Day 22 - Day 28

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Haloween! No celebrations for us today...both suffering from hangovers! Well i was and leanne had a miserable cold. (sympathy..aaar) Ordered our Laos visas 1900 including bus to Chang Kong (border town). Got kinda fed up of doing nothing so persuaded Leanne to book a 3 day JUNGLE trek, also 1900 each (meals included, beer and opium extra!) Chilled around the pool with Ian and Elaine, who were trekking with us. Went out for cheap but tasty pizza then played s**t-head, a card game we learned in Pai.

1st November:
Oh bless the irish for waking us up at the crack of dawn with a good old drunken arguement, sure beats cockerals. Got the songthaw to the mountain village stopping at a quintesentially thai market; large vats of smelling stew, roar pig brain, homemade fireworks...a fly haven!
People on trek: Elaine, Ian, Gale, Emma, Sally, Bo, Elisa, James, Me and Leanne. At the village 3 pigs were having a threesome. Started walking downhill, Leanne fell over about 4 times in the first 20 min! I found a headless snake, played with it a while and realised the muscles were still contracting, an eerie feeling. Arrived at camp after 2 hours of strenuous hiking, very basic, a huge wooden shack with mattresses on the floor. Our guide and his helper, a young man called Bai cooked dinner for us. Bai was deaf from birth and kinda yelped everything he said, very nice guy, all the girls loved him! We all got real drunk around the candlelight with a guitar. The village kids came and sung for us it was really good, their dresses and spirit were amazing. We tought them the makerina to even things out. We all visited Dr O, some more than others, had the best nights sleep ever in the history of good sleeps.

2nd November:
Lots of walking today, After about 3 hours we reached a hidden waterfall, all went for a swim. It was so powerful like someone punching your back. Very cold though. Had lunch at a small village near the waterfall...noodle soup, very tasty. Hiked another hour or 2 to the elephant camp! Plodded through a shallow river in a beautiful valley for an hour. Saw a man climbing a huge tree to get the honey at the top. There were some baby elephants, one was 1, the other was 4 months!! Still twice the size of me. One of the men was tormenting the baby elephant, we were all hoping he would get trampled and poo'ed on! Another hour or so trekking and we got to our village camp, a lot bigger than the last one. I was just making the bed when a baby scorpion ran across my pillow and ducked under the boards, tried looking for it outside but must have scared it away. Had a real nice dinner: rice, pork, yellow curry and pineapple. We all felt a bit rough from the night before so it was a quieter night. Played an amazing game "I see the Moon in the Spoon", infuriating until you know how to say it, i was one of the last ones to get it.

3rd November:
Freezing cold at night. Only had 2 hours to get to the rafting camp. Stopped at a really high viewpoint on the way and took a group photo. The rafting was prehaps the highlight of the trek, apart from the drinking on the 1st night! The dutch girl got her leg caught in between the bamboo on the raft, the other girls crashed their raft, I scraped my neck and fell in a few times, Leanne sat down mostly and let me and James do most of the hard work! After the rafting we got a songthaw back to chaing mai and had a lovely hot shower and put some clean clothes on...what luxury! We all went out for a posh meal at the Riverside restaurant, Leanne and I both ate fish, it was incredible...best so far. It is festival season and everyone lights these huge paper lantern hot air balloon things. You make a wish as you let it go, Leanne wished for her family's health and happyness and says it was magical. Some crazy....most crazy thai's attach fireworks to the lanterns with long fuses that they light when they let go so they explode at about 10 - 20 metres! There are fireworks exploding all over the street, very very very dangerous, its a miracle we can still see. I think the thai people are immune to accidents so its ok. Went to my favourite bar..."beach bar" the band there are real good, all of us got pretty wasted. Dont remember going sleep.

4th November:
Chill out day. Rooms a huge mess, it stayed that way. Didnt achieve much. Picked up our Laos visa's, very impressed. Went for buffet dinner with James and Richard (ex - lawyer). I stayed at the beach bar till 4am and got rally drunk on sang som.Leanne went back after a couple of drniks and i stayed with the boys! had a really good night!

5th November
What a hangover!!! never drinking Sam Som again...felt rotten all day. Leanne dragged me out of bed to watch James and Richard do a bungy jump, they were both very hungover!!! Leanne done a bungy done aswell!! YES THATS RIGHT I DONE A BUNGY JUMP!!! I HAVE CONQUERED MY FEAR OF HEIGHTS!!!!!!!! hahaha. Leanne writing now- it was the hardest thing i have ever done, most amazing at the same time! to jump off a crane knowing you have nothing under you is so scary, they take lots of photos before and they say 3-2-1-BUNGY and everyone said to me dont hesitate just jump so i did i just jumped! i was shaking so much before and after but so proud of myself! dont think i will do it again anytime soon though! that afternoon sam didnt achieve alot except sleep!! i had a pedicure which cost 1 pound something!!!! i love it! had some lunch with Emma from the trek! We floated around some markets and then headed to the river to celebrate the festival, although you had to duck and dive so you didnt get hit by fireworks! it was manic, i thought the whole worls had gone mad! We walked back and had dinner at this nice resturant called 'The Doors' and headed back to 'Nice Place 2'

6th November
Organised ourselves a little bit this morning and headed out shopping for hours! after we came back to 'nice place 2' and then went out for a bite to eat at a burger bar and then had a massage!!! going back to bed and wake up to a huge mess and have to leave for Laos at noon!!!

Next time you hear from us we will be in Laos!!!
Love you all
Leanne and Sam xxxx
will add photos next time xxx

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