Monday, June 13, 2005
There are no bad things, only experiences!!!
Hello all!
Well, it's now Monday evening and we're up North. We're actually only back in Chiang Mai as we've just been on a trek in the Jungle! But I'll talk bout that later, else i'll get confused 'bout what I have and haven't said.
Last I was talking to y'all was on Friday when we were still in Bangkok, just waiting 'round for the train, hanging around at the pool in the D&D. We left Khao San bout two hours before the train was about to leave, expecting to be brought on a round the world tour of Bangkok, when in actual fact we were brought straight there! Just hung round the station and at half-nine boarded the train for a 14-hour trip to Chiang Mai! Our carriage was actually really good, though I suppose it was the most expensive on the types on offer. It was a second-class sleeper with air-con, which makes a helluva difference! We meet up with some people that we'd met the night previous and they had a second class with fans, and it was really uncomfortably hot! The beds were great, well, sleepable-on and the journey went pretty okay. Everyone got a pretty good sleep out of it, and I even took a few pictures of the jungle as we passed through a bit of it!
We arrived in Chiang Mai just after 12 on Saturday, to be hounded by people at the train station trying to bring us to their guesthouse! We ended up being brought to Lanna Guesthouse, which is probably the biggest mistake we've made so far! While is seemed reasonable enough, and by far the cheapest place we've seen (1.20 a night!), a catch was inevitable, and we actually got two! Terrible rooms, complete with geckos and insects, and a crazy owner,Julie , who kept trying to sell us a trek which we didn't really want but did feign interest in! We checked in anyway and went off to watch the Lions match in an Irish pub. Wandered round the city for a while and passed a tourist office, where we went in and ended up buying a two-day-one-night trek, leaving the next morn, and a flight down from Chiang Mai to Ko Samui (Only because of the time constraints involved in gettin down there for the full moon!) We had to keep the fact that we bought a trek from the office from our guesthouse owner, because we had begun to suspect that she was a lil crazy, especially since she kept offering bags of Bob Marley! We managed to keep it quiet anyway and went out to the night market, then came back and slept in fear of insects or reprisals from Julie!
The trek was leaving at half nine so we were up early and down at the office in plenty of time. Crazy Julie even followed us down and threw a bit of a wobbly when she discovered that we weren't going to Chiang Rai, which was our cover story for not taking one of her treks! Left Chiang Mai anyway bout 10, having stored our rucksacks in the tourist office's storage place and drove north. Stopped at a market for a bit to pick up some supplies and then finished our journey to the jungle, which took bout an hour in total. After a bit of munch, the trek began. Now, 5 kilometres is not a whole lot of a distance to walk, but when it's pretty much 5 km straight up the side of a mountain, it's a different story! Though it was exciting all the same, especially when paranoia over snakes and mosquitos was thrown in. Whole journey took bout 3 hours, though there were plenty of stops and falls along the way, even got to see a waterfall! The scenery was far too much for words so I'm working on trying to get photos up. We got to the village of the Lahu (i think that's how it's spelt) bout fourish and were greeted with a sight of a community still living in huts made of bamboo with no electricity and only recently having got running water. The 9 of us on the trek, Team Thailand and 4 Mexican lads, had a hut to ourselves in the middle of the village. After a bit of a rest, and a massive downpour of rain, we were given dinner there and afterwards, some of the children of the village put on a little song-and-dance show for us which was really cool and then we were given the "option" of having a Lahu massage, which are seemingly not as great as the thai massages. Just stayed up chatting for a while then by candlelight, as it was pitch black by eight thirty. (It seems to get dark very early in this country)
After a pretty restless night had by all, (bamboo floors turned out to be a lot less comfortable than the seemed at first) we were off trekking again, this time only two hours but downhill on a very slippery slope, made much worse by the rain the night before! Wasn't nearly as tough as the one the day before but a challenge all tha same. Made it to the Elephant Camp all in one piece, and were brought on a trek on the elephants for bout a half-hour. Pretty harmless, except when Ross' and mine elephant began to slip down the side of a slope! After the elephant trekking, we did a bit of white-water rafting down part of the river and finished the trek off on bamboo rafts. A bit of lunch was then had and it was back to Chiang Mai!
In Chiang Mai, just after we got back to the tourist office to pick up our bags, it began to bucket down harder than any rain I've been in before. This put a severe dampener (pardon the pun) on our efforts to go off and find a new place to stay so we ended up resorting to the closest place that the tourist office place reccommended. Luckily, it's a really nice place called the Safe Guest House and it's a million times better than the Lanna GH we were in. BTW, I should put a note that the people in the tourist office we went to were all really nice and helpful, and even organised for us to have a car and driver on Wednesday to bring us around some of the sights. After the rain had stopped, we all went down to the night market and had a bit of a pig-out in a pizza place, kinda figured that we needed to replace all the weight that we lost on the trek! A little wander after and then back to bed.
