Chiang Mai!

Day 6
We got to Chiang Mai in the early morning. At the trainstation we were offered a lot of different Guest houses. We chose the one Lonely Planet recommended. We were brought to the guest house by a free transfer bus. Once there we had to wait 3 hours, because check-in started at 10AM. We did some internetting and relaxed a little bit around the hostel. Around 11 our air-con room was ready. We had a little shower and we slept for a few hours, as we were still tired. The rest of the day became an administration day. We had to book a flight to Koh Samui and book a jungle trek for the next day. We had a little walk around town and managed to do both. On our way back we bumped into Mandy and her family, who had been in Chiang Mai for a few days now. That night we had some food around the corner of our hostel. We went to bed early, as we were completely broken. Bangkok had been hard on us, so we were in need of a little break and a good nights sleep.

Day 7
The next morning we had to wake up fairly early. Our jungletrek was starting at 9:30. We had some breakfast in the hostel. Luc and I both had a plate of spaghetti bolognese for breakfast, as the portions of the food are too small for big guys like us. We had a bit of strange looks while everybody else was having a cup of tea. I have to mention that it feels like I am back in Holland by the way. At least 75% of the people here are actually dutch. Funny but still a tad weird, as you wouldn’t expect such a lot of dutch people around. We got onto the truck and met the other people in our group. They happened to be a nice bunch of people, coming from all corners of the world. Australia, England, Canada, France and us two dutchies. We drove for about 3 hours far away from civilication. We stopped at a market to buy some ingredients for the meals our guide was going to cook. After another drive across windy roads we got to a temple somewhere in the mountains. A big golden budha was overlooking the risefields.

We had some lunch and checked out the temple. Afterwards we drove on to a small village somewhere far in the mountains. There we had to get ready for the trek. We walked the rest of the afternoon through the jungle. It was very nice and relaxing to be away from the busyness of Bangkok and traffic. We arrived at a jungle hut around 17:00. The hut stood in the middle of a bunch of risefields and next to a waterfall. While our guide was cooking dinner, we were relaxing in the waterfall. It was really nice and refreshing. It truly felt like we were in paradise. Afterwards we had some dinner, which was really really good. With fresh vegetables and rice. We could eat as much as we liked, which was really good after all these small meals we’ve been eating lately. That night we had a few beers and the guide created a campfire. Most of the people went to bed early, but we decided to get our flashlights and check out the neighbourhood. It wasn’t really special though, just a lot of risefields.

Day 8
The next morning we woke up around 8 o’clock. We had some breakfast, which consisted of toast with fruit. We had a little wash in the waterfall next to our hut and then packed our things. Around 10 we moved on for a big day of trekking. We climbed that morning about 1000 meters to a height of 2200 meter. It was fairly tough at times, especially with the humid heat. Just before we arrived at the top of the mountain, it started to rain. And quite a bit too. Thankfully our guide new a shelter where we could have our lunch. After lunch the rain had stopped and we moved on again. This time going downhill. After only half an hour though, it started to rain again. But this time incredibly much. We were all soaking wet. After walking for an hour through the pooring rain, it fijnally stopped. We walked another 30 minutes where we got to another waterfall. We had a little swim and then moved on to a small village which consisted out of about 100 people. Once we arrived locals tried to sell us neglaces and the likes. We had a little rest and sat in the afternoon sun, overlooking a valley full of green risefields. It felt like were sitting inside of a beautiful painting.

That night, after dinner, we all sat in front of our hut playing cards. We had a few beers and some nice talks. Around 10 we all went to sleep, as the next day we would go elephant riding and bamboo-rafting.

Day 9
The next morning we woke up early again. We had some breakfast and afterwards we packed our things to go trekking again. We walked through the jungle for another good 2 hours. This part of the trek was incredibly beautiful. We walked through many many risefileds. The views were amazing. On top of that, the weather was incredibly good. It wasn’t humid and nice and sunny. We got to a nice waterfall where we had a little cooldown. We walked for another half an hour to get to a truck. We all sat in the back of the truck which drove us back to civilisation. After a bumpy ride we got back to a small town where we had some lunch. After lunch we got onto a truck which brought us to an elephant park. Here we were going to ride elephants. The guy at the elephant station was asking who liked to sit on his head, instead of in the seats on top of the elephant. To me that seemed really really cool, so I immediately put up my hand.

It turned out to be an incredible experience. Sitting on top of an elephant is something I don’t do everyday. The elephants walked for about an hour through the jungle. It was very unreal and really nice to do, eventhough I do feel sorry for these elephants having to ride tourists everyday for our own pleasure.

After the elephant riding we were taken to the river where we got onto bamboo-rafts. Basicly nothing more than a bunch of bamboo poles tied together. The river turned out to be really shallow and not very fast or dangerous. So it became a calm, but fun ride. Luc and I were steering and the guide was just sitting, watching us do the hard work. We sat on the rafts for about an hour and got stuck a few times, which made it all even a lot funnier. Afterw ards we got back into the truck and we drove back to Chiang Mai.

Once back in our hostel we had a well deserved shower and a little laydown. Oliver, the french guy of our tourgroup had to catch a nighttrain that night, so we invited him to come and sit with us. We had some dinner and said bye to Oliver. We rested a little bit more in our room. Afterwards we went to meet up with the rest of our tourgroup as we wanted to go for some drinks. We met up with them at McDonalds next to the nightmarket. From there we went to an area full of bars. We ordered a few buckets with Rum and Red-bull. We had a nice chat about the tour and the likes. Meanwhile we were watching two thai guys doing Muay Thai boxing in a ring in front of us. The guy came up to us to ask for a little tip. I started a little talk and he wanted to show me how to do thai boxing. The guy said he would fight us but “without power”. I was convincing Luc to go and try it. In the end he did, and as soon as he stood in front of Luc, he hit Luc on his head with his knee. Not really hard, but still. We all had a good laugh and we finally ended up in the ring with the guy. All trying to fight him. A lot of people were having a drink watching us. The photos we took are hilarious.

Afterwards we went to a club not far from where we were. The club was nice. Ollie, the ozzy guy and his english girl joined us to the club. We danced for a few hours. When the club closed around 3, we went to another club which is open till later. This club wasn’t all that great unfortunately, so we didn’t stay long. The atmosphere was just not really nice in there. We then had a little walk around town and found a snackbar which sold chicken shoarma. Obviously we couldn’t resist, so we both had a good chicken shoarma. After the shoarma we went back to our hotel for a nice and good sleep.

Tomorrow we’re flying out to Koh Samui, with a stop-over in Bangkok (cheaper). So more news soon from Koh Samui!!!