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Published: March 29th 2009
Our motorbike journey
Standing with the big milestone thing in PaiSo anybody would think that after 34 hours of travelling, with very little sleep, that I'd still be in bed at 6:30am on a Saturday morning. But no, instead I was eating toast and cornflakes due to waking up absolutely starving! Understandable, considering I hadn't eaten since 2pm UK time the day before, but still somewhat annoying! I'll come to the travelling home in a bit, but first I have to write about my amazing last week.......
The last thing I wrote about was my sheer excitement at eating a chicken burger and fries, despite having to endure many chavtastic tourists at the same time in Pai! This was much the same for the whole of Saturday and most of Sunday...... i made my way through 2 chicken burgers, 4 sandwiches and a piece of carrot cake during my stay there. You may be thinking I'd missed real bread! I also treated myself to a few glasses of wine (alas no rose so it had to be white) and I chilled out to the max. Of course, me being me, meant I was bored of relaxing after 1 day so on the Sunday we hired motorbikes and headed
At the waterfall in Pai
I slid down there in a skirt - awesome! to the waterfall in Pai. I shared a bike with Lusty, with me driving there and her driving back. She feared for her life on numerous occasions with my driving, but we arrived safely and had a nice time sunbathing and eating Pad Thai. Of course I wasn't allowed to merely sunbathe and read for long with Lusty and Jonny around, and was soon dragged into the waterfall fully clothed, breaking my lovely £1.60 watch in the process - gutted! But already being wet only then gave me the excuse to slide down the waterfall! Amazing fun! A little scary when you hit the rocks at the bottom of the pool but no injuries were gained. Upon leaving the waterfall we had a bit of time before I had to catch my bus to Mae Hong Son, so we decided to go on a little journey on the bikes. I think Jonny regretted this decision quite severely the next day, for had we gone home he'd still have some skin on his knee! Yes, the boys fell off their motorbike! I think we were going about 60km/h at the time and they skidded on a corner. Me and Lusty were
A temple in Mae Hong Son
I have limited pictures from Mae Hong Son but thought I should include something! in front and quickly stopped and ran back to them, only I wished I hadn't as I looked down at Jonny's knee to observe a massive hole, and indeed his knee bone! Some hardcore motorbike men stopped to help us and sorted the boys out a bit, and we got Jonny on the bike with Lusty who took him to hospital. My last view of Jonny was a very pale looking guy, clinging onto Lusty for dear life! Apparently he's fine, just sore, and a little bit poor from the cost of the bike and medical expenses. Anyway, now I've given you that lovely mental image I'll carry on with my story! I had a bus to catch as I had a conference in Mae Hong Son the next day, so I got on a (very carefully driven) motorbike, packed my stuff, said bye to the others and off I went on another 3 1/2 hour bus journey, back to where I'd left only 2 days ago............joyous!
Mae Hong Son was pretty awesome. I was there for another teaching conference, this time without Helen who was doing her sessions on another day when I was already back
in the UK! So I wasn't too enthused about the whole idea as it had the potential to be very boring, but it turned out pretty cool. I had all my meals paid for the whole time I was there, which I ate with some pretty amazing teachers! They put me up in a lush hotel, with a hot shower and everything, and then after I had done the conference day they gave me 1000baht (about £20) as spending money in Mae Hong Son! So I'll be honest, I went and spent it! The market there was ace and I may have spent a little more than the 1000baht they had given me as a gift! But anyway, the conference itself went well, I got to see Mae Hong Son, and I was treated like Princess - all good times!
I left Mae Hong Son on Tuesday, to sit on a bus for 9 hours to Chiang Mai. Hardly the most exciting day of my life, arriving into Chiang Mai at about 6pm. I bought my bus ticket ready to go down to Bangkok and then went to the Guesthouse that we always stay at in Chiang
Mai. I met back up with David, Nicky and Lindsey, some of the other volunteers and we went out for dinner (including wine- yes!) and had an early-ish night. We met the owner of the Guesthouse who is American, and the campest man I have EVER met! He was amazing, and he gave me wine every night I was there - legend :-) But anyway, Chiang Mai was my time to be a tourist (at last!). On Wednesday I went up the Doi Su Thep, a really pretty temple in the mountains overlooking the city. I had a wander and took photos and met some other people, got rained on, and then went back down to Chiang Mai. I spent the evening in the night market for absolutely hours! I bargained hard, bought loads and ate good food (fried rice for 40p!!) I did leave present shopping to the last minute completely, but it got done!
I continued my tourist time on Thursday by going on an elephant trek. Yes I needed to be in Bangkok by 6am the next morning, but frankly I wanted to ride an elephant! So I did, and it was fun! I
Chiang Mai from above
There was a storm occurring at the time of this photo also went to a waterfall, saw a commercial Karen village (I didn't like it!) and Mong village, and then went bamboo rafting. This was amazing because there was torrential rain the entire time I was on the raft and I couldn't have been more exposed to it! By the time we got off, I looked as if I had been swimming in the river as opposed to floating on it. But I loved it, I think it made the experience even more fun :-) I then went back to the Guesthouse to find Joey there! All these evenings I though I was going to be on my own, but volunteers kept popping up out of nowhere! We went for dinner and I had my last Pad Thai of Thailand, then I had to rush back to the Guesthouse to pick my stuff up and get to the bus station. I made it in time and was settled onto the bus by 9pm, willing it to not be a typical Thai bus, and to leave on time and not make me miss my flight! This being the start of my 34 hours of travelling to get home, which is possibly the
Pucker up.......
........for the greatest kiss of your life! most boring thing I could ever blog about. Here's a summary: slept on the bus, it was late but not too late as to make me miss my flight , saw a beautiful sunrise over Bangkok, taxi driver took me to the airport and tried to rip me off but I shouted at him so he didn't, looked like an idiot in Bangkok airport trying to get my cover over my very large rucksack for about 15 minutes, had a 7 1/2 hour flight to Bahrain during which I watched a film, read, and slept a bit, bought duty free in Bahrain airport and had a McDonald's (oh yes!), had a 7 hour flight to the UK, on which I slept a tiny bit and saw the sunset, and arrived in England at about 8pm. Met the parents, who bought me wine and chocolate (!) and got back home at about 11:30pm. I was exhausted, so thought I'd sleep, but as I said at the start of this blog, I didn't really, and still can't!
But I'm home!! I've had a hair cut, I've eaten a bacon, mushroom and egg sarnie, I've already ordered clothes from a
Chiang Mai night market
I spent a fortune.......although not as much as they'd have liked me to! catalogue and tomorrow I'm getting my back fixed and my ear pierced! It's sort of good to be home but already missing the sun, missing my village and generally missing Thailand! The Karen Hilltribes are amazing, if you hadn't already gathered form the rest of my blog! They have very little, but what they do have they try to give to you and I have never felt so welcome anywhere in my life. Being left in a remote village, with no phone signal and nobody who could speak my language was the scariest thing I could ever have done, but after the first week, none of that mattered. I cannot put into words how wonderful they are - such happy and generous people, when they have so little :-) Summary of my trip: amazing and awesome (the 2 words I have blatantly used more than any other in this blog!)
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anonymous
non-member comment
that is one sexy gift RIGHT THERE! I must say, my mum will be a jealous one at that there elephant extravaganza, she bloody loves them! See you ON WEDNESDAY yes! xxx