Chiang Mai Hotels
Buddha_belly's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
DAY 5-7 Chiang Mai iiiiinnnn the reeeddd cornerr
Entry 2 of 3 | show all | print this entry |
DAY 5, 6 & 7
The starting off for the rest of day 4...Tamsin got her hair dont this afternoon...it is now 2 times longer!and the colour matches perfectly!Lou decided to wait as she doesnt think sh ecan maintain it on the tour!
We met our group at 1800 and this time we're still the youngest along with 2 other girls!the eldest person is joe from Germany ranking at the ripe old age of 31. A much younger group this time!We have 4 pairs and then Joe who came on his own. There is one couple, 2 girls from england and 2 boys from Brisbane and we are of the thinking something might happen here...wooooooooo. Our leaders name is Sam, he seems quite a character, repeats himself a bit, and is no comparison to Joy!
After findign out abotu our trip we all went out for drinks accross the road. After a few drinks everyone went their seperate way. Tamsin and Lou made their way to Khao San rd where a quiet night quickly turned into a big night, all thanks to the bucket of long island icetea super strong super big super cheap coming in at $5 each!yikes (tamsin is currently in a fit of giggles by Lous use of the word yikes!) We wont go into much detail but we went back to the hotel around 0100 but were hungry so went back out..until 4 or 5 am..oops!
The next morning we recieved a wake up call just before 0800..oh god!We once again walked to the boat pier, but this time the group caught a longtail boat..which was extremely difficult to get into from the high pier (even harder to get out!) We wizzed around the canals seeing peoples homes and floating markets (people selling things out of flimsy looking canoes that we have no idea as to how they were afloat!) unfortunately being at the very front of the boat we recieved the maximum amount of bouncing therefore the numbest arses thanks to the unforgiving wooden seats! We fed MASSIVE fish from the side of the boat, what started as a couple turned out to be hundreds, and the little bastards dont mind jumping and splashing you either ! Just as the boat was becoming too much (from the slight aftermath of the night before and Lous overly tight crop top) we arrived at our destination..the reclining buddha...again! We walked around agaion, it was much more crowded thanks to it being a Sunday, We actually learnt what things meant, but we didnt go to see the buddha again simply because the lines were so big.
After this we were free for the rest of the afternoon so we headed back to the hotel. Unfortuneately there was some hardcore traffic and the taxi cost twice as much as it usually would (an entire $3) and took 3 times as long...by this time the aftermath had well and truely kicked in so we decided to cure it with double cheeseburgers at mcdonalds..just right.
That night we caught a 13 hour opvernight train to Chiang Mai. The train was much more spacious and comfier then the one in India, although the major problem we discovered was that they didnt turn off the lights, not even dim them, this meant noone got a decent nights sleep unless you had an eye patch like joe...we didnt. We passed time playing cards. Although the sleep isnt great its a much better way to travel seeing it goes faster when your sleeping then being awake!
We arrived in Chiang mai first thing in the morning and caught luxury people movers to our new hotel...people place.it reminds us too much of pooja palace except they have toilet paper..and a clothes horse!
at 0930 we all met up again to go on an....elephant ride! The trip there was much longer then we expected and we all seemed to drift off at some stage, although the road became so bumpy and windy it was hard to sleep! We FINALLY got there and saw lots and lots of elephants, some were huge others were small..er.We bought some bananas to feed our elephant and then went to find one we wanted to ride. Tamsin was adamant she wanted a big elephant..by te time we got there the biggest one left was misbehaving before we even got on her. She was the one who basically chased after us for our bananas when we first arrived. greedy pig. (lou says that once we were riding it reminds her of what Tash would be like as an elephant..take a few steps and want a food reward!) When we finally got on the elephant having to step on her head and neck, we were strapped in for the ride. Joe being the tallest in our group at 6'5 he managed to get the smallest elephant which was probably the same height as him! Joe and our elephant were quite misbehaving and we were trailing very far behind the group. We made it about 200m before having to buy more bananas! It spent more time with its trunk in our faces blowing its breath on us then walking! At one point tamsins thong fell off to the ground, the elephant picked it up with its trunk and handed it back to her!!!To feed the elephant we had to stick the bananas and sugar cane into its nostrils, handy things those trunks! They took us on a loop through the jungle for about an hour and then we returned back to the start. It was a great experience, not as comfortable as we expected (although tamsin wasnt the first to complain after her arse chaffing experience with the camels!)
