Day 106 - Tuesday 9 December
Peter up at 6am to play golf. Nicola shops and gets hair cut. Peters golf crap, costs forty pounds, Peter has noticed that in 'The Land of Smiles' it is strange that the only time a Thai person doesn't smile is whenever they are getting their photo taken. Nicolas hair good, included full head massage and all for five pounds. Then three hours of travelpodding. Get set for the third night of sitting in the Riverside waiting for the elusive Dan to arrive. This time Dan turns up. Then another surprise arrival, Soskia, who Dan met earlier and invited along. Hans not here back ill in bed. Eat, drink plenty and catch up with each others journeys. Arrange to meet Dan on Ko Samet for New Years as he is leaving for Krabi tomorrow. Finish up at 1.30am.
Day 107 - Wednesday 10 December
Up early for our day at the famous Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. Picked up at 10am and taken to school. PW v hung over. Four female staff are v funny and v entertaining. Draw lots from shopping basket of ingredients to buy in local market. Ten trainees then taken to market where staff show us around and then make recommendations on buying best quality ingredients. Then we are off to buy our selected items. Split into two groups Noi is our guru. Nicola to get Kaffir Lime leaves, Peter to get onion and Sawtooth Corriander. Noi gives us ten minutes to shop and told to meet back at the car. Tells us to take a good look at her beautiful face and to remember it because she cannot remember ours as we all look the same to her. Then back to school with ingredients. Nicola at this stage is feeling she may have made a huge mistake as she cannot cook and everyone around her seems to know exactly what they are doing, plus serpent head fish and prawns are on the menu to be cooked. First dish pork and fried big noodles then sit down to eat. All made v easy by excellent staff and Nic starts to relax. Then back to workstations for steamed fish in banana leaves involving a tricky folding manoeuvre. Next is yellow curry with chicken and chicken with cashew nuts. When all is ready we sit down for lunch, served with jasmine rice. Everything surprisingly gorgeous. After lunch bananas and coconut milk followed by spicy prawn salad. Our tutor for this session is hilarious and puts five small extra hot chillies in her spicy prawn salad. Keeps warning of little bomb in your mouth. Nicola eats all the prawns and its delish. No dinner needed tonight, have early one.
Day 108 - Thursday 11 December
Jeep delivered to YMCA from North Wheels. Eight year old vehicle, eleven pounds per day, in a state but head off on the 600km Mae Hong Son Loop. First stop in the mountainous national park of Doi Inthanon, stopping off at a couple of waterfalls and a Wat on the way to the summit. Doi Inthanon is the highest point in Thailand at about two thousand six hundred metres. Take wrong turning and find we are heading over the mountains direct to Mae Hong Son instead of our intended stop off point of Mae Sariang. As usual running v low on fuel by the time we find village selling petrol from drums. Drakkensberg revisited. Arrive in MHS at dusk check out a couple of hotels but decide to book into Mountain Inn at 1400 baht per night, for two nights. Have dinner, internet then bed.
Day 109 - Friday 12 December
Drive up to Wat Doi Kong Mu on a hill overlooking MHS town. Beautiful views over town, of air strip, prison, etc. Views to the west over Burma. Back into town have delicious toasties in the Sunflower Bakery then internet, only to discover whilst exporting address book from Vodafone to Yahoo that Nicola has accidentally wiped the entire address book. Decide to take it easy the rest of the day due to bad nights sleep caused by excessively firm and high pillows.
Peter's Pillow Performance Rating.
It has come to my attention over the last few months of staying in different beds how varied the standard of pillow is and how much it can cause a bad nights sleep and generally ruin ones day. Therefore I propose that all pillows should be rated according to my eponymous rating system as follows:
Each pillow will be rated in three categories - Pitch / Puffiness / Packing
Pitch will be rated on a 1-5 scale with 1 representing a pillow which is up to 100cms high. 5 will be indicate an especially high pillow of say 300cm plus with graduations in between.
Puffiness will indicate the amount of give that the pillow possesses rated from 1-5 with one being the softest and 5 the hardest.
Packing. The last rating will indicate what substance has been used to fill the casing.S F - solid foam FP - foam pieces DF - duck feathers CH - camel hair (not to be confused with CT - coconut husks) etc.
My own preferred pillow would therefore be a 3/3/FP.
If there is already a rating system for pillows I apologise for wasting your time. Peter
Back at hotel meet a couple of friendly, elderly yanks who have a house in Pattaya. We had been sitting wondering to go for our stalled week before Geoff arrives. Had been wary of the reputation of Pattaya as a sleazy town but yanks assure us that Jomtien beach is better than the rest of the area. Two yanks are called Gary Jones and Charlie Riggs. Peter reckons that they are Vietnam Vets. Not, as Nicola thought, people who trim the nails of the Vietnamese riche's guini-pigs but former war veterans. Gary, who gives us his business card, owns a forty thousand ranch in Adin, California and invites us to stay when we are passing through. Also his Thai girlfriend is a Tour Operator in Pattaya and gave us her cell phone to call if we needed any assistance.
Day 110 - Saturday 13 December
Head off mid morning for 100km trip to Pai. Car begins to misbehave, kangarooing up steep inclines. Stop off at fish cave to see one metre long fish in caves. Back on the road, our crap jeep begins to seriously misbehave. Roads are v steep and windy and we break down repeatedly on the steepest stages. Even the handbrake cant prevent us from sliding backwards downhill on occasions. To crown it out we are in the middle of a Toyota sponsored 4x4 rally through the mountains. Dont think we are going to make it but manage to limp into Pai in first gear at 4.30pm. Book into Brookview Cottages at 400 baht per night and also book half day bamboo rafting and elephant trek for tomorrow. Phone North Wheels who say they are sending out engineer and new car and will arrive at 10pm from Chiang Mai. Wander into town, v bohemian, full of backpackers and bars and restaurants to suit backpackers. Nicola impressed, Peter not. Have dinner in Home Restaurant. Getting cold so return to Brookview to await North Wheels. Discover that bed in cottage is not in fact firm but doesnt have a mattress at all, just a blanket on some wood. Engineer arrives at 9.15pm and he tries to get PW to fill up both cars with petrol. He refuses. Back to bed where PW begins to feel unwell. Up for v and d for most of the night, returning occasionally to lie on planks. Food poisoning from Home Restaurant thought to be the cause. PW had been dubious of going into the restaurant as there wasn't a single local person in it and the menu was far too extensive.
Day 111 - Sunday 14 December
Up early to cancel rafting and elephant trek as PW still not well and head off at 11am in a slightly better jeep. Another topsy turvy ride, 134km to Chiang Mai. PW still not feeling well but call up to Doi Suthep to famous temple on way into CM. Despite feeling poorly and tired from crap nights sleep, both v impressed. Call into few hotels and apartments on way into town but decide to return to YMCA as Peter needs to get to bed. Peter goes straight to bed, Nic danders round to her local mall and does bit more shopping, internetting and has sad meal on her own.
Day 112 - Monday 15 December
Tuk tuk down to train station and book first class sleeper compartment on the rapid express special to Bangkok leaving tomorrow at 17.50, cost 1,235 baht each. Decide to go to cinema to watch Tarrantino's latest gore flick, Kill Bill, only to find that it finished showing yesterday. Resort to usual tactics and head to internet cafe. Decide to have nice last dinner in Chiang Mai and head to La Gritta Italian Restaurant attached to Amari Hotel. Food mediocre, drink overpriced, Peter still not feeling tip top so head back for early night.
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