Star Chiang Mai

... bridges" or rather trees or boards we arrived at our camp next to a river and chilled around the camp fire with yummy dinner. On the last day it was time for bamboo rafting on the river, a little refreshing stop at a water fall and a loooong drive back home. Good fun, esecially becsue the group was great. All met up that night for some action in town. <br><br>I am off to Pai tomorrow, some hippie village up in the mountains.....maybe I get to do my Yoga there.....<br><br>

... slowing I am becoming tri-lingual.....I know 6 words in Thai...the essentials - Hello, Thank You, Yes, No, Good hearted person, and Delicious.<br>8. Thailand has no brewery regulations. A Chang beer which is 30 baht ($1) is 6%-12% achohol content depending on the plant the beer was brewed...moral of the story...drink the cheap beer.<br>7. The metric system is used here. Slowly I am learning to convert ...

... done a similar course a year ago, so was a bit more clued up than my tentative squeezes! The teachers are all lovely and very attentive and encouraging. My afternoon teacher gently ribbed me for cackhandedly giving the French guy a toe rub with the wrong hand (wondered at the time why I was struggling). <br><br>I have some homework (colouring body parts in my text book) for tomorrow, better crack on and try to remember everythging I've learnt today.<br><br><br>

Ok so a lot to cover, probably best to pick up where the last one ended.... So off we (Kelly, Mary 'Chesse-eyes' Paternoster and myself) headed for a night on Ko San Road with our dorm mate Chris in tow for his birthday celebrations. We headed to an Irish bar where it started raining, we shot inside and necked beers, played drinking games and down Jagerbombs. All the while a really good singer belted out classic rock songs on his guitar and harmonica, he played any request from ...

... Julie's where all the backpackers go. Nobody really seems to leave the hostel, and people just sit around drinking all day in either the hostel lounge, or rooftop bar. It was here that we fell in love with the rooftop darts board, where many an hour was spent. On the second night in Chiang Mai, we went to the Muay Thai boxing, which was entertaining. Although I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't fixed, as the bookies would only let you put ...

... and our rudder guide around us, paddling to the first grade 3 rapid. the constant rain throughout the day made the water flow faster, forward, rippling around us like thai hooker fingers at a ping pong show. as the boulders made a broken wall across the river, and the white water punched at the underside of our pod, the guide called us to stop paddling and hold on, and while the rapids were not as exciting as i'd hoped they'd be, the girls screamed while the bucking raft ...

... spoke English and in an area where it looked like it would pour down rain any minute. We debated for a second or two on the best approach to rectify our errant pneumatic. Well, just as we were trying to figure it out, another motorbike appeared and we flagged him down. Once we had done so, we weren't really sure why, as he spoke no English, couldn't obviously give both of us a ride, or provide a spare, or haul the bike to safety. Luckily, Jen thought to call the ...