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And the rest ... What else Rach did in Thailand
Entry 5 of 5 | show all | print this entry |
Well, as I am being a good, if not somewhat time delayed ;) travel blogger :) I give you "the rest"!!
It does cover a good 5-6 days, so it's a bit long!!!! (ok, very!) But, read away I guess! :) {Some pics are on facebook too! album 1 and album 2}
Since I last blogged, I am now back home in Syders :)
During the rest of my time in Northern Thailand, I did some more touristy things, a elephant trek/hill tribe visit and rafting on the river on the Wednesday, Day trip to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle on Thursday, before heading back to Bangkok on Friday, for the weekend :)
It was interesting to do the elephant trek after the visit to the Elephant Nature Park and changed what my perspective on it, I think... for sure. I enjoyed it though! But must say it was a bit hairy on the elephant - felt like I was going to sooo fall out of the seat thing...! :0). And did feel a little (ok, a lot) sorry for the elephant who did the painting. Especially when... and these next comments are based on my admittedly very little knowledge of the reaction of elephants, it looked like it was concentratin' fairly darn hard... and did notice that the poor little thing, sometimes during the breaks for 'change of paint brush' was 'eating' it's trunk- which when they spoke of this, at the Elephant Nature Park the day before, it sounds this 'mannerism' is done similarly to the human reaction of biting nails :( :( ohhh.
But enough of the :( stuff!!!!
In addition to that, the ride and the hill tribe visit, also went for a 1 hour raft on the Ping River. Very nice and peaceful!!! :) - even if it did rain a little bit!
On Thursday, it was Chiang Rai visit time - a 12 hour round trip from Chiang Mai!
Visited the Golden Triangle, more hill tribes, and went to the furtherest northern point of Thailand, where there was the opportunity to cross the boarder in Myanmar as well. I didn't, but some of the group did and said it was all rather busy and full on! Both from a customs sense and all the busy'ness in general, with lots of people having various things for sale too!
It was quite funny - I was one of a few people doing the tour 'for the tour' kinda thing! :) The group incl. an American student who is over here working in a holiday camp until September.....no working visa though, she will do a 'visa run' trip every 3 weeks or so (tourist visa's have a one month validity!) woah! This was her first, long trip of many! Most of the others were using this tour as a cheap way to get to Chiang Rai :)
On the way we also stopped at hot springs and a temple too :) So while it was long, it was a good day :)
Friday was a nice opportunity for a sleep in, before I paid for my fine, but, realistically, bit 'higher end' then I really required (!! note to self! :)) accommo and headed for Bangkok :)
There I was to meet Laura, Mac, and Mac's friend Lucie for swimming pool, movies and market action over the weekend!!
Was lots of fun, had ample opportunities :) to work on my t-shirt mark tan ;) and rectify any pastiness ahead of return to Sydney! :) - I forgot I wanted my legs tanned too, though, as I was about to leave on Monday! he he he! :) Could be a bit of colour there too! :0)
It was great to hang out and have the girls who are all v. Bangkok savvy :) there to 'show' and 'share' the sights too!! :) (haha oh that's rather lazy of me, isn't it! ;) and perhaps a tad spoilt heh!). It was always good to have Mac about - her fluent Thai never ceases to amaze!!
Unfortunately, on Saturday Laura had an encounter with a pain in the neck massage lady! Quite literally!
Despite of this she battled on - trooper!! - and after a near 24 hrs of pain :( - and a dr's visit - it became clear just how much indeed as the official diagnosis was that the massage woman had severely strained some muscles during the course of the massage. Big big Ouch! :-( So poor Laus might be taking it a bit easy on the massage for the next little while, at least! Despite all this Laus still managed to movie and market on - Massive effort folks! ... :)
I would recommend 'Kungfu Panda' - which we saw as I'd already seen SATC. The animation is very awesome and it's a cute movie! - and if you're a Jack Black fan you'll like it even more so I reckon - as he is the voice of Panda, who takes more than a little of his persona! :0)
It was also fun to hit the gourmet food hall and walk around with our toothpicks - hanging out of the mouth a little like a lil farmer or somethin ;), samplin all the yummy food, as well as doing conversion rates on tim tams, if you're me! haha! :)
Then on Sunday it was operation : ducklings at Jutajuk market!!! :) as Laura and Mac were also off to choose their children during the visit too! :) They make proud parents ;p and chose some spritely lil ones for a new home in Sriracha! :)
There was heaps there too - anything and everything - and I nearly went nuts on the shopping, before being content to more or less window shop :) Worked out very well as hit up Khao San rd in the much cooler afternoon and spend some cash there! :)
While we said our goodbyes as the girls and their children ;) went back to Sriracha ahead of School on Monday, it was great that Mac's friend Lucie, who legendarily secured the accommo for us (thank you!!) :) was in Bangkok too! :)
We all had a heaps fun time over the weekend and it was good to meet her too - I am pleased she was there and we continued to hang out and had some funny moments, which included my purchase of a wooden frog!! (insert *frog noise* here!) after yes, an alcoholic beverage or twooo! haha! Bargain on the wallet ;) REAL bargain on the convenience front too, with quite possibly every frog seller in Bangkok visiting us that night ;p
So then it was Monday and my final day in Bangkok! :) A nice cruisy morning with some last sunshine in Thailand and a touch of backpack fun and games before off to the airport!
You've now made it to the end of my blog! :)
A massive big Thanks again to Laura, Mac and Lucie for all their hospitality! :)
I had a great ten days, as hopefully evident from this too :) and I will definitely be back to Thailand again in the future, as there is plenty more to see and do both there and in South East Asia in general! :)
Adios amigos! :)
Where I stayed:
My house :)
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