Sunset over Mae Khlom

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Hey everyone,

First of all - Mum and Dad - This is a pathetic effort on your behalf, don't think that just because you had to suffer through a car trip with Nanna and G'Pa that it makes up for your lack of writing to me.

So you ask, what have my adventures been? There have been a lot so....

After my last message, we spent the following day floating down the River Mae (mother) Khlom. The “raft “ , which could be a small titanic, consisted of 3 'areas’, at the back of the raft there were 3 floating bamboo planks for sitting on so you have somewhere to go after you swim in the water (Just a side not, no one actually swam in the river because it was hecka filthy. Next on the raft was a big empty room, which later got converted into a sleeping area. Last in line, there was an eating area that after night got converted into a Karaoke Bar.

After being on this ‘raft’ a while we ate some lunch then we headed off to another Wat called Khao Poon. This Wat or temple is inside a cave high up in the mountains. We climbed 300 steps through the mouth of a Dragon, to reach the top. While walking through the cave up the stairs, you see a sort of story board that explains how the cave was discovered and was turned into a temple.

Inside the temple is basically a bunch of gold Buddha’s, but our tour leader taught us how Thai people pray for help from Buddha, you have to kneel on a ma with a jug full of numbered sticks inside it. Slowly, while asking Buddha a question then you need help answering, you shake the jug until one clear stick falls out onto the ground. The number on the end of the stick coincides with a piece of paper with your ‘fortune’ on it that will help you answer your question. The number that fell out for me was number 1 - apparently I am going to or already have, in this New Year, me a tanned older man that I am going to fall in love with. I shal, update you further on the outcome of this ‘fortune’.

On the way out of the temple we were stopped by a monk, who we though was yelling at us, after we got some Thai translation happening, it turns out that he wanted us to climb up some more stairs to see where the Buddhist Monks go to pray. Without any shoes on, we climbed up rocks and dirt about 100m straight up, to a tiny little shack that had come more Buddha’s in it, but you could also see a view of the entire town as well as the River, it was amazing.

Next we went back onto the boat, where we spent the rest of the night. Our beds were placed on the hard wooden floor. We slept, or tried to sleep, as you will soon discover, on a thin blanket with a sheet for cover as well as a mosquito net to protect us from the mossies that have been eating me alive. While Michelle, Nicole (an Aussie on the tour) and me tried to sleep, everyone else in the tour drank beer and sang Karaoke until 1am, I was in pure hell. I don’t even like Karaoke when I am plastered, let alone trying to sleep. Whenh they finally stopped everyone decided to come into the room where we snoozing and woke us up with their drunken talk. It ended up being really cool though, maybe a little cool.

After spending the night on the raft, we hen caught 2 busses, 2 hours each, where we stopped in a town called Ayuthaya which was the 2nd Capital city of Thailand which was burned down in the 2nd Thai - Burma war. While there we stopped at a few temples which are now all but ruins which were really amazing considering that they were built in the 1400’s. At 8am we boarded a train that took up to Chiang Mai, where we are now.

The train was surprisingly comfy. Everyone have 2 seats, layed out in a bench style, to themselves, and at night, the 4 seats became a bed for one person to sleep on, while you pulled down the other persons bed from the roof. The beds were spacious and the rocking of the train put me to sleep within about 2 minutes. We were supposed to arrive at Chiang Mai at 8 this morning, but due to the fact that we are now on ‘Thai Time’ we actually pulled into the station at 10.30.

Ill explain Chiang Mai in a later blog coz now I am gong to meet people and go clubbing, where hopefully I will fulfill my plan of picking up an Asian.

Chaalk Dii (Cheers, and good luck)
Meaghan

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