So it's been a whole week since we have wrote our last blog so we thought we better update everyone on what we have been doing!
In Bangkok we loved the nice hotel so much, we ended up staying an extra night to take advantage of Georgia's cooking, washing, drying and ironing....well it was good for me, not so much for Georgia maybe lol. During the day we visited downtown Bangkok and went straight to the third largest shopping centre in the world with 13 floors and what seemed like hundreds of restaurants.....we ended up in Boots and McDonalds, let us off, the only thing I felt like I could trust and stomach was Chicken nuggets. After walking round for a bit we ended up taking the Skytrain back to the hotel for a lazy evening in the hotel, so we thought. After googling about the famous "ping pong shows" we were a bit put off but we were still interested seeing the lady boys in the red light district and it turned out it was a ten minute walk from the hotel. Instead of watching films in bed, we ended up having a drink in Soi Cowboy red-light district which actually weren't as bad as we thought. It was a bit weird when there were dozens of girls (well we think they were) waiting outside the bars for older white western men to buy them drinks...and the rest lol. We ended up having a beer just people-watching and guessing if they were men or women.
The next day we moved to the other side of Bangkok to the backpackers district, Khao San Road. It's basically a busy street with market stalls, street bars, restaurants and strong beer! This is where we discovered the myth of the "Changover". Chang beer is the main beer in Thailand and only after a couple of beers we discovered that it was 6.4% so a few bottles later we had more than enough. In Khao San Road there were a lot of massage shops, with hundreds of beds on the street where you could get a leg massage We treated ourselves to a foot/leg massage for 100 baht (2 pound) but we headed inside the shop as we thought it was weird having people stare at you having a massage on the street!
So after 4 nights in Bangkok we booked up a package to Chiang Mai which included a 12 hour bus ride, a cheap guesthouse and 2 days trekking! Apart from the bus leaving 90 minutes late, the guesthouse was different to the one we booked and the tour guide picked us up a hour late for the trek; it was very organised.
We got picked up for the trek in a converted pick-up truck with 15 of us crammed onto the back of it and drove 2 hours to the jungle stopping at the markets for lunch on the way. Just before we were about to start our trek there was flashes of lightning and then it started chucking it down. The tour guide seemed excited by this especially when there was hailstones as he was shouting "ice from the sky". Judging by his reaction I think its the nearest they get to snow here!
We were waiting in the shop waiting for the rain to stop, we were peer pressured to buy beer for the trek by a couple of English girls who were drinking Rum from the bottle. So as we started our trek up a 800 metre mountain with beer in hand the rained eased and we asked ourselves how are we going to make it? We were joined on the trek by 5 girls from Bexleyheath, 2 girls from Stoke Newington, 2 Scots who loved Andy Murray, 2 German sisters, 3 French men and a couple of Argentinian boys so we had a good mix of cockneys and internationals!
So after 3 hours of trekking up and over the mountain we arrived at our jungle elephant camp and put our bags in our 20 person tree house. We then went trekking on the elephants around the camp and through the rivers, whilst feeding our elephant bananas but we seemed to have the troublemaker of the group has he casually thought to make it interesting he would go on the edge of a cliff for a laugh! We had the chance to bathe the elephants in the river but was put off because its where they do their toilets in! no thanks.....we just watched the others!
We then all ate together as a group and had the choice of green Thai curry, rice and stir fry. We ended up having a beer or seven after dinner with the others which turned into a little party but I was mainly excited by the fact they had a pool table in the middle of the jungle!
The next day we woke up and drove to the waterfall for lunch where I ended up sliding down a waterfall and lived to tell the tale as Georgia watched on! We headed to a white water rafting centre where we jumped in a rubber dinghy down a pretty boring river, was more like a lazy river which Georgia was relieved about. It didn't stop one of the men cutting his lip open halfway through, with blood pouring everywhere in the dinghy, I had to give him my top to stop the bleeding! We then headed back to Chiang Mai to look for a guesthouse for the night.
The last few days we have just been walking around Chiang Mai, exploring the temples and markets and enjoying our food! We decided to book a Thai cooking school which was always going to be more Georgia's thing than mine, especially as I'm keen on a microwave and oven. We was taught how to cook hot prawn soup, spring rolls, noodles, chicken with cashes nuts, and red thai curry which we got to eat at the end! Georgia enjoyed it has she missed her cooking over the past 3 weeks but I found it stressful if I'm being honest lol.
Right that's enough for now, we are heading to a place called Pai near to the Laos border. At this point we are missing our food and are heading to the Irish bar next door for Pie, Mash and gravy!
