Thailand

Onto Chiang Mai! We left late in the day for our train up to the mountains, only to arrive and wait around for an hour before the train arrived and another hour before it left. Yes this is no japan. When Carl and I bordered the train we found our selves split between two compartments. I chose one with a nice Thai family in it who gave me loads of advice on what to see and do. But Carl chose one with two small, loud, crying children. From what I have heard that was one hell of a mistake.

When we arrived in Chiang Mai, the next day we were excited by they nice warm air.

This was because the aircon on the train was unajustable. It was like some one thought, "ok they paid for air-conditioning, well they're going to get as much as we can give them". We walk around the train station till we found our driver to the hotel that had been booked for us back in Bangkok, and met some of the people we would be trekking with in the days to come.

The next day was filled with driving from temple to temple

, which was abit boring. Until we visited a tiger zoo. That was awesome stuff! We got to play with them and pat them, but just when we got comfortable with them we were reminded by their roar that these cute fury cats can still kick our asses.

The next day 730 came and left, and it was only by chance that Carl woke up to find that my alarm had not gone off and we were late for our trek. We scrambled about, grabbing things we would need before running down stars to find literally a truck load of people waiting. Whoops! I started chatting to the others on the trek. There was a young English couple of the same age as me, a German family, German couple and some Danes.

The truck stopped for breakfast and we all piled out to eat some crazy fried food, along with really fresh fruit. After breakfast our guide asked who wanted to sit on the roof. I was reluctant to do so at first but leapt upon it when I saw the others go first. It was the best thing I could have ever done! The warm breeze on your face and magnificent views made the car ride ten times faster.

After another hour of driving, the truck pulled up at the elephant lodge for a play and a ride. Of course I picked the biggest, craziest elephant in the whole park, 'tuk tuk'. We feed him and got to know tuk tuk before we climbed up on top. All the elephants kept putting there trunks over their heads as if to ask " more food please" but tuk tuk went through all the bananas we bought in the first 5 meters and gave up on us. Instead he started eat bits of trees. Then he chased the other elephants and stole the bananas of fellow trekkers. When he exhausted that option he proceed to snap a tree in half and drag it behind him. Finally at the end of the ride he pushed a trainer out the way and stole a bunch of banana leaves from inside a hut, almost knocking Carl off. He was a crazy one!

Another 20mins up the road we started the real trek. We saw magnificent mountain rangers, wildlife, waterfalls and rivers! we walk to a local village where they grew bananas and they were the best bananas i have ever had. As night fell the guide through a small "banger" into the forest to let the other village know we were coming. It was the loudest explosion i have ever heard, i almost fell over in shock.

We continued on to the camp site and 'settled in', which consisted of swimming in the freezing, raging torrent that was the creek just down hill and warming up around a camp fire with a few brews. After an amazingly scrumptious dinner we sat under the stars and sang songs that we all knew despite the language barrier. Surprisingly Carl didn't know how to play any song even tho he study guitar for 5 years. looking up at the sky everyone but Carl and I was in awe of how many stars they could see. But in reality the number of stars was about the same that you see back in Adelaide.

The next day Carl and I had to say our goodbyes as we only had time for a two day trek rather than three days like the rest. We set off in different directions and about 10 mins later we started to 'koowe' to the other group. They quickly responded with another small 'banger'.

About half an hour into our trek we were dripping in sweat and decided to have a shower under a water fall near to the trail.

It was one of the best experiences of my life. The water was warm and cooling all at the same time. After we had bathed we trekked on down stream until we reach the bamboo rafts. We hoped onto one and were washed down stream at an alarming rate. over rocks, down rapids and under lower growing trees. it was epic fun, especially when we got to splash other groups as we pasted by.

Over all it was a truly awesome trek!

It was Dark and early we Carl and i arose from a very sleepless night, to prepare for our long and painful journey to the heart of Bangkok. We walked into Adelaide airport in a zombie like state and check in our bags. Then we moved on, to go through security and naturally my bag was flag to have something dangerous in it. I was taken off to the side and asked a lot of questions about what i may have in my bag. It was then searched and had all the contents removed. After 10 minutes of this i was aloud to continue on through with nothing being found, so i thought nothing of it...
Later after another security check and immigration in Melbourne international departs terminal, i was looking around inside my bag when i pulled out a pocket knife. Yes indeed, i had made it onto my Melbourne flight with a pocket knife and the entered the international terminal. My faith in Australian boarder security has taken a huge hit. After the pocket knife incident, a call came out over the loud speaker that our flight had been delayed by 4 and a half hours! We had just spend 5hrs in the airport only to be told we had to stay for another 4.5hrs. So due to this unforeseen event, we arrived in Bangkok at 3:50am Adelaide time and arrived at our accommodation at 5:30am Adelaide time. It was brutal!

Our first day in Bangkok consisted of walk the streets and getting scammed. Carl and I had a nice oriental breakfast in this little bar called the cool corner. From there we went out on the streets and ran into a government tourist helper.

It was very sus to start with, but it became apparent that he was the real deal. He sent us to a good travel agent to book our Chiang Mai part of the trip and then we got scammed but a tuk tuk driver. Note to self, never listen to a tuk tuk driver!! it wasn't all bad tho, we got to see bangkok from the water, and see how the less fortunate live, just for a very steep price.

As this was new years eve, Carl and I went out to get something to eat and drink from the cool corner. This lead us to talking to a Canadian bloke named Jeremy. As the night progressed more beer was drunk, until we headed of to a club to ring in the new year!

The next day:
"........................................uhhhh............................not feeling to crash hot!"