Hello folks!!!

We've been gone for a couple of days.....been in the jungle! with Mowgli and Sheer Kahn the tiger! Only joking....but there are tigers and King Cobras, but not where we were! Where to start where to start where to start!

Firstly, I'd like to inform you that we've had a slight problem! Our camera is dead!!!!! Well, it still works but somehow we managed to bust the LED screen so we can't see what were taking photo's or video's of! Hence the reason for the terribly short vids and off central pics! Not to worry though, we're still in Chiang Mai (awaiting the return of our passports from Vietnam - should have them stamped by the end of the week then we can begin our 3-6 day travelling over land through Loas to Vietnam!) and Chiang Mai is the main place in Thailand to get a camera fixed!!!!! However, there wasn't many photo points in the jungle, was raining a lot and we couldn't even catch our breathe from walking to find the energy to dig the camera out of our bags! Would have been nice to capture us with our leaf hats on (we looked like Robin Hood) or sat around the fire at night, but u can imagine it! As for elephant photo's - everyone was too busy being scared when the elephants lost their footing in the mud to take photo's! So, haven't missed much!

So....we left Bankok on Sunday, spent 1pm-8pm sat in the train station (wasn't too bad - we have each other for company, ahhh!) then got a government coach over night to Chaing Mai. Arrived at 6am and slept at hostel BMP - Back Packers Meeting Place. The coach was fun - very cheap and had air con, reclining chairs, and films on the t.v. (American, but in Thai)! Chris panicked a bit though because the coach was full of locals and not travellers, but our new found friends at the hostel said they were the same! The most fun was eventually falling asleep on the coach to be awakened because of a pit stop (which we didn't know about) where u could get free food! Was hilarious....we had ten minutes to enter the animal zoo of a cafe where the locals were climbing over each other to get noodle soup! Having only just awoken, we just got a drink and laughed at the most bizarre sight we've seen in our lives! how can people wake up at 3am, wrestle, and then eat a full on meal! Ha!

Anyway, the next day we lounged by the pool (oh yes....for 400 baht - 3 quid each - our hostel had a pool!) and Chris spent the day hurling himself from the diving board whilst I stayed in the shade! That night was unreal! It was the hostel boss' birthday.....so all the backpackers and staff enjoyed free food, free Samsong shots (lethal Thai Whiskey), a spit-roasted cow, fireworks, karoke and the lantern ceremony! See the vid! The staff were really great and let us all have a go - apparently the Thai belief is that by sending a lit lantern into the sky, it brings u luck for the next life! Chris being drunk sent 4 into the night.....and Chris being drunk arranged for us to do the 3days, 2 nights jungle trekking the next day!

So, when the alarm went off at 6am we found oursleves wondering why exactly we were getting out of bed having only arrived 24hrs earlier, to realise that we had to pack our backpacks and vacate the the room ready for departure to the jungle! Good God! We had no idea how much it'd cost us - ur meant to shop around for this trek because there's lots of tour places that do it (Chiang Mai is the main place for it) but luckily our hostel had the best offer! We also didn't have a clue what to take or what we would be doing! Coca Cola and aspirin kick started our day and it was all good.

THE JUNGLE

Chris here now..... I actually listened to the tour guide so ill explain this bit of our tale!!! I was ridicolously rough on the morning of departure and had all but forgotten that we were even going. But had some brekkie and got our stuff together and we were off (sat in the back of a pick up truck!) It took about 2 hours to get to the starting point of the trek, and here we got our backpacks on and got ready to go. The group we went to the jungle with were all english (plus and austrailian ) and were all easy to get on with! Within minutes of leaving the car we were wading through fast flowing rivers, waist deep with no shoes on!!!! The tour guide told us to keep our footwear dry for the next day so we were trudging through mud and sand barefoot for the first half of the day. To say i'm terrified of almost everything i think i did quite well, seeing as the rivers we were wading through had about 100 water spiders skating across the top of the water!!!! It was all a bit overwhelming to begin with - everything was just a bit hard to take in!!!

After a couple of hours walking we sat down had some food cooked by our tour guide Jackie, and cracked on again. By this time the rain had started to come down really hard so we were all soaked and slipping everywhere, Jackie made us all a walking stick from bamboo with made it a hell of a lot easier (and made me look more like frodo from Lord of the Rings) and made us all hats out of massiver jungle leaves to keep the rain out of our eyes. Eventually after about 6 hours walking we made it to the hill tribe village where we were staying for the night. It's a crazy way to live - don't know how they cope it at all - but they were all really friendly although most didn't speak english so it was hard to communicate (they don't even speak thai - its a language of their own but out tour guide was born in a hill tribe and so he chatted away to them easily)

Can Debs just remind Chris of the size of the jungle spider that lived outside of the freezing cold dribble of a shower!! It was the size of a plate and u could barely spot it as it hung between two trees! it had a crazy zigzag web as well!

Anyway...The whole group was knackered after the day of walking so we sat and had tea - chatted away for a bit then all got into the hut and went to bed at eight thirty!!!! The next morning we were up at about nine and off trekking again by ten after some scrambled eggs on toast!!! We walked uphill for two hours and sat for lunch in some random place near some rice fields, and then headed out again for another 3 hours trekking up some serious slopes (and taking care of a lass from oxford who got a spine from a tree stuck in her hand ) On the way I spotted a snake on the footpath - it was only a little thing so i stopped and nudged it aroiund a bit with my stick. The tour guide came running over and informed me it was called a yellow snake and was really poisonous and if it bit u there was no way of recovering!

Can Debs just say for the record that Chris was proper toying with this snake! Well hard now he's spent time in the jungle! He's even laughing at speedy cockroaches running past!

