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Hi, we've done so much since the last entry it's hard to know where to start....Basically after Bangkok we travelled up to Kanchanaburi which was a little town about 2 hours away from Bangkok which is next to the River Kwai. We stayed in a nice little guest house here where Graham had a room which was floating on the river (cheapest option for a tight ass like him!). Pretty funny as it was bobbing up and down quite a lot whenever a boat passed and he gets travel sick easily. Didn't turn out to be a problem though and we had an excellent view of the sunset each night over the river from outside his room.
Did a couple of good tours from here, the first to a tiger temple where monks raise orphaned or injured tigers on the grounds of their temple and because they are supposedly so mellow due to the buddhist upbringing then you can actually walk amongst them and sit next to them stroking them whilst having pictures taken. Pretty scarey experience all the same as there are at least 10 big tigers for you to walk amongst so even when you think you're relatively safe with one, there are still more right behind you and all around as you walk. One started getting a bit restless when we were there and was roaring so it puts doubts into your mind as to the safety but no injuries to report - just some good photos!
So that was a cool trip on our first day there and the next day we had an unexpected private chauffer to take us all around the area including a nice waterfall where you could swim etc, a memorial museum to the prisoners of war that built the railroad from Burma through Thailand for the Japanese during the 2nd WW which was really interesting and set in the grounds of some of the track so we could walk around, then elephant trekking and bamboo rafting where Michael and Graham decided to get off the raft and float down the river instead, Not for me as the water was completely brown and uninviting but they liked it! Also got to ride on some of the railway and ended the day at the 'Bridge over the River Kwai' so another good trip.
However, we then went to Changmai and have just got back from an even better trip where we went on a 3 day trek around the mountain areas to see minority villages. Some of the trekking was pretty hard going in the heat but well worth it. The accommodation was pretty basic to say the least.....bamboo stilt room for 10 of us with the thinest excuses for mattresses you can imagine and a few itchy blankets to keep warm in the freezing cold temperatures which we did not expect up there! Top that with freezing cold showers in shack bathrooms with no electricity anywhere and you've got yourself a fun 3 days! No, it was good fun and it made it more authentic to live how the locals do so we enjoyed it. What i did not enjoy so much however where the thousands of terantulas all around (only saw baby ones mind you but that was because i was making a conscious effort not to look for the fully grown ones!). Also saw a poisenous snake as we were walking underneath it on a branch so that was fun!
On the second day we did an excellent elephant trek through the jungle with two baby elephants walking alongside their mums and yesterday we finished the trek with some bamboo rafting. Unfortunately i had no choice but to go on a raft with Michael and Graham so got completely soaked the entire journey and pushed in twice, actually one of the times was by someone else in our group trying to rip apart our raft - not another boy but a 36 year old Canadian lady there on holiday with her husband with 2 kids at home and they both got a bit carried away! Good fun.
We are now in Pai which is a small rather crusty village in the mountains near the Burma border. Although we are clearly not crusty like most other people here, it is a really nice place so we are going to stay a few nights. It's Michaels' birthday today and we've just done a Thai cooking class so are completely stuffed and will need to eat for the rest of the day, such nice food here and like everywhere we've been so far, sooo cheap!
Considering doing a 2 day white water rafting trip maybe the day after tomorrow but not sure about that yet as it will mean sleeping rough in the jungle again and although it was fun, the novelty may have worn off! That's my only concern, Michael's concern is that the rapids are not as fierce now as they are at certain times of the year because it's the dry season - for me that's a good thing!
After that and doing another excrsion to see the minority women who have stretched necks with gold rings around them (!) then we will be going into Laos for a couple of weeks...
Bye for now
xxx
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