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Published: March 1st 2008
Sunday 24th
We had a rather busy morning shopping in one of the largest markets in Thailand. I bought 3 t shirts for 2 pounds each as I have destroyed the majority of my t shirts from the heat. In the evening we were greatly surprised to find our good friend Kit was in Bangkok. We met him in his local bar and he seemed to be a regular there so we were introduced to all the staff who were very sweet. After a few beers we headed to the famous Patpong market! We were told you have to see a ping pong show so we ended up finding ourselves watching one. I kid you not it was one of the most disturbing shows I have ever seen! The ping pong refers to a lady shooting ping pong balls out of her ( well not out of her mouth). We very quickly departed the club as she stated to light a ciggarette...again not in her mouth. We ended up in a club called Spice that Kit reccommended we all had a great dance. Afterwards we took some of Kits local bar staff for a meal and then finally arrivred
back at our hostel at 7am! I was just about to drift to sleep when Caz shouted "what the hell is that", under my pillow was a cockroach! I jumped out my bed and fell over a chair; only to find it was a plastic one he had bought from the market!..I will have my revenge...
Chiang Mai
Tuesday 26th
The following week has so far probably been one of the most exciting weeks so far!
After a 13 hour very uncomfortable bus ride we arrived in Chiang Mai. We were then escourted in an army styled jeep with no doors to our hostel for the night. Later in the day we chilled out in a bar owned by a gay American called Timmy. He organised a snooker game called "Killer" and guess who won it..me! I took home 170 BAHT! In the evening we visited another market and relaxed and played some more snooker. I was about to win the game against Rick when suddenly an elephant appeared next to me. I felt sorry for it as it was chained up and dragged around by its owner so people would pay money to feed it.
That small distraction resulted in me loosing the game.
Wednesday 27th
Today we were off trekking through the jungle and therefore we prepared by having an fry up breakfast and milkshake. After a few hours of drving in our jeep we arrived at an elephant riding centre. Me and Caz jumped on one fully grown elephant whilst Nick and Muc the other. Unfortunatly Rick was left elephantless however he was told to sit on Muc and Nicks elephants head! He did so and gripped on to its tough dusty skin. We each bought a bag of bannanas and fed the elephant we were sitting on. The small calf elephant didn't have a rider so kept reaching with his small trunk for my bannanas. They were then bathed and the American couple on one elephant got sprayed.
After elephant riding we were then treated to rice curry and this is where we got to know our group members. Our leader called himself Rocky Baboboa( even though we was tiny) and was a very amusing character. We also had two Austrians Micheal and Katrina and two Koreans as well.
After the curry we trampled our way through the
jungle coming across insects, stray dogs and wild cows. 3 hours later we reached our base camp. The camp was a local villagers small shack. The shack was in the middle of jungle growth and was occupied by ducklings, puppies, pigs ready for the slaughter and cockrels.
We were then taken by Rocky to the local dusty football pitch where we were taken on by the Thai tribe at football. Im not one for excuses but when its boiling hot, you have been trekking all day.. I would say the tribe had a slight advantage.
Later we were introduced to the women of the tribe who cooked us our rice curry. We also met two Lithuanians who were trying to force everyone to drink Thai Gin. It wasnt that strong for us Brits but the Korean guy felt it and so did Ricky the leader.
Later in the evening the gap year crew lay down with the puppies and gazed at the brighest clearest night sky I have ever seen. You could make out all star signs and even 2 planets. After a while however we started to get bitten so decided to go to sleep in
the shack.
Thursday 28th
Woken up by a very loud cokodoodledooo and the crickets. I was first to step out the shack to a green jungle setting and the boiling hot sun. I made my way to the well to wash and was greeted by baby chicks and tiny puppies. The local tribes woman greeted me and presented me with bananna pancakes and tea.
After everyone else was packed we said bye to the hungover Lithuanians and headed through the bananna trees and into the overgrowth jungle. After a few hours of trekking some people needed a rest because the heat was too intense. We stopped at volleyball net and played head tennis with a thatched football. Made me feel a bit faint though.
