Chiang Mai ... extreme sports week ... sort of.
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2008
1
23
67
Trip End
Ongoing
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Saturday, August 9, 2008
From here we walk to the main shopping mall in Chiang Mai, four floors of a mix of western brands and thai designer stuff. I would have liked to have got some bits but don't really wanna spend the money and am gonna do a proper shopping spree in Oz, im sure it'll be more expensive but it fits in with the way i imagine the budget i have constantly rolling in my head. Kim however, wants some new stuff, specifically a dress and matching shoes and bag - no small task. We find a lovely turquiose summer dress and then head off to find a handbag and shoes which takes 3h. Not that im bothered as she is excited and im quite happy to be out of the rain and drying off in the airconditioned mall. Finally, with a full outfit we head back to the hostel.
Earlier in the day i had spotted a flyer for muay-thai boxing that night. We got tickets and headed there after a brief bite to eat. Not much pushes me out of that comfort zone anymore (not sure if i am happy or not about that) but this was certainly a little different to what we had seen before. Watching Thai kickboxing or Muay-thai in particular was on my 'must do when travelling' list so i was quite excited. The boxing was taking place at a 'stadium' nearby which was a boxing ring in the middle of a covered area of about 15 different bars in the middle of the red light district. Ladyboys at the entrance made it pretty obvious where to go and we were lead to our table - literally on ringside 1m from the canvas. The place is full of transvestites and what appear to be 'escorts'but there is generally a good atmosphere and it is def a tourist spectacle. Getting drinks and looking at the fight line up it turns out that the heaviest of the fighters that night was 130lbs. The lightest being 100lbs and not much older than 16 at a guess. The fighting was brutal though with two clean viscious knockouts in the first few rounds. Each pair of fighters interspersed with a troupe of ladyboys dancing to the likes of abba in next to no clothes. The middle fight as 'blind fighting'. Four skilled muay-thai fighters with obviously no fear whatsoever were blindfolded and pushed into the middle to kick the living daylights out of eachother- hehe. After a few more fights the final display by the ladyboys - now topless and having thier photos taken with small children - we headed back home. For me a throughly entertaining evening - am i a little strange?
Day 2: The day before we had seen a flyer for something called 'flight of the gibbon' which was high level zip wires ad bridges in the middle of the jungle. Instead of going there on the tour bus we decided to get a moped. We got ourselves ready eventually including water proofs and headed out. Turns out it was around 45km away and it took us around an hour and half. Getting there at lunchtime we managed to join a dutch group just setting out although it seems we weren't getting a discount for getting there by ourselves and it still cost 1900baht each. Into harnesses and helmets and with our brake (a piece of bamboo in a V shape) we were driven to the start point. With 8 in the group progress was a little sow clipping and unclipping people in turn through 11 high wire zip lines up to 120ft above the jungle floor - the scenery more than maing up for it. While not exactly adreneline pumping the jungle views were awesome and some of the lines pretty quick - videos and pics to follow. This took around 2.5h and then we headed back for lunch.
Back on the scooters and we had intended to get to the shooting range to go clay pidgeon shooting but we decided to de-tour to the Hot Springs instead as we were running out of time. The spings come flying out of the ground with force shooting water 50ft into the air at 105oC due to the pressure. You can buy baskets of eggs at the ticket booth to boil in the water. No barriers and no safety features stop children or adults walking stright up to the geysers spraying boiling water everywhere or into the swimming pool full of boiling water where you cook your eggs. You have no idea how much this wouldn't be allowed in England. We cooked eggs and paddled in the stream (runs from 100oc to 40oc over rocks) and then headed back as it was really starting to our and we had to ride back. Torrential rain on the way home made going tough but we got back in one piece and stopped for a beer in the city before getting back to dry our. In the evening kimmy wanted to dress up and head out. We got ready and got on the scooter and tried to find a decent restuarant. We tried the posh hotels near the night bazaar but there was noone else in them eating so we headed to the riverside spotting a beautiful place on the way, so we stopped. Heading up to the restaurant it turned out to be an excellent Indian-Thai fusion restuarant which was just about to close. But we ordered great food and a bottle of wine (only the second in six weeks, it was two a day before we left).
