Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, Chiang Mai and Bangkok

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Hey all

I've finally finished my stint as volunteer and have embarked on the travelling 100%. I have seen the ancient cities of Ayutthaya (A UNESCO world heritage town) and Old Sukhothai (a UNESCO world heritage sight). The ruins of the temples were amazing and loved seeing them. Very beautiful and i had a sense of peace whilst walking through them. Old Sukhothai, also known as Sukhothai historical town, is rather big and my friend and I rented bicycles to cycle around. I loved it all despite the heat. Getting browner was a bonus ;-)

From Sukhothai we headed for Chiang Mai and arrived there on the evening of my birthday. We found a place to stay, dumped our bags, changed, and headed for town. We were recommended a place called Spicy which had a sign above the door saying "No Ladyboys", which we found infinitely hilarious. Upon entering, there was a hot chick scantily clad dancing around the pole. I initially though she was employed by the establishment, but she was just a "regular" party-goer. Or so we thought. She was in fact a ladyboy. How do I know this? Well, the 2 guys that approached us told us they'd felt her 'bits', and when I had a dance with her (where I got licked and danced around. haha!) i could definitely feel male genitals. it was rather bizarre cos she was really hot and cute and had boobs, but then she also had male bits. Really weird. But not so uncommon in Thailand. Anyway, that was a fun night.

We saw the templed of Chiang Mai and the national museum whilst we were there. We also went on a 2day, 1 night trek. That was OK, although I found the trekking in Khao Yai National Park more informative and more stimulating, as there was far more to see. Chiang Mai trekking is a bit too touristy for my liking. But we did have great guides, one of whom was actually crazy. He was a bit of a clown and entertained us well. Every 5 minutes he laughed in this funny goaty way. And 2 of us adopted it and made fun of him by copying him. Loved it.

We stayed the night at a hilltribe, although not that amny hilltribe members were to be seen and we spent most of our time with our 2 guides. They played us thai folk songs and tested our 'thinking outside of the box' with some silly games. I was the best at them. Obviously. We did see the little daughter of the hilltribe mother and she was only 3 years old, very cute, and won the award for 3-year old taking the best photos. she was soo good at taking photos. she actualy snatched our cameras out of our hands and got very snap happy indeed! Bless. There were also elephants at the bottom of the village, and we went to check those out after the photo marathon. They were absolutely adorable. They have topped my list of animals andare clear favourites. I even got to sit on one of them. It was brilliant!!

The next day was the best, though. Anisha and I rode an elephant on a little seat thingy and it was a great experience. Very relaxing and we could take in the tropical rainforest scenery. For the last 5 minutes, the leader allowed me to sit on the elephants head, which was well scary as I was right above its shoulders and as it walked there was a down and up motion on each side. I held on tight with my thighs! Once I'd got used to that, it was fine and I absolutely loved it. Elephants are amazing, I've decided 😊))

After that came a 2-hour trek through the heat, which was a tiring and sweaty experience and i'd had enough of trekking in the sun by the time we were done. After lunch we went whitewater rafting, which was awesome in a couple of areas, but a bit slow for the rest of the time. We did get splashed by a raft that was employed to get everyone wet. And our raft kept on catching up with theirs, so we were having paddle water fights. it was good fun. We finished the day with a bamboo raft, which was OK.

My favourite part of the trip was the elephant ride and the white water rafting 😊

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