Northern Thailand

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KANCHANABURI

After leaving the islands I got a ferry + bus up to Bangkok. I didn't really know what to do from there but when I arrived in BKK at 3.30 am I decided to get a bus to Kanchanaburi. On the bus I met an Israeli girl Olga and American girl named Kate. Kanchanaburi is famous for the bridge over the River Kwai and the nearby Erawan waterfalls. The 3 of us got a room together at a guesthouse and rented some bikes to explore the village. We went to a museum which was about the bridge being built during WW II and it was quite interesting. Later we cycled to the bridge and walked on it. (For photos see my previous post) I was a very quiet town but very nice. We discovered that there was a nightmarket and ate there for the 2 nights we were there. On the nightmarket we discovered 'deepfried' ice cream and it was delicious. After all that cycling around we treated ourselves to a lovely massage!
The next day Olga had to leave and Kate and I decided to stay another night so that we could go to the Erawan waterfalls. We got one of the local buses.. not very comfortable but it was very cheap... The waterfalls were beautiful! It was a 7 tiered waterfall so had to do a bit of climbing. There were signs telling us to watch out for the monkeys because they could steal yourthings. Luckily we only saw one. At every tier you were able to swim. We wanted to swim after we got warm and there were quite a few fish in there. Normally fish wouldn't bother me... but these fish liked to nibble on your body... so we weren't very comfortable of getting in. We walked back down to the first pool and no fish there ;-)
That evening we decided to go for a drink and we came across the 10 baht whiskey bar ( +/- 0.20 eurocents) so Kate and I of course decided to have a couple of drinks there.. we had a good laugh with some other backpackers but I was definitily regretting all those drinks the next day.
The follwing day Kate and I decided to go up north to Chiang Mai. We needed to get a 4 hour bus ride to Ayattuya and from there we would catch the train. On the (local) bus a Thai woman decided to sit next to us.. and she was just bonkers. Then her friend decided to sit next to me and she was sniffing glue.. very random I can tell you.

CHIANG MAI

We got safely to CHiang Mai and stayed at a hostel that was recommended to us. It was a very cool place to stay and we met lots of travellers there. Here we decided to book a 3 day/2 night trek. I don't know what I was thinking at the time... On the first day of the trek we went to an elephant farm and sat on elephants for about 30 minutes. It was great!!! We kept feeding them bananas and they loved it. After the ride we started the actual trek... oh my Buddha... it was 6 km uphill!!! I was so not happy.. and it was so warm too! The scenery was amazing though and I did make it to the village. We stayed in this bamboo hut (8 people) with mats on the floor. Not the most comfortable place I stayed at, but it was cool. The guide and some of his friends played the guitar and we played some cards. Sleeping was quite hard though after that cos dogs were barking and at stupid o'clock in the morning there was a rooster outside her hut doing it's thing. Oh well, I guess that's part of the experience!
The 2nd day we luckily walked downhill it was quite hard on the legs cos some bits were muddy and slippery. We stopped in this village next to a small waterfall and went swimming with the kids there. It was really nice. After lunch we walked to another waterfall and at the end of the day we ended up in this 'junglecamp'. There we played more cards and had a few drinks. I think we were in bed by 22 hrs! I was so tired. On the 3rd day we didn't do much walking. Only 40 mins to the river and there we went white water rafting. I had never done it before and was a bit worried but luckily the rapids weren't that rough. After that we did 30 mins af bamboo rafting.. quite tricky but very entertaining! All in all, I'm really glad I did it although I wasn't in the best of moods on that first day ;-)

PAI + MAE HONG SON

After having a great few days in Chiang Mai we headed off to a place called Pai. Everyone I've met on this trip so far has recommended it to me. It's supposed to be a nice hippie village where you can chill out and relax for a few days. It was nice indeed! Nobody bothering you when you look at things to buy and just a very nice atmosphere. We met up with a couple of people we had met in Chiang Mai and had a good couple of nights together. We also rented a scooter and did some sightseeig in the nearby area. It is so beautiful up here! On my last night in Pai, Paul (who was on the trek with me and Kate) was looking at this monkey in a cage and the cheeky thing grabbed his glasses of his head and put them in his cage.. beware of the monkeys!!! Unfortunately Kate had to go back to Chiang Mai to start her volunteer work so Paul and I decided to head to Mae Hong Son to see some longneck villages. We wanted to get scooters but as they were to expensive to rent we got this truck to take us there. When we got there we were the only tourists there which was great. They local woman dressed me up in there clothing for tehe photos and i got to put some rings around my neck.. so heavy! We were then supposed to walk to the 'big ear' village but we took a wrong turn and started walking down this muddy path into a field.. we had no clue were we were going (I seriously have NO sense of direction) we had just turned around again to where we came from and one of the village woman had already come looking for us cos she had heard we hadn't arrived in the other village yet (apparently the other village was 1 minute away) It was a great afternoon and a unique experience.
Paul and I decided that we didn't want to stay in Mae Hong Son... there was nothing to do there besides use it as a base for trekking and visiting the Karen (longneck) villages. So we stayed 1 night there and the next morning we found a guy who would take us back to Chiang Mai in a private airco minivan for a really good price. So here I am back in Chiang Mai and I'm most likely going to book my ticket to Laos tomorrow....

I'll put the photo's on asap ;-) but most of them are already on Facebook

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Comments

[wendy]

wauw
Hee chick, Wat maak je toch mooie dingen mee. Erg leuk om te lezen. Nog goed voor m'n Engels ook :p Prachtige foto's ook. Ik ben verder helemaal niet jaloers ofzo. Heeeel veeeel plezier verder. Dikke knuf, Wen