Sawasdee Ka!

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Greetings from Chiang Mai(over 2 months ago...ooops...sorry due due slow and expensive internet connections and dodgy virused pcs i've been unable to update this for such a long time...my apologies again )! Let me think where do i begin. Having made myself a leather journal and everything to jot notes in of my experiences i'm ashamed to say that i've not been using it as much as i would have liked. Usually because i don't carry it in my little bag around with me as i stupidly made one that's not a handy size and so when i return back to the digs in the evening (with all good intentions of filling it with descriptive words of my days sightseeing) my head just gravitates towards the pillow and "POOF!" i'm out like a light. Oh well. That is of course excluding our 2 nights sleep in the wilderness when we went on a 3 day trek and that night i was incredibly ill from eating something that i can't seem to identify or a possible reaction to one of the many bites that i have acquired. No those nights were both sleepless and very uncomfortable. However, as for the trekking i did enjoy all the walking(despite not having proper foot attire - couldn't be arsed lugging around hiking boots so my birkenstocks were put to the test), and meeting the fascinating and lovely tribal village peoples (although at times i felt invasive of their territory especially as this organized trek regularly makes use of a big hut or 2 in their village to house the tourist trekkers), visiting 2 beautiful waterfalls and making some new friends. Most of all however i think i really appreciated not being able to nourish my addiction to modern conveniences in the cities(that isn't to say, however, that i didn't crave the additional cup of tea and biscuit every so often and some effective medicine for the nasty cold that i had at the time) and being able to see how truly spoilt i am...a trait of mine that i'm sure some of you recognized well before me! Mind you, that isn't to say that i'm about to make life changing decisions or anything...maybe a little one here and there but i'm under no illusion that 3 days in the bush has given me an epiphany or anything...just more appreciation for what i have and perhaps the ability to curb my consumption.

Anyways, would you listen to me waffle! I'm doing all this backwards...let me go back to the start of our stay in ChiangMai...
We arrived after our 12 hour night bus journey in the small wee hours of the morning and were greeted with a much cooler climate(although we were just after waking up so probably felt it all the more). When we got to the hotel and straight away were seduced by the cheap package deals for a trek and culture evening that the hotel had to offer so we snapped them up and then we slept a well needed few hours until about 9. When we awoke we got a yewt ride around the local handicraft industries and i'm glad it was free(as most people charge) as it was utter cak...we were cattled through the interesting parts ie where they actually make the silk/umbrellas/jewelery and straight into the shop where we would be followed around and harassed to buy something and i wouldn't mind but most of the stuff in the shops was imported anyway! So when we returned to the hotel after these 2 hours of disappointment we wasted no more time and got out to discover what the city had to offer. However i think i sabotaged this plan by spending 2 hours searching the alien streets for a TAT(Touirst Authority of Thailand) to get a decent map and to get soome prices on tours and transport...we did find it eventually but it had just cosed...OOPS! But generally We were nicely surprised by the much less congested lifestyle in ChiangMai unlike that of smelly Bangkok. The city is not much bigger than Cork with a population to match. However, for Cork to be even close to this place you'd first of all have to replace every pub with an amazing temple...well actually scrap that idea...they'd still be light years apart in resemblance! In the evening then we went to the Old quarter for an evening of Cultural events combined with a yummy thai traditional dinner. I enjoyed this very much as it was nice to be visually captivated by something artistic rather than the likes of grotty seedy bars in Bangkok and endless market stalls al filled with the same cheap tat.
The next day we took it easy again just finding our bearings, viewing temples(this is where i'm very similar to mum...although they all do begin to look quite similar after a while, i just can't help myself every time i find another one...sorry Reuben😊 and later checking out the night bazaars(predominantly filled with the same products as in Bangkok) and what not before getting an early night before setting out on our 3 day trek the following day.

