Trekking in the Chiang Mai Jungle

We woke at a pleasant 8:30, tried to stomach some of the already paid for 5* brekkie and jumped in the back of an old army truck with the rest of the people coming on the trek with us. Again the lack of safety precautions is fantastic! There were 11 of us on the trek in total as well as Lar our guide and his accumplice Day. Lar was an absolute legend but a compulsive liar telling us all about smoking crack on the trek and eating bamboo worms and wrestling crocodiles, man we were excited. Then there were a Polish couple and an Czech couple as well as the 3 girls I mentioned before who are from the midlands. The last 2 of the group were a pair of Aussie guys from Canberra, my god they were funny!! They had turned up drunk after the night before and told us allsorts of stories about the people they've met and the crazy things they've done. A particular favourite stories of mine was when some 'Bogans' (Aussie Chavs) were boarding a bus and the guy says to the woman, 'hurry up b*tch, or you won't get any heroin!', these guys were going to make this a unforgettable adventure.


We drove along ridiculously bumpy roads with nothing but metal spikes to protect our backs for about an hour before being faced with 4 or 5 elephants! Yes elephants! We bought bananas to feed them and got some unforgetable pictures! My word this is amazing!! Me and Adrian teamed up with Locky, one of the Aussie guys and mounted our elephant with me sitting on his head, mental! We persuaded the keeper to let us loose on our own and started on probably the most unforgettable journey ever! Our Elephant was called Bugall and he was boarder line retarded, but we love him anyway. He was super slow and always went the wrong way until we learned that to get his ass in gear we need to grunt and shout his name, huh huh huh huh Bugall!!, we also tried bribing him with bananas but he was having none of it! We got him up to some mad pace as well as have him shower us with his trunk and sneeze elephant snot on us! Best morning ever!

We got some lunch and headed up the mountain to start the trek. Trekking in the hills and jungle amongst the amazing scenery was epic and so different to the hustle of Bangkok, such a relief to be there and the company was amazing. We were convinced the trek would be fairly gentle, how wrong were we, it was epic! Trekking up steep inclines beside sheer drops, across narrow bamboo bridges! Amazing! We got to know our companions really well and made friends for life there, not least of all the tour guide Lar was a legend, made us walking sticks from bamboo and hid in the bushes in order to scare the crap out of us, which worked so well on me I nearly fell down a cliff to my doom, hero! We went to a waterfall in the middle of the jungle and Lar showed us how to jump in without get smashed into pieces on the rocks below. A few minor brushes with death and we were back to it. He took us across the border to Burma, no boarder control, no passports, no visas, eek! We then went to his families villages and enjoyed our first experience of beautiful, unspoilt by tourism, life in Thailand. We met his wife, a stunning thai lady, and his kid, it was emotional. We were served some traditional food and some rice wine moonshine!! Yes we got drunk again, didn't expected that but my god what a night, they had a guitar which I had to repair and then me and Caroline serenaded the group with classic songs while everyone got more and more battered on the wine, quality! I stayed up most of the night teaching one of our guides 'under the bridge' before attempting to catch an hours sleep before the trekking the next day. It was so cold! What the hell! After not sleeping at all dawn broke and we had breakfast before hitting the trails again, well I say 'trails' I mean walking through jungle, there were very few paths. We were given lunch wrapped in banana leaves and after seeing the town folk hammering down the rats I hoped it wasn't going to be rat surprise.

