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Published: November 10th 2008
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Goose is in heaven!
They have bars on the street! Real, booze selling bars! I like it here, maybe I'll stay... OK, so I’m writing all this up retrospectively - all I’m going to say is “Dengue fever made me do it!”. More on that later…
Having finally extracted myself from Bangkok, I found myself on a “sleeper train” to Chiang Mai. The description of this vehicle is only half right - it is at least, at train. Sleeping however is not an option, especially when you are centimetres off being 2m tall, and the bed was built for someone about ¾ your size. It would’ve been funny, looking down the corridor of the train and seeing these two size 11 feet thrust into the air, funny if it wasn’t for the ceiling fans that constantly threatened to relieve me of a digit or two with every oscillation, or the gross insult I was making to all the locals (feet are bad here you see). Anyway, I’ve got the sleeping part of the trip without even talking about the drinking section (of course there was a drinking!).
Met two British girls called Laura at the station, and they were camped down at the other end of the carriage. My end of the train was very dull and all got down
It's SangSom time!
And to think, before they met me, the Lauras had never tasted SangSom! I think I created two more addicts... to some serious non-sleeping pretty much straight away, so off I swaggered, bottle of SangSom (Thai whisky/rum - very nice!) and introduced myself again. The dutch couple in the bunks opposite joined the party too - should have known one bottle of SangSom was not enough. One bottle of SangSom, one set of rubbish speakers and several games of cards (and interesting cards they were…) and we were well on our way to Chiang Mai :-) Laura made an observation; it appears I have a pair of freaky feet which are a little to monkey-like for comfort. I just found them useful for picking stuff up, peeling bananas, swinging from trees, that kind of thing. If I was to say I woke up in Chiang Mai, I’d be lying. I finally gave up the pretense of sleep on the train about 4 hours before we arrived, and heading to the food carriage for water and company.
At Chiang Mai I joined up with an Aussie girl, Jo, and Canadian girl, Briana, and a dutch girl, Annemiek. The night market here was pretty cool, but then on returning to our guesthouse we noticed something a little bit wrong with this
The Sleeper Train
It felt sooooo good to get off this thing... part of Chiang Mai. Let me explain. Picture this - small bar with fairly loud western or popular Thai music playing, a table with 3-4 Thai girls (I say girls, but your guess is as good as mine here!) at the very front, and one or two large old western men at the bar with a girl under each arm.
If I write this much about every single day you’re all going to get bored and skip it anyway, so will try to dispense with the banal chat.
Chance to get some exercise, went on a one-day trek into the “jungle” around Chiang Mai. Was really good to get out and stretch the legs, even if the walking itself was along very worn tracks and seemed to involve a large amount of river traversing (actually, that was quite good fun, but discovered my walking sandals are crap and get very slippery on rocks when wet! Had to go bare-foot which earned me the name of “jungle man” from our guide). Had a short ride on a banana-powered elephant. Seriously, this thing would demand a banana, walk 10 metres, then demand another before it would move another step. Was
Pachyderm Parade
It wants a banana...no, wait, it's got her leg! My god, that pachyderm just ate Briana! quite an experience, but not particularly happy with their treatment or conditions. Ah well, another mode of transport ticked off the list :-)
Next was white-water rafting, which was fun but not the most challenging rapids - but definitely got to give it a proper go in New Zealand! We had a very resilient spider in our boat which took a shine to Briana, so much so that even after being cast overboard for the crime of having too many damned legs and eyes, returned on a wave to settle gently on her lap. Awww, holiday romances ;-) Finally we had bamboo rafting. Supposedly you sit on a nice raft made of bamboo and float serenely downstream. Reality - raft sank, we sat waist deep in the river and drifted damply towards dry land. Highlight of this was catching a fish and getting to steer the submarine gondolier-style whilst murdering some vaguely remembered song about moons hitting eyes like big pizza-pies. I had fun.
Thanks for tuning in. Off to Laos!
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