Chiang Mai to Pai

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So I believe I last left off on my first night in Chiang Mai. Day 2 in Chiang Mai I booked in to do the Gibbon Experience - a full day of ziplining and abseiling through the jungle, amazing! I was on a tour with an Italian couple, some swiss dudes and their thai girlfriends. Boody the instructor decided I was to be his target for the day so every time we got to a new zip lining station he would pretend to push me off the station - catching me at the last minute, swing me round, and even tried for a few kisses, he just about gave me a heart attack by the end of it! It was great craic though, im definatley going to do the over night gibbon experience in Northern Laos (where they put you in the jungle give you your kit and leave yot to it for a few days)!

I found it pretty hard to meet people in Chiang Mai, it was super quiet there in terms of tourists as none of the transport is running from Bangkok thanks to the flooding, definately was a good move to fly up from bangkok!

So the following day I booked myself on a bus to Pai - a village up in the mountains in northern Thailand. Man, I can see why Regina recommended this place, the moment I arrived (after a 3 hour journey round 1032 hair pin roads - Ella you would not have enjoyed that!) you just feel instantly relaxed. I scored a cute little bungalow for 250 Baht (about 5 quid a night) on the river, dumped my gear and set off to explore. I would up at a bar called Edible Jazz which had live folk and blues music, wound up sitting with a bunch of locals and having a good laugh. Many vodkas later 3 of us squished onto the one scooter and set off to watch a beatles cover band at Be Bop bar, twas a great laugh...no idea what time I got home, but time is of no consequence at the moment!

Yesterday I found a bar to watch the game and meet 3 other kiwi chics, a few irish, and some dutch, so proud of the AB's performance and was very jealous of the celebrations that would be taking place in NZ! Myself and my new kiwi friends then went for celebratory burgers and beer, then back to Edible Jazz for an open mic night....naturally I did not sing as im sure you are aware I am completley tone deaf.

This morning I checked out my bungalow as at 8pm this evening I begin a 36 hour journey to Laos via bus and slow boat, not looking forward to that but it has to be done! I should get to Luang Prabang Wednesday evening, ive heard the slow boat is a bit of a booze cruise so ill pick up some whiskey to help make the journey a bit easier.

The weather the whole time has been amazing, its hard to believe there is serious flooding further south as it is so hot and sunny up here. One of the most common nationalities I keep coming accross is Israelis, who informed me in Hebrew my name means 'my heart', one dude keeps calling me 'my heart' whenever I see him, he is a bit strange.

Righty ho im off to kill the next 7 hours with a book in the sun, love to you all, hope everyone had a ball celebrating the rugby!! xoxo

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