James and Georgia xxxx
In Bangkok we loved the nice hotel so much, we ended up staying an extra night to take advantage of Georgia's cooking, washing, drying and ironing....well it was good for me, not so much for Georgia maybe lol. During the day we visited downtown Bangkok and went straight to the third largest shopping centre in the world with 13 floors and what seemed like hundreds of restaurants.....we ended up in Boots and McDonalds, let us off, the only thing I felt like I could trust and stomach was Chicken nuggets. After walking round for a bit we ended up taking the Skytrain back to the hotel for a lazy evening in the hotel, so we thought. After googling about the famous "ping pong shows" we were a bit put off but we were still interested seeing the lady boys in the red light district and it turned out it was a ten minute walk from the hotel. Instead of watching films in bed, we ended up having a drink in Soi Cowboy red-light district which actually weren't as bad as we thought. It was a bit weird when there were dozens of girls (well we think they were) waiting outside the bars for older white western men to buy them drinks...and the rest lol. We ended up having a beer just people-watching and guessing if they were men or women.
The next day we moved to the other side of Bangkok to the backpackers district, Khao San Road. It's basically a busy street with market stalls, street bars, restaurants and strong beer! This is where we discovered the myth of the "Changover". Chang beer is the main beer in Thailand and only after a couple of beers we discovered that it was 6.4% so a few bottles later we had more than enough. In Khao San Road there were a lot of massage shops, with hundreds of beds on the street where you could get a leg massage We treated ourselves to a foot/leg massage for 100 baht (2 pound) but we headed inside the shop as we thought it was weird having people stare at you having a massage on the street!
So after 4 nights in Bangkok we booked up a package to Chiang Mai which included a 12 hour bus ride, a cheap guesthouse and 2 days trekking! Apart from the bus leaving 90 minutes late, the guesthouse was different to the one we booked and the tour guide picked us up a hour late for the trek; it was very organised.
We got picked up for the trek in a converted pick-up truck with 15 of us crammed onto the back of it and drove 2 hours to the jungle stopping at the markets for lunch on the way. Just before we were about to start our trek there was flashes of lightning and then it started chucking it down. The tour guide seemed excited by this especially when there was hailstones as he was shouting "ice from the sky". Judging by his reaction I think its the nearest they get to snow here!
We were waiting in the shop waiting for the rain to stop, we were peer pressured to buy beer for the trek by a couple of English girls who were drinking Rum from the bottle. So as we started our trek up a 800 metre mountain with beer in hand the rained eased and we asked ourselves how are we going to make it? We were joined on the trek by 5 girls from Bexleyheath, 2 girls from Stoke Newington, 2 Scots who loved Andy Murray, 2 German sisters, 3 French men and a couple of Argentinian boys so we had a good mix of cockneys and internationals!
So after 3 hours of trekking up and over the mountain we arrived at our jungle elephant camp and put our bags in our 20 person tree house. We then went trekking on the elephants around the camp and through the rivers, whilst feeding our elephant bananas but we seemed to have the troublemaker of the group has he casually thought to make it interesting he would go on the edge of a cliff for a laugh! We had the chance to bathe the elephants in the river but was put off because its where they do their toilets in! no thanks.....we just watched the others!
We then all ate together as a group and had the choice of green Thai curry, rice and stir fry. We ended up having a beer or seven after dinner with the others which turned into a little party but I was mainly excited by the fact they had a pool table in the middle of the jungle!
The next day we woke up and drove to the waterfall for lunch where I ended up sliding down a waterfall and lived to tell the tale as Georgia watched on! We headed to a white water rafting centre where we jumped in a rubber dinghy down a pretty boring river, was more like a lazy river which Georgia was relieved about. It didn't stop one of the men cutting his lip open halfway through, with blood pouring everywhere in the dinghy, I had to give him my top to stop the bleeding! We then headed back to Chiang Mai to look for a guesthouse for the night.
The last few days we have just been walking around Chiang Mai, exploring the temples and markets and enjoying our food! We decided to book a Thai cooking school which was always going to be more Georgia's thing than mine, especially as I'm keen on a microwave and oven. We was taught how to cook hot prawn soup, spring rolls, noodles, chicken with cashes nuts, and red thai curry which we got to eat at the end! Georgia enjoyed it has she missed her cooking over the past 3 weeks but I found it stressful if I'm being honest lol.Right that's enough for now, we are heading to a place called Pai near to the Laos border. At this point we are missing our food and are heading to the Irish bar next door for Pie, Mash and gravy!
James and Georgia xxxx
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