Hello everyone.
I am currently enjoying my last night in Chiang Mai before I head to Chiang Mai. What can I say, Mai has lived up to what I thought - it's incredible. A crawling metropolis of activity at a relaxed speed set with hills so big the cloud covers them as the backdrop.
Along with Alfie (my latest travel friend) I arrived on the night train from Bangkok which was surprisingly comfortable. After a short taxi ride we arrived at our destination before we would trek. Here we had chance to freshen up (take a turd) and get some breakfast before departure. Before we knew it were in the back of a, yes you guessed it, a hilux picking up our trekking group along the way. Our group was a mixture of americans, a samoan, an australian and a few english. On the way there we were entertained by our tour guide who would hang off the back of the truck, climb onto the roof and generally try to decrease his life expectancy.
We finally arrived at a village tribe on top of a hill somewhere where they immediately tried to sell us wrist bands. I'm no scrooge but I declined. I mean do the declare such sales to the tax man? I wasn't funding this sort of evasion. We had lunch - 3 guesses but if you guess rice your 3/4 there, and then we departed.
Our guide to the trek was an interesting fellow. He just pointed, grunted and was generally quite peculiar. Thoughts ran through my head of being in different situations ie. "if I were to die out here, would he eat me instead of carry me home" & "could he indeed swim faster than a shark?" & "how far could I run flat out before I passed out if he started chasing me with the fixed grin that now haunts me in my dreams!" I was soothed when I thought back to a West Wing episode where I just thought - what would Leo do. I also realised that Tom (interesting name for a Thai guy) was at the back in the distance following us. He met us at the hotel before we left turned out to be a legend - From then on I was relaxed and took in the scenery.
The afternoons trek was good - but hard core. There was me thinking that it was gonna be a stroll in the park but it wasn't. We were hacking through paths that had been overgrown by the jungle and slipping down hill sides - I have the scars to prove it. Was this day ever going to end! As the jungle trek progressed I managed to have a chat with everyone and we all realised that our tour guide (the grunting one) was actually a mute. The great thing about the trek was that me and alfie met a couple called battlecat and coconut. battlecat or Ross was from Oz and coconut or phoebe was from Samoa. From then on they recieved hours of abuse from us English, but to be fair they took it well and gave as good as they got. The ashes came up a lot as a come back. That evening we got to our hilltribe and the 4 of us bathed in a rock pool tending to our scars. Later on that evening, after the tribe kids had sung to us (that went on to long) battlecat and coconut went off to smoke some optimum (or opium I thing it is called in the west) whilst alfie and I as well as the 3 brit girls had a conversation on politics. This was a huge amazement to the Yanks as they clearly weren't as well educated us and struggled to enter the talk.
The next day mute boy woke us up with a grunt and before we knew it we were off trekking. Today we had lunch with another hilltribe and met this cute little boy who's mother died after a week of him being born. He was amazing at football. Later on that day I rode an elephant (on top) which took us close to our next evening stop. Today was by far one of the best days for scenary as I got to see proper thailands rice fields and hills. That night we played drinking games and got covered in charcoal.
The next day mute boy discovered he had a whistle and woke us with that. He was beginning to wear thin now. Today we rafted down a river and I ended up having to give one of the Brit girls a piggy back because she showed to much weakness. Showing weakness amongst the yanks to me was like insulting the queen to her face. Needless to say I stepped up and carried her to our next destination.
We returned home to Chiang Mai where we all met up for some beer and then decided to play the infamous game of I have never. By the end I was amazed by what some people have done. Coconut seemed to have done everything twice.
The one great thing about Chaing Mai was the night markets, there amazing. So much to see and buy, I could have spend a fortune. It made Burnham on Seas sunday market look like a scene from Eastenders. I brought some material and some other stuff so will show people when I get back.
Lastly, Alfie and I as well as Coconut and Battlecat rented out mopeds and explored the surround hills - quality. Me and alfie also did a fastfood challenge. KFC, Mcdonalds and Burger King all inside 24hrs - Bring on the local cuisine.
Anyway got to go, currently in chiang rai before heading into Laos on Saturday.
Until next time, Whats next
Ed
P.s please find link below for pics.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7101&l=c10e3&id=505411301
