Chiang Mai, Thailand 16.4.02

Thailand’s great. It’s full of temples, happy smiley people, the sun shines loads and everything is cheap, cheap - which is why I’m still here and not back home in England! I still keep banging my head everywhere I go though! Here’s what I’ve been up to for the last month…

Following the Grand Prix in Malaysia I found a girl called Ali from London back in the hostel who Nick and I played drinking games with in Fiji seven months ago ( 100 shots in 100 minutes – Nick was sick! ) I hooked up with her and her friend Liz and headed into Southern Thailand where I found my old Dutch mate Scarecrow in Hat Yai who joined the three of us in exploring the islands and beaches.

First stop was Krabi which was really nice and very scenic with giant limestone mountains dominating the skyline. We found a nice cheap hotel with a rooftop beer garden – what more do you need?! From here we took a day trip to James Bond Island where they filmed the Man with the Golden Gun before heading over to Ko Pee Pee (my preferred spelling.) We spent a few more lazy beach days there and also visited ‘ The Beach’ ( from the film) which isn’t all that special.

Next stop was Phuket which was pleasant enough then we got a minibus over to Surat Thani and Ko Samui. We had quite a gang up at our place in Samui including a girl I used to go to school with! Over on Ko Phan Ngan we found a fantastic quiet little bay with a great beach and its own dope field at the back (let me know if you need a map…). The infamous Full Moon Party was attended along with the other 8000 or so spaced out travellers with their bongo drums, Red Bull T-shirts, stringy hair and tattoos! I am now one of them and happily walk around in silly pyjamas!

Having had enough beach life, Ali and I headed north to Bangkok which was as hot as hell and jammed with traffic. We took in the Grand Palace before booking a 3 day trip to Kanchuburi which was fantastic. We stayed by the banks of the River Kwai, firstly in a tree house and then in a hut on the river itself. Our group had all the usual characters, drunken irish girls, fire breathing men from Yorkshire etc; We took a ride on the death railway over the famous bridge which was built by the Allied POW’s who were treated so inhumanely by the Japanese that over twelve thousand of them died during the construction. I did my first ever elephant trek here which would have been a real hair raising experience if I had any. We also spent a great day gliding down the Kwai on a bamboo raft which was followed by an evening drinking and singing songs on the banks of the slowly rising river which managed to claim our passports, wallets, cameras and my phone, sigh! I am now camera and phoneless and the owner of a very soggy passport and wallet!

We then headed north to Chiang Mai which is quite a chilled out place under normal circumstances. These are not normal circumstances. It is Songkran Festival time during which the Thais celebrate the lunar new year. This really has to be seen to be believed as the whole country has gone absolutely crazy throwing water all over each other. You can’t go anywhere by either foot or bike without getting absolutely drenched – it’s fantastic if you ignore the number of road accidents and deaths caused by this.

We did a day’s cookery course where I proved that anything Jamie Oliver can do I can do better and I also had a Thai massage from a blind guy which was heavenly. We also did a 3 day trek to meet and stay with some of the hill tribes which was spoiled a little by some of the group, including myself, going down with food poisoning. Its not much fun walking up and down hills all day, washing in streams and sleeping on cold hard floors surrounded by noisy pigs and chickens when you feel like crap and can’t eat anything I can tell you! We did some more elephant trekking and bamboo rafting too although these rafts were just a few sticks tied loosely together! All in all it was a good trip and it’s certainly one I shall remember!

So when are you going to stop messing around in Asia and come home then Rich? Erm, well not just yet! I’m off to the Peoples Republic of Laos tomorrow and will probably have a quick butchers at Cambodia and Vietnam whilst I’m here (it’d be rude not to) so I’ll see ya when I see ya!

Rich.