31st October 2009

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31st oct 2009

Sitting in a quiet farmyard in a village called mejam in northern Thailand. Yesterday I started my bike trip off roaring it up into the mountains. We began at 8:30 from julies guesthouse, I was sitting eating breakfast thinking I'd made a big mistake in booking this biking trip as they said that there were no other people signed up and it would be just the guide and me.

Ped, my guide picked me up and took me to his company office which was a shed in the centre of chiang mai. I was told to check my bike - a 125cc semi auto, orange tiger bike made in Thailand. I took it down the road and found it to be quite gutless but then I hadn't seen anything over 250cc since I arrived in Thailand so I wasn't bothered.

We headed out on our ride along side streets and motorways eventually stopping 2 hours later at a river bank where I was to do some bamboo rafting. It was very relaxing floating (semi submerged) down the river, the only thing stopping me dropping off to sleep was the cold water lapping up between the bamboo whenever we went through the rapid sections, it was nice but I was keen to get back riding. I settled with the bike quite quickly, very easy to ride it was a good cruiser untill the upper rev range when the foot peds vibrated violently, even with the knobly tires, it took the corners well as I kept up with the speeding Ped! The mountain roads were awesome, twisting their way up through breathtaking landscapes untill we reached our second stop.

The elephant riding was a bit of a laugh, I jumped on her neck from a high platform taking with me the 20 bananas I'd bought from a small boy a few mins earlier. We set off following a well used track for the elephants and I was suprised when the elephant stopped and stuck his trunk up over his head sniffing me, he wanted a banana! I ripped one off and pushed it into his nostril. Down the trunk went and the elephant continued plodding along, 2 mins later and it stopped again, the trunk came up and I gave it another banana, 2 mins later the same, I decided that I'd save the bananas for the rest of the trip - this did not please the elephant one bit!! She grunted and huffed and puffed until the owner gave her a smack with a cane, she grunted and moved off again only to stop another 2 mins later! This elephant knew the score, this continued untill I was out of fruit 25 mins later.
I wasn't disappointed with the ride. As I didn't expect too much, it's the usual tourist thing to do whilst there and I'm not particularly interested in what all the other tourists are doing, that's why I decided on the motorbike trip whilst everone else from the guesthouse went out trkking to see the overly touristic hill tribes.
Back on the road for 5 mins and we turned off onto a dirt track! This was when the real fun started, it was great following ped along the rough tracks snaking up through the trees, we stopped at a waterfall for a breather and ped said I was welcome to swim beneith it, I looked at the fast flowing White water very sceptically as to wether people could actually swim and survive but I trusted my guide and went for it!
It was the highest I'd ever jumped from and I'd say it was nearing 5 meters to the raging water below, I took a deep breath and launched myself off, shooting through the water, it felt like about 20 seconds before I reached the surface again and I could feel the current whisking me along very fast. Trying to swim against it was never gonna happen!! I was getting closer and closer to the jagged rocks down the river and was properly panicking! Trying to swim across the current I grappled for rocks at the side, each time slipping and I thought that this was the end for me as the current pulled me under several times!
5 seconds later I could hear peds concerned calls from way back upstream as I launched myself up and grabbed hold of a rickety old bridge, swinging underneth as the water rushed past my legs, ped came running over shoulting ''current very strong today!'' - ''YA DONT SAY!!!!!!!'' I coughed back. He hauld me up onto the bridge where I caught my breath and thanked my lucky stars to be out of there!! I checked my pants for any accidents that they say go along with such near death expiriences! My guide was funny and laughed 'you not die on trip! Much paperwork for me!' I gave him the evilest look I could muster in my shocked state and headed up the banks for a much needed beer!
Once my heart had returned to a fairly normal rythem we headed back out off road for another 2 hours reaching the Korean village where we were to spend the night. I say village but it consisted of one family of 7 living in bamboo shanty huts in the forest in the middle of no-where. They were friendly people, kept themselves to themselves as most didn't speak Thai, let alone English! A cute 8 year old girl guestured to my camera and spent the rest of evening taking photos of me and anyone else near by, she was lovely and so were the family. After dinner Ped took me to one side and gave me another beer, we chatted in broken English about the ride and congratulated me as it's the fastest he's ever made the trip, he said 'tomorrow, you use my bike' which made me quite proud. Then he produced a bamboo bong and said 'you like smoke smoke??' I laughed and agreed to a couple. We chatted about the world, our families and my trip. We smoked and drank beer, it was so random to be in the middle of the forest, so chilled. Then I noticed a familiar shape on the wall and thought to myself, that's really not a nice trick out in the forest to be putting fake spiders on the Walls lol it couldn't have been real as it was a good 8/9cm diameter with the legs!
I said 'oh your trying to scare me with a fake spider on my hut wall' sniggering. Ped replied with 'where spider?' he put his torch up close to it and it was massive!! 'ah spider' he said. Then I shit my pants as it dawned on me this thing was bloody real! Then to totally ruin my night he knocked it with his torch and it scurrried up the way and through my doorway, ped said 'it ok, it in your room now' so casually!

