Oh yes, I'm a bit behind on the stories, but here goes - We took the overnight bus back to Bangkok (ergh) and had to deal with a million tuktuk and taxi drivers asking where we were from, where we were going, etc, when clearly we had no idea (for either question!) but anyway! One driver got a good commission as we went to a cheap (and nasty) hotel for one morning and two more nights.
Obviously having two and a half days in Bangkok is enough time to have a few suits and dresses thrown together by the tailors. they are brilliant, looking forward to trying on the clothes we got again, as we posted it (them) on, to Australia (thanks Monique!) and Norway (takk Solfrid!).
Out of Bangkok quite easily, as we booked a package tour, to Chiang Mai, 3 day trek, elephant ride, bamboo rafting, Chiang Mai again, and then a bus to the Laos border, and 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang (here now!).
Ching Mai was great, the night market cooler than Bangkok - some of you in oz can hope for wonderful tshirt christmas pressies! And the trek was nice, a walk, really, along a small river, surrounded by bamboo jungle, the occasional cow, and pigs. We had a good group, and fun guides, there were a few beers had in the evenings, esp evening 2, after football and swimming around/under the waterfall... just great! and then the elephants they were very keen on the bananas we had bought for them, and followed the path pretty well through the jungle, too. and sprayed us with a fair bit of water. thanks.
Bamboo rafting! that was fun, like surfing a 10m long surfboard, with 3 other people and a bamboo pole to push off the rocks. got very wet, but managed to stay on board!
Back to Chaing Mai for a party night with the group, we convinced our new mate george from canada that what his sister wanted for her birthday would be a genuine locally drawn portrait of himself, nude, with a fish. somehow he liked the idea, and really ran with it. (the idea, not the fish). so as you can imagine, that was a fairly entertaining night, but officially i can't remember what happened, so you'll have to ask me in person. ;)
