Day 36 Wednesday 14th October 2009

Stacey says

Booked into a place to stay and slept!! Then we headed off to sort out our flights and day trips for the next few weeks. Steve went for another cat nap, whilst I decided to go and have a foot and neck massage. I felt like I just had a match of muay thai! Came out feeling bruised and beaten up, with red finger marks all over my neck! She told me my shoulder muscles were a lot softer after that massage, but I need another one!! We fancied some Indian food tonight, so found a nice place to eat, then strolled through the night markets for a bit.

Day 37 Thursday 15th October 2009

Johno says
Today I was all booked up for some zipping along 2km of cable, platforms and sky bridges in the roof of the jungle and rainforest next to the village of Mae Kompong. Despite how ridiculous it sounds, I signed myself up …! Once there, our sky ranger 'Mr Bean' prepared our group of 9 (7 Polish, 1 New Zealand and Johno representing England) with safety harnesses/helmets and buckled us on in turn to the 1st cable which zipped from one tree to the next… the 1st cable was about 40metres long. You didn't want to show any signs of fear as the sky rangers would throw you down the cable even faster…so I learned from watching one of the screaming polish girls that went before me...! Phew - I was planning on screaming throughout dammit. Haha. After around 14 cables, 3 abseils and a couple of sky bridges which were all well up into the rainforest we made our way back to the camp for a beer and some Thai food.. Mmmm food. I then went back to hook up with Stace and bought myself a few Changs from the local shop for bed time.

Stacey says
I did not fancy that at all! Sounded fun, but not for me..! So I went for a Thai food cooking day. Was a really relaxed day with a fun group of people. We got taken to the market first to pick up our ingredients, we pick 6 dishes we want to make. We began with making 4 spring rolls, then we sat to eat them. I was glad I didn't have time for breakfast in the morning! Then I made a green chicken curry and sweet and sour chicken. Which was surprisingly really simple to make! She told us substitute ingredients we could use back home if we were unable to get certain things . We sat to eat the food we just made for lunch in Thai style fashion, on the floor on cushions. There were a few Irish people on the course, so lunch turned into an in depth conversation about haunted ghosts of Ireland….. Haha. After lunch break, we went on to make the next 2 dishes, Pad thai and masoman curry (which was my favourite), then sat to eat these. Had another break, whilst tasting some common Thai fruit, including dragon fruit whish is white with dark seeds and stains your lips purple! Then made dessert, which was fried banana with toffee, and ice cream. Delicious! I managed to make room for this. Haha. Then we got dropped back to our places, and I just fell into a coma for an hour from too much food, and had a restful evening.

Day 38 Friday 16th October 2009
Johno says
Today we moved to the guest house down the road purely and simply because they had a swimming pool, the room was 300 baht or 6 quid (50 cheaper than the previous one) we parked up on the sun lounger for the morning and made our way for the second curry of the week later on in the afternoon!! Mmmm food. There was a night market nearer to our hotel so we had a look around that for a while before having a couple of Changs, then we had a 'couple' more as we stumbled upon a group of lively bars playing music, that couple turned into a few … Ouch!! The Changs must have been quite effective and played their part as we walked home with the actual frog sellers hat!! Haha. Fantastic purchase at 370 baht!!
N.B. Frog sellers are everywhere you go and they try to sell you wooden frogs that make a frog sound when you stroke their wooden backs!! All of the seller wear large hill tribe type hats, they sell replica's but they are not the same as the real thing!! Stacey now has the real thing - quality!

Day 39 Saturday 17th October 2009
Johno says
Waking up with our best 'Changovers' from the night before, we had to be up bright and early to meet our tour guide for a full day of mountain biking…! Ouch. We rocked up and was giving the safety briefing, safety helmets/pads (with Stacey going for the additional rib protection!) and of course, bikes!! By this time, we really was feeling it with the guides briefing us we started to get very apprehensive about what was to come as the guides made it seem pretty scary on the downhill slopes…! We started to descend and yes, it was scary, basically you had to use your brakes continuously down the mountain watching out for the ruts in the dirt - otherwise, you would go over the handle bars!! Thank goodness I only came off my bike a couple of times which is very unlike me… Stacey was a slow coach but probably the wise one with no bruises at the end!! Later on in the day we were feeling absolutely pooped!! Tonight will (cannot) not be the same as last night although I well want a frog sellers hat too!! The mosquitoes up here don't seem that fussy as they are now massively tucking into even my blood!! Dammit.