Intrepid part 1 - Indochina Loop - Thailand

The group
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Monday

Met my 10 new travelling companions for next 29 days - all quite nice and mostly young, recent uni graduates.  Guess I am old enough to be nearly everyone's mother (must remember not to organise them too much!) Had intro chat with our leader Tania/paperwork then went off for meal together to get to know each other. Nice hotel in Chinatown. Went to the local bar (few chairs and tables on street corner!!) for a beer or three.

Tuesday

Morning on long boat traversing the canals of Bangkok. Stopped at a temple to buy loaves of bread - not for our lunch, but to feed the frenzied fish in the canal!  Spent the afternoon at Wat Po temple, followed by excellent massage at the school there.  Took river boat express towards the Kho San Road and had a nice lunch in the 'Secret Garden' frequented by mainly Israelies. Back to hotel to repack and then trundle off to the station to catch the evening sleeper train to Chiang Mai.

sleeper train
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I had been saying to my travelling companions that despite the amount of traffic in Bangkok, there seemed to be few accidents or damaged cars.  Well, I spoke too soon because one of the taxis that arrived to take us to the station made a spectacular stop outside the hotel by crashing into the wall and removing half his front bumper.  Nobody wanted to get into that taxi but my room mate and I said a few prayers and jumped in.  We were convinced it was his first day on the job because he got lost, tried to mow down a couple of motor cyclists and arrived at the station with screeching brakes and opening the boot before we had stopped.  When we paid, he gave us more change than the value of the note we had given him!  They are crazy here.

Feed me, feed me!
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The sleeper train was fun.  We drew lots for the top bunk (thank goodness I got the bottom bunk).  It was clever how the seats turn into beds and the entire carriage became one very long dormitory each bed with its own little privacy curtains and full bedding.  After 14 hours we were woken up with shouts of coffee and then we arrived at our destination rather weary (not too many of us were able to sleep on the train).

Wednesday

No time to chill because as soon as we arrived at our hotel and dumped our bags it was off for the first 'optional activity of the day' - elephant riding.  What an absolutely fantastic but scary experience! We spent an hour on the elephants feeding them bananas - their trunks were like vacuum cleaners - all suck plus a bit of blow (fact:  elephant snot does not come out of clothing easily).  We were perched two per elephant and riding up and down steep hills in the mud.  You should see the size of their footprints! Saw one or two flip flops in the mud - guess their owners had to hop home.

footprints in the mud
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We left the elephant sanctuary (not exploitation because they had been rescued from street entertainers and no longer have to walk the streets of Bangkok in the heavy traffic.  Also, elephants are no longer used for logging) for a wet activity next.

We spent a couple of hours bamboo rafting on river - got soaked but had fun. We were in threes with a local guy punting up front.  Our rear punter was a girl who is in the navy back home and we were teasing her about her sea training (would have been really funny if she had fallen in!)

Feeding the fish at the temple
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Lunch was in a market place where our guide explained what all the weird and wonderful concoctions were.  I played it safe with eggs and rice.  Funny how the guide didn't eat with us but was later seen coming out of KFC!!

Came back to hotel to shower and change and then off to a temple high up in the mountains.  It has the most spectacular views over Chiang Mai.  We had a guide who explained about Bhuddism and we saw the monks chanting.  We had our fortunes told by choosing a Chinese stick with a number (mine said I need to be more organised ??!!!).  Next we were taken for a private audience with a senior monk.  When we went into his mini temple, it looked like he was knitting .  It turns out he was plaiting cotton threads to make bracelets.  Anyway, he said a few prayers, sprinkled us with holy water, blessed us and gave out the bracelets which we have to keep tied to our left hand for minimum of three days.  After 3 days we can take them off but only until day 7 - after that we have to keep them on till they fall off!

Bill
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That evening went went shopping in the night bazaar with all the usual tourist tat (more expensive than Bangkok although I did buy a couple of things)  Then our guide suggested we go for an evening of Mai Thai.  I said "great, count me in I love cocktails".  Bit disappointed when we got there and it was Thai kick boxing!!!

Thursday

Left our hotel in Chiang Mai and spent 6 hours travelling in mini buses to Chiang Khong on the Laos border.  My turn for the single room tonight.  There are 3 of us in the group who are 'single' (don't worry Tom, that means we are just not with friends/boyfriends on this trip!!) and we take it in turn to double up/single room each night. Spending time in this internet cafe as there is another spectacular storm and deluge of rain going on outside.  Dinner at 7pm then early night as we leave early tomorrow for boat trip down the Mekong River into Laos.