After the loop we had an optional activity of bamboo rafting down a river! So during our noodle soup lunch we all agreed to go. It turned out to be alot more fun then we thought!The rafts were around 8 or 10m long but not even a metre wide!As we saw the men steering the rafts towards us we saw the young guy with sweeping long hippy hair and knew he was the one for us!he turned out alot of fun splashing us with his bamboo steering pole whilst saying "oh ohhh" quite amusing. Afgter awhile we felt comfortable to get the pole and stand up and have a go!we all ended up having water fight and standing on our rafts through\ small rapids, close encounters with rocks, and trees and our hippy boy jumping and wiggling the boat trying to make us fall! By the end we were all soaked (tamsin more then some as she fell in) as our water flight ended up including the whole group!We leapt from raft to raft feeling so confident by the end! Only problem as that with all the fun we had on the raft..noone had expected to get that wet and we had an hour long drive back to the hotel with no changes of clothes!oh ohhh.
Back at the hotel we had a few hours to freshen up.We went for a little walk ebfore we met everyone to go to the trekking hire shop. Here we were told about our upcoming 4 day trek through the mountains, should be hard work. We ended up hiring a 55L pack for it.and also found out we can have porters to carry our packs!score.
In the evening we went to dinner with the group and then wandered around the night markets before going to teh Thai boxing!This night proved to be alot more fun then expected too. There were many different weight divisions fighting, the firsty off the bat were little 10 year olds who had been training since they were 6..lets just say we wouldnt want to get hit by one of them! As the fights got more exciting with the higher weight classes and skill we noticed that a group of lady boys did a song and dance at their bar inbetween each fight!it was very amusing especially the white guy standing at the bar the whole time with a big grion on his face as they danced and flirted with him!...dude theyre dudes too.uh uh not cool...unless your into that of course. The last fight was ebtween and Irishman and a Thai, the girl making all the announcements was sitting at our table (as we had ringside seats) and overheard Lou jokingly say she wanted to announce the fight...wish granted! suprisingly she handed Lou the microphone and told Lou what to say when the irishman entered the ring! Lou was slightly dumbfounded and a little nervouse but managed to call out "iiiiiinnn the reeeddd cornnerrrr edmund lunnerboxing from Ireland weighing in at 154 lbs" all so exciting. Lou and garry left to find the toilets and whilst they were gone a boy found his time to come and make a pass at tamsin...for a friend..little awkward. To 'top off' the night as we were leaving the lady boys did their final performance. The singer did not realise that his/hers nipple was haning out the side of their skimpy top. At the end of the song we made gestures to pull up the top...another lady boy whose bra had become exposed pulled theirs up, but we kept signifying for the singers....their response..take their entired top off, and for 2 oof their lady boy friends to too. Quite hilarious, and rather realistic boob jobs, not too big! Therte was even a little boy there whose father made him watch..the boy was looking at their crothches..his father must have told him about them not really bneing women!Although extremely funny it was a little creepy, they are so proud of being girls. By the way sex changes are only $1600 US here....maybe that would explain all the lady boys!
too lazy to walk back to the hotel, 5 of us piled into a tuk tuk back to the hotel.
This morning we went to cooking school. We were taken to the markets to buy veggies and meat. On the car trip there however Tamsins malaria tablet didnt sit well on her stomach and she had to rush from the bus to the side of the road..nothing happened..until the markets..Ever tried throwing up in a squaat toilet...dont do it! That out of the system she and the group could move on to the cooking school. It had an excellent set up, woks and stoves and everything we needed all to ourselves. We learnt how to prepare the food and cook it with which dressings to use. We learnt to make Pad Thai, Chicken cashew stirfry, Tom Yum goong, Red/green/yellow curries, and a bannana coconut dessert. So yummy all of them and we even got a cook book with all the recipes and more to take home!!yessss. Now we are back here and back on the internet ready to go to a temple with 360 stairs. This will be nothign compare to our trek tommorrow!
Dont expect to hear from us for awile as we'll be staying in bamboo huts in hill side tribal villages!
stay safe and well
Love always Lou and Tamsin
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by buddha_belly, from Thailand or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
