Welcome to the Jungle

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Hello to everyone back home,

Well, what an eventful time we've been having. We survived the 14 hour train ride from Bangkok to Chaing Mai, thanks to some nice thai food, a few beers, a packet of cards and hangman 😊 Luckily it was air conditioned, so pretty comfortable. It was a bit like a school trip though, when we had to go to bed by 10pm. So, up I went to my little top bunk thing....4 hours later I was still awake. Simon was in the luxury suite below, watching Ice Age on his iPod...tough. Think I slept for 2 hours in total and got woken by the lively thai people at about 6am - great.

We arrived in Chang Mai and there was someone to meet us from our hotel to drive us there - good job too, because I wasn't in any fit state for co-ordinating a conversation about where we were going...

The hotel was really nice, luxurious compared to our hostel in Bangkok and straight away I felt relaxed. Chaing Mai is lovely, so chilled out and pretty. We went to the Sunday market, it was huuuuuge, you can't imagine how many different stalls there were and soooo many food stalls selling lots of yummy things. I bought a scarf for about 30p or something ridiculous, bargain I tell you.

It was of course Simon's birthday, so being the lovely person that I am, we went and watched the Spurs game in a bar...it was good fun...'Jermain Defoe, he's a yido'. Simon got so excited that he knocked our drinks over, smashing a glass in the process - the english yob returns. Met 2 other english couples, which was cool.

Bloody knackered from lack of sleep in Bangkok, we had the best night's sleep ever and then woke up on JUNGLE DAY...oh dear god, what was I letting myself in for, soon to find out.......

Anyone who knows me well will understand I'm not the most adventurous of people, so this was always going to be a challenge... With our little rucksacs packed and ready to go, we sat and waited to be picked up (I had toast and jam while I waited - always helps!).

Our guide collected us and we squeezed into a jam packed jungle jeep with 9 other people...it was cosy to say the least. Off we went.

The guide was called Good and his little assistant dude was called Tar. Good was an absoloute LEGEND - so funny and lovely. He pretty much clocked straight away that I was petrified and so the wind-ups started.

When we arrived in the jungle we started off with food and some of Good's 'happy water', which was like having a shot of sambuca or something...I think he was trying to sedate us, probably best to be honest.

We did elephant trekking, which was awesome...the night before someone had told me a story about someone on their trek who's elephant charged off with someone on it's back, so that was pretty much all that was going through my head at the time - people always time it just right to tell you stories like that.

Then, Good said we were setting off for our 'walk'..I like a nice walk in the woods at home, so this bit was going to be a breeze....WRONG. The first hour was fine, pretty flat and fairly shaded, so nothing to worry about. As time went on it got steeper, harder, scarier and hotter. Good said on every trek he does there is always a girl who cries during that walk...usually english, that'll be me for this trek then.

It was so hot and sunny and so bloody hard. Luckily we had an awesome group of people, so the banter helped me through.

3 hours later we arrived at the top of the mountain at our camp for the night. It was amazing...in a little jungle 'village', where people actually live, children were playing etc. It was mad.

We settled into our bamboo house, which came complete with a little bamboo hut with a toilet in and one with a shower. It was time to freshen up with a shower...that certainly did the trick, ice cold water, no exageration. We were all relieved to discover that even at the top of a mountain in the jungle there was beer to buy...WOOP, Chang time.

A couple of the guys had also bought a bottle of Thai whisky for Simon's birthday, so the drinks flowed...beer, happy water and whisky = good times.

Good cooked us the most amazing meal, well deserved I feel. He got the guitar out after dinner and we sat around chatting, singing, telling stories. Highlight of the night was Good and Tar's rendition of 'When you say nothing at all'...immense.

I had a sore throat and cough and Good asked if I wanted some medicine. I was slightly concerned when he went off to get it, wondered what the hell he was going to give me...Luckily it was vicks type stuff and he put it on my nose and throat...phew.

So, for the next day we walked and walked some more, up hill and down hill - both as tricky as each other, went to a few waterfalls, ate more yummy food (toast, tea, eggs and jam for breakfast - the best), developed some gorgeous blisters...just the usual jungle shit.

Our second night was down in a valley...absoloutely gorgeous. Same accomodation (!) - so much fun though. That night we had more amazing, amazing food cooked by Good, a camp fire and lots and lots (too much maybe?) happy juice, or whatever the hell he called it.

I convinced Good to tell us a few ghost stories...and at around 4 am we heard some familiar noises outside our bamboo house...something tells me Good was playing games, but we'll never know, maybe those ghosts really did exist.

The last day, on which I could barely walk with my mammoth blisters and aching legs, we had a short walk back and did white water rafting and bamboo rafting. The white water rafting came as a surprise because it wasn't in our itenary...I bloody love surprises like that. It wasn't actually too bad, I'd maybe go as far as saying I enjoyed it...a little bit.

After lunch and the boys challenging Good to a table tennis tournament, we set off back to civilisation. Goodbye jungle, I'll miss you.

It was emotional...bloody hard work at times, but with the help of Simon (dragging me up the mountains at times), lots of banter, lots of happy juice. higggggh fiiiiiiives and Good's Borat quotes, I got through it. Good fun and a great experience, but that's the adventurous bit of my travelling done, bring on some beach time!

The hotel seemed 20 times more luxurious after returning from the jungle and it was soooo nice to have a warm shower and scrub away the jungle reminence.

We met up with our trekking group in the evening and the fun times continued. Good gave us a bottle of happy juice to take with us and we did a toast to the legend. He also knew we were all meeting at a certain place at 8 o clock and he came along with some homemade pate type stuff for us...which after I tried it, the guys told me was made from pigs brain, yum my favourite. Bless him though. Drunken night had by all - some great people.

Anyway, Chaing Mai has been awesome - last day here today, we're chilling out, doing washing, planning the next leg of our trip and enjoying the beautiful weather. Off to Laos tomorrow on the 'slow boat', then Vietnam.

Update you all soon.

xxxxxx

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Comments

[Stu]

Yeah but, are you still a dude?