The following takes place between 10th and 13th of July!!! (24 quote lol)
So we decided we wanted to go somewhere for a few days!! We thought about Hong Kong, Bang Kok, and the Philippines. After talking to a few people we decided Chiang Mai would be the best and cheapest place for us!! A few minutes later we booked the flights (Credit Cards lol) and we were off two days later!!
Arriving at Chiang Mai airport at 8:30am and 28 degrees, we were happy to be greeted by Ian the Londoner running the hotel we were staying at!! The Queen Victoria!! 20 Minutes later we were in our large room with the next two days fully planned out!!
First stop Doi Suthep. The temple is 5,528 feet up a very large ant hill making it the eighth largest mountain in Thailand. The view for the top is amazing even though it’s a little foggy way up there, you can still see the whole of the city!! After taking it all, we ventured into the temple, but not before trying to cover up all of our bear skin!! Not having any idea how to on the robes we were attracting attention!! Luckily for us a very kind lady took pity and dressed us properly!! I’m glad we went dressed so inappropriately, because otherwise we would never have had the chance to wear the traditional robes. Inside the temple was amazing, there were so many people some just walking around and some praying. Even though there were so many people it was so quiet and peaceful.
Once back at the hotel we got ready and went out in our long search to find somewhere with vegetarian food. After walking in one big circle, we soon found somewhere that looked semi clean to eat in!! We then waited back at the guess house for it to get dark so we could hit the Night Bazzar Market. Ian drove us down there as he said it was to dangerous to walk anywhere after dark. So we were happy for the ride. We got dropped off in the middle of the market and worked our way up and down the narrow aisles. We put on our bartering shoes and set off to find the good bargains. Once we got into it we really got into it. Hanna brought a Thai slick bed cover starting at 1600 Bart. Down to 600 Bart. Now that’s some good bartering!!
We then were advised to get a TukTuk home, which is a kinda moped thing with two seats at the back. It was so much fun, dodging in and out of traffic and genially fearing for our lives!!! Wahoo…living life on the edge!!!
Back at the guess house we had time for one quick drink before having an early night, for an early (for us) start.
7am and we were woken by Ian knocking on the door, slowly dragging our bodies out of bed to get dressed we made it just in time for some breakfast. We waited for our bus to arrive (which was late!. Thai time apparently) we soon jumped in and introduced our selves to the group.
Our first stop was a hill tribe, it was very interesting to see how these people lived in remote places with very little around them, apart from crops which they seemed to work on all day. After them begging us to buy their merchandise we spent very little time there to get a proper look around. We then went on a short drive to an elephant camp. We were all pretty unprepared to jump on these huge animals. After getting on which was a mission in its self, we were soon on our way feeding our very greedy elephants all the bananas we brought, we were not even 10 mins into the journey and already we were running out. We felt very much in demand each time the giant trunk would be in our faces, asking for yet another banana!! We all felt a little unsure, as our tour guides where no older than 15. They were just walking around very slowly, smoking and just laughing at us. We had completed our tour on the elephants and gladly got off. A short walk down a very steep, muddy hill and we came to a cage which would ferry us across the river to our tour guide Tom. Two at a time, the ride was quite fun!! Then we would begin our trek to a waterfall.
At first the walk was ok. Then it got harder. We had to claim up these ridiculous rocks and because we didn’t really know we were going to do this we only had Crocs to wear. We had to walk along tree trunks, where our tour guide Tom and Hanna had to help me across, as my sense of balance isn’t well…good at all. And if I slipped my body would have been splattered across the really sharp looking rocks below us!! Oh dear lord it was scary sh*t!!!! But we made it!! Just! The really hard walk was worth it though..the amazing waterfall in the middle of nowhere was very pretty to look at, and after our long sweaty walk was nice to bathe in too, although it was flipping freezing.
When we got back to our bus we were happy to sit down, we took another sort drive to the water rafting base, where we had lunch and learnt all the ropes to water rafting. We weren’t the most confident as we were told it might flip over because of the lack of water in the river!! Great. We thought as we put on all our protective gear. Before we knew it we were off going down massive rapids and having the time of our lives’! Some of us got out to go swimming, but Hanna decided she didn’t want to swim with the fishes and water snakes that day!! We had lots of water fights with the other half of the group and had a really good laugh. We came to the end of water rafting, where we had to jump on a bamboo raft, which our water rafting guide called it bamboo sinking! We didn’t quite know what he meant by that until we all sat on the bamboo and nearly touched the bottom! It was quite funny. We kept trying to tip on right over while one guy in our group was at the front trying to steer the thing!! We also got up to try bamboo surfing. It was a perfect ending for a perfect day!!
Back at the guess house Ian insisted in taking us out for the night. And also said he wanted to take us to a GOGO bar (Hanna wasn’t quite sure what a GOGO bar was. but I didn’t know this until after we went, I wish I could of at least warned her what we were about to see!!!) We walked into a small bar called spotlight and in the middle of the bar was a stage with about 6 poles in the middle of it. As we sat there pretty amazed and not wanting to look up. We soon felt ok enough to spot the lady boys from the real girls!! It was quite amusing to watch dirty old men trying to pick them up!! But on a serious note you have to feel sorry for these girls as it’s normally them who have to look after the whole family. With very little money they really have no choice but to sell them selves!!
To end the night we went to watch Thai Boxing which was really funny to watch. People in the crowd would grab their legs so they couldn’t fight back. And the fighters were the biggest posers as they always wanted to stand in front of the camera. Ha!
Getting back to the guess house we packed our stuff ready for an early flight.
We waved goodbye to Chiang Mai and headed back to our now home Singapore!!
Back at Singapore we haven’t been doing much at all as Leigh was very ill with food poising. Typical. Three days before we leave for our big adventure in Australia!! Yayayayay!!! She’s feeling better today though! Phew! Peace out dude’s and Dudettes!!
