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It's been a while-but there is a reason!!so we left chiang mai on saturday evening, getting on a bus that should have taken no more than 12 hours...well,got to the petrol station and switched from the mini bus to the coach that was advertised as VIP with comfy seats etc!!but no,very uncomfy seats,at least the air con was working!!just as i (jess)was falling asleep-greg was already snoring away, the bus stops at a stopping point,so everyone got off to get food and go to the loo-o i dont think i'v mentioned the loo's-they are horrid here,u have to squat over this basin in the ground,you can't put the toilet roll down the loo (which u have to remember to take with you each time-becoming habit now!) it has to go in a bin next to it and then there is no flushing system so you have to use a scooper/bucket and get some water from this collection point and pour it down the basin...sounds complicated but isnt, its just a bit gross, is fine for greg as he's a bloke and just does his business-but me, am getting fed up-so it is luxury when the guest houses have proper toilets!!!ANYWAY so we'v stopped, this was about 12am and just wanted to get on with the journey.
So back on the bus for about 3minutes down the road,when we slowed down tremendously, we stopped and the driver swapped with someone else, we then made a u-turn onto the otherside of the motorway-luckily it wasnt busy,then pulled into a service station. We were there for about 3 hours, greg says that we already had a flat tyre and thats why we were going so slow earlier, so we found out what was going on, they changed the two tyres, then we reversed backwards and there was a HUGE crunch, i'm not very sure what happened was very tired at the time,but the men then started walking around the bus a lot, and basically they had broken the suspension...so after about 1/2an hour of them knowing that they couldn'y possibly fix it, they rang for another bus, that came 1/2an hr later, and then off we set again!
we finally arrived in Bangkok at about 11ish and it was boiling. so we tried to get a taxi but the first guy wouldnt take us to the bus station,the we tried another and he didnt speak a word of english,but a thai man heard we were asking for a station, and we were actually asking for the wrong one, so good job he interrupted or we'd have wasted that money. greg has become very aware of ppl trying to help us,as thinks they are all trying to sell us something-which most of the time they are, but sometimes they do just help!! so we got to the bus terminal,bought our ticket, hardly any english spoken at this station, or english people there!and headed straight away to Kanchanaburi.
we are staying in a hostel that we got taken to by the taxi driver but is cheap and has a pool:) we hired another moped our 3rd one so far, is a good way to get around and go visit places. so we'v seen the bridge over the river kwai, been to the museum, visited a cave underground(bit scary but was lit up so was ok)been in the pool, and got on a long boat which we had to ourselves for an hour with the driver and he took us up and down the river-the negine was a car engine and the there was a sticky out pole thing where the propellor was and at times the boat went very very fast!!it was good fun. i ate a meal tonight which was served in a half of a pineapple,was very nice thought i'd try something different, as we'v eaten a lot of western/european food!!but is hard to know what we'l like thai wise as there is either a huge choice or very litle,so need some advice from a local i think!
going back to bangkok tomoro morning(tues) to do some shopping in this huge shopping mall called MBK has five floors and has markets inbetween the shops as well,it is crazy just like bangkok.we definitely couldn't stay more than2 nights in bangkok, it is soooooooooooooo busy!and i thought london was busy!!and might visit the floating markets if we'v time. then staying one night and meeting tash on weds morning, to then head south for some sun and the beach!!
updating pictures takes forever so only do a few at a time, but we have many more,oo we went to the zoo in chiang mai,it was a very good zoo,lots of space and lots of different animals,so will try soon to update photos, great to hear everyone is well:)
well done in the olympics suzanne and nigel!! well done megs for the talent show and mid summersets, how did becky do?hows the swimming been?seems everyone likes gregs hat!!all the ppl here ask if we'v been to vietname!
lots love from us both, speak soon,
xxxxxx
I just realised i forgot the other catastrophe!!!! how could i!!!
well,we went to stay in a place called Pai a very hippie town,lots of those sorts of people,we stayed in a guesthouse that was nice, clean safe etc, we hirde a moped again,went and saw different places, elephants but didnt go trekking again as have already done that. went to the hot springs butdidnt go in,as apparently arent that good, saw another war bridge, and saw a waterfall. so it was a good place for visiting things. we were to leave in the morning the next day,but on the way back from our day trip, we saw a place called fuid-so went up this track to find this place some people had told us about, with an outdoor pool-25m and a gym, all u do is pay a pound and u can stay there all day. so we did the next day, and had breackfast and lunch there. greg used the gym very hard, has torn his right pec it still hurts now!i couldnt b bothered, so did some swimming! we had to leave quickly to get the windy windy 3 hour bus journey back. when bak in chiang mai,we went to rent a bike and to do that here,u have to leave ur apssport as a deposit-we always check its locked away tho!and i thought s*** where's my passport???????? we'd left it in Pai.........ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh panic! we are carrying all our documents in a file, passports tickets and insurance. in pai we put the folder under the bed for safekeeping and forgot it.greg had his because of the moped renting. so what to do!?went to tourist info,they tried calling in thai for the guesthouse number-no one had it, rang up somewhere in pai they walked to the guesthouse,gave us the number,then we called, then they checked under the bed-that waiting or the phone to ring was aweful!but they had it, and then a delevery service bought it back and we had it withing 4hours of phoning!!!so now, we make sure we check before we leave a place!!
we had to have something go wrong,but with the bus as wel,we hope things go a bit more smoothly now!!ok i will go now,i write too much!!!
lots of love xxxxxx
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