Portico 21 Chiang Mai

... from our driver. We thought our Muay Thai started at 8PM so we were rushing to finish dinner but it ended up being 8:30PM when we got the tickets and when we arrived at the stadium - it turned out to be 9PM. So go figure on the time in Thailand. There is 8 matches in total and the weight classes ranged from 30 KG to 60 KG. None of them weighed as much as me, but I bet any of them can kick my butt!

... The money the project raises through the volunteers is given to the mahouts so they do not need to work their elephants too hard.

I was looked after for the week by Mrs Noi and Aom, two of the lovliest ladies I've met so far. They welcomed me into their house and made sure I was always happy and well fed. Mrs Noi would always collect leftovers to feed to the cats and dogs, reminding me lots of my own family! She also taught me how to cook several Thai dishes ...

... if they were veering off course or being naughty; unfortunately, though, some of them were a bit over-zealous and hit the elephants or jabbed at them unnecessarily hard, which wasn’t nice to see. The elephants looked, by and large, healthy and well-treated, though, and we saw a lot more around the site who were just chilling out by the river or just stood around with their mates socialising, as elephants do, so it seemed okay.

Once our ride was over, we had lunch ...

... porch many more shots of Lao Lao were consumed under the constant scruinty of the local kids who were cute as hell. Cycle back to the town after that was a since powered on by Lao Lao!! The following day we were to make the mammoth three bus, two tuk tuk and one boat trip from Luang Nam Tha to Chang Mai in Thailand. We did the first bus, a beautiful windy trip through the mountains stopping off to give another bus a push out the rough by the cliffs edge, and ...

... flight mode and just bolted up the path. The group just stood and watched and our guide jumped into action pulled out a knife and went on the hunt to no avail.
Would be the most terrifying moment ive ever experienced although now i seems somewhat surreal and i only have couple of flashbacks in my head. I think i have now developed one hell of a snake phobia!

Anyway not much futher we made it to our hut in the middle of some beautiful countryside with a waterfalll in the ...

... much gotten it out of my system so I never intended to do another jump during this trip but when I found out that it was only $50, I couldn't help myself. Afterall, I'd paid over $150 in New Zealand (it was worth it).

I killed some time wandering around town. Later in the afternoon, a van from the X-Center picked me up. I had hoped to meet some travelers at the jump but unfortunately all the other people in the van were getting ...

... for the entire trip. It was quite entertaining due to the fact that the baby was just learning how to walk and would lose its balance and fall over, slide down hills on its stomach, and float down the rivers because it wasn't tall enough to walk down them.

The bamboo and white water rafting were both about an hour long and took up the second days afternoon. The bamboo rafting was slow and not as good as when we built our own raft ...

... Bo Hin?'. Speaking no Thai, one has to search for non-verbal clues. They discussed this uestion amongst themselves for a few minutes, then one spoke for the group, giving me a very wordy answer, the content of which I did not understand at all, absent any head nodding , head shaking, or pointing towards the proper songthaew.

SO I called Sai Moon at the farm--he speaks fluent Thai- and put him on the phone with the ...

... I must go there to say hello and give her a big hug from "Gerdien". So I've got her name and the name of the hotel she manages, and figure that is a pretty good connection when I go to the beaches of Zanzibar! Spent a good chunk of time in an air-conditioned Internet cafe, which on this hot day, was a pretty good place to be. I also decided that I would check out a massage place that Joy told me was the BEST massage place in Chiang Mai. It was a little ...

... after year....and eventually moved here permanently) Even though I was rushing for my plane that morning I can still see the face of the woman who continually bumped into me from behind and the two people who "staged" the "trip and partial fall" as I was trying to board the escalator at the airport. No, they weren't Thai. I realize (contrary to what some of my friends in the States said when I got back, "This wouldn't have happened in the US" many of them told me ...