Last night I went for a wander around the old town and found a great place to eat opposite ThaPae Gate in the centre. My taste buds are getting better at spicy now and I enjoyed Beef fried with garlic and pepper, over steamed rice with lots of chilli powder, fish sauce and chilli sauce thrown on! Hot lips, yum! Lol
I also came across one of the nations favourite sports being played in the street right next to the Pae Gate, 'Hoop takraw'. They were not playing over a net as I've seen before, but the two teams were competing for points in their own area. Each team had a basket above them, about 20 feet up, and they were trying to keep the woven rattan ball in the air, and trying to score points by landing it in the basket. The more complex the move when they landed it in the net, the more points they received, so they were trying some pretty cool moves out! Each team seemed to have individuals with special skill moves, where as most of the players would keep it simple. The old guy on the left in my pictures of the orange team would let the ball drop over the back of his head and hit it with the back of his elbow, which he would swing up really fast! He got two baskets like this, which recieved plenty of applause from the large crowds assembled (mostly Thai). I took a short video clip of these guys in action if you want to see it.
These guys were all kitted out in the same gear and there was a running commentary over a loud speaker, so I guess it is a decent standard. They were pretty impressive and they all took their eye off of the ball once it had dropped past head height, but they rarely missed or miskicked the ball at all! It must take loads of practise.
I bought a plastic dart in Cambodia, which the tuktuk drivers use to play a similar game when waiting in tourist areas for their fares to return after exploring, which is called Sai. I had a game with them when I was there which was good fun, I think they were surprised that a Farang could coordinate all of their limbs, lol! There was no way I'd attempt takraw though, I'd probably end up shouldering the ball into the moat or something! ;)
Today I'm having a rest... I knew I shouldn't have worn my open sandals to the zoo yesterday, my feet are killing! I'm going to visit the big temple on the mountain tomorrow morning instead. Unfortunately my hands are still a bit too scabby after the work at Elephants & Friends, and so I am too selfconcious to take a cookery course here in this state! I will do one at the end of my trip, which will be on Ko Lanta Island off the south west coast of Thailand instead. (I've been reading and planning like a madman today!)
I've booked my flights out of here and leave Saturday morning for a flight to Kuala Lumper and then straight on to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo (two flights including taxes etc for under a hundred pounds!). I'm trying (a bit last minute!) to get a nights stay in the main town centre, and then I can move on to a place called Sepilok in the north East region the next day where I am going to give my budget a big whack by staying in a beautiful jungle retreat and visiting the turtle, orangutan and probiscus monkey reserves during my stay. I can get organised treks from their too, which may not have to include an elephant ride (as they all bloody do in Chiang Mai!).
I'm a bit pissed off with Lloyds bank, after making a personal visit to the branch way before I started my travels to ensure I'd have no problems with payments over here, my card was refused the first time I've used it when trying to book the airline tickets!! Luckily I opened the Nationwide account, which I have been using exclusively anyway, and this works with no problems! I was just trying to save using all my 'cash' money from the Nationwide account by using the Lloyds card... I am so gonna ditch them when I get home!! Grr.
I've also tried to get reservations at a nearby hotel for the grand prix in Malaysia, no surprise that all of the hotels in the region have a surcharge on for that weekend! Ah well... can't be arsed with the commute from KL and back for three days, so I'll just grin and bare it, plus it'll be a bit of luxury compared to the crap hole I'm staying in currently! Can't wait to give them my stinking laundry at a 4 star hotel, heheh...
That's about it from me for now... I might update tomorrow, otherwise my next contact will be from Borneo.
Chuurs
Sloggs :)