Well, it's now Monday evening and we're up North. We're actually only back in Chiang Mai as we've just been on a trek in the Jungle! But I'll talk bout that later, else i'll get confused 'bout what I have and haven't said.
Last I was talking to y'all was on Friday when we were still in Bangkok, just waiting 'round for the train, hanging around at the pool in the D&D. We left Khao San bout two hours before the train was about to leave, expecting to be brought on a round the world tour of Bangkok, when in actual fact we were brought straight there! Just hung round the station and at half-nine boarded the train for a 14-hour trip to Chiang Mai! Our carriage was actually really good, though I suppose it was the most expensive on the types on offer. It was a second-class sleeper with air-con, which makes a helluva difference! We meet up with some people that we'd met the night previous and they had a second class with fans, and it was really uncomfortably hot! The beds were great, well, sleepable-on and the journey went pretty okay. Everyone got a pretty good sleep out of it, and I even took a few pictures of the jungle as we passed through a bit of it!
We arrived in Chiang Mai just after 12 on Saturday, to be hounded by people at the train station trying to bring us to their guesthouse! We ended up being brought to Lanna Guesthouse, which is probably the biggest mistake we've made so far! While is seemed reasonable enough, and by far the cheapest place we've seen (1.20 a night!), a catch was inevitable, and we actually got two! Terrible rooms, complete with geckos and insects, and a crazy owner,Julie , who kept trying to sell us a trek which we didn't really want but did feign interest in! We checked in anyway and went off to watch the Lions match in an Irish pub. Wandered round the city for a while and passed a tourist office, where we went in and ended up buying a two-day-one-night trek, leaving the next morn, and a flight down from Chiang Mai to Ko Samui (Only because of the time constraints involved in gettin down there for the full moon!) We had to keep the fact that we bought a trek from the office from our guesthouse owner, because we had begun to suspect that she was a lil crazy, especially since she kept offering bags of Bob Marley! We managed to keep it quiet anyway and went out to the night market, then came back and slept in fear of insects or reprisals from Julie!
The trek was leaving at half nine so we were up early and down at the office in plenty of time. Crazy Julie even followed us down and threw a bit of a wobbly when she discovered that we weren't going to Chiang Rai, which was our cover story for not taking one of her treks! Left Chiang Mai anyway bout 10, having stored our rucksacks in the tourist office's storage place and drove north. Stopped at a market for a bit to pick up some supplies and then finished our journey to the jungle, which took bout an hour in total. After a bit of munch, the trek began. Now, 5 kilometres is not a whole lot of a distance to walk, but when it's pretty much 5 km straight up the side of a mountain, it's a different story! Though it was exciting all the same, especially when paranoia over snakes and mosquitos was thrown in. Whole journey took bout 3 hours, though there were plenty of stops and falls along the way, even got to see a waterfall! The scenery was far too much for words so I'm working on trying to get photos up. We got to the village of the Lahu (i think that's how it's spelt) bout fourish and were greeted with a sight of a community still living in huts made of bamboo with no electricity and only recently having got running water. The 9 of us on the trek, Team Thailand and 4 Mexican lads, had a hut to ourselves in the middle of the village. After a bit of a rest, and a massive downpour of rain, we were given dinner there and afterwards, some of the children of the village put on a little song-and-dance show for us which was really cool and then we were given the "option" of having a Lahu massage, which are seemingly not as great as the thai massages. Just stayed up chatting for a while then by candlelight, as it was pitch black by eight thirty. (It seems to get dark very early in this country)
After a pretty restless night had by all, (bamboo floors turned out to be a lot less comfortable than the seemed at first) we were off trekking again, this time only two hours but downhill on a very slippery slope, made much worse by the rain the night before! Wasn't nearly as tough as the one the day before but a challenge all tha same. Made it to the Elephant Camp all in one piece, and were brought on a trek on the elephants for bout a half-hour. Pretty harmless, except when Ross' and mine elephant began to slip down the side of a slope! After the elephant trekking, we did a bit of white-water rafting down part of the river and finished the trek off on bamboo rafts. A bit of lunch was then had and it was back to Chiang Mai!
In Chiang Mai, just after we got back to the tourist office to pick up our bags, it began to bucket down harder than any rain I've been in before. This put a severe dampener (pardon the pun) on our efforts to go off and find a new place to stay so we ended up resorting to the closest place that the tourist office place reccommended. Luckily, it's a really nice place called the Safe Guest House and it's a million times better than the Lanna GH we were in. BTW, I should put a note that the people in the tourist office we went to were all really nice and helpful, and even organised for us to have a car and driver on Wednesday to bring us around some of the sights. After the rain had stopped, we all went down to the night market and had a bit of a pig-out in a pizza place, kinda figured that we needed to replace all the weight that we lost on the trek! A little wander after and then back to bed.
# posted by Team Thailand : 9:48 p.m.
