Celebrating my birthday...

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Dear All,

It feels like alot has happened since my last blog in Koh Tao as we have been to such a variety of different places.

We spent around 4 days in Koh Tao which was really nice, really chilled. Al got on with her diving course and managed to see a 5 metre whale shark! I think I may have had a mini heart attack if I were to see it. In Koh Tao we also waved goodbye to our friend Lea which was sad. We then decided to make the mammoth journey (and it definately was mammoth) to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand.

The journey went like this: a three hour boat ride to chumpon, mini bus to the bus station, three hour wait at the bus station, over night 10 hour bus to Bangkok, taxi to the train station, three hour wait at 5 in the morning for the train, a 12 hour train ride to finally arrive in Chiang Mai about 8 in the evening. I have never been so glad to arrive somewhere in my entire life. The train journey wasn't too bad but after 12 hours sitting upright staring at a wall, ipod finally run out of battery your feet start to itch.

Chiang Mai is a great city (more like a town) but different to what I expected. Its quite small and centres around a square shaped moat. It's nice to take a wonder around as during the day you hardly see any tourists and its a very relaxed and laid back town with not too much going on. The roads are wide but I thought it would be more entwangled (is that a word?) in forestry and the likes. There are night markets and thousands of buddhist temples to see which are really beautiful architecturally but got the feeling that once we had seen one we had seen them all. We found a really groovy reggae bar which we went to most nights with the best live music ever with trumpets, electric guitars and the likes. We then thought we should be more proactive with our time rather than just miandering around the town so we booked a two day trek with an over night stay in the jungle.

The mini bus picked us up the next morning with a group of people also doing the trek. We had Aussies, Spaniards, Dutch and Danish people with us who all seemed really nice. Our first stop was at an elephant camp where we would embark on a half an hour elephant trek. It all felt a bit, dropyouhere, getontheeephant, getofftheelephant, getinthecar type thing and wasn't sure how well the elephants were looked after as they had chains around their necks and the ones on their feet looked like they were rubbing so I felt immidiately bad about the whole thing and even worse after having done it. It was fun while it lasted and I still got on the elephant but thinking back maybe I would have done something else. We then gotbackinthecar and went to a little mountain village where we snacked on vegetable rice before climbing the mountain. The climb up wasn't too difficult but because of the muggy heat probably made it less bearable. It felt like we were properly in the jungle and we were surrounded by running water and the shrill sounds of jungle life. We eventually reached camp which was a bamboo shack situated right next to a gorgeous waterfall. We took a swim (it was freezing cold!!) and had dinner, sat round the camp fire and then went to bed on these elevated mats with mozzie nets over head. I slept like a log it was great. Once we awoke the next morning, everyone moaning and groaning of how they got virtually no sleep we started the descend down the mountain. We stopped again the same village as the day before for lunch and jumpedbackinthecar for some bamboo rafting. I thought we would be partaking in the making of the raft and was bitterly dissapointed as it was again a hop-on hop-off job. It was fun though as around 3 people on one long bamboo raft balanced standing along the smooth rapids making jokes and anjoying the scenery. We eventually got back to Chiang Mai had a looooooong sleep and planned our onward journey.

We then went to the hippy village of Pai which has definately been my favourite stop in Thailand so far. Arriving there was so beautiful its surrounded by luscious green mountain and we stayed in a little bamboo shack on a little river where palm trees dotted outside our little private veranda. The thing about Pai is that its so peacefull, especially when you get out of the main town which can be explored on foot in a matter of minutes. Its full of little shops selling pad thai (my favourite thai dish) and the usual hippy attire. People sit around literally playing acousitic guitars and everyone seems to have long hair, mostly dreadlocked. There are some cute little bars around so we went out the first night and looked forward to my birthday the next day. My birthday was great, we woke up, I got some pressies :-) and we hired a motorbike and whizzed around the nearby waterfalls and hotsprings. We were virtually the only people there and it was so so hot and beautiful. We then zoomed onto the nearby canyon which is a little effort to walk up but once you do you get magnificant views of pai and its surroundings. I don't think I have ever been somewhere so breathetaking. We then went out that night to see a live band which were great aside from the lead singer who was massacring some u2 classics. We spent the next day chilling out and going to the nearby pool and booking our onward journey to Laos (which we had no idea would take 2 days!)

We've spent the last 2 days just being on buses, guesthouses, more buses and dealing with Laos immigration. The journeys have been highly enjoyable however due to the AMAZING landscape you see just by looking out of the windows. We travelled 12 hours seeing nothing but rolling mountains and thick, dense jungles its so great. I really think if this is how beautiful it is now - imagine what Vietnam is going to be like - eek! On our travels we've met two lovely girls Laura and Laura who have been great company along the way. We have now arrived in the Laos city of Luang Prabang which again is different to what I imagined. I heard Laos is alot slower than neighboring thailand and thought I would end up somewhere a bit secluded. It still has the peaceful ad quiet quality I thought but has really beautiful buildings (french) and we're staying in a great guest house. You can go and eat in a sleeping cafe on the mekong river and have baguettes. This is our first day here so i'm sure there is alot more exploring to be done but for that I shall let you know.

Lots of love!



xxxxx

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