Stylish Armpits

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Im still here in Chiang Mai but I'm definitely ready to move on. I would have gone yesterday but I have been feeling a bit ill so I have stayed put in a very nice guesthouse which actually has a working en suite shower and air conditioning!!! I could get used to such luxury. I'm feeling a lot better now though so I will move on to the Laos border tomorrow I think.

Thats one of the advantages of travelling on your own - because I didn't feel up to a long journey I could stay put for a couple more days without frustrating any travelling partners. Its not all good though. The worst part of travelling alone is not having anyone to share your little mistakes with. For example, the other day I mistook my hair wax for deodorant (they both come in the same shaped container) and applied it liberally to both armpits. It wasn't all bad though, I was able to give my armpit hair a rather stylish side parting.

So over the last week since my last post I have been up to a lot and have met a lot of people. I have been back to that Spicey club 3 times. One of the times that I went was with a big group of english people that I met during the England vs Paraguay game. We got there about an hour before anyone else and so we had the club to ourselves which was a pretty cool experience. I kept requesting "3 lions on a shirt" but the DJ refused to play it! If you want to see another blog entry and some pics of that night, you should visit Vixnjim which is written by two of the people who were there.

Anyway, that next day I had a cooking course which was quite good but I was way too hung over for it. There was a rediculous amount of food to eat and every dish was so spicey, why do they put chillies in EVERYTHING?

One of Chiang Mai's big attractions is a giant night market which sells everything you would expect a giant night market to sell. However, I made the mistake of going with a couple of Canadian girls that I had met at my guesthouse. The first stall we came to sold shoes and I was waiting for nearly an hour while they decided what pair they liked. The same thing happened at a jewellery stall and then a fabric stall! It wasn't that bad though, I did manage to get a pair of fake diesel trousers for trekking (I have since thrown them away as a rather large hole started to appear in the crotch area). And after this experience it was time to head off on my first trek.

The trek was absolutely amazing, it was really well organised and I got on well with the rest of the group. We all stayed together for a few days after the trek and because we were able to save money by sharing a room we picked a really nice place - its the same place I am now although I have to pay a lot more now because I am staying there alone. Anyway, back to the trek. Day one was the elephant ride. This was excellent but we seemed to be unevenly balanced to the right and I did fear that we were going to fall off. But we all survived and went on to begin the first of our long walks. We were running behind time and I could see our guide (who liked to be called "tree" - I'm not sure if this was his name) looking a bit concerned. It wasn't helped by a couple who constantly stopped to take photographs. The effect of this delay meant that as the sun went down we were still a good hour from our destination. Now this is rough terrain with river crossings and thin muddy tracks, not the sort of thing you want to be doing in the pitch black. But inevitably that was what happened and we somehow managed to stumble our way into the camp. When we arrived we were shown the shower facilities - a big bucket of water with a scoop in it - and our luxury toilet - a hole in the ground. The food was cooked by our guide and was excellent. The next day consisted of a lot of very steep hill walking. It was very tiring in the heat and there were times when it looked like some of the group were going to give up. But I think they were motivated by the fact that if they did give up they would be stranded in the middle of the jungle. We got there just in time because the moment we arrived at our camp that evening it started pouring with rain. Then it was time to shower. The facilities at this camp were even better than the last, our guide pointed to the river and said "shower". So we did and it was a lot better than anticipated. The water was warm and we got a better clean than the first night. But the river was a distinctly brown colour which put me off a bit. The next day was the best of all because we set off on a bamboo raft. They are put together at the camp and simply consist of several logs of bamboo tied together. We had two rafts and our guide got on the one in front with half the group and me and the rest of the group got on the one on the back. I was handed a big stick of bamboo and for a moment I thought I was going to be in sole charge of steering the raft. Big mistake on their part I thought to myself. But luckily the bamboo man (I don't know what else to call him but I think bamboo man is a pretty cool nickname) got on the front and was the main steerer of the raft. It was pretty hard work to steer and although bamboo man was doing most of the work I still had to stop the back from hitting the rocks. There were some rapids as well and at one point the raft took a really nasty bash and even bamboo man fell over, luckily none of us fell in the water. The raft ride was absolutely fantastic and the scenery that we floated through was amazing. The ride brought us to the end of the trek which was definitely the best part of the trip for me so far - it was really helped by having a good group of people that all got on. I think I will do another trek in Vietnam.

And so that almost brings my blog up to date. Over the last couple of days I have been just been hanging out in Chiang Mai with some of the trek people and now I am waiting until I feel fully better before I head into Laos.

Travelling is all about learning and I have learnt that its important to try new things, meet as many people as possible and never, under any circumstances, put hair gel in your armpits.

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Comments

[The bightest tool in the box]

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Hey Dude! Thought I'd make you look popular as no one has left a comment yet (plus i wanna have comments on my blog when i go away). Glad to hear you've made friends and aren't in lonerville! try get some pics up when you can! safe travelling caio smella, Candice