After another 2 hours of trekking we were all very sticky and needed a wash. Our guide Rocky came up with the solution a massive ice cold waterfall. The waterfall was well hidden between vines and bananna trees. It had 3 stories and ended up in a large pool. My highlight of the waterfall was when I went to wash my face and found my head in a hollow hole with the
waterfall still pounding my legs. (Narnia style) I stayed in there and Rick thought I was drowing so tried to pull me out. It was so peacefull.
After drying off in the heat we unwrapped our bamboo string from our bananna leaves and ate our fresh rice.
Few more hours of trekking we arrived at our accomodation for the evening. It was nothing like I have seen before. A large shack with the backdrop being a crashing waterfall surrounded by vegetation. Me and Muc decided to go for a wash however came out covered in leeches, we got sucked quite a bit Muc worse than me. In the evening we were relaxing around the campfire when one of the tribesmen dropped a white bag infront of us. The bag had something in it as it was wriggling violently. The tribes man opened the bag and revealed an alive pig. He smashed it with a mallet on the head, this didnt succeed so he grabbed a log and suffocated the poor creature. They burnt its skin off on the fire and then ripped its guts out (picture). They then cooked the meat and we had it for dinner later.
(2 days later..as I write this I have food poisoning from the pig meat).
Friday 29th
After Rocky awoke me by jumping on me I ventured to the waterfall for a wash( avoiding the leeches this time). We were then treated to jam on toast around the campfire for breakfast.
Off we went again venturing through the jungle in the unbearable heat. Rocky took us to my favourite waterfall of all. It was more of a water slide ending up in a deep pool. Ross took full advantage of this and climber to the highest cliff and jumped in. Meanwhile I was climbing the waterfall and couldnt climb higher without jumping the small gap over it. I did so however slipped and it was like slow motion I tryed to grip the rock however failed and in the end dug my fingernails into the overhanging vines which stopped me from falling in. Muc failed to see my accident and followed my route and did exactly the same thing except he fell in and was lucky not to fall of the edge of the waterfall..a learning curve for both of us.
In the afternoon we stopped for
Dinner time
2 Austrians 2 Koreans 2 Lithuanians 2 Thai and 5 Brits!a rest but unfortunatly had sat in a red ants nest. Micheal and the Korean guy got bitten and they were jumping around in agony. It was harsh but I had to laugh as they jumped around.
For our last activity we were treated to bamboo rafting. This was such great fun! Me, Muc and Rick were on one accompanied by a raft steerer. We hit the first rapids and our raft steerer fell in after he scrambled back on we hit the first rapids. Rick stood up and his Bandana got caught on a tree he jumped at it and nearly fell in himself. Fortunatly Nick was on the bamboo raft behind and grabbed it off the tree. Another funny moment was when the Korean guy tried to copy our raft steerer with a paddle trick however the Korean guy( steve we call him) fell overboard. Our raft, after sailing past some elephants on the bank, caught up with some American girls raft. They threw a fig at us so we splashed them, RIck took things further when he shouted " The Americans they will be bombing us next" There reaction was one of the funniest things I
have ever seen. After that we turned the corner only to be confronted by Nick, Katrina and Micheals raft (The Austrians). Nick jumped off his raft and on to our raft followed by Micheal. Our boat started to sink and after lots of fumbling we shoved Micheal off who fell on to the Americans raft..and then they started to sink. After lots of shouting and splashing everyone was restored on their own boats. Peace was found for half an hour as we sailed past local school children swimming, tribes women washing their clothes and elephants bathing in the sun. Not for long though as we turned the corner of the river bank Nick appeared, Tarzanstyle, on a rope swing and flew onto our boat. The weight of him hitting our boat cause Muc and Rick to both fall off the back. I reached to help them and lost my flip flops down the rapids!
After such an amazing day we were allowed, due to the lack of road rules, to sit on the jeeps roof. This was soo fun down the motorway and it dryed our clothes off. We had many conversations with other Thai guys piled into the
back of trailers and high fived people on motorways.
All in all an amzing week!!
ps. 13 hour journey back wasnt soo good = constant cramp, airconditioning broken and to top it all off I was very sick.
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saad
non-member comment
poomouth
cant believe you didnt invite me to your blog!!!