So, Vickie and I had been dying to get into bed but of course once we saw the room we had to make full use of the facilities and ended up crawling into bed at 7.30am so getting up for brekkie at10 was a little emotional but I'm glad to say completely worth it!! The choice was amazing, fry up, cereal (euw), pastries, smoked salmon.... not to mention the fact that Mum and Dad were there of course!!! lol (I don't want anything don't worry!!)
We left the hotel intending to visit the Grand Palace but the taxi driver informed us it was closed - this is a popular scam so we asked for that area anyway! He dropped us off at a pier and said we had to get a boat the rest of the way. Fun as the boat trip was with the couple of floaty market stalls we saw, this was totally not true!! Doh. We had a quick look around some markets on the other side and met a tourist policeman who was really irritating at first but proved to be extremely useful and we loved him. It was infact true that the Grand Palace was closed but this was a good thing as another place (where none of us know where it was) was open for one day only and that happened to be today - this is actually true - it only opens one day a year to tourists and I think I remember rightly that the King had prayed there that morning??!!! So, we enjoyed a look around this very special temple guided by an ex-monk (he had to quit to look after his parents) whose boss then came over and repeated everything he'd told us with the monk calmly nodding behind him adding 'like I told you' lol. my favourite monk quote was 'to forgive is good but to forget is better' gotta love Buddism. He then informed us that 1 day every 33 years, the ruby factory/shop is open to everyone an we could buy at wholesaler prices and guess what.... that day was today!! You've gotta be able to trust a monk right?! This was confirmed on arrival as we learnt all about rubies and saw some being polished and set.
Later, we went for a swim at the hotel and then went out for dinner.

