Me and my moped had a great day yesterday :o) and as you can obviously tell from me writing this blog, I'm still here! Didn't crash or anything, not even a minor scratch :o) Although its not much to boast about I know, riding an automatic moped is about as hard as driving dodgems...
I was sharing my moped with a really lovely dutch girl, Patricia, as she didnt fancy driving herself, adn it was probably a good thing I had a passenger otherwise I may have been in danger of getting far too cocky and driving too fast for my own good. Its so tempting on long straight roads with no traffic! But I was good, and only got to 70 once ;o) (thats in km/h before mummy has a heart attack!)
We got the bikes yesterday lunchtime and went for a drive along the back roads to get used to it. We had been going for a bout 15 mins when we realised that the petrol gauge was on empty, oops! Kinda forgot to check before we left town. So we made a quick about-turn and headed back to town, and luckily made it fine ;o) A full tank of petrol came to the princely sum of 70baht, just over a pound. The we headed back out on to the open road towards the elephant farms. We found a place we liked and booked a ride for later in the afternoon - on this road there are about 5 elephant farms in a row! Then we headed onto the main road for some time trials ;o) ok so im just kidding, Gemma wasn't as confident driving as me, so I kept the speed down so she didnt get left behind. Then we headed to a waterfall near by. it was a really nice ride, the countryside is beautiful - paddy fields growing rice and cute villages, always with the jungle covered mountians in the distance. The waterfall was gorgeous, a long sequence of falls gently cascading down the hill. We could have stayed all day but unfortunately we only had 10 mins there as we had arranged to meet the american guys for lunch.
I think I mentioned these guys yesterday?? Phil, and his friend whos name we never quite got round to asking (its always the last thing you find out here, it somehow doesnt seem very important!), anyway, they're both students at Brown University in the US and they went rafting with us. We met them for lunch as they left yesterday evening to go to Laos. It was really fun, we had a long lazy lunch and had a good laugh. Hopefully I may well meet up with them in Vietnam as they are going north to south at the same time I go south to north, so we should cross over at some point!
After lunch we went elephant trekking :o) Its a long way up! Elephant skin is really hairy up close, short very coarse black hair, so we sat on a rug on its back. Horses are way more comfortable! Their backs are so wide that your legs are really stretched! They were cute though. We walked for an hour and a half - me and Patricia on one elephant and Gemma on another. Gemma had to get off halfway though because she was in soo much pain! And i dont blame her, its really not that comfortable! We went down some pretty steep slopes too which was scary, for such huge animals they can fit down very narrow steep paths, and they're really sure-footed. The best bit was the end of the trip when we walked into the river. The guy made the elephant lie down, and then rock sideways until we fell off, it was like one of those bucking broncos! Then the elphants would put their heads in the water and squirrt water across their backs - we were actually bathing with the elephants. then the guys riding the elephants kept telling us to get back on, so we would climb back on thinking we were going, and sit right on the neck next to the ears, and then it would throw us in again, which was pretty funny but after about the 8th time it was enough! it was amazing being so close to them though, their trunks are huge adn so strong, and their ears are really rigid which suprised me! The only thing I didnt like was that to make the elephants move they hit them on the top of the head with a kind of small pointed hammer, adn really hard. I guess they have such thick skulls that its ok, but it didnt look very nice. But the elephants seemed pretty happy, and they were certainly enjoying swimming in the river.
By the time we had finished, we were soaking wet, covered in grit and mud, and it was getting dark so we headed back to town, showered, changed and then went for dinner. We've found this really nice restaurat, lots of thai people eating there, so went there again adn it was good :o) i had Massaman curry - quite sweet with lots of coconut milk and chilli. had a bit of a headache though after such a long day out in the sun so had an early night.
Today me and Patricia went for an early moring bike ride up into the mountains, it was so beautiful. the roads were really quiet and all the mountains covered in cloud. It was really nice, except a slight worry over petrol again! When we left we had half a tank, which I thought was fine as that was what we used yesterday for a lot more driving. After about 15km we had quarter of a tank left, then we went another 5km and it was apparently empty! think the gauge was dodgy! So we headed back adn I was driving really carefully trying to save petrol, luckily it was mainly downhill. We made it back, but the needle was as low as it goes by the time we got back.
We got back at 10am and went for the first half of our cooking class :o) so far I have made Penang curry and chicken noodle soup, which were both very yummy, and Gemma made green curry, also scrumptious. Its much easier than I thought. We're having a break now, adn then will go back later to make Papaya salad, Spicy Noodle salad, Tom Ka Yai (kind of soup), Fish with ginger, and Sticky Rice with Mango (my new favourite desert!)
So in my time off I went shopping! The shops are great here, touristy but cute not tacky! I've got a Pai t-shirt, a bag, a bracelet, necklace, badge for my bag, and 2 postcards for just under a tenner :o) i feel like a proper backpacker now - badge on my bag, and jewellery from places iv travelled to, its what iv been missing out on :o)
I dont really have anything else to say, except this place is realy cool, you should come :o) heading off to Cambodia soon, think it will be a bit of a shock after this! But Angkor Wat should be amazing :o)
Keep sending those emails, if you wanted a postcard and I havent sent one yet send me ur address again, I lose these things! Some are on the way :o)
Lots of love xxx
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