huge volcanic island rises out of the water, fending off a bank of storm clouds massing behind it. These are the guilty pleasures of our “photographic tour” in Asia.

Bali wasn’t on the itinerary when we left South Africa. I don’t know how it ended up happening, but the last 2 weeks have been spent exploring Bali and the bites of paradise off the coast known as the Gili Islands. (I think a walk around each of these islands would take no more than hour or two.)

What a different world to South Africa. What different people. What an amazing splash of colour and flavour and experiences. Below are some of the images captured as we went.

Chris

I am writing this blog in a small roadside cafe in a town called Ubud in Bali. We are on our way out of this beautiful little hippie retreat, filled with artists, musicians, designers and the inevitable tourists after a day and a bit of exploring and resisting the great food and shopping it has to offer.

Once again I have just dipped into an experience below and have a few photos to illustrate it. For a more detailed account of our travels visit the blog on www.emillyallan.co.za

“Now..Im the King of the Jungle, the Jungle VIP…”

8am beeped on my cheap ‘travel watch” as we wandered down Monkey Forest road towards the overgrown, jungle entrance to the Sacred Monkey Forest. I did a little internal high five, when we passed the empty booth at the entrance - the ticket collector had not yet climbed out of bed yet, and that meant we had an extra 30 000 rupees to spend on important things like coffee later on in the day.

The first sight that greeted us was a very wise and beautifully groomed whiskered, grey monkey, who was carefully licking a stone wall. With the intensity of professor involved in a complicated experiment, he licked in long strokes which overlapped slightly, and left streaks of saliva in a perfect line along the wall. It is important not to judge too quickly the different customs when visiting foreign places, but I had to wonder how this monkey had managed to procure Acid or a similar hallucinogen in the tiny town of Ubud.

At first we tip toed closer to each new troupe of primates, whispering and making no sudden movements. 10 minutes later we were trying not to trip over them as they bowled about the ancient forest totally unconcerned by tourists. They climbed up monkey ropes that decended 30 metres from the tangled forest trees above, raced along moss covered temple walls, over sunlit graves and between grotesque statues. We were walking through the real version of the monkey city from “The Jungle Book”.

Being spoiled in Africa, we tend to put our nose up at viewing monkeys, and past experiences with Baboons in Botswana laying siege to our campsite, have left me less than fond of primates in general. Having said that, we found ourselves totally engrossed in that fairytale forest. At one stage I was shooting a particularly nonchalant young female when I was pounced upon by a cheeky individual, who displayed a particular fascination with the workings of the Nikon D700.

Check out the pics below….

Sigh…

Once again my overachieving wife has upstaged me. I find myself dismally behind in my blogging and have to depend on the words on www.emilyallan.co.za in order to communicate our current location to the world.

In an effort to get back to where I should be I will post some images, and hopefully the story that they tell is of the incredible places and people that we have encountered through Myanmar, Cambodia and now Thailand, where we find ourselves again. From my glorious beachside “office” I plan to beat down a cold that refuses to leave me alone, and try out a massage that according the theory will stimulate passages of energy in the body and leave me able to catchup with all the admin that desperately needs attention.

Please let me know if you enjoy the pics, it is always great to hear from you.

Chris

Ah… eventually the world scaled down to a pace and a place we can manage. The north of Thailand is home to a backpackers haven called Pai. A place of groovy all natural, all green bars fringed with wheatgrass walls, bamboo nightclubs, 60 year old american hippies and every visiting farang (foreigner) wobbling his way around town on a freshly rented scooter.

Apparently there are 762 bends through an exquisite green jungle to get there. We climbed up a mountain and passed down into the valley on the far side, all the while trying not to succumb to motion sickness and terror as the minibus weaved merrily around each bend, overtaking on blind rises with a cheerful honk on the horn.

Emily wrote a great description of the Trek we signed up for for on her blog: www.emilyallan.co.za

We really got down and dirty with some of the hill tribes that people visit the north to spend time with. Check out some of the pics below:

After three days with the locals, I don’t know how the rest of the world survived through the years without bamboo. Our bundu bashing, mapless navigating, grass smoking, whiskey drinking, giggling, kilometre eating, master jungle chefs and guides demonstrated that Bamboo could be used to build a home, cook a dinner, drink everything from whiskey to tea and the use they were most proud of was the expert bong it was used to create.

With the rain creating a mud wonderland on our last night in a rustic village, were were happy to be returning to the comfort of cold beer, showers and some poolside chilling back in Pai..

Next stop - Myanmar…

Images and Moments from Bangkok and Chang Mai:

(For a great blow by blow account of the trials and fun experienced on the trip so far, visit www.emilyallan.co.za and click on Em’s blog tab..)

Below are a few of the experiences and photos we have been lucky to have and to capture so far. It seems like months ago that we were involved in the frenetic packing back in Jozi that seemed to never end.

So far Thailand is awesome….

Psychedelic Pink Taxis, Tuktuks and Thai Traffic Jams:

Bangkok buzzes all day and all night long. Scooters weave between pink, yellow and black taxis, trucks and cars, bearing anything from whole families, to elegant business women on their way to or from work. It is alive with energy and possibility.

Backstreets and alleys are home to family run “everything-you-can-imagine” convenience stores. Children, dogs and cats play on the pavements until all hours of the night and the smell that you fall asleep to, and wake to, is a full, slightly spicy warm dampness that pervades every corner.

More on Bangkok in a few weeks time when we return from Myanmar….

Monks are not just for show:

Thailand has a complex and fascinating system of beliefs that makes for great photos. The monks are generally friendly guys …and girls who are sometimes as interested in a camera toting tourist as they are in them.

Highlights:
Meeting and communicating with a series of head nods and hand gestures with a peaceful she-monk(?) She calmly posed for a photo, and the whole experience was so serene that I was left grinning from ear to ear for an hour afterwards.
Being approached by and chatting to a friendly monk who was also touring the most sacred of wats in Northern Thailand.

What goes in hot will probably come out hot:

The food is incredible. And everybody eats the food that the vendors are gutting, skinning, peeling, folding, frying, skewering and “braaing” on the side of the road. We have tended not to eat that which can still look back at you in death (or even in life) as you eat it. You have probably read about it before, but a bowl full of deep fried beetles, locusts and other bugs takes more that a little bravery to attempt.

Highlights:
For sale on the pier: dancing, skipping piles of tiny translucent shrimps that where measured out into a takeaway carton, mixed with lemon and chilli sauce. We chickened out.

Traffic light themed Thai curries. Damn they are good.

Inspired by the delicious food everyday we took a cooking course on a farm near Chang Mai. I always wanted to learn how to make a spring roll…

Lowlights:

While a Thai Red curry might be great fun on the way in with a lassie to help, there is probably an equal ammount of sweating and deep breathing when it reaches the far end of the digestive system. And there is no lassie to help on that end.

While shopping for ingredients that would be used on the cooking course we were allowed to wander around the food market on the outskirts of the city. Carrying a camera and a host of lenses, I had the “banana skin moment” while walking next to a tank of humongous live catfish. Time stood still as the billabong slop lost its grip, the camera floated into the air, the thai fishmonger shrieked, the stupid photographer shrieked and flailed around looking for anything to hold onto. I was lucky this time as the catfish tank was made of some sturdy glass, capable of withstanding 50 kg of water and the weight of a clumsy farang (foreigner). I blushed, wiped off some fish grime and left the genuinely concerned Thais with good story to natter about.

Waterfalls and Bamboo Forests:

Walking through these forests is like visiting the asian version of a Timotei advert. Every waterfall improves on the next.

Thats it for now. So much to say, and even more to show…

Chris