So I'm currently in Vang Vieng in Laos and I just heard about this uncovered terrorist plot on UK to US flights. I HATE TERRORISTS, THEY ARE ASSHOLES! Ok, that's all I have to say about that.
Man, I really wanna update about Laos, but I know I've gotta do the Chiang Mai update so here it goes:
Last Tuesday we arrived in Chiang Mai which is one of the biggest cities in northern Thailand. Our guesthouse was really nice, it had a pool and a really cute restaurant/porch area. We went that night to the night market. During a stop in a cafe it started pouring, which therefore ruined our night and sent us home early. No worries though as we had a 4 person room for the night so it was still good.
On Wednesday, we walked around the neighborhood for a bit. We decided to have a chilled out day rather than sightsee more temples so we just went back to the guesthouse and swam and headed out for the night. We went to this road of bars and stayed in one which was a Thai reggae/rasta bar. Kind of strange seeing a Thai band with dreads play Bob Marley but it was okay. Lucy ate a fried cricket which was probably the highlight of the night (still don't have photos up yet.) This was probably the beginning of the worst 24 hours of the trip for me though during which I cried for about 17 hours of it. I had massive PMS combined with a call to my boyfriend followed by a group argument adding up to me not going to sleep until 4:00 am and then having to wake up for our jungle trek around 7:30 the next morning.
We headed about an hour outside of Chiang Mai to do another elephant trek for about 45 minutes. Laura and I shared a seat on top of our starving elephant. These elephants were sucking bananas out of our hands with their trunks before you could even blink. Literally two seconds after we'd feed it one (it would lift its trunk over its head to get it from us), the trunk would be right back us again, and if you didn't feed it, it would start prodding you and other passengers with it's trunk. Quite funny but annoying after a while.
Next came the trek on which Mairead did not join us as she had a massive Thai whiskey hangover. Lucky her because this trek was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, no joke!! Laura and I wanted to quit after the first ten minutes. It was like straight uphill walking but with no break because everyone was going so fast. The flat parts were fine (despite having to walk on tiny little muddy ledges over massive ravines) but the uphill seriously killed me. We stopped at one waterfall to "shower" and the walking was probably only about 2 1/2 hours in total on the first day but as most of it was uphill I seriously wanted to die. By the time we reached our hut, Mairead simply asking me how the trek was caused me to start crying (intended discreetfully and hopefully a bit successful) inside my mosquito net for the next hour. I was so exhausted from the walk and drained from everything the night before that I contemplated staying in the Karen village and not ever leaving. I felt so miserable that I was still fighting (and not succeeding well that time) at holding back tears at the dinner table and then I was still so upset that I couldn't bring myself to join in the group activities till an hour after everyone started playng games, etc. After that rest I felt a bit better so I attempted to participate. Everyone was so nice, there were about 12 of us (some English, Danish, Dutch, Swiss, Canadian) plus our leader Bond and his helpers who were smoking their brains out. We played some drinking games (though I wasn't drinking) in which if you mess up you get a "black pancake" - which is the black grease from the bottom of the barbeque smudged all over your face (of course me being my typical self was the last one to avoid getting dirtied, and even that was because everyone threw all the beer cans at me at the end of the game since I hadn't messed up at all - can't wait to post photos of that.) The hut we slept in was so cool - it was a bamboo hut elevated all on wooden poles overlooking the entire jungle and mountains. We had mosquito nets which gave it a romantic setting (well, at least I thought so), I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was going to the toilet during the nigth in the dark with all those crazy dogs howling about.
As I had seriously contemplated joining the 2 day trekkers the next day (ours was 3 day), I thought that this was the hardest thing I'd ever done and I didn't want to disappoint myself from giving up so easily so I stayed on schedule. The second day only consisted of 8 of us and I'm glad I stuck to it because it was ten times easier than the first. We did a lot of uphill for the first half hour but our group wasn't as fast that day so it was easier and more relaxed. We had a two hour lunch (which I helped cook) and then did my favorite part of the trek which was deeper in the jungle with lots of up and down muddy steps (thank you Oasis for providing me with a catalogue of songs to sing in my head to help get me through it.) No strange animal spottings surprisingly, we saw a horned spider which was okay but I actually couldn't care less about touching or walking into bugs as I was too nervous about slipping down the steep slopes and was way too busy concentrating on that. We finished literally 2 1/2 hours earlier than we were told we would which was the best news I had heard all week (seriously.) This time we slept in a smaller hut lower to the ground but next to a waterfall. After singing campfire songs and having a gay ole time, we played Chairs which is basically I Have/I Never and if you've done something that agrees with what the person standing said you have to get up and find another seat, but one seat is missing so if you are left standing it's your turn. It was a bit difficult because we did it on the benches surrounding the campfire and we kept getting smoke in our eyes but it was really fun and I felt ten times better than I did the night before.
After a kickass french toast breakfast on Saturday morning, the hike was even shorter than the previous days (but still a bit difficult for me as it was mostly downhill so I was basically running down the mountains the whole time.) We had a final waterfall stopover and then did bamboo rafting, which was a slight bit wilder than the one we did in Kanchanaburi. After arriving back in Chiang Mai, I got myelf a $2 manicure (yeah, it's off already) and had a group dinner with our new trek friends. We all went out that night back to that reggae bar, but Noelle the Canadian and I ditched the place for a bit to get a Thai massage. Man do those hurt! The woman was prodding me so hard with her fingers/elbows in the back that I wanted to scream, while at the same time tickling me that I wanted to explode with laughter. She also stepped on my legs which felt really good but I think I've decided I'm more of a hand/head massage person (though for $4 the hour massage was definitely worth it.)
We went to one other bar afterwards which was more of a rock bar. Some scary youngish yet stylish Thai guy with long hair named "Boy" and his friend "Sing" were really creeping me out. Boy was hitting on me (particularly laughable is this line - Boy: "Why don't you speak Thai?" Me: "Because I learned Spanish and Italian in school." Boy: "If you had a Thai boyfriend then you could learn Thai." Me: "I have an English boyfriend, sorry." Then Boy told Sing like 5 times that "She is leaving!!!!" I thought they were going to haul me off with them to the Thai mafia headquarters, but we then busted out of there quickly.
Next morning (Sunday), Laura and I headed off to Chiang Khong (Mairead and Lucy went back to Bangkok then on to Hanoi where we'll meet them on Sunday.) There isn't too much to do in Chiang Khong since it's only really the stopover point for getting into Laos so what did we do? Get another Thai massage of course! This one was much better though and felt really good.
On the minivan ride to CK, after having read about the whirlpools, hidden rocks, and fatalities on the Mekong River regarding the speedboat to Laos, and especially after seeing the size of it upon arriving, we immediately switched our plans to take the slow boat. More on that to come in the next chapter of my trip.
Without giving too much away, we're currently in the land of happy (happy meaning anything here with a 'happy' in front of it = drugs in your food.) I don't plan to have any on purpose and am hoping not to have any accidentally You can tune in to find out what happens in Adventures in Laos.
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