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I decided to forgo week 10's blog and make this a bumper addition because week 10 goes a little bit like this:
09:00 - Wake up and head out to get the early morning rays and read a little, maybe have a cup of coffee and wait for Rach to wake from her slumber.
11:00 - Check on Rach to see if she has risen (if she has not repeat this step hourly).
12:00 - Grab breakfast/Lunch
12:30 - Lather up with the sun lotion and head to the beach.
12:31 - Arrive at beach and sunbath, working on my Hulk Hogan Tan (intervals of splashing in the water to cool ourselves down).
17:00 - Head back to the beach hut and enjoy a few cold cans of Chang bear whilst spanking Rach... at cards.
18:00 - Watch the sunset and look lovingly into each others eyes.
19:00 - Go and have some food.
21:00 - Get back to the hut , watch a dvd and go to bed.
Repeat this sequence of events for the whole week.
We did a little more than this but the general jist was we spent a lot of time enjoying the sunshine. We had traveled from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Koh Chang, an island off the South east of Thailand. It's a large(ish) island that has several main areas that seem to be popuated by different people, there's the Russian sector, the American sector and of course no island paradise would be complete without the good old fashion Hippy sector. In an earlier blog I've mentioned about these odditees, and through my travels I have, many a time, come into contact with this strange breed. I just don't understand them, their behaviour confuses me. We happened to be staying in the 'Hippy' area and the funny thing is you don't see them on the beach during the day, but when night falls they appear in droves from nowhere, bare footed, manky hair, sitting in the middle of the street stroking the wild rabbid dogs. The ultimate goal of a hippy is to befriend a local Thai person and spend their whole holiday time helping them out in their job, if a hippy manages to do this then they are like hippy royality and it gives them the right to preach to anyone that will stand their drivel. I wore a sneer for a lot of that week.
It was an amazing week though, very relaxing and we didn't really want to leave, we kept on extending our stay day by day. But eventually we made the decision to travel up to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand where we stayed for a couple of nights. During this time we went to Bath the elephants, nearly every tourist that comes to this area does this and for good reason too... it was hilarious. Just pure fun from start to finish. These animals are so big but so gentle, all they want is bananas, as long as there is the prospect of bananas then they are happy. We got to ride them bare back and learnt the comands in order to control them, it ended with, basically, a massive water fight in the river where the elephants have a bit of an unfair advantage. Me and Rach just giggled the whole time. We ended this day floating down the river on a bamboo raft, as we drifted down the river a peaceful feeling absorbed us, that was until the driver of this make shift vessel spotted a snake happily sunbathing on a warm rock and gave it a big prod with his stick - the snake obviously confused with the sudden interuption went on the attack, jumped into the water and made its way towards the boat. I did the calculation, quickly assesing the speed of the rafts trajectory and the speed of the snake's swimming, and was confident that the snake would just miss the boats tail. Rach however who happened to be sat at the back was not so sure and so started to scream for her life! As i predicted, the snake narrowly missed, only managing to get his head aboard before slipping off. The rest of the cruise was a little more tense as Rach put all the passengers aboard on 'snake patrol'.
That night, shattered from the days excursions and her brush with death, Rach decided to take it easy and have an early night. I wanted to go and see a Thai kick boxing bout as I heard that Chaing Mai offered some of the best in the country. I paid 400 Baht (8 quid) to watch 6 fights of 3, 5 minute rounds with an intriging 'special fight' during the half time interval. I had heard from others that this 'special fight' had been on previous nights a midget fight! So as the lights dimmed and the annoucer (in Thai) started to introduce the 'special fight' I was pretty curious. The spot light swopped over to the entrance and as the curtains openned a semi-normal (although slightly goofy) looking guy came storming out, he ran round the crowd hollering and wooping, the faster he ran the more deranged he looked, when he finally made it to the ring he stumbled and fell, this made me burst into laughter but for some reason the rest of the crowd (mostly Thai) didn't laugh. A sudden horrible thought entered my mind, did 'special' mean 'special'?! Was I about to watch two disabbled or mentally ill people fight?! Were the fight promotors and the crowd really going to allow this?! In short no, luckily. Instead it turned out to 5 normal guys blindfolded swinging maddly at each other, without a doubt the best fight of the night, epecially as the referee who obviously couldn't be distinquished by the blinded fighters got a bit of a beating.
From Chaing Mai we took a bus ride up the winding mountains to the town of Pai, a sleepy little place full of hot springs and waterfalls. We spent 3-4 day here but wished we could've stay longer. After Pai it was back to Bangkok for the final few days of our Asia experince. It has gone so fast and we have experienced so much that I feel that I am saying goodbye to huge part of our trip, and so, to send us off in style on our last night, we decided to watch a traditional Thai table tennis match
So goodbye India, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand; and hello Australia (if only for 3 days) and New Zealand. Maybe now that we are heading to more western countries Rach will stop insisting that I steal and hoard copious amounts of toilet rolls on the off chance there won't be any in the next WC...
- comments
Colin Good skills Rach you can never have too much loo roll.
Macca Hahaha love the idea of a special fight, it will be like being at a chambers family party.
Rachel Hey Jim, Sounds like your having a wicked time, its going so quick cant believe you've finished Aisa already. News from the ' g' stones Chris had a run in with a big deer so we are now carless whoops. Don't really do facebook so decided to reply to your question with this. S New Zealand, we had a quick chat and came up with a list of must do's so here it is. Millford sounds ,Nelson beach walk, Bay of islands boat trip, Franz Yosef glacier, Rotorua and Tongario national park (with mount doom climb). Not sure about the spelling. Also somecool wine tours in Marlbourough and def worth doing a sky dive ( lake Taupo) and /or bungie (queenstown). Hope that helps, have fun x
NICK yo bro, sounds like your having a great time. mum and fin didn't understand what was so funny in going to a ping pong show, so i have showed them on Google, since that experience mum keeps on rocking in the corner of her bedroom and fin is getting psychological counselling ;-). Any Hoo i had a look at your picture and please please please get rid of that vest you look like pat sharp in i'm a celebrity get me our of here !!!!!! going boarding soon in Turin. me and boore are looking forward to shredding up some powder. rikki would have come with us but then realized the only sports he enjoys are of the sit down variety, such as watching telly, driving his car and spending his morning at work, relaxing his bowel doing a child's suduko. sooooooo keep it reel, don't be whack and stay classy pony boy. just to add on to macca's comment, i recently witnessed lewis chambers down a pint of Damian's piss. it was a proud moment for the chambers boys and they are both awaiting medals of bravery from the queen.
Jemma Johnson Very Bill Bryson-esque!!! I'm loving your blog entries! The snake episode cracked me up. Sounds like you're having an AMAZING time! Keep it up xx
jamie Cheers for the tips Rach, have ticked a few off that list already, Rach particulary likes he sound of the wine tours! Mac heard about the house acceptance, well done mate will have to come check it out when I'm back. Nick, pat sharp, thanks. Jemma hope school aint too hard, did have a ofsted recently? how did it go?