Although at the start of the trek i began to come down with a nasty cold it was overall a very enjoyable 3 days. Lots of Lush green landscape, interesting people and, funnily enough despite all being cooked over a fire in dirty old pots and minimal ingredients, very tasty food! The first day involved going bamboo rafting(couldn't take any snaps of this as we got soaked and my camera ain't waterproof) followed by trekking to a waterfall where we went for a quick dip(lovely but the currents were incredibly strong) and then we trekked for quite some time to the tribal village where we spent the night(in a large open hut). Myself and reuben volunteered to collect logs for the fire and then we spent the evening getting to know the other trekkers. Everyone was very nice and there was a real mix too which is always interesting...from the city girls to the backpackers to the retired couple who are touring the world inside out on their yacht. Then after eating the delicious cuisine(probably all the more yummy as we were so ravenous!) we sat around the fire and then the local village children came and sang songs for us which i must say was tear jerking, hilarious(most due to the incredibly bored looking little children) and also a bit bitter sweet as we felt as it was a set up for the tourists and probably was more of a chore for them then anything...thus it effected my sensitive soul in both good and bad ways...
The following day the group split up into the 3 day trekkers and the 2 day trekkers. So we were whittled down to 5 - Myself, Reuben, A lovely dutch couple from Haarlem - Marlies and Alex and finally Ian - a really should Aussie from Melbourne. We visited the village and saw the villagers, their primitive residence (apart from some of the stilted huts being rigged up with satellite tv!) and pigs, chicks and cows galore. After that we trekked for a while until we reached a lonely stilted bamboo house in the forest which housed a tribal lady and her 2 daughters. Before we were served a spicy but tasty soup by our tour guide/chef "Tony"(who unfortunately had pretty much lost interest in our group as he now had nobody to flirt with) we tried to interact with the 2 girls. Alex gave them a dice and it was very nice to watch him teach them a simple game which was completely alien to them as was this mysterious dice. So following a snooze after lunch(i know - hard core trekking or what!) we went yonder the path to the second waterfall which, although different to the last, was still lovely and refreshing to cool off in. After our dip the others sensibly got dressed whilst i sat on the rocks in my bikini and proceeded to get multiple bites on my ass by fire ants with hurt like mad and was very embarrassing when my behind had to be examined by tony(whom i didn't like much) from which he got great mileage, the perverted plonker. In my sore state i couldn't do much but go for a snooze whilst Marlies helped Tony prepare the dinner and when i woke we ate another yummy meal followed by multiple games of shithead(typical backpackers card game) whilst drinking some moonshine(potent thai rice wine which we had bought from the tribal woman earlier that day) and then sitting by the fire sharing stories. It was great😊 One notable thing about being in the wilderness was that time seemed to crawl which was a nice change to it usually whizzing by in the fast paced life of the city...
On the last day we trekked from the waterfall stopping along the way at a Man with a mass of handmade instruments(i was nearly tempted to to purchase one but then quickly came to my senses realising that i had been lured into yet another claver thai tourist trap) followed by a "7Eleven"(Thai convenient store situated on almost every corner sucking the incomes from the independent street vendors) in the Jungle and then onto have lunch. Our final activity of the trip was ELephany riding which, to be quite honest i found utterly terrifying as we were being taken up and down hills by this poor creature with nothing to hold onto or hold us into the seat. At one stage my leg got stuck behind a tree as mrs ephalump decided to go for a 5 minute ear rubbing against the soothing bark and then started walking away with my leg wedged behind the tree. Because we had no guide on our elephant(unlike everyone else) I really thought my limb was about to snap off as we had no control over her but i think due to my screaming i lucky to come away intact i was angry that the guides who should have been looking out for us only laughed at my fright. Bastards. Yeah the only thing i enjoyed about my time with Nelly was feeding her bananas...

So that was the end of our trek. We hopped on the Newt(pick up) and were brought back to our accommodation. Although we tipped our guide he showed more disgust than appreciation as we obviously hadn't given him enough which wasn't a very nice send off. oh well. That evening we went for a few drinks with our new found friends until we would all inevitably go our separate way(Ian was off to Burma and Marlies and Alex off up North to Pai). The follo day was unfortunately to be the beginning of my demise. I was sick for 4 days in total with a terrible fever and living in the toilet...it was hell. On the second day it was so intolerable that reuben took me to the hospital where they gave me 4 different lots of drugs...it was a far sight different to a experience in an irish er...i was out in less tha an hour having spent less tha 20 euros...not bad. So unfortunatel the following 2 days were to be quite boring for Reuben as i had to take it easy Our only activities were to go to a Muey Thai Boxing match which was ok until we had our suspicions that it was most probably rigged for the tourists entertainment. And we also went on a one day tour up North to Chiang Rai where we saw the Hot Springs, a temple that looked to be carved from Ice and crystals just sitting in the searing sun...it was very mystical indeed. We also saw the Golden Triangle(where China, Burma, Thailand and Laos meet), the Burmese Border and 5 hilltribe peoples - this was prett much a human zoo of all the tribal women adorned in all their costume and sitting in their stalls making and trying to sell their goods. This was quite a disappointment as there was little or no interaction with them and it was only a spectacle designed for us wide-eyed farangs to dig even deeper into our pockets as we would take pity on these women wrapped up in metal coils. Yeah we saw a few things, but like most tours, it was a disappointment. That was to be the last excursion before we would set out to Laos in the following days...

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