Thailand

Landed in Bangkok on the 26th of March, although this time it was not so much of a shock as it was landing from Heathrow. Bumped into some people in the airport and shared a taxi into town. Having done the trip once already I was bargaining hard and even impressed myself. The girls knew of a nice guesthouse away from Khao San Road which was defiantly a good thing so had a couple of beers and some street food and got some sleep. The next morning I was up early and booked a bus to Kanchanaburi (Where the Bridge over the river Kwai is) and by 10:00 was on my way.

Kanchanaburi
Well I had figured on spending maybe one or two days here but it turned out to be more like a five. I stayed at the Jolly Frog guesthouse and met some pretty cool people and spent a fair bit of time relaxing in a hammock. The first day I was there I spent exploring the town visiting the Thai and Burma railway museum and then walked up and across the Bridge over the River Kwai and began to walk back only to find a train was coming over the bridge towards me, so after ducking into a platform overhanging the river and allowing the train to pass I walked back to safety. That night I decided to have a couple of beers and woke up the next morning with a "Changover" (Chang is the local larger translated it means elephant beer hmmmmmm). One of the backpackers turned out to be a Yoga instructor so I thought I would give it a go, and on reflection don't think its for me! Int he arvo a group of us hired a long tailed boat which effectively is a small canoe with a giant engine strapped to the back and motored up and down the river. The next day I jumped on a public bus and headed to Erawan National Park and explored the waterfalls, it was great doing this on my own as I could spend the whole day exploring rather than going on a tour and having two hours to do what took me nearly four. I had not been too keen on using a tour to do elephant trekking after seeing some elephants chained up near the bridge in town but I found out about a charity called Elephants and Friends where I spent a day washing elephants and going out into Banana plantations to cut down their lunch. The male elephant loved throwing me off his head in the water which everyone found very amusing. Ended up leaving the sanctuary late so had to hitch back into town. The next day I hired a moto and went back to elephant and friends as I had left my shorts there and then popped into town to buy some shorts as apparently one of the dogs had run off with mine.

Ayutthaya and Khao Yai National Park
The next day I caught a bus to Ayutthaya (Thailand's old capital) which involved getting a connection at a random Thai bus station although was quite cool being the only westerner although a little scare especially when I thought I had got on the wrong bus but all was well. On arriving in Ayutthaya I hired a bike and stared exploring was a little disappointed with the temples compared to Angkor but had a good look around at some local Wats (temples). The next day I caught a train to Khao Yai National Park, I think British Rail could learn a thing or tow about pricing structures from the Thai's I paid 23 Bt for a 3.5 hour journey that's like 30 pence! On arriving at Pak Chong station I suddenly realised I would probably need to join a tour to see the park seeing it was 25km out of town and the visitors centre was a further 15km inside the park. The tour was a great idea and I tagged along with an Australian couple I had met on the train the next day we visited some mineral springs, a temple with an meditation cave and also a bat cave at dusk to watch about a million bats emerge for feeding which was very impressive! The next day we were up early and headed into the national park with our guide so not to bore you we saw the following: Great Hornbills, other hornbills, Gibbons (although from a long way off) Monkeys, barking deer, other deer, a large Scorpion, plenty of leaches, spiders and ants and the highlight right at the end of the day some wild elephants fantastic!

Chaing Mai
The next days I jumped back on the train to Ayutthaya and done a bit more exploring and then booked onto a bus to Chaing Mai for that evening. After meeting up with a bloke called Mark over a beer we were apparently on the same bus so preceded to drink a lot of Thai Whisky to prepare us for the trip which in fairness it did. On reaching Chaing Mai Mark and I made a run for it away from the touts and found a guesthouse the next day I spent sorting out my Laos Visa and setting up some trekking I wanted to do. The following day three of us hired some bikes to ride out to the mountain near Chaing Mai, on reaching its base we decided to jump into a Songthaew to the top where there was a fantastic temple. we decided to ride down however only after the other tow had zipped off I discovered the breaks on my hired bike weren't up to much in that they my knuckles were white and I was still happily rolling onwards downt he side of the mountains winding roads. After a couple of stops and some minor adjustments and swearing I eventually reached the bottom feeling rather exhausted. So we grabbed some food and headed out for some drinking at a local Reggae bar. The next day I jumped in the back of a pickup and was driven to where we were going trekking, however Songkhran (Thai new year) had started which basically involves the biggest water fight your had ever seen so before we had even began trekking we were soaked. we visited the tallest mountain in Thailand where the armed forces had built a 60th birthday present for the king a queen and then headed to our jungle camp for the night, after a bath in the stream we were sitting around the fire with some beers and whisky. The next day I trekked a lot stopping at waterfalls and swimming when the opportunity arose. That night the three of us spent a night in a local village I have never seen stars so bright in my life and the people, chickens, dogs, pigs and resident insects were all very friendly. The next morning I gave my water gun I had brought as protection during Songkhran to the local village kids they seem chuffed and had got me a couple of times before we had managed to leave. After another mornings trekking we arrived at a waterfall where an old Thai chap was whittling stuff from bamboo. So taking a leaf from Ray Mears I sat down and tried to learn, after a failed attempt at making a spoon and him producing, a ball, 3 spoons and a pipe we both turned to the Whisky. finishing the trekking we headed out on some Bamboo rafts I managed to convince our driver that I could steer so gave it a good go the river was lined with Thai's enjoying Songkhran so when i fell in loads waded in laughing to offer us drinks which of course we accepted. The return trip to Chaing Mai was another huge water fight we had buckets of water in the back of the pickup and were soaking everyone we passed however they seemed to be soaking us more. On reaching Chaing Mai I joined Mark outside the place where we had booked our tour to continue the water fight while consuming lots of whisky whilst being careful that not too much of the dirty thames like water ended up in my drink. The next day we continues to be soaked left right and centre and decided to grab a burger, and hour after which I was rushing to get myself to hospital. WHO the hell puts nuts into burgers (must have been fried in peanut oil) so after getting some treatment and staying in over night for observation I needed to get back to the water festival so paid up and discharged myself.

Chang Kong
The next day I was up early with a stinking hangover and still very tired from my little hospital trip and on a bus to Chang Kong which is where I am now writing this ridiculously long log while avoiding getting soaked again. Tomorrow should be heading into Laos with a bit of luck and then spending a couple of days living in tree house at a thing called the gibbon experience which should be good.

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