Oh my god!!! That's the first time I even thought about living in an open hut in the middle of the forest, the weed did nothing for the paranoia I was feeling and I needed sleep! Extreamely scared, I went into my room where the family had set up a mosquito net on the open slatted bamboo floor for me, I dived inside and frantically tucked the sheet in around me, I lay on my side for a few moments and thought to myself this cannot be real, there's no way I'm gonna be able to sleep tonight!! Once my eyes had adjusted to the darkness I could see the spider no more than 30cm away from my face staring at me, then I noticed the second a little behind it. Then I just had to laugh, it felt so unreal it was untrue! I felt relatively safe within my net and decided that there was no point worrying, just try to sleep, afterall, Ped had said that the spiders werent dangerous even tho he didnt know what type it was (and of course i could trust my guide.......)
I thank god for the weed tho as I soon drifted off thinking of my friend Ryan, hehe I was thinking earlier that day as my footpegs scraped the road on some of the fast bends that Ryan would absolutely love this trip, but those of you that know Ryan would know that there is absolutely no way he would have been sleeping after seeing those spiders so close to him that night. --- You would seriously have crapped your pants dude! No joke, full on underwear emergency! Hahaha ----
The next morning I was glad to still be alive and then noticed all sorts of weird coloured spiders hanging around the hut, it was like they were using it as a breeding house! I shuddered and vowed never to go back in there. I was very proud if myself tho as spiders is one of my biggest and most annoying fears, that night had gone a long way to prove to myself that I could deal with anything thrown at me. :o)

--------- 31st October 2009 -------------

Today was pure offroad bliss, it was great! 6 hours of inclines and decents with shear cliffs by the side, I was extreamely glad I knew how to ride as I couldn't imagine anyone else I know (bar Ryan) that would have had the skill to stay on! We didn't take it slow either, it was full throtle all the way and both Ped and I has some serious near misses with the ground. Each time we laughed at one another bricking it as we lost control, it was a truely great ride! :o)

We stopped at mejam about 4, again, the fastest time Ped had ever made the trip. He told me about how everone usually fell off ever 5 mins and I could totally understand to be honest, there were some narly trails out there! We dumped our bags and I grabbed a shower (a large pot of rainwater with a bowl to scoop water and throw over your head) before heading out to meet a Thai family for dinner.
Ped cooked again and told me about the restaurant he owned for 5 years before it had to close due to lack of business a year back. The bloody recession strikes again.... It cost him everything he owned and I felt very sorry for him as he got quite upset about it, I really didn't know what to say. I don't think he realised the recession had hit out country badly too. That night we went back to the farmhouse and had another smoke using freshly dried weed he had grown there. He said that he'd give me a branch as a 'souveneir' from our trip but I had to decline due to the risks carrying it round would bring. Getting caught would cost me at leat 5000 baht to bribe the 'policeman'! I settled for some Korean rolling tobacco and some dried banana leaf to roll it into instead.

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Comments

[Sam]

great blog,
an enjoyable read Nick, can fel the experience and emotions through your writing. what a trip eh! great to see you mixing well with the locals and having a laugh with the guides, take care x