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Published: February 4th 2009
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1st February Flight to Bangkok BA0010 (aka Speedbird 10) was fine. Flight attendents were cheeky as and didnt want to wait on hand and foot! Even got the F-bomb out of him when he figured out we were lazy!
So we arrived into Bangkok airport at 22:30 and decided to sleep in the airport terminal as our flight to Chiang Mai was at 06:40. This turned out to be a rather rough option. All the seats were metal and uncomfortable, the lady on loud speaker didnt shut up and everyone (Thai people) kept staring at us whilst we were sleeping. Woke up at 4am but it turned out to be 3am so we went and had breaky Thai style of course!
2nd February Paid $AUD6 for Xpress Boarding which turned out to be great after many hours of uncomfort because we were first on and off the plane with reserved seating in emergency exit rows (extra legroom!). AIr Asia was safe, very smooth flight and landing. It was much like Jetstar
Took a taxi from airport to 'Julie Guesthouse' and booked a room. Good location, nice room, has very chilled out bar area - oriental hippy feel.
Breakfast in Chaing Mai
Massive beers here! very cheap - 6.4% Venturing out ifto the town, we ran into the girls straight off by coincidence! The ladies went off cooking, and we set off on foot to see the town. We walked by a few temples and checked out the moat surrounding the old city. The traffic driving around was crazy - motorbikes, taxis and tuk tuks going everywhere!. Found a nice cafe western style by the water of the moat and had a good 2nd breaky. 5 bucks for beer eggs bacon! bargain! After a cnference, Tim finally convinced Ollie that we should hire an automatic bike to cruise aroud for fun. Turned out to be the best way to get around town possible!
After a bit of practise and getting used to the traffic, we ventured out to the university and found a few temples; one particular taking our fancy as it was undergoing renovation. On bamboo scaffolding, no harness was a man hand carving stone detailing many floors up on the outside of the temple. On the inside there were painters gold artwork on the walls. Ollie then decided to have a little spin on the bike without falling off! We slowly got lost down south whilst
Temple
Stumbled across near University. Note: Ladies not allowed haha quickly running out of petrol, but locals we really friendly and told us where to go.
We made it back to our room eventually and chilled out with beers at the bar/restaurant before deciding to make the most of the bike hire and headed up a mountain to see a temple (with a billion stairs!) and a panoramic lookout. It was a windy two laned well sealed road and it was perfect for a fast paced cruise with lots of lean action gonig into the corners! We loved the horn and kept beeping and waving at everyone.
Met up with girls that evening to book trek and headed to the night bizaar markets to check it out and hunt a few bargains!
3rd February Had quick breakfast over the road (using minature butchers knives as cuttlery) with the girl before getting picked up for our trek by a ute. Winded our way through the city picking up others before going rural to an elephant camp. Here we rode elephants! the baby ones were very cute, ours was massive and called Baahu. It took several dumps whilst aboard and splashed water on us down by the river. It
Inside a temple
Lots of gold! and buddah devoured a bunch of bananas we bought pretty much instantly. Was quite a bumpy ride, and going and down the steep sections you really had to hold on.
Once we alighted from the elephant, we began our trek to the Laahu Black Village. Had many steep hills, and the heat made it work up a sweat. Country side was very beatuful - lots of bamboo, typical jumgle vegetation and waterfalls. Got to know others in the group over dinner and a few beers quite well- they were from England, Germany, Ireland and Korea. This was before joining the hilltribe for a celebration of their new year. Tim got up and danced with them to their poor music - was hilarious!
4th February We slept in a bamboo shack on mats overlooking the mountains. Most people didnt sleep much as it wasnt very comfortable. A few more randoms joined our grounp for the trek downhill to a large waterfall. The girls and us all took a dip and a few fuji moments. It was quite powerful and knocked Rana over! We treked on by the river (absolutely stunning!) to the river rapids. The males in the group teamed up
Bike
Tim waiting at gate for one boat and takled the whitewater with extreme testosterone. Ollie being a keen bean didnt hold on and fell overboard in a rapid section!. Luckily the boat was wedged on a rock and he scrambled back in. The captain feeling sorry for Ollie stopped the boat and we all took a dip in a still section whilst we waited for the girls boat to catch up. Took them forever!
After overtaking them and splashing them with our paddles, we switched to a bamboo raft for a more gentle stoll downriver. The crazy guy let Tim be in control with steering using a bamboo rod. He didnt shut up about water snakes making whisky spicy.
During lunch, Ollie bought a priceless photo of the four of us on the bamboo raft with Rana striking an interesting and crunch pose which was rather flattering for her! That was the end of the trek, and we are rather exhausted so having a quick siesta before meeting up with the people on the trek for dinner and a few beverages!
Heading down to Phuket and Koh Phi Phi tomorrow
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jimbo
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been to patpong yet?