Currently we're on a train down south to Krabi and Ao Nang - a nice 13 hour train journey overnight, after doing a 14 hour bus ride last night from Chiang Mai to Bangkok - literally going from North to South in just over a day. I got zero sleep last night as you can imagine, buses aren't the most condusive to a good nights sleep - even with some Xanex and a hangover! But I've a few hours to kill before I try and sleep so I thought I'd give a quick update.
So we landed in Bangkok last Monday after a decent enough flight. Getting out of the taxi in the middle of Bangkok is a moment worth savouring for anyone going there for the first time - a literal sensory overload as sights, sounds and smells bombard every fraction of your first few tentative steps. Kao San Road - the backpacker haven is just insane...Gareth and I went walking down and we were just amazed with the variety of stalls, people and down right mayhem! the logical thing was to go for drinks so we hit a bar and low and behold the first two people we start talking to are two Irish girls from Rathfarnham! You can't get away from them! Really nice girls though and we quickly got locked into a bucket drinking race with them - of which there was never going to be a winner! A bucket of whiskey, red bull and coke for 250 Baht (€6ish). The night quickly became fuzzy with slight recollections of dancing on a catwalk in a club and running away from tuk tuk drivers full of hookers. We did have one tuk tuk driver who managed to pull a wheely with four of us in the back - very impressive if not just a little scary!
The next day we took an overnight train up to Chiang Mai and actually had a lot of fun on it - meet a New Zealand couple and two English girls - one of whom had a hilarious story about have two bum cracks after an accident involving alot of drink...racous dancing....and broken glass on the dancefloor...amazing! We stayed, at the advice of Dee, in Julie's Guesthouse in Chiang Mai and it was some of the best advice I've been given - such a great place - ideal for getting to know random other travellers and at just over €2 a night, a bargain too! almost straight away we got chatting to a variety of different travellers - the standard questions out of the way first
- Where are you from?
- Where have you been?
- Where are you going?
Went out for drinks that night with a few people and ended up rocking out to some Thai cover band who were actually really good! The next day we met a Thai man from Phuket who informed us that he was the biggest coconut farmer in all of the south islands and after telling him we were heading there in a few weeks he got very excited and insisted we call him when we are down there and he will show us around - which at first glance you might think is odd but the warmth and friendliness of the Thai people is simply amazing - we were quite skeptical when we were approached the first few times by locals but they genuinely just wanted to chat, give us some tips about what to see and ask us about our travels. One man in particular, Chai, took an hour out of his day to sit with us in a temple telling us about Buddhism and how to pray correctly and all the customs - amazing!
After one particularly bruising session Gareth and I decided to just chill for the day, read, write, hang out in the hostel chatting to other back packers. I got talking to these wonderful people from Portland, Oregan - two separate couples who had just met here, a dutch girl and a german - we spent the day playing Presidents and Assholes (a card game I originally thought I was good at but was wrong!). One of the americans, called Marty, was a complete ringer for Seth Rogan (except with dark hair) in sight and mannerisms - spent the whole day just laughing at each other. We heard that an Irish guy was fighting in a Muay Thai boxing match that evening - and for anyone who doesn't know what it is - youtube it - its vicious, and the Thais are pretty damn good at it! We didn't give him much hope but said we'd go along to support anyways! Turns out its just as vicious as it looks online - the first match was between two 7 year olds, and they BATTERED each other - one getting knocked out in the third. The main event was a eagerly anticipated and he came out that wonderful national anthem of ours...Drop Kick Murphys! And four rounds in the Irish guy was giving the Thai a good thumping but he was still standing - then, just coming up to the end of the fifth the Thai can no longer go on, absolutely out on his feet - the Irish had won!! He had to be fairly carried out of the ring himself though too!!
We decided to book a 3 day jungle trek then for 3 days - where you head into the Chiang Mai hills with a guide and stay up in local tribal villages for two nights, trekking during the day and elephant riding, white water rafting and bamboo rafting. All for only €37! We had a group of 13 of us and a guide call Moonchai - and thankfully the group turned out to be a really great bunch of people, we all got on so well - I had met some of them on previous nights boozing so that helped break the ice - a good bunch of nationalities between Irish, English, Canadian, Dutch, Danish and Australian. I can't even put in words how amazing the trek was - an 8km trek uphill in 36 degree heat through heavy jungle mighn't sound all that fun, and at tim
es it wasn't but it was worth it for the views at the end of the first day as we sat in our bamboo hotel sipping beers, overlooking the North Thailand hills. Moonchai regalled us with stories of the local tribes people - their heritage and how they came about being there, fanscinating stuff. The next day was easier trekking downhill and we stopped off at a few beautiful little villages and stunning waterfalls to cool off in. We were staying that night in another bamboo hut further into the jungle. That night our guide cracked out the local moonshine - a ferocious tasting thing but after just a few each we were all feeling the effects - coupled with some beers the drinking games started......ooooooh whats the name of the f**king game....aswell as your standard camp fire singing - spent the whole night laughing as everyone spun a story or two - one of the highlights being English Ste's response to a break up text from a girl...
Girl - "Steve, I don't think its working"
Steve - "Your tvs broken too, ah shit one"
There were a few sore heads in the morning, namely 49 year old Paul's who had puked in the middle of the night! The last day was spent white water rafting down the MaeThong River and then floating along on a 18 foot bamboo raft of which I, for some unknown reason, was given the control of. And by control of I mean all I had was a long piece of bamboo to try and steer the monster raft out of the rocks and banks...crashed only once! Who needs a drivers licence eh?? That night, when we got back to the hostel we had decided to host the first annual Chiang Mai Kris Kindle where we're each given a name of someone in the group and with a limit of 100 Baht (€2.50) go to the night market and buy the person something ridiculous that they would then have to wear out that night - I got Canadian Steve a pair of obnoxiously yellow cotton shorts which did the trick - I was given a Vietnamese rice paddy hat by Jonas but the winner was the tight girls v-neck t-shirt with a glittery union jack flag on it given to Gareth by Ross because of the English-Irish abuse all week. We went out that night and made bits of Chiang Mai!
So Gareth and myself decided the next day to bail down to the islands in time to meet Marty and Brooke again in Krabi and then explore the islands in time for the Full Moon Party. Sad to see everyone go their own directions but thats the backpacking way I suppose - we will be meeting some later along the way though. So here I am now, on the upper bunk of a rickety train en route to the sunny south - honestly cannot wait to chill on the beaches for awhile. Sorry if this has been long - fair play to ya for reading it but I did warn you that we have gotten through a lot in one week!
More adventures to come...
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