Ok, soo much to update you from only 4 days! Bangkok seems a long time ago now.. on Friday I went to the floating market on the outskirts of Bangkok. Met a lovely couple from Canada that are now living in Kuala Lumpa. Hopefully I will get to see them later on my trip when I go down there. The floating market was cool but I guess pretty much aimed at toursists now, selling items on long river boats. In the evening I took an overnight train to Chiang Mai which is in the hills in the North of Thailand. Overall the train was comfortable with sleeping bunks, one at the top and a lower one on each side of the train. I can't tell you about the train without telling you about the toilet... so I went in relieved that it was a western style one even with toilet paper... I'm onto a good thing I thought! So I wiped the seat and put the paper down and it disappeared... into the ground.. straight onto the track??? Anyway the journey was comfortable overall and I met 2 lovely girls from England that were also on the same tour as me. We arrived together at the hotel on Saturday. Had lunch together and checked out the local night market... loads of lovely things but i cant buy much yet till I get to the end of my travels really. Sunday the adventure began. We were collected from the hotel in a truck and began our trek. After the first 30 mins we took a dip in a lake and had lunch. The next 2 hours were TOUGH!! Uphill trekking and I am no expert! Anyway I made it and we arrived at a hut with a family who also lived there. We visited the nearby remote village with really cute kids and very much a subsistence way of life.. animals all over the place, I dont need to explain what they are for! We went back to the hut for lunch and had a lovely meal (I am vegetarian here). Our guide then lit a log fire and we proceeded to get our hut ready for bed. In midst of this, Sam (one of the girls) screamed seeing a cow behind our hut, it was dark and all we could see were these cow eyes looking at us. We hadnt noticed them but they had been there the whole time. The night was one with strange noises of animals, crickets and smell of cow dung etc. I managed to have my second shower in the morning in the toilet hut with cold water from a pipe. We continued trekking (I'm still no good) and met some more people when we reached a waterfall and continued our trek to have lunch. Lunch was followed by elephant trekking.. I had no idea they can eat soooo fast! Bananas were swallowed whole by the minute, and his trunk kept reaching back at us for more! The next part was bamboo rafting which was GREAT fun. There was a point whereby the tour guide stopped and suggested to us to jump from a height. We all said no way, we would hit our head on the rocks fearing the water would be shallow. Anyway he and an irish guy did it and showed us that that part of the water was deep enough... I couldnt resist. I climbed up and thought Im just going do it, so I jumped! It was such a feeling rising back to the surface. I was the only girl to give it a go. So now, aching from our trip, I did a few laps in the pool and we're heading out shortly to the centre for a thai massage. Very cheap here, about 140 bht per hr (about 3 pounds). We're also all meeting the rest of the people from the group for our last night together.. everyone is going in different directions. It still hasnt sunk in that I'm here on my own.. when people find out the first reaction I get is wow, you're so brave. I've just met some people who are travelling on the slow boat to Loas tomorrow too which is my next destination. I'll upload some pics if I get time before I leave tomorrow morning. That's it for now!
PS You should be able to see your comments now.
