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Kath Goes Walkies
Well its taken a week but we've finally sat down in an internet cafe so can update on all our adventures. Feels like we've been here ages already, we've managed to sleep somewhere different almost every night including a night on a train and one in the jungle! Spent first couple of days looking around the sights of Bangkok - Jim Thompson's House (an architect who had a very interesting Thai-style house), Wat Po where we saw the amazing reclining buddha, Grand palace and Wat Arun. We also managed to fit in a little look round the shops, a meal in Chinatown and a very interesting show in Patpong involving bananas, eggs and ping pong balls - surprisingly women outnumbered men in the audience by about 5 to 1 mostly uttering 'how is that possible?'. Thoroughly templed out, fed up with the ever persistant tuk tuk drivers and in need of escape from busy Bangkok, we got the overnight train to Chiang Mai. We decided not to stay long in Chiang Mai so we 'did' the night bazaar that night, resisting persistently every bargain that was offered, and then got a minibus to Pai (further North) the next day. A very good decision, we loved the laidback way of life in Pai and everyone was really friendly (and there are no tuktuks!). However, we've just arrived back in Chiang Mai after the least laidback 4 days possible!! The night we arrived we investigated trekking, rafting and elephant riding before we even allowed ourselves dinner. By the time we were sitting down with our pad thai and chang, we'd signed ourselves up for an 8 hour trek to the mountain villages, 2 days rafting, and an elephant ride (which we crammed in this morning before returning to Chang Mai for our flight down to Krabi tomorrow.) The trek was unexpectedly hard work and involved a very steep hill which must have lasted about 40 mins and rock hopping up a river. We were treated to lunch in one of the hill tribe villages and got to explore a very large, very dark cave. The rafting was fantastic - we went with a group of 19 people and it had rained all night so the rapids were great! One boat had a fairly hairy experience which left them a bit shaken up but our crew managed to keep the boat upright the whole way. We spent the night in huts in the jungle and showered in an amazing shower made by funnelling water from the river with bamboo. Elephant riding was certainly an experience which we both enjoyed even getting thrown off into the river several times! So after all that sweat, mud and water - we've just left almost the entire contents of our rucksacks at the laundry! That's the trip so far....Off to the beach tomorrow :) hopefully for some sunshine and not all rain! Jo xoxo
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