To the North

Friday the 21st

Had what was meant to be the last night out with the clare boys and Nial. In the end there ended up being a group of 6 of us with a few liverpool lads joining the possy. We started in Papaya our favourite restaurant on Phi Phi. Half way through the meal this older Austrian guy and his sweedish girlfriend started talking to us accross the divide from the bar next door. The austrian then proceeded to buy everyone about four or five shots of jager meister or tequila. He told us he was rich and could afford it. Grand says I. I was bloody steaming at 10pm. And after the shots the poor austrian and his girlfriend were absolutely wrecked drunk. They could hardly stand up. They stumbled off home while the rest of us went to watch some thai boxing. The fights were held in a bar called reggae bar. There was a mix of thai boxers fighting each other and then western chancers getting in the ring with one of their mates. It was violent stuff, and the worst I saw was two english girls kicking the absolute muck out of each other. After the thai boxing spectacle we went to a club and when it was all finished i was a little worse for ware.

Saturday the 22nd

I woke up at 9.01. My ferry off the island was meant to be at 9.00 so i missed it. And with the next ferry not until 2.30pm i had also missed my flights up north to chang mai. So i had to just get the next ferry at 2.30pm, stay one night in phuket and fly the following day. The advantage with this slip up was the fact that Gordon, Lawerence and Niall were all on the 2.30 ferry and were all staying in phuket for one night.

Now the last time I was in Phuket I hated it but really that was because I was on my own. When we got off the ferry in phuket we got a minibus into the town patong again and on the minibus we met these two english girls, sophie and laura. The six of us said we would go out together that evening. So that night we all went out together on the main street in patong and we actually had a great time. Now its extremely touristy with macdonalds and burger king everywhere but the actual bars are a sight to behold. I never saw as many ladyboys before in my life. And of course with the two crazy clare lads we started taking photos of them. And as i was having my photo taken with one of them he/she took out one of his rather well made breasts. The photo is funny but I think its better if I leave it off the blog. Then you had all the go go bars where there were lots and lots of very pretty thai girls. They would be dancing around poles up on the bars or else they would challenge you to a game of connect four. Lawerence got up on the bar and did a bit of a pole dance for the crown and for a corner back it wasnt too bad. The last night in phi phi had us all a bit wrecked so we didnt manage a late one. Now i wont be rushing back but when you are in a group, phuket can actually be good fun.

Sunday the 23rd

Most of this day was spent traveling and what really mad this difficult was that I was a sick as a dog. A minibus a two flights got me to chang mai, a temple studded city up in the north of the country. I got to my hotel by about 8.45 and at 9pm i was in an internet cafe watching Eastern Harps (my home club) play the connaught final live on the internet. Unfortunately the match didnt go our way but it is amazing that I got to see it live. I went to bed after the match and slept straight for 12 hours. I think i got the flu from a bit too much partying... Always with the partying

Monday the 24th.

Changmai has a much different feel from the towns in the islands of the south. It feels a little bit less organised but more relaxed. The plan is to do some trekking here to get away from all the partying but as i wasnt feeling the best I decided to put the trekking back a day. So to pass the day I signed up for a thai cooking class. I was picked up at the hotel and brought to the school and then the first thing we did was visit the local food market to buy our ingredients. The chef came with us and explained a lot about the main ingredients of thai food. One incredible thing is their use of leaves and grasses. Basically anything that grows here they can find a use for it in cooking. The dishes i chose to cook were spring rolls, tom yum soup, thai green curry and phad thai. The class was pretty small with a guy from the Netherlands and a girl from the Philippines but as a result we did get lots of attention from the chef. After we cooked each dish we ate. After the spring rolls and the soup I was already getting full and then we cooked the curry and noodles. I left the place stuffed like a pig. Now when i get home I can cook a thai green curry for everyone. As long as i can find fresh lemon grass?????

I was i bed really early, the cold getting the better of me. I wasnt even sure if I would be able for my trek the next day.

Tuesday the 25th

I got up and figured i wasnt feeling all too bad so off to do my trek. I got picked by a guy called "Bond" and after we picked up a french girl we headed off. Shit I thought, 3 days and only 1 other person. But when I asked bond he told me there were others, they were just not doing the first part of the trek. The first stop was a Orchid and Butterfly farm. Both Orchids and butterflies are used in some pretty cool gold plated jewelry if you are wondering why they are farmed.

Afterwards, we headed off to visit some hill tribes. The hill tribes in the hills surrounding chang mai tend to be originally refugees from other war regions over the past 100 years. The tribes are generally not thai citizens but they are left in peace in these thai hills none the less. Each tribe has its own language and only now are the kids learning to speak thai, the grandparents cannot speak thai, so as you can imagine they are very isolated communities.

First we went to visit the long neck tribe, so named cause of the long neck women. The women have a number of brass rings placed around their necks which has the effect of elongating their necks. Its a complete freak show and not in anyways natural. Apparently the original reason was to prevent tiger bites, but nowadays its all about the beauty. Freaky if you ask me. Oh they did have good supply of fresh marijuana though. Probably what they were smoking when they came up with the long neck thing.

