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Hello All!
So I realise there has been around a 1 month hiatus. Sorry about that. And as I am someone who really can't leave things incomplete, it would pain me too much to miss out a big chunk of travel and just pick up from the present moment (10th July right now). Luckily, as you can see from the date on this blog update, the 'Off Exploring' website allows me to go back in time and update blogs with the correct date! So I can now just pick up where I left off, and spread it out over multiple posts so you have an idea of where I was and when. Instead of writing poorly from memory, I'm going to copy and paste in the Facebook posts I sent to my family at the time, which is why it will all seem a little jilted from time to time, but it should make sense! So, here goes, starting with leaving Southern Thailand and making the journey to the North...:
I'm in Chiang Mai! The last couple of days have basically consisted of a gruelling 37 hour journey from the islands all the way up, by bus, boat, train, moto, and taxi, you name it! Quite an exhilarating experience to be basically winging it step by step - it shouldn't have taken so long, but the journey entailed several breakdowns and subsequent refunds (yes!) So all in all really quite a fun experience. The views from the train were amazing, especially as we made friends wit hthe guards and they let us sit in the disused driver's cabin looking out the back. The timings meant we were dropped in Bangkok with all our bags and no where to go at 3.30 am, and then in Chiang Mai almost exactly 24hours later in almost exactly the same scenario. Anyway, it is really quite a buzz and feels like real traveling when you're making it up as you go along - particularly pleasing when the price ends up nice and low. I've got 4 or 5 days in this area before the visa runs out and I head to laos. We've got a couple of good ideas of places to go of the beaten track, and the islands have made us determined to meet some cool travelers and stay away from the tourist trail...
Thought i'd give you an update because I might be away from things a bit for a couple of days, not entirely sure! I've had an incredible time in the North - really awesome couple of days. We've visited Chiang Mai and Pai, and found so much to do! Much less touristy here, although there is still a large backpacking load swilling around, but it's cheaper and feels much more real.
Chiang Mai is a cool place to hang out and on our main day there we... now don't freak out mum... hired some bikes! Just mopeds or scooters, they're so easy to ride, cheap to rent ($3 a day), and it's a really common thing to do here. We had great fun whizzing around. We headed to a mountain about 15km out of town with a temple on top. On the way we stopped off at a waterfall and climbed all the way up - the other westerners there all stayed at the bottom because I'm not sure they figured out you could go further up, but we followed the Thais. We explored around, took about half an hour to climb up and were rewarded with some clear views over the city. Then we headed over to the mountain temple, hopped back on the moto, explored a little more and, just on the other side of the mountain, found the most incredible views over untouched forests and rolling mountains. I have pictures, but they really don't do it justice! We met a fun group at the hostel and spent the evenings with them.
The next day we took a minivan over to Pai, which has been hands down our favourite place. We got really lucky with the hostel - it overlooked the valley and was a little more rural but easy to get to, and again we formed another group, probably our closest yet. There were 6 of us, all made up from solo travelers etc - Dutch, American, English, Danish... and ranging from 18 to 28! I'm enjoying meeting a whole range of people I just wouldn't come across back home. We basically spend the two/three days together - yesterday we hired bikes again, explored the area, went to 2 waterfalls which had natural rock 'flumes' running down them. We ended the day at the Pai Canyon, walking on/through/over the naturally formed canyon and jutting cliff faces, and watching the sun set over the hills. It's been a really lovely couple of days.
Today was a time for traveling. Buses didn't all connect together as I wanted and so tonight we are in Chiang Rai (I was hoping to get to the border town Chiang Khong itself to make it easier to cross over tomorrow), but it's not an issue. I'm just going to jump on the first bus over tomorrow, and cross the border to Laos. I've decided that I'm not going to do the slow boat - i'm not sure I can justify spending 2 days of my 9 in Laos sitting on a boat! As lovely as it's meant to be, I'm going to bus it straight over to Luang Prabang (hopefully arriving tomorrow evening). I'm really looking forward to doing some tubing, kayaking, trekking etc.
So now, my travels with Jaime come to an end! She has no set plans, other than possibly to head over to China to meet her Dad (he's doing some work there) some time in June. I think she is going to go a different route in Laos (she wants to do the Gibbon experience in Huay Xai first), and then she's going to head over and do Vietnam before China. We may cross the border together, but this is it now! Having been initially quite nervous about traveling alone, I am now SO excited to try going solo. I think it's a real adventure, and feel more confident having seen how easy it is on your own. I'll let you know when I make it to Luang Prabang...
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