On the second day we trekked it good. Saw some amazing views and took some great photos. We stopped for lunch on the top of a peak and saw some stunning 360 degree views, thankfully lunch was noodles not rat! We continued to trekking down through the jungle amonst the wild flowers and the tropical trees. Lar was busy whittling chop sticks as we went and then embarked on the creation of a bamboo bong! Classic! We eventually made it to the location of our second nights sleep which was a pair of small shacks nexts to a picturesque river which we went swimming in again, it was ice cold and refreshing. We, in order to increase the depth of the pool, built a dam which was unbelievably effective and great fun. We then built an enormous camp fire and got back on the rice wine, crazy! They had a guitar as well which I had to repair again and then Remy the aussie astounded us all with the most amusing rapping to a 12 bar blues ever!! All I can say is, Pavarotti the universal dictator, backwards walking crab and tuk tuk wheely tuk tuk tuk tuk tuk tuk tuk tuk. After a few more drinks me and Remy wanted a bigger fire and so went into the firest in order to cut down trees with a huge knife. What were we thinking, I was hammered, bare feet and wheelleding a machetee, safe!! Totally satisfying though. After yet another feezing cold night we went for a morning dip and a wash in the river, as you do. We then trekked our way to the dock were the bamboo rafting was going to take place. Thankfully taking the advice of Lar and leaving everything in the truck we went rafting with nothing but boardies. Rafting was mental! This has to have been one of the most dangerous things I've ever done! We thought we'd be relaxingly floating down the river chilling in the sunny, but we were very very very wrong! We totally had to guide this 15 foot shed door through some mental whitewater, between huge rocks at speeds in excess of 30mph using nothing but a piece of bamboo and our weight to steer. We all took a total battering not to mention me getting catapulted over the front into a rock and nearly being decapatated in the most mental piece of the rapids. Mental!! That has to have been the best experience of my life. Unreal! What a way to end the most amazing 3 days of our lives!

The Floating Market and our Trip to Chiang Mai

Hello there or should I say Shawadycup!! (yes this is spelt wrong),

We never didn't make it to Pat Pong to see the ping pong as we were too busy recovering from the previous days activities, we'll have to see a show later on. So instead we had a nice relaxing couple of bevvies with some more friendly travels we met. Unfortunately for us we ended up getting fairly hammered and invested in some 'chicken' on the way home. This was not good!

We had to be up at 7am to get the minibus to the Floating Market, shame we had got back to the hotel around 5! Anyway stumbled to the minibus in the standard hungover way and after some minibus juggling we were on the way to the floating market. It was fantasic, got some great shots of the crowded waterways and got on a small punt like boat, which I nearly sank in a drunken attempt to board it, and floated around amongst the 'market boats'. We also went on another power boat trip and saw some enormous lizards, 'crocodiles!'. We'll put up some photos of the market soon as well once we figure it out, got some great ones of all the colourful friuts etc.

When we returned from the Market we did our first bit of 'backpacking' for all of 100m before the driver took us back to the travel agents. We chilled out in 'our' Koh San Road until it was time to board the night bus to Chiang Mai.

The night bus was a beast! Not only did we nearly miss it due to a completely useless traffic police man, but on arrival a set of 3 young ladies were removed from the bus even though they were also on the way to Chiang Mai. We also met a bit of a hero, Patrick, before attempting to squeeze our finite length femors in to the ridiculously small space allocated to us. Then if that wasn't bad enough, the people in front seemed to have no issue with relcining their seat so far as to squash poor old Adrian into the feotal position! It was a very long 4 hours to the one and only stop over where we were supplied with what only can be described and vomit, cack and diarrhoea disguised as an egg, some dried apricots and shrimp, mmmmm lovely. Oh yes and some rice in dishwasher water, yes Oli, Congee!! Needless to say we were still hungry when we got on the bus again! Patrick was almost suicidal after spending the first 4 hours between 2 fat snoring, smelly Thai, I thought he was going to cry. Thank god though, I fell asleep and woke up to Adrian dementedly squeeking his bag at the now fully horizontal Thai man infront of him, he was not happy.

We arrived at our 'palace' at 6 in the morning! Seriously this place (BP Chiang Mai) was 5* what on earth have we paid for, we are clearly not backpacking!! Theres a swimming pool, a gym and kareoke every night! We went to a cafe for breakfast and saw a million and one different possible activities to do while in Chiang Mia, like abseiling down waterfalls and caving, awesome! Just don't have enough time. Definately going to have to come back here again! We had booked a 3 day 2 night trek in the jungle with all the trimmings, elephant rides, sleeping with tribes in the hills, bamboo rafting, you name it! We were picked up for a talk about the trek and what do you know the 3 girls that had been evicted from the bus were on the same trek and were staying at the same hotel! We saw some more temples and went to the saturday market and night Bazzaar, took yet more great photos and met up with the 2 girls from the plane that we'd met in Bangkok and that had got the train up to Chiang Mai. They say the train was way better, but it takes ages longer and you don't get to eat pure death!! We got battered, standard. Unfortunately on the way home a pair of savage dogs took a disliking to us and chased us over a fence and around the back streets, this was not cool! We survived and hit the sack in a our gormet room in order to be rested for the treking the following day.

