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Published: November 20th 2006
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One of the lanterns about to be released into the sky Thanks to the wonders of medical science and the open house policy of India and Thailand's chemists I was able to obtain a stash of Diazepam, which came in very useful indeed on the fourteen hour train journey from Bangkok to Chang Mai. I didn't feel a thing and arrived at my destination in reasonable fettle.
The Jonadda Guest House was clean and good value, so after a wander around the city I booked myself a two day trek leaving the next morning, which promised white water rafting, village tribes and elephant riding etc.
My arrival coincided with the start of the Yi Peng festivities. This takes place on the full moon of the twelfth lunar month and lasts for three days. The locals all made lanterns and lit them before floating them into the sky to pay homage to Buddha in heaven and to float away their miseries (so I'm told). In addition to this the younger residents use the festival as a free for all to throw fireworks around the town and I witnessed a couple of unfortunates being hit by stray fireworks.
There were eleven of us in total on the trip - four Belgians,
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Children preparing flowers, which were later to be placed on the river and floated downstream two Australians, three English and a couple of French Canadians and we were all driven in a van to a supposedly remote location North of Chiang Mai. Our guide was suffering with a hangover from celebrating Yi Peng a little too enthusiastically the previous evening and kept stopping to sit down during the hike.
For once I was in good health, which was more than could be said for poor Sophie (one of the Australians), who was ill throughout the two days, but battled on bravely, assisted by one of the Canadian girl's incredibly well stocked medicine bag.
My suspicions regarding the authenticity of the trip were first aroused when upon arrival at the hill tribe village after a two hour hike I noticed that my mobile phone had a full signal and the locals were playing Ricky Martin cd's from their bamboo huts, aided no doubt by the solar panels liberally sprinkled throughout the village.
Our accommodation for the evening was a bamboo dormitory, complete with childrens duvets and a mat to sleep on and after a meal and a rather strange evenings entertainment from our still suffering guide, we all turned in at nine o'clock.
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The view from our bamboo hut in the supposedly remote hill tribe village After a sleepless night thanks to the crowing cockerels and an uneasy feeling in my stomach, possibly caused by the hungover guides chicken curry, we set off for a waterfall in the middle of the dense jungle. The hike was quite difficult in places and some found it very tough going, but the waterfall was great. Sadly my camera ran out of power and I'm currently awaiting the photos from Dave (the other Australian) to come through to me. I didn't bother to read the "bring with" list and as such I hiked through the forest in a pair of cream linen trosuers and the Onitsuka Tiger fencing shoes. I also omitted to pack a towel, a torch and sun protection cream.
Next up was the elephant riding, which consisted of little more than half an hour of being walked up and down a path on a very small elephant. By this time I was beginning to feel very ropey and food was not an option.
The white water rafting followed and this was great fun. Myself and Dave took a severe soaking at the front of the boat, but it was very enjoyable. We then took
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Our accomodation for the night in the hill tribe village a bamboo raft back to the pick up point, just in time for Dave to become unwell also. I blame the chicken curry.
I spent the next day relaxing from the exertions of the trek and self diagnosing my symptoms with the help of the Lonely Planet's health section. I had all the signs of giardiasis (not to mention hypochondria) so I popped down the the chemists and acquired some tinidazole and dosed myself up on 2mg of those bad boys. Sure enough an hour or so later the contents of my stomach reintroduced themselves and I spent the evening in this fashion.
It seemed to work though and I was fine the next day and after meeting a very nice English lady, Kate, we decided to head up to Pai, which is three to four hours (four and a bit if you take the 80 baht locals bus as I did) on the bus, but only 134 kms away. To get there you need to travel through narrow roads with hairpin bends and it takes a while. I had heard good things about Pai from a few people and I just had time to fit in a
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A different view from the bamboo hut day there before returning to Bangkok.
Pai is tiny and a very quiet, laid-back, relaxed place where you will find plenty of Westerners dressed in local clothing and pretending to be musicians and smoking various substances. It has a certain charm though and you could easily lose several days there doing very little. As it was though Kate and I had a very enjoyable couple of days there before I was dropped off back at Chiang Mai train station and she headed south to Sukhothai. Time to utilise my friend the Diazepam again for the twelve hours back to Bangkok. It was much required, as my sleeper section was right above a very noisy two year old child.
I was running out of cash quite severely by now and the prospect of being potless in Hong Kong held little appeal, so instead of heading to Banglamphu and for a change of scenery I decided to rough it near Chinatown in a shambles of a place near the train station called the Sri Hualamphong Hotel. I'll load the pictures up asap, but the place was terrible and at 250 baht (about three and a half pounds) it was well
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Our tour guide is on the left, looking rather the worse for wear over priced. This caused me to wimp out after a night, check into a much nicer place down the road and wearily request a Western Union cash transfer from my parents.
Replete with funds I could set about buying some tat from Bangkok's markets, which I achieved despite having to fight my way through about two and a half million yellow shirted Thais. Yes, it was yet another public holiday in Thailand. Probably the King's sister's backgammon partner's wedding anniversary or some other such non-event giving cause for celebration and a day off.
The new airport in Bangkok is almost as much of a pleasure as it's counterpart in Singapore and I breezed through to my flight despite having a minor strop at having to pay 500 baht departure tax and then arguing with the immigration staff due to my lack of willingness to complete the departure card.
Five days in Hong Kong is up next before I arrive in Brisbane and hopefully the luxury of being able to obtain some cash...
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anonymous
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Very funny Seano.. are you having fun in Auz? Check this link out: www.myspace.com/sean4375