Next day, we made it to the Grand Palace and were showed around by tong (means 'gold' in Thai) who was hilarious!!He told some terrible jokes then laughed like Austin Powers, you couldn't help but laugh (even when he was being serious...Mum!!!) haha.
After that we went to Kanchanaburi. Dad had found a lovely resort to stay in with floating bungalows, karaoke, massage... We got there and it was in the middle of nowhere and nothing was running as we were the only guests staying there!! It was pretty funny. We came to the conclusion that everyone must be on a 2 day tour and tomorrow would be livelier so we thought we'd do best to book a tour aswell. We picked one out and looked forward to meeting lots of people on our bus next day....The resort had called in a taxi to do the tour so they never booked us on the proper one!!! Doh It turned out to be ok though as we got to see everything in the tour and pretty much got what the tour included.
We went to a cave by the side of the railway but unfortunately our English speaking guide was not so English speaking and just pointed which way to walk and left us too it so, we got to the cave and weren't really sure what to do with oursleves! lol It was a cool cave though with Buddha inside and everything!! Next was the POW museum and Hellfire Pass where we learnt about what the prisoners went through to build the railway and got to walk along some of it, it was really surreal and emotional. It's called the Hellfire Pass because of the candles that were used when the men worked after dark and also the hellish conditions of work of course. We cooled off at Erawan falls but we had to work to get there - there are 7 levels, we made it to the 3rd! We didn't fully submerge as the fish were MASSIVE and appeared to like the taste of feet for some reason and also the monkeys came for our bags, cheeky!!! The tour ended at the Death Railway, we had a walk along it, over the river kwai then prepared ourselves to return to the crowds of people who'd be back at the resort after their tours.....desserted again!!! doh haha
We had a bit of a challenge next morning to get a taxi to the bus station but eventually got there and found a bus to take us to Bangkok for an overnight train to Chiang Mai.
We travelled first class airconditioning darling and weren't allowed to but the beds up ourselves or anything - for good reason it turned out! Vickie and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to put it up and couldn't figure out why it was stuck much to mum and dad's amusement!!
3 hours later then scheduled, we arrived in Chiang Mai and were met by Noots who took us to the hotel and arranged all our trips for us then we had a lovely relaxing afternoon by the pool before our first experience of Thai boxing.
We arrived at the location which despite our doubts, Dad successfully managed to frogmarch us to the right place and we were lead to a table by a lovely ladyboy and properly looked after all evening. It was great and actually the boxing wasn't too brutal to watch and the entertainment in between matches by the ladyboys was pretty funny. We decided we'd stayed long enough when they started taking their tops off and poledancing though! hahaha. Next day we chilled out until the evening when we hit the crazy sunday markets - they're MASSIVE!!! So much stuff to buy, it was torture.
Our first trip was a 2 day hike up into the hills. Mum and Dad did a day elephant trekking, tiger cuddling and ox cart riding which looked great fun. Vickie and I got up with plenty of time to spare for brekkie and to pack before our 9.30 pick up but the phone rang at 10 to saying the tour was outside!!! ARGH we quickly rushed around clearing the room like lunatics and ran out to meet them apologising for getting the wrong time but all they wanted was our passports!! Seriously....could they not have said that on the phone????
!st stop was the orchard farm where they make jewellery out of real orchids - pretty impressive. They also randomly had dangerous dogs there. We went to the hill tribe market where we saw people from the long neck tribe - wierd. we got to try on part of the neck thing they wear, just the front half and that on it's own was crazy heavy. They start wearing them at 5 years old and never take them off!! We went to a snake show put on by guys with a death wish. On caught a cobra in his mouth and to show it still had venom, milked it afterwards! Another jumped into a massive pool with a full grown python - absolute nutters I tell you.
After that we trekked for about 3 hours up into the hills to the tribe that we would stay with. On arrival, I lost my Orchid and a couple of braceletts to some pleading children and then we were shown to our little hut and went to socialise around the table with the children who loved a leg and a wing and clapping games, it was great. I saw the most amazing sunset over Burma because I was chasing a couple of kids but didn't have time to get the camera unfortunately. We had a yummy dinner and then played lots of cards before hitting the hay.
Vickie and I left the group next morning as they were 3 day trekking and we were only 2. Our guide made us bamboo walking sticks to help us down and we made our way to a seriously cold waterfall that we had to get in for the sake of a photo of course!!! It was definitely as cold as mossmans gorge in Oz! WE met a new group for the elephant trek and white water rafting. We just basically went round the block on the elephant but it was great being that close to them and interacting with them. They do actually make the trumpeting noise aswell and it's REALLY loud!!!!
White water rafting was pretty funny as the river was way to low so we (well, the boys) had to keep getting out and moving us off the rocks. Next was the bamboo raft where again the boys were put to work paddling us girlies the rest of the way down the river for lunch and then we returned to Chiang Mai to Ma and Pa who had had an excellent time playing with tigers and elephants and riding ox carts and boats wearing silly hats!! haha.
Later, we discovered a little restaurant place, Riva, with live music. The first band we saw was really cute and played some awesome music so we kind of followed them a bit for the rest of the week!!
We spent the next day looking around 3 of the temples in Chiang Mai. In the first one there was a monk meditating and was so still that Vickie and I thought he must be a wax work. Dad, on the other hand, was adament that he'd seen the monk move and not to be so silly, as if there would be a wax work!!! Guess what....it was a wax work!! Hahahaha we then saw the samewax work at all the others so that joke lasted all day and of course never got old!
That night, we went to the Thai cultural evening where we sat on the floor (mum and dad were given dwarf stools) round a tiny table and ate yummy food that they kept refilling untill we just couldn't take anymore. We were treated to a show of traditional dance whilst we ate and then Vickie and I had a go at walking around the floor trying to do impossible hand trick things looking great of course!! We then moved to a barn for the hill tribe dancing. There was a really funny with a peacock lady and a lama (like a panto horse) that danced around the fire and then the lama tried to eat Mums leg!! haha There was this gorgeous little boy about 2 years old who came trotting on with one of the tribes and he totally stole the show, he knew the dance aswell, so cute! We of course finished the night at Riva!
After hearing Mum and Dad talk about Tiger Kingdom, Vickie and I just couldn't help ourselves so got a tuk tuk over to play with 5 21 month old sisters who were MASSIVE!!! And not even fully grown! I got a couple of smacks on the bum by the odd tail and they really have some strength. We were able to lie our heads on the tigers and stroke them, it was really amazing. We walked around the rest of the park and watched other people playing with baby tigers and then back to our girls again who had a pretty nervous couple in with them as they were play fighting - think I wouold've been a bit nervous too!! Definitely not drugged!!!! After that we went to Monkey School where we played with a baby monkey and then watched some monkey tricks. We weren't all that impressed with how they were treated though unfortunately.
We all went to a really yummy Italian restaurant and then went to the night bazaar which was even crazier than the sunday market, don't think we made it round everything.
Cooking class was brilliant, the girls were really friendly and took us round the markets first to look at different products and explain what you would buy for different dishes then we had a look around their herb garden. We learnt to cook 7 dishes each (including curry paste) and got to eat them all aswell so by the end of the day we could barely move!! We all tried like 1 spoon of our soups but Vickie got hers doggy bagged and it looked like puke!! haha they actually put it in a clear plastic bag like you buy pet fish in! (She didn't take it). We also got given our very own cook books, yay!!I know my lovely siblings are just dying to sample my thai cooking skills and if I do say so myself, I'm actually pretty good at this!! lol

After sleeping off all that nosh Vickie and I hit the markets again and then met Mum and Dad at you know where (Riva!).

It was an early start with pick up at 6am for Vickie and I to zip through the jungle on deadly zip wires for the Flight of the Gibbons. We went back upto the mountains to meet our group and get harnessed up. We learnt a bit about the Jungle and listened out for gibbons (didn't see any sadly) and took turns to fly, we had a little bungy style zip, I honeymoon zip and a spiderman zip to name but a few. The safety was British Governed so it wasn't really that scary but it was a good laugh. The Israeli girls were scared of heights so they were pretty amusing!! haha After the zipwires we had some lunch and went to a waterfall for a mini trek to the top and some lovely lovely photos and then back to Chiang Mai for our final evening with Ma and Pa. We went back to the Italian as it was just yummy and then of course we could abandon Riva!!! Mum and Dad hit the hay as we caught up with the French Canadians from our hill tribe trek and of course smashed them at pool (kind of, could be the other way round!! haha)

We had breakfast with Mum and Dad and then it was goodbye time :-(. It was an awesome 2 weeks though and I'm pretty sure Ma and Pa felt the love tor Thailand!!!

Vickie and I were headed for Chiang Khong - the Thai-Laos boarder in a mini bus with 3 crazy canadian guys with which we talked mostly about Puke and Poo so it was a very pleasant journey!! haha funny though. We also had a Dutch guy - Kees (Caes) who was happy to join in after hearing enough of our stories!There wasn't much in Chiang Khong itself but we did enjoy the view of Laos across the river, very exciting but would it live up to Thailand???

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