Schools out and its time to do some actual traveling. Here's the thing people who work abroad aren't travelling so please don't say you are because your not!!
•Arrived in Chang mai and met Kaye, Bustin and Larisa. As you would expect I had a list of things I wanted to do and pretty much did all of it! Hit a few Temples followed by lunch in UN Irish bar. After awhile we found the prison massage place. This is were prisoners with sentences under six months train in Thai massage. It was my first one and she didn't hold back, from my facial expression I was clearly shocked at what this women was attempting to do to me! Painful but good. Quick change and than it was a night safari drive near the zoo! This was okay, highlight being so close to giraffes. These were so massive and we were at foot level. Bedtime as a long drive awaited us in the morning.
•Rant - Getting asked the same boring travel questions time and time again. Granted its polite but seriously someone change it up! "Where are you from?" should be replaced with "have you ever shot someone?" or something!
•Pai - I wasn't to wise about Pai but I am delighted the girls knew about it. We decided to drive by bike to Pai. After some Thai inefficiency (we rented bikes and Bustins bike is literally gone with his bag in it, apparently the bike went to get fixed) we got going but before we left the city we got a little bit lost!
The roads to Pai are amazing, dangerous, fun, challenging and very twisty. I had Kaye on the back of mine which meant I had to concentrate especially when it was raining heavily! After the bike incident last month I really didn't want to crash! We got lucky and had lunch at a really well built resort.
With 30km to go I hit a pothole that blew the back tyre out! This is bad news because if the tyre comes off the rim the bike would not be drivable. Kaye hoped on Kayes bike and I painfully nursed my bike the rest of the way!!
Pai reminds me of a small beach village except there is no beach!! We ate a serious amount of food, I was having two main courses for lunch and dinner. The great thing is Kaye is one for a wee bit of flamboyance so I was happily drinking more wine than normal and we ate a few times in trip advisors number one rated restaurant, ..Witches... We rented bikes and saw a waterfall, had a break in some hot springs at a much cheaper rate because we live in Thailand and thanks to Larisa's impressive navigation skills reached the viewing point.
•Zip lining - Keeping to our adventurous schedule we got the van back and made it for zip lining the next day. It was good but not better than Costa Rica. The abseiling made me pretty nervous as I'm no fan of heights! Kaye departed which was a pity, easy person to travel with who has the balance between having a laugh and being serious. Met a solid character from South Africa and Larisa and I went out for Mexican and a few beers in Warm Up - serious music but too packed.
•Next day was a full day of cooking on Sammy's farm, great set up, different, fun, hammocks! Following day Dante Elephant camp were I got to feed, ride bareback and wash some very large elephants! The trainer gave me the largest female, describing her as "she's a little funny"!! Now I have been on horses, donkeys, and camels but this was extremely difficult mainly because my 3 tonne elephant would not stop moving its head which I'm on (no rope or anything like that) and bending down which nearly caused me to fall off over its head!! I was using my legs so much as grip that even three days after I'm very stiff from using muscles that were idle!! Awesome day, great pictures and an elephant stood on a woman's foot, she is okay!
•On the last day Larisa and I got bikes And had a great drive up to Doi ...... temple. The temple as with most "seen one, seen them all"! Good few steps up. After that I said goodbye to a great hostel and a very helpful Pear!! Larisa went to Chang Rai and I went to Bangkok. I would recommend Chang Mai!
•Bangkok/Kanchanburi - Eventually I got to BBK after some stupid logistics on my part. The mission was to make the United vs City game but that never happened! Thankfully. I knew some of the crew were out and despite being wrecked I felt it necessary to join them especially as I may not see certain people again. Turned out to be a good night. At one point I bought shoes so we could get into a club. Worth it. Music in Thailand is amazing! Good night. Kanchanaburi has great history and in fairness its railway museum and bridge are pretty interesting. Basically I rented a bike and drove to the two museums, cemetery and the famous bridge. I was also looking for a Giant tree but after 2hours I didn't find it, I was close, I did come across a random temple carved into the mountain.
•Bangkok - Got back, went to the cinema and than we got on it........lost phone = gutted, good result in the match. Following day I was off to The Thailand Open 2013 in the Impact Arena with one of the girls. I have never been to an official ATP tour event and it didn't disappoint. The seats were very good and some top players played. Had some beers and got two matching t-shirts which wait for it... had our nicknames on the back of them. If that's not cool than what is, obviously meant as a joke!! Pretty much laughed for the whole thing! The adventure to get there was pretty interesting and unexpected!! Google maps said it was 15mins away when in fact it was closer to an hour away...time was very tight so we eventually got two bike taxis to the arena and made it for the second set of the first match, relief!! Interesting taxi ride back and a few drinks with the others some of which were crazy drunk.
That pretty much ends part 1 of the my holidays as its time to head to training and than on to Krabi by bus that should take 11 hours!! Funds are dramatically being reduced!!
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