Chiang Mai, Thailand - 9th December 2008

Mat cooking spring rolls
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In the morning, after much confusion trying to get a boat across the river at the wrong place, we were taken by tuk-tuk to the Laos border control. It was a strange border as people arriving mix with people who are leaving in the same building. We got stamped out of Laos and went across the river to enter Thailand. We discovered at this point that the mini-buses to Chainf Mai (that take about 4-5 hours) were all full that day so we had to get a local bus. After the tuk-tuk took us to the bus station we discovered we’d missed the 9am bus by minutes. It was 9.15 by this time bus the buses are always late so we must have only just missed it. We had to wander around the town until 11.40am which was annoying. We then got on the bus and it stopped and started at bus stations everywhere. It was ok at first because we could spread out but it got fuller and fuller so we had to be uncomfortable in the small seats made for Thai’s! It took over 7 hours to get to Chaing Mai and by the time we’d got a tuk-tuk into town, found a guesthouse and had food Laura, Topher, Mat and myself were all just ready for bed. In Chaing Mai we spent our first day looking at various Wats and visiting the Night Market which was a good market. I bought some bracelets and we also got some chopsticks that we’d been wanting to buy for ages but hadn’t found the right ones.

Heeeeeeerrrreeeee's Ruth!!!!
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The following morning the four of us went to an all day cooking school. We were a little sceptical at 1^st as what was on offer seemed to be too good to be true. Basically you could cook 6 of any 18 dishes. It turned out to the best cooking class so far. One of the things I learnt to cook was spring rolls... mmm... mm... mmmm can’t wait to make them again. We made so much food that we couldn’t finish it so we got doggie bags to take it home in.

We got home from the cooking school at about 4:30, Ruth had 40 winks and I went to use the internet for a few hours as we were going out at 8 to watch some Thai kick boxing.

Bindfolded boxing....hilarious!!
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Ouch that kick boxing sport is crazy. We arrived nice and early so we could get some good ringside seats, and that we did. After we’d ordered some drinks I was havin a look around to see what was goin off and then realised that all of the staff were lady boys. I’d like to point out that we have no problems with this at all... but I couldn’t stop myself staring. They all looked like women but they were taller than most European women and sound like frank butcher when they talked, well some of them did. We did stop staring after about 30 mins... that was until the cabaret show at the end but i’ll talk about that shortly.

The last fight with the boxer out for the count
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The fighting got under way not long after. Some of the moves them guys pulled were brutal, one guy was kicked right in the family jewels and had to take 2 minutes to recover.... only 2 minutes!!! Out of all the fights we saw my 2 favourites were the exhibition match where 4 guys and a ref get into the ring and boxed blind folded... that was total carnage. The main fight of the evening was the other. Basically the 2 fighters were 2 very competent equally matched boxers who could give a pounding as well as take one... well right up till the 4th round when 1 guy landed an absolute perfect jab on the other guys nose that was the end of that... he hit the ground like a sack of spuds... even after 15 minutes the smelling salts still couldn’t bring him round...

Mat with a nice lady boy
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Anyway, cabaret, OMG.... after they had dragged the unconscious boxer out of the ring all the lights went down and it’s raining men started playin... yes you guessed it 3 members of staff were in the ring with showgirl costumes on with a difference, the difference being the bask finished where the ribcage started... that’s correct the girls were topless. They danced around for 3 songs posed for photos and then the lights came up, that was that... an experience to say the least. Oh yes the K.O ed boxer was still on the floor.