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Had a brilliant few days in Chiang Mai - was a long journey getting here (although we were on a double decker bus with only 5 others) but were finally met off the bus at 6 in the morning by our Guest House owner Dong which was a relief, drove past loads of flooding on the way up here, all you could see of some houses were their roof tops, was really bad. All knackered and achey so have a sleep until midday. Go to the Saturday night market in the evening, Sian and Matt stay for abit then go back (Matt is abit sick of night markets by now!). I wondered around for abit then headed down one of the side alleys where i came to a monastery - to cut a long story short I went in and ended up being blessed by a monk!it was so surreal I kept expecting Alan and Phil to turn up from Hangover 2! so feeling very cleansed now haha!
The next morning we left on our jungle trek. First stop was a butterfly farm which was abit random as no-one we spoke to had signed up to go there! then we went to a local market so the guide could buy the food we needed for the jungle. On our tour there were about 25 people, some were doing 2 days 1 night and we were doing the longer trek of 3 days 2nights. Had some really cool people in our group, quite a few English who were really friendly. Get into the jungle and about to start the trek when it poured with rain - everyone instantly got their ponchos and cagoules out but the tour guides - chang and pot set off topless with flip flops on and change was smoking a massive joint! Trekked for most of the afternoon, was a struggle going uphill and in the heat but amazing views so well worth it. Get to the hill tribe camp early evening and have freezing cold showers as no electricity - we were 3500ft up, above the clouds, you couldnt get much more back to nature! Watch an amazing sunset then sit out on the balcony of our hut and the whole group drink chang beer for the evening and eat green curry by candlelight. The guides were out of it on god knows what pretty early on and chang got the guitar out and started singing 'Country Road' and challenging people to arm and leg wrestles which was all really random but hilarious!
On Monday morning the group split in 2 and we were left 11 people doing the longer tour. Say goodbye to Steve, Zac, Josh and Luli who we got on really well with. Trek down to a lush waterfall and have a swim then head for the elephant camp where we were staying for the 2nd night. Was absolutely pouring down as we walked back through the jungle and Pot our guide was starting to panic abit about us crossing the river up to our waists as the water was getting faster and faster. Sian fell in at one point and I slide down a hill on my bum, so was lovely and muddy as well as soaked! Got to the camp and find our room is right by the river, no door on the hut so very loud when it came to going to bed. Had met a Israeli Canadian Alex so spent alot of time with him,he taught us a new card game so spent most of the evening playing it by candlelight (as again no electricity) and went to bed after a few Changs each as the 'bar' closed because we were the only ones still up as usual!
Having breakfast on Tuesday morning, all the elephants from the camp started to come down the hill. There was a gorgeous baby one and he came straight over to us and then tried to get involved in the volleyball game the locals were playing! Had an elephant ride on Booton with Alex along the river and took photos of Sian and Matt on theirs then we did white water rafting which was really good. We had our picture taken like in Thorpe park but i didnt see the women as had water in my lense so the picture is ruined by me having my eyes closed! We floated in the river afterwards as the current was so strong which was well nice and then headed back to chiang mai, went out for bit of a slap up dinner in the evening as felt we deserved it after 3 days of trekking! Next day we had booked to do jungle flight - abseiling and zip wiring - longest zip wire was 300m - had really nice guides, none of us thought to take our cameras for the morning as thought we would go back to lockers before the afternoon so didnt get any photos which was a shame, bit of a hairy journey up there, the driver didnt slow down round corners, just beeped the horn to warn oncoming cars! I went to night bizarre with luli and alex in the evening, saw a dog kill and eat a rat on the street, it was really disturbing although then managed to have traditional Israeli dinner then walked back in the pouring rain.
This morning we left Chiang Mai and headed for the Laos border, we travelled most of the day, stopping off at Cashew Nut factory and then stopped off at the White Temple which was really amazing. They were still finishing off the inside illustrations. There were some really random stuff painted on the walls like Michael Jackson and spiderman, the puppet from saw, matrix man, Batman - there was no information written about it so not sure what that was all about, also there was a meditating monk in the temple, we debated for ages whether he was real or not before checking with someone who worked who told us he was wax. Got to our hotel in Chiang Khong which is really lovely, went for a wander along the Mae Khong River then came back for a swim in the pool. Up early in the morning to get the slow boat to Laos which will be interesting im sure!
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