Bed @ Home Chiang Mai

... my fellow VSO incountry training group properly…….

Marga- From Portugal, very flamboiant 30 year old. Laughs very loudly, an after a gin and tonic or two likes to do Portuguese dancing to any Thai pop music that is blaring.

Kavina- Good Irish lass! Also 30, very domestic, loves cooking, would make a brilliant host of a party. In true Irish style can drink anyone under the table, is a bit of a free spirit, and probably the one I most ...

... would shout directions like "on the job", "forward paddle" and "hold on"! Then we got some of the more difficult areas. Little bit exciting and a little bit nerve racking too! particularly when our boat got stuck at possibly the toughest part of the river. It was like trying to fit a shoe through a keyhole but Sak managed to sort it (along with our help obviously)!!!

Out of nowhere, sak decided that he was tired and that I should drive (wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit)! so I got punted ...

... Marcin!!!
After we got back in the van and driven back to Chiang Mai and stayed in what was probably our best hotel so far in Thailand.....the toilet flushed..what more does a person need?
After having a well deserved shower as neither of us showered in the 3 days we were in the jungle we decided to venture out and meet up with the other guys from our trip. However we were told by one of the guys that they would be in the Reggae Bar and what has turned out is that there are ...

... t dressed appropriately (you need to dress like you would for entering temples - sleeves, pants) and too hot and cranky to be pleasant or social so I didn't do it when we stumbled across one in session. I prefer to suffer silently when I'm dripping sweat in 90% humidity.

Many of the wats were holding special ceremonies as part of a funeral for a lead monk in the region who had died so a lot of people were out, which made it all the more interesting to ...

We were up early today to get everything packed and ready for the bus to pick us up. Laura has had to open the expandable part of here backpack. We got settled on the bus and our guide introduced himself and put on a documentary made by National Geographic, it got the girls weeping but not me I'm all man. It shows the sad stories of how some of the elephants ended up at the Nature Park. Then afterwards we practiced our basic Thai language, which is good cause I still forget how ...

... you can buy pretty much everything (I wish I would be here at the end of my trip - no shopping for me, otherwise I have to carry it with me for the next 2 months), the city is a paradise for all kinds of courses (Thai language, Thai cooking, Thai boxing, meditation, Thai massage... you name it).

Today I took a That cooking course today and it was just amazing! It was so much fun, we went to a local market and cooked 6 dishes!!! I'm still full!!! So, everybody at home ...

... and fight there full time. One guy used to train in Ottawa at the Beaver Boxing club.

The next day we set out on a jungle trek for 2 days and one night. It involved trekking, an elephant excursion, bamboo rafting, white water rafting, and various stops in tribal villages. Our group had 19 people, which was a little to big. The trekking was rather easy compared to previous treks in South America. It was still amazing scenery in ...

... THey seated me on the proper songthaew and told me it would leave in 30 minutes--this was communicated by pointing at the "6" on his watch.

I sat down to have a bowl of kway teow gai as I had 30 minutes to kill and love that stuff. I took a number of pics, thinking my songthaew experience will be an interesting post on TravelPod. THen the songthaew started up and I raced to not miss it.

----leaving my camera at ...

... Merry V's and thumbed the pages of the menu, familiar voices called our names from inside ... we looked round and there were Ashling and Paula (the Irish sisters) waving us in. For a moment we were a little stunned as it was a shock to see them ... we'd thought they would be in Chiang Mai by that point ... it turns out they'd been to the east coast islands and Chiang Mai already and had arrived in Bangkok the day before. They had already endured the dreaded hostel hunt ...

... thing of the trip so far! 14 of us in 3's and 4's to a raft were all battling it out trying to capsize each other or push the rafts into the banks. Our raft kicked ass and we got down to the bottom a clear first! All the local people were relaxing in/by/on the river too with picnics or music or whatever and then splashing us as we went past! That evening we all decided to go for a meal together. I had Japanese food for the ...