After the long necks i went and met my trekking group. In total there were 6 of us. Two 65 year olds from england, Dave and Elizabeth, two 45 year olds from france, Didier and Beatrice and a 55 year old dutch guy, Frank and of course to top it off there was our guide Nun (at least thats how you pronounce it. So I was the youngest by a good bit. But still they were all great guys and I did have a great time. We started walking up the hills deep into the jungle passing the local hill tribe farms and ox drawn carts on the way. Walking through the jungle was a great experience. Nun our guide explained the uses of the different plants as we went and often he had to clear the pathway for us with his knife. Now thats really off the beaten track. The trekking wasnt to easy and Elizabeth, one of the 65 year olds was having a real hard time. But fair play she made it through the day. That night we stayed in a bamboo hut on the side of a hill at one of the hill tribe villages. Nun, the guide cooked us a great meal on an open fire and we went to bed early.

Wednesday the 26th

Nun cooked us an omelette for breakfast and we headed off into the jungle early. An hour later we reached the elephants and we spent an hour trekking around on the elephants. Me and frank were on the same elephant and he was acting up a bit for the elephant driver. Its an incredible feeling being on top of one of those creatures. Their sheer size and strength makes us look and feel like mice in comparison. After the trek I fed the elephant a pile of bananas. He ate a good 20 bananas in one mouthful. Off we set again and we reached a waterfall for lunch. Before we ate we swam in the water which was baltic. Sitting in the sun to warm up we ate lunch, which nun had prepared early in the morning and wrapped up in banana leaves. After another hour trekking we reached our camp for the night. Here we dropped off our bags and Elizabeth who was exhausted and headed off back into the jungle to find another waterfall. When we reached it I had we sat in silence and stared into it for a good 30 minutes without a word. Quite a spiritual experience really. On the walk back to the camp we came across a spider that was bigger than a mans hand, and it was poisonous. I wouldnt like it to be in my bedroom.

Back at the camp we visited some of the house holds. One particularly interesting thing was a woman beating the shit out of rice with a stick. She was taking the skin off the rice, and to be fair it was a pretty clever way of beating the rice, using a lever mechanism. That evening after another lovely dinner a guitar was taken out. Some of the local guys came and played us some of their tribal songs in candle light in the bamboo hut. Of course I threw in an irish song or two. The craic was ninety. After we ran out of songs out came the match sticks for some puzzles. I confused the shit out of the locals with one of mine since i wasnt able to explain it to them. I told nun the rules, he translated for the others. Eventually they got the hang of it. They called the place a million star hotel and lying on the bamboos outside looking up at the stars you could see why.

Thursday the 27th

We finished the trek that morning and then went white water rafting. All six of our group got in a little dingy and headed off with our captain. Just coming up to the first set of rapids our friggin captain fell out. The boat turned around and started heading backwards towards the rapids. We were all shouting at each other no one knowing what to do. I nearly shit myself. Some how the captain managed to catch us swimming and got back in just in time to straighten things up. After that it was all good and the rapids gave us a little bit of an adrenaline rush. After we finished the white water rafting we got on a bamboo shoot raft. Ive been on a good few different boats/rafts at this stage but this piece of shit has to have been the worst. We were sitting down on this flat raft with the entire raft and half of my arse submerged in the water. Anyways we survived the sinking raft and lost captain and headed back into changmai that evening.

ater myself and frank met up with Nun to go for a few beers. Nun brought us to a bar where two amazing blues/rock bands played. Some of Nuns friends came aswell and after the bands we all headed out to a nightclub. It felt brilliant being out with the locals and they really know how to party and show you a good time.

Friday the 28th

After the nightclub i ended up sleeping in late. In the afternoon I met up with frank again and we headed off to a nearby temple situated on a hill called Doi Southep. The views of the city are amazing from up there. In the temple there were Buddhist monks chanting and blessing (or whatever the Buddhist equivalent of blessing is) people. In the temples there are amazing huge gold coloured statues of Buddha.

After the temple I went for my first thai massage. I got this nice heavy built women who pulled and pushed, thumped and yanked the complete shit out of me. But afterwards I felt amazing. That evening we went to a restaurant of one of Nuns friends where the food was delicious. I had panang curry. Im going to miss thai food. Nun was there aswell which gave a real opportunity to say goodbye, having forgot to do so with all the beer and whiskey from the night before.

After food, we headed to the night bazar, a night market where there are hundreds of stalls. It was fun buying Tshirts with all the haggling.

Getting around Chang ai I have been using Tuk Tuks. They are an open three wheel taxi. Its gret fun haggling with the drivers

Saturday the 29th

So today was the day I was meant to go to bangkok. But with all the hassle down there ive decided to change my plan and go to Laos first, then cambodia. I spent the morning sorting out my flights for this. After this I headed around the city looking at the different temples. At one temple a student asked me if i minded speaking english to him for a while. No problem I said. So he brought me into his school, which is attached to one of the temples, where i met his teachers, who are buddist monks. I spent a great hour discussing buddhism, the protests in bangkok and Irish weather with this kid called Laddie his 18 year old monk friend and his monk teacher.

In the evening i met up with frank and we went to the saturday market which is basically all food. I ate around me trying all sorts of different soups, meats and deserts. I hope im ok tomorrow.

So now its good bye Chang mai. Ive really loved it here and its so laid back. So an early night tonight and a flight to Laos tomorrow. Lets hope the troubles in bangkok are sorted when i need to go home.

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