We've made it! and Bangkok

Hey everyone, We made it safe and sound.

The flights were a killer, 6:35 followed by a 2 hour gap min Bahrain and then another 6:35. Arrived in Bangkok at 7 in the evening. No problems getting a taxi and getting to our hotel, which is down the darkess, smelliest alley ever, but its really nice, clean etc and very close to Koh San Road, job done. That night we went to Koh San Road and had a nice meal and a pint before crashing out in order to be ready for a full day of Banging Kok the next day. Unfortunately the jet lag meant we could sleep until about 7am and then we got up at 8am, pretty tired. Met some really nice people at breakfast and went out to find the wonders of the city. We made it ten yards before a teacher from the local school accosted us and gave us a whole load of things to do, shoved us in a tok tok and we were off! We were so lucky, it was a crazy holiday thing yesterday and most things were open to the public and free! We met a monk in the temple of Blue Buddha who taught us to pray and told us some stories, we went to some mental tailors and jewelers were they tried to get loads of money out of us, perfect! We spent all our money in the tourist info centre with Oven (hero) booking loads of future adventures that you'll hear about soon!! Then we went to the Great Palace, which is amazing and beautiful. I'll put up some pictures soon. We then went on a boat trip around the rivers of the city before getting grabbed by another crazy man who told us about some other stuff to see, so bundled in another tuk tuk and and saw another Temple before becoming the biggest suckers ever by buying to ridiculous soap for 6 quid just to get a token for the driver, yes we are idiots. We then went to a place with loads of Government type buildings surrounded by guys with Assault rifles which was fairly intimidating! Unfortunately the reason we were there is that there was apparently a festival on, but it would appear there wasn't. Nevermind though, cos we found a zoo and saw some cool animals, like panthers, lions and tigers, we compared the meercats but the bears were sleeping. When I got back to the room I had to unblock all my cards (first day, impressive). We then went back to Koh San Road and met some awesome characters, like a pair of Swiss ladies who's English, although better than our swiss, was comedy. We had a good laugh about 'Kitchen Box' where you keep clothes apparently and then we met some girls from England who dropped the bomb that we weren't actually at Koh San Road and that it was the next road over, Whoops! We got on the buckets, Adrian lost 100 Baht in a thumb war with an 8 year old girl, serious! and we met yet more nutters. All in all an amazing day, with so much packed in is was unbelievable. We slept like babies and then have had a chilled day today. The plan for this evening is to go to Pat Pong with some friends we met last night, see a ping pong show and then we are going to the floating Market tomorrow morning before getting the bus to Chiang Mai. busy busy busy!

Its super hot, beautiful weather and we are having an amazing time. Hope you are all well and I'll get some pictures up soon and post again once we have more to tell. Cheers to Tones for saying to make a diary, we both already have written loads and had great fun reminising about yesterday, so in 4 months it'll be unbelievably good.

Ed

Cheers Everyone, Pretty Excited Now

Hey,

Was great to see those who made it to our leaving drinks in Camden and Berko. Thanks for all your good wishes and Tom for the dust busting outfits!! Sorry we didn't manage to see more of you before we go.

Just sorting out the last few things now. We've had our shots (except Adrian who will have rabies on the plane), printed off an enormous amount of stuff, got our VISAs and getting the tunes ready.

We leave at 8;25pm on Monday!! So excited now! I hope you enjoy our adventure with us, next time we post we'll have some interesting stories and hopefully some pictures.

Thanks again to you all, look forward to hearing some comments on what we get up to.

Ed

Hi Everyone,

Just getting everything organised for the trip now. Here's the blog where me and Adrian will be letting you all know how we are getting on. We'll post pics up here and stories of what we get up to. Would be great to hear from you while we're away so feel free to comment on anything and everythnig.

Ed