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Published: December 28th 2005
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Toga Toga Toga
Toga Toga... etc. The six had a massive christmas night (i will post the photos later). We decided that we'd go back to that nice greek restaurant down the road and make their opening night one to remember. We decided at 6 in the evening that togas would be the go for the night. I went running around to try and find some old sheets, but we ended up having to buy material from a tailor. With rousing applause from every passer by we saw, we felt like absolute greek gods once we'd finished the lap of honour to the restaurant (we had to go through the night markets as well). The greek food was fantastic and there were plenty of rounds of drinks. It was a good change from the rice and noodles that we'd normally been eating and i'd definitely recommend the souvlaki as the best i've ever had. After this we went to a club (atlantis), to another round of applause, where we bought a bottle of whisky and had our own watier to prepare fresh drinks for us. The night finished off at the roof-top bar which was nice and chilled out. Our tour guide for the trek (Toto) came
Gooood Morning Thailand!
Our camp on the first night of trekking. This was the first day that the sun came out and everything started heating up. out with us and we got him absolutely slotted. He was probably going the hardest out of all of us and that was saying something. Arno decided that underwear under the toga is normally a great idea when you're trying to fit 6 people in the tuk tuk for 3 - hooning around the streets singing christmas carols at the top of our lungs.
Everyone was a bit hazy in the morning, Toto being the most hazy. Getting ready for the trek was a stark contrast to Australian bush walking, where they spend ages briefing you on safety and what to pack. We basically piled into a tuk tuk and sped off north. The first day was lunch at a small village, where all the hill tribe women came out with piles of crap for you to buy. We soon headed off on a dirt track, which gradually became more narrow. As we started heading into the mountains it became quite steep on one side with the track only about half a meter across. There wasn't much time to admire the view as we were too busy looking at our feet. Our crazy tour guide would throw a rock
Elephant Riding
They can't fly, but they sure know how to eat a lot. We saw one rip out a whole branch off a tree and shove it in its mouth. down the sheer drop just to make us turn around in horror as we'd thought that someone had fallen. We stopped at a waterfall where we all tried to stay under the battering water for the longest. It was coming down so strong that our bather were nearly coming off. At this point it started to rain. The track became muddy, and walking became quite hazerdous but this didn't cut our trip short. In fact, this was the point that Toto broke out into song, which didn't really stop for the entire trip. Our first camp was just a few shacks but it was quite comfortable. We confinced Toto to get the fire started with lamp oil and some old thatch roofing, which shot up into a huge roaring pillar of fire. The first night was pretty quiet, with a few meh-kong's (whisky) shared around the fire with our dutch female travelling companions.
The second day consisted of a morning of trekking through more mud, with our second guide firing into full song, followed by elephant riding. This was probably the best part of the trip - especially riding up front on the neck. Every now and then the
The next big thing
Coming to an arena near you - it's Dueling Harmonicas. You won't even be able to tell that all the songs are made up. Just like a true band, the drummer stops every now and then to top up on a little of thailand's finest. elephants would stop for a meal or to spray themselves (and you) with water from the stream. I don't know how to fit one of these in my suitcase but i definitely want one for home. At night, the village was a lot bigger and the local hill-tribe people did a bit of a song and dance for us. It also gave me the chance to play some guitar which i'd been craving for a week. The villagers asked us to sing a western song so we busted a bit of holy grail, khe sahn and wonderwall (for the dutch girls as they didn't know any of our aussie songs). We formed a bit of a band as the night went on, when some people had retired to the bedroom, with Toto & milney and my guitar making up the rythem section and alex & andy on dueling harmonicas. It soon got pretty out of control and we started making up tunes, with some local thai boys coming a joining us thinking that these were popular australian tunes.
In the morning, we awoke a bit worse for wear and did a little bit of walking. The scenery was probably
Valley of the kings
This valley was awesome, i don't think any picture would have captured how good it looked. Pity most of the people were only looking down at the rice they were farming. some of the best i have seen, going through a huge valley surrounded by mountains (including thailand's tallest mountain). We all got on the back of a ute (or pick-up truck for american folk) and sped down to the bamboo rafting camp. The view from the travelling car was amazing, and after a bit of lunch at the camp we headed off down the river in groups of three. The object of the game was to try and board eachother's ships and sink them. By the end of the journey, no raft was in one peace - however the guys with sticks pushing them along didn't seem to care too much. There was lots of falling in going on, and andy & alex practiced their surf life saving rescues. It would of been nicer to have some crazy rapids, but i hardly think the rafts would have met the challenge. The ride back to Chiang Mai took about 1.5 hours, with a brief stop for ice cream and some crazy packaged thai food such as dried squid and some little thing things made of corn, pumkin and fish - a winning combination in anyone's book. Tonight we are going to have a bit of a regroup and decide whether or not we head up to Pai (about 3 hours north) or stay here for some more exploring.
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Boog
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toto
i really hope you taught him how to sing africa, or at least i hope you guys sang it to him. keep having fun. this puts a little bit of excitement into my dull perth life