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The boat trip between Luang Prabang and Huay Xai in Laos wasn't as bad as 2 whole days on a hard seat could have been. With the aid of an ipod and some books the time passed relatively quickly. At no stage were my German travelling companions and I tempted to abort our trip and pay for one of the brightly couloured, plywood death traps that sped up river a lot quicker (accident permitting)!
Chiang Mai was our ultimate destination and it was fine - nothing to write home about - but fine. The night market is a scaled down version of Khao San road in Bangkok and there is no shortage pf bars and eateries. The reason people go to the capital of northern Thailand though is to take one of the multitude of treks and trips on offer.
My day trip was great. Elephant riding is always fun but made so so much more fun for me by having a non-English speaking Korean onboard with me who didn't want any physical contact with our host elephant whatsoever, especially if it meant getting his pristine white shorts dirty. From the moment I opened my bag of bananas
the elephant send his trunk over his shoulder on an exploratory mission to find the food that he could clearly smell. Unfortunately for the Korean the elephant nosed round him before he got to me. It had been raining ans the elephant had been drinking muddy water so, needless to say, the tip of his trunk left large muddy spodges at every touch! In a moment of sheer brilliance that I would have paid to watch, the elephant behind then started feeling and kissing the Koreans neck from behind sending him into further panic. It was hilarious!
Elephant riding was followed by a visit to two hill tribe villages lunch and then bamboo rafting in the afternoon. Our 'driver' was absolutely hammered on whisky and wobbled the raft somehow managing to stay on board. The Korean started playing games splashing everyone and it was with great pleasure that we managed to bundle him fully clothed into the river!
The night bus to Bangkok was more than adequate - we all had two seats each due to lack of demand. Back to Bangkok... it was like returning home!
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Bangkok_Knight
Niran Khossang
Cool..