Chaing Mai

---

So once again I have being lazy and taken forever to update my blog, but in my defense, I have written this one already, only for a computer to delete it and never to be found again, so much for auto save! Ohh well I will try to do my best to write it in as much detail as I can...

So after the Islands I returned to Bangkok to start heading north, to say goodbye to Shoshana, and to meet up with a friend before she left the country....... well that was the plan anyway.....

Before Shoshana left, she wanted to see at least one Muay Thai boxing match, since she dose it at home, and would have being a bit embarrassed going back and not even seeing a match in Thailand... And so far we hadn’t had any luck, every place we went, they had a match on two days after we left... so Bangkok was her last chance. Luckily there are a lot of venues in Bangkok, so every night there is something going on. She invited me, and offered to pay for4 my ticket, so I went too, and it was a great night! We couldn't stay for the whole time, because Shoshana had to take her plane home, but what we did see was fun. The Thai people get so into it, the atmosphere is incredible! Every punch or kick they yell at. We both had a load of fun. It’s definitely a must do in Thailand!

So the next day as I said, I was meant to meet up with a friend, but I couldn’t get in contact with her, I found out the next day that she overstayed her visa, so they had to make a run to the boarder, only to find out they weren't allowed back in... It was then I realized that I only had a few days left on my visa. And I had to get out...

While driving around the city with a Tuk Tuk driver, trying to get him some petrol vouchers, and for me just trying to get out of the humidity of Bangkok, I stopped at a travel agent. The lady that was serving me, her brother also worked in the same travel agent..... He seemed to like me, because he was determined that I was going to marry his sister..... Apparently I was too young for her, so I was lucky enough to get out of that one! But she did think I was nice, so gave me a “good deal”.... I’m not sure if it actually was that good, but It was better then it could have being! It was a night train to Chaing Mai, and a two day treck in the jungle that surrounds Chaing Mai.

The night train was great, so far I have only ever headed down south from Bangkok, which mean departing at 6ish in the evening, and arriving at about 6 in the morning, assuming it is running on time (which it never dose!). Where as heading up north, you still don’t arrive on time... but you leave about 10 at night, and arrive about 12 noon..... So there’s no waking up extremely early, or waking up every hour wondering if you have missed your stop!

The next day, I was picked up to go trekking, and we set off on our hour long drive towards the mountains. The first thing we did was go for an Elephant ride. I have always wanted to do this, so I was happy, and the Elephants looked like they were treated well, which was a good thing! Some places I have being, they don’t treat them very nice, hence why I have never gone. When we arrived, there weren’t enough Elephants, so we could wait an hour, or some people sat on the head. I thought this would be a fun experience, so I gave it a go! It’s the weirdest thing to stand on its head to get on, but it doesn’t seem to mind so I just went with it... I have to say, I was a bit disappointed, I mean I know that all you do is sit there, as the elephant takes you around, but I think its something that you maybe just do once, and that enough! But then again, maybe the fact that I was covered in elephant slobber and banana by the end of it made it a bit worse.... who knows.
After lunch, we drove a bit further to where we started our trekking. After about an hour, we reached a waterfall. It was great to stand under after the walk, being a hot day...as every other day in Thailand at the moment. And we had some fun climbing up behind the waterfall. Unfortunately the ponds under the waterfall were extremely slippery. And even more unfortunate. Being at a waterfall, everyone had there cameras out... obviously being the agile man I am, I went head over heal, followed by many not so flattering pictures being taken of me, many can be seen on facebook at the moment!

So after the waterfall we headed off, and started towards the jungle camp we were going to stay in that night, it was about 3-4 hours of walking. Most of us struggled a bit, not being fit what so ever. But it was good, walking past farms in the hills, taking short cuts over mountains, walking over bridges that didn’t look like they would hold us (later to see a scooter driving across it made me feel a bit better). When we finally got to the camp, with a river running past. We all thought it would be a great way of cooling off, so we got down to the river, when we realized it was freezing! It took me about 10 minutes to get in fully, and I could only stay in for a very short amount of time, it was ridiculously cold!
We then spent the night around a camp fire, it was a great way to end the first day, getting to know each other better, and relaxing after a long day!

In the morning we got up early, and headed to the hills tribe, the white karan, it took about 2 hours to get there, so a swim was well deserved! We spent a few hours here, then moved on to bamboo rafting, which was great! Definatly one of the highlights! Going down the river, using a bamboo stick to stear your way down the river, and push yourself off the rocks. The local kids waving, and splashing you as you head down..... loving it when you actually splashed back. Once we got to the end of the river, we headed back, and the next day I headed to Laos, I unfortunatly didnt get to see anywhere near as much of Northern Thailand as I wanted to see, but I will be heading back there before long!

---