Day 3: During the previous day we had booked up the activites for the next two days. Extreme off road mountain biking, white water rafting and quad biking. The tour for the biking picked us up an hour late at our hostel and took us to get bikes where it turned out that we had to pay an extra 1000baht for 'downhill bikes' having slected the advanded/expert route from the leaflet. Kim was unsure about doing a route so tough but having done some stuff in the lakes and derbyshire i was sure we would cope - how hard could it be. Ariving at the start point with three other guys and we kitted up. Full body armour, knee pads, shoulder, elbow pads, gloves, long sleeves and boots and i was thinking it was overkill, until we started out. Two of the guys had chosen a easier route and they went on their way. We went off with a canadian guy called John who had also chosen the tough route. After an initail uphill which was bloody hard on rear sprung downhill bikes kim was ready to kill me. Starting the downhill sections, things got slightly worse and my life expectancy was dropping with each passing minute. The start of the downhill is an extreme single track where apparently the New Zealand champion had come to practice the previous week. 45o incline with rocks, mud and tree roots made for the most difficult downhill have ever seen, making the stuff i had done in england look like cycling on very flat runway. Within 20ft kim was walking and i was gingerly making my way down hopping across roots and trying desperately not to fall off. Even on the slightly easier section the going was incredibly difficult and brake on constantly both front and rear almost heading off down the cliff to my right several times and coming clean off the bike on one occasion. Kim was livid by this point but the guides assured us that the route split in about 10 mins and e could take a slightly easier route as the one we were on got even worse with large drop offs and big rocks to come. John went ahead with a guide to the toughest route and Kim and I took the slightly easier route, which was still more difficult than anything i had done before. Slippy rutted singles tracks and fast downhills now, instead of slow hopping was much better for Kim and she turned out to be better than i was at this section with arms and legs burning. Still with large dropoffs and fallen trees to negotiate kim was now loving it and doing some quite impressive technical riding. I brought up the rear concentrating hard and enjoying it immensly. Fast downhill being one of the things on that list i made before i came away. Graham, you would have loved it.
At one point though, bringing up the rear as we flew down a 30o slope my rear tyre caught in a rut and i went flying, not even having time to put my hands down i landed on my right shoulder which is now mostly purple with bruising. That and getting cut by some large leaves with blood running down my arm, mcuh to kims alarm but it was just a scratch. We headed down the final strech and got to the road, very surprised that it was over so soon. The brochure had said 3-4h and we were down in just over 1.5h. We got back to the lunch spot and had cheap fried rice and watched kids l\playing on the lake while we waited for the guys who had done the slower route. 2h later we were not impressed. their route actually had taken 4.5h as advertised and ours was very short, with no hint of going back up as the guides had fallen asleep in the truck. Finally the guys arived - one with a really bad stomach apparently - and we headed back. We were pretty pissed off that we had only had an hour on the bikes when we had paid for 3-4h so when we saw the owner ( a huge american bloke) we decided to say something. A rather large argument followed, us demanding another ride or at least some refund to which he flatly refused. My blood was boiling by the end and Kim moved me away from the situation. Im still annoyed about it now.
Anyhow, we headed back and pottered around for the rest of the afternoon, only wanted to get stuff to eat and come back as we were both feeling a little rough. We headed out for food which made it worse, and im pretty sure it was the rice with lunch. By the time we got back we were both green and trying not to be sick. I managed to get some sleep but had very painful stomach cramps and kim was pretty sick from most of the night and all day the following day - quite worried about her at one point but by late afternoon though she managed to get some water on board and some sleep and was feeling much better. Unfortunetly we had to miss out on the white water rafting and quad biking as a result (5000baht lost too as no refund) but we head to the islands tomorrow which i am very happy about.
