Chiang Mai

We arrived at Funky Monkey Guesthouse, Chiang Mai at around 11.30pm, on the in an open-backed cab. We were welcomed by the owner Nuy - a Thai lady who had been running the place for 4 years along with her husband, Dave.
We were shown our huge room, which was more like an apartment, spruced ourselves up and prepared to head out to a bar. This was until we started talking to an Irish chap called Rodney on a table outside the guesthouse. He seemed like a good guy so we decided to stay put and have a couple quiet beers there.
Rodney had been there a few days and was telling us all about what he'd seen. The owner Dave, from Sheffield, had a really good knowledge of the area and was taking Rodney out with him so see it all. There was a trip arranged for 10am the next morning that he and a few other guests were going on. We counted ourselves in.
Didn't go to bed until 3am but actually felt alright in the morning.
Eight people, Dave, the driver and two dogs all set off in one pick-up truck for the mountains.
Our first stop was a national park with natural streams, woodland, mountains and amazing views. If that wasn't enough we went to a waterfall that acted as a waterslide. And it had a little rock jump! I was in my element. I must have gone down the 'slide' about ten times into the surprisingly FREEZING water. Rodney didn't get in as he forgot his verruca sock (was also scared). Alex had a go and went all Paul Daniels (or Debbie McGee) by re-appearing with her bikini top inside out. It was impressive.
From here we drove up to a wooden-hut-of-a coffee shop that hung precariously over the edge of a cliff. Once again, beautiful view and we drank coffee that was grown right in front of us.
After the short coffee break another climbing drive led us to a temple. This didn't fill me with any excitement at all, in fact, I wasn't looking forward to it. After a while, as ignorant as it may sound, a Temple is just a Temple. Usually underwhelming, can be tacky, touristic and hard to appreciate at times. I couldn't have been more wrong.
This temple was out of this world. Set in the mountains on a waterfall, surrounded by trees, flowers, a ridiculous view and engulfed by butterflies.
Most of us sat in silence in complete awe...apart from a German couple who were taking Freemans Catalogue type photos of each other. Weird.
It is impossible to convey how beautiful it was in a photo. A place where hours could feel like minutes.
After reluctantly leaving the Temple we went to a small local village and sat to sample some local Alcoholic beverages. Well, one was Chinese rice wine, so technically not local, and the other was Thai Whiskey. Most of the group tried, and enjoyed, the Chinese drink - apart from two non-drinking, non-eating, non-fun dullards - and Rodney and I were man-pressured into drinking too much whiskey. Not that it took much persuading. We also didn't have as much as Dave who was hammered and took on the persona of a free-loving Buddhist monk.
Whilst enjoying our drinks we were treated to some impromptu local entertainment in the form of a mentally disabled man - a sentence which may well cement my, already solid looking, place in hell.
The man in question had a custom made recorder that he was playing one-note-songs through. Admittedly it was entertaining for the first 10 minutes. The following 20 were both a tad uncomfortable, due to the mocking nature of some locals, and slightly annoying. To be fair, he was having a great time and even greater when everyone gave him 20 baht.
The trip had finally come to an end at 8pm. None of us had eaten since the morning and the whole group were tired and drained - apart from the whiskey drinkers who had a giggly half hour on the way back.
We made out way down the mountain as the sun was setting, turning the sky layers of pink, red and white.
It was a good day.
We got back to the guest house where Nuy cooked us a Masaman Curry that stopped us from collapsing.
Then Alex, Rodney and I decided we'd head out for a few drinks.
We ended up drinking in a square with lots of bars, lady boys, youngsters and eurotrash music. We picked up some interesting dance moves and once we'd had enough, we activated kebab mode.
In the search for something to eat, i felt water splash on my head from a building...only it wasn't water and it didn't come from a building. It was a present from a passing bird. All over my hair, down my vest and on my shoulder. I'm certainly not eating where he did. Alex and Rodney found this highly hilarious and came to the obvious conclusion that it was Rat s***. It's supposed to be lucky, if it's from a bird, apparently, let's hope so.
We did eventually find a really good American burger bar called Duke's, had something to eat and called it a night.