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After a long and rainy bus journey we arrived in Lampang were we spent the night in a quient guest house on the riverside. The owners also owned a nice restaraunt nearby and we spent the evening there enjoying the sounds of the live folk band who sang many well known songs including Maroon 5's 'she will be loved', which soon became our group song. After leaving the restaraunt Chris, Evan and I managed to drink the bar dry, keeping everyone else in the guest house up with our not so quite voices! We were certainly not the most popular people in the morning!
After leaving the guest house we travelled onto an elephant conservation centre, hospital and dung factory. During our time at the conservation centre we watched a great show were one of the elephants used his trunk to paint a picture of two elephants. This was pretty amazing and he could draw so much better than me! We also had a chance to get right up close and feed them. Mandy was really enjoying herself until one of them let out a huge sneeze and snotted all over her!
We were then treated to a half hour ride through the jungle were we witnessed our first giant spider hanging from a branch just above our heads. During the ride Lucy managed to drop her flipflop onto the floor, which was not a problem as the elephant behind her kindly picked it up using his trunk and passed it back to her! Our elephant decided to be different to the others who went before him and instead of using the bridge to cross a river, he thought he would just step across the gap inbetween. This was quite nervy and we both held on for dear life.
Next we visited the dung factory were some of the group were "lucky" enough to use the dung to make some paper. Then we headed over to the hospital were the first patient was a two year old elephant which had its foot blown off by a landmine when it was just 7 months old. She was quite a cheekie character and we fed her some rice cakes (that were given to us by Aoi our hostess at the homestay) which she loved. Walking around the hospital we saw many other sick elephants, a large number of them also landmine victims. It was quite a sad experience being there but you can see how well the elephants are being looked after and are on their way to recovery.
After saying our goodbyes to these special mammals we made our way to the homestay in the Chiang Mai providence, stopping off on the way at the Sankampaeng hot springs. The temperature of the water is in excess of one hundred centigrade locals were stood around the springs boiling eggs! The spring was a great yet very smelly experience. When we first arrived Mandy dipped her foot into the river that runs around the grounds and soon whipped it foot out complaining that she would never be able to swim in that as it was far too hot. Unknown to her at the time this was not the water we would be swimming in and in fact alot hotter. Once we found the slightly cooler pool we all jumped in. It was like very warm bath (Viv would love it) and the high sulphur content is supposed to be very good for the skin. However the smell of egg that lingers around sort of spoils the experience!
Once at the homestay we all fought over the two cold showers trying to get rid of the awful egg smell. Once we had all finished we were treated to a Khantoke dinner which involved us all sitting on the floor. Whilst we enjoyed our meal the local children played us music using traditional Thai instruments. After dinner they let us have a go which again was fun. I was pretty good at the xylophone but Mandy was useless at the guitar!
We were then taken outside to watch some traditional Thai dancing and we also had the chance to join in. We watched the children put on a great performance and were treated to a head and neck massage whilst we watched. We were then asked to join in with a candle dance which interesting as hot wax was being dripped everywhere! Some of us were then chosen to join in a game with three of the boys. The idea of the game is to kick your opponent on the bottom whilst stopping yours from being kicked. This was so much fun and I was beaten up by two of the boys (who doubled teamed me!) and Mandy laughed so much she nearly wet herself. One of the boys took on the role of a snake, making lots of appropriate sounds and hand movements and chased Mandy around endlessly!
To end the evening with the children we used the candles from the dance to make a wish and put around the pond until they had melted away. Then it was time to let the traditional Thai lantern go which we watched disappear into the nights sky. This was a great way to end a fantastic evening which really showed us what northern Thailand is all about.
The boys carried on the evening drinking the local chang listening to Kate sing songs and the girls laughed endlessly at nothing inparticular. Our accommodation for the night was a large converted barn were the group was to sleep in one large room upstairs. The room consisted of mats on the floor covered by mosquito nets, these were needed as there were no windows but wooden shutters that were kept open all night. After everyone finally got to bed we had a visit from Ting, the homestays dog, who decided to join us upstairs but as it was pitch black he ended up scaring us all half to death.
We managed to get a few hours sleep and woke up early to visit the local monks, giving them a gift of food which is a local Thai tradition. Outside the temple Mandy and I witnessed our second giant spider that turned out to be a dead trantula!!
We spent the afternoon on another bike ride with our companion Ting the dog (Mandys favourite) who ran along side us for most of the three hour journey through the village and local countryside. First we visited a temple, then a mushroom farm. Here we were able to pick our own mushrooms. Then a local material factory and finally stopping at what turned out to be our favourite place... the local Thai school.
Here we got up infront of the class and told the children our names. Obviously they called me Harry Potter (as half of the world has!) and then we taught them the names and spellings of vegatables. During my go i thought it would be funny to spell carrot with three r's! Unfortunatly this seemed to amuse the group more as the children did not seem to understand the Englisg sense of humour!
We were then asked to all sing our national anthems, which Mandy, Coco , Lucy and I did an ok job of. Chris could not even rember the American national anthem and the children broke into song after Evan and Courtneys finished their anthem singing, "Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi"! We enjoyed listening to their rendition of the Thai natioonal anthem and had great fun joining in with a song and dance about fruit. The children were around the age of eight and already spoke fantastic english.
After the lesson they bombarded us with pads to sign our names and asked repeatedly our age and favourite food. Mandy seemed to answer correctly telling them chocolate and one of the little girls ran off and soon returned with a chocolate bar for her. The girls also kept telling Mandy she was beautiful which pleased her no end! By now it was time for their break and we went outside to take part in a game of football with some of the boys. Needless to say Mandy and I were the last back to homestay returning when many of the group had already started lunch.
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