Barely made the flight

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DAY 1
So we split up into 2 cabs going to the Bangkok airport.  I rode with Jenny and we ended up in the International aiport and we didn't even know it.  We kept waiting for the other girls but they were in the domestic area.  Unlike Canada or BC for the matter, Domestic is like an entirely different airport on it's own.  So after about 5 tries, we finally got a cab and we got to the Domestic airport, and we literally had about 2 minutes to get ourself onto the plane.  Jessica pre did our flight intinary so we didn't have to waste time.  Talk about cutting it close and not making the flight entirely.
The flight was 45 minutes and upon arrival was greeted by our driver.  We stayed at a guesthouse called SP and got our orientation for our trek that night.  Afterwards I lefted on my own to the market.  Grabbed a kick boxing show and did some shopping.  It was pretty chill.
DAY 2
We toke a hour bus ride out into the booneys where we began our hike.  There was about 15 ppl in all in our group and we stopped at a waterfall for lunch.  It was quite nice, photo's to follow.  It was nice for a change to talk to other ppl besides canadian's.  There was scottish, aussies and english travellers in our group.  But for some reason, i keep meeting Canadian girls.  Hence Karen, who is from BC as well trekked with me most of the time.   She was pretty cool b/c all she wanted to talk about was the fullmoon party and getting super LOADED.  My kinda girl =)
The trek was about 3 hours and we arrived at this really remote village.  It rained most of the time but nevertheless it was a great trek.  We were to camp out there that night.  The night sorta sucked because we had to cram everyone into one hut.  I called it the house of ass because it smelt like ass after everyone decided to hang their bloody socks up.  Did it ever suck trying to sleep on the hard ass bamboo makeshift bed. 
I am still trying to get use to the washroom.  These washrooms are pretty nasty, in the dark u have no idea what you are stepping on.  I am so thankful I haven't yet to do a #2.
It was one of the hardest nights to sleep in the house of ass, just humid with 15 other ppl and 30 pairs of socks laying around.
i woke up pretty early about 5:30 and it was only me and suki, a girl from Korea that apparently owns and runs her own bar in Seoul.  She hardly spoke and english and I hardly spoke any Korean, except for all the dirty and nasty words James taught me.  So our converstation was reduced to smiles and sign languages. 
DAY 3
We grabbed some breakfast and we headed deep into the woods.  The trek was about 3 hours before our next lunch.  It was going down hill most of the time,and alot of ppl came close to wiping out.  I found this awesome bamboo stick, which I named the Chang Mai stick which bailed me out in alot of close encounter with the tree or bounder in front of me.
Treking was great, you really live in the "present moment",'it's almost meditative.  I have gotten quite good at zoning everything out and just focusing on what's around me.  We got to this one river with a log as a makeshift bridge.  Everyone was too chicken shit to cross it, so i went first.  I made it across and then jessica went and fell into the river.  I couldn't stop laughing, yeah it was mean of me, but hey that's payback on her for busting my chops the other day.
We stopped to rest at another waterfall, and I had a chance to talked to these two aussie girls.  They have been travelling for 6 months, pretty bloody amazing. They shared alot of their experiences and recommended me to head to South America if I ever had the chance.   
The rain really pissed down but I really enjoyed it.  We finally made our way to another bridge, but apparently it was washed out by the mansoon the night before.  So we had to go another way, uphill, for an hour more.  I ran out of water and wanted to pass out at times.  Had to bum off some water off everyone, felt like a water bottle slut.
So we made our way to the 2nd village where we were going to camp out.  This village was quite beautiful, pretty much enclosed by 4 mountains and overlooking a spectacular rice field.    The group was down 10 at this point, as 5 of them decided to make their trek shorter by taking another path. 
This night had to suck even more, b/c I lefted my clothes out waiting to shower.  I woldn't even call it a shower, it was like this little tap hose 1 metre off the ground that  barely had any water coming out.  I have more water in my spit for god sakes. 
Apparently, there is this cattapillar which is black and fuzzy.  Contact with it causes a serious rash throughout the body.  Yeah damn it, u guessed it, I got one of these things frolicking in my change of cloth.  Needless to say I had a pretty nasty rash the entire night.  Everyone else got hammered that night except for me, but jessica(another jessie, aussie girl), katkit, and lindsay kept me company in the hut of ass II.  It was super hard to sleep b/c of this rash and this hard ass bamboo hut.  I managed to get 2 hours of sleep and woke up at the crack of daybreak.  For some reason, i wake up when there is first sign of light.  Back home, I have to hit the snooze button like 9 times to get myself out of bed.  It was an awesome feeling to have this hour to myself with no one awake yet.  There was a fire that was still going and it was just me and these 2 village dogs hanging out.  I never been to relaxed and content with just being in the present moment.  I haven't till this day carried a watch so I have no idea what time it is nor do I care.  It's a pretty cool feeling to not have any concept of time, pretty much like James (Ent), and to just live life minute after minute without worrying about getting somewhere or meeting someone.
Being here really taught me the value of patience and just have lucky I am to be able to do the things I have done. Oh going to back up the story abit, on Day 1 Jamie wanted to look for opium and bud but couldn't find any.  I had no idea ppl smoked those two things up here.  After unsuccessfully convincing our tourguide to look for happy mushrooms for us we just got hammered that first night.  Okay back to my story....
DAY 4
I still had this retarded rash all over my body but it wasn't itchy.  But the good thing is 5 other ppl got it too =)
Our trek this time wasn't long, just another 4 hours.  Then for another 1 we rode on these elephants, I actually got to sit on it's neck and lead this bad boy.  Elephants are so gentle and you really have to respect the power of these things. After the elephant ride, we made our way to another 2 hour trek and it was hell.  The terrain was pretty brutal and at times impassible because of the mansoon.  We even saw this Python cross our path, I got a good look at it because I was always behind the guide.  By the way guys, the girl to guy ratio is like 1:5 (1 boy to every 5 girls), talk about good odds.
So we finally made our way, after a few ppl totally wiping out made our way onto these river rafts.  It was awesome b/c I got to navigate this bad boy down the stream.  Almost wiped out completely b/c Vicky thought it was a good idea to splash water in my face.  So here I am trying to navigate this thing through narrow passes with muddy water in my eye.
Got her back though b/c I pushed her off with my 8' bamboo stick I was using as a paddle.  So buy this time I was pretty tired and we rendez vous back with our truck driver.  An hour back into town and now i'm sitting here writing this to u.  I am so happy to have a clean shower and not worry about snakes biting my ass while trying to use the shitter. 
Tonight, I will head out with all the ppl I met on this trip and get super wasted.  Tommorrow will be Thai cooking and then after that I will do some White water rafting. 
I will fly out on the 16th to Phuket and meet Griffo and Ent.  I think Karen may join us, well at least I gave her my email. She was due back home in a few days but decided to stay for the full moon. This girl cracks me up, she basically sold her car to come to this trip and she's on her last leg of it after 9 weeks.  But as soon as i started talking about the fullmoon she decided to cash in some savings and stay longer.
So I better get something for this stupid rash.  Will write back soon.
 

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