Anyway after we found out it was lethal we scarpered quickly. Eventually we made it to the next tribal village where we were staying for the night - we crossed the river over a log bridge and dumped our stuff in the hut!! This was was right next to a huge waterfall so we got out the soap and went for a natural shower... it was freezing but an experience nonetheless!!!!

Can Debs just interrupt here - the waterfall shower took place behind the waterfall - in the alcove/cave bit, and the water fell onto u so hard it felt like someone was punching u in the head! It was also so freaking cold that I couldn't breathe and had to soap up, run through the water, and have done with it!

Once we were clean and comfortable we got on the beers (oh yes even tribesmen need a beer now and then) and had tea again b y candlelight! We had yellow curry and pumpkin with rice.

Can Debs just say one more thing that informative Chris forgot about......WE ATE A CRICKET!!!!!!!!!!! Some from the group were trying worms, but we waited for the barbequed cricket! Tastes just like chestnuts! However, Chris got a succluent piece of its body whilst i was left with its squidgy bum!!!! Mmmmm. We also saw Jackie eating ants! He offered them to us too (we refused). He also blew bubbles out of leaf sap and gave us war paint from another leaf. It was like red lipstick!! Still can't get it off!

After that, Jackie the guide lit a fire and we all played games, sang, drank, and fell into bed around middnight! There was also the fattest and most largest millipede debs has ever seen in the loo (well, the hole in the ground u had to fumble to with a torch!) - was about a foot long and an inch wide!!!!

When we got up the next day it had been raining all night and the handrail we used to cross the bridge had broken. We set off walking on a different route but after a while we got back to the pickup truck which was supposed to take us bamboo rafting. Because of the rain the rivers were too fierce to go bamboo rafting (see the vid up soon), so we headed to the elephant sanctuary TO RIDE ON AN ELEPHANT!! Was incredible! We had about in hour in total, and along the way we bought some sugar cane and banana's and fed our greedy elephant! See the photo of the elephant trunk - our elephant was the greediest and most mischevious one out of the lot! It would trail off the trek and dive into the bushes (us ducking out of the way of the branches) for more munch! As soon as u fed it, within a split second it would have it's trunk fumbling around our feet, spraying us with it's breathe and everything! After the elephant trek we headed back to the hostel for a much needed shower and a swim in the pool. We have now changed hostels to one which costs a pound a night and it has a pool...what a find!!! As Debs said before we're waiting for our Vietnamese visa to come before we head from Chiang Mai...will add a blog wherever we have anything to tell - since the jungle we have been chilling by the pool and generally being lazy!

Ooh - one more thing! We're so ready to get of this damn computer but just have to tell u about Thai Kick Boxing! The night after we got back from the jungle (Friday night) we decided to go to the Stadium in Chiang Mai to watch the kick boxing! It's the main sport out here. We were lucky because it just happened to be the main match of the month with 10 fights and international fighters from Sweden, England, and Canada! Only cost us a fiver, most of the group from the trek came as did our mate tour guide Jackie! It was so graphic! They use their knees and elbows mostly because it's considered soft to use punches! But upper-cut punches and kicks to the face were used in same instances and sent blood spilling into the ring (just happened to be English guy!) and all the local gamblers cheered!!!!! Was awesome, very surreal but like a film! (check vid)

After that we went out into the toon to have some drinks at the 'Rooftop Bar' (u sat on cushions and listened to reggae) and then to the all night 'Spicy Bar'! Jackie came with us. A good friend whom we have left behind and now miss him!

OVER AND OUT!!!!!!!

Hope all is good at home, carry on messaging as we really appreciate it!!!

Lots of love Chris and Debs xxxxxxx

UPDATE

Good 'morrow English People!

Debs here. Yup, time for another blog already! Didn't think we'd have much to report, and definately not right now having just come back to the hostel, but i'm too excited....and we've just had the best afternoon today! To sum it up here goes - Chris kissed a Python snake on the lips (if snakes have lips?!), I had a monkey sat on my knee, and we both narrowly escaped a go-kart crash!!!!! All will be revaled, first things first.

Since we last spoke to u, we have basically been lazy gits! Well deserved too! Saturday and Sunday consisted of lazing by the pool! I slept for 13hours one night, how disgusting!!!!! Played free pool, watched the Man United v's Chelsea game, ate steak and onion pie and lamb with vegetables (?!), played cards...then went out on a monster night out Sunday! Bit of a bar crawl, then to 2 clubs!

Awoke the next day still v. drunk off thai whiskey (it's a real sod that stuff!) and the room was hotter than an oven, so I , expecting Chris to be throwing up all day, went down the 150 steps - the joy of a cheap room on the 7th floor - to stare at the reception desk with my bottle of water. Chris was actually fine, can anybody believe it?! so we spent the day watching 6 films at the hostel! HA! in the maathon list was 'Mad Max: Return to Thunderdorm' (classic), 'Gone in 60 seconds', 'Apollo 13' (how truely sad is this film at times?). 'Jarhead', 'Princess' Diary' - Chris begged me to pt it on! - and finally 'American Ninja', the worst film ever. Yanks.

Anyway, lets rush to the best bit! WE"VE BOUGHT A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA folks!!!! Only 50 quid, it's quite a good 'un. Turned out that Chiang Mai lies, and Bangkok is the place to get camera fixed. Not waiting for 2 months for this, Vietnam and Cambodia will have the best pics. So glad we bought a new one (this time it has a view finder as well so if the screen busts like b4, we'll b OK - we're so sensible aren't we?) because today is mighty Wednesday where we needed a camera for pics and vids! We got rather fed up of not having a 'P.O.A' ('plan of action' for u whom are not in the know). So we chatted to the hostel peeps and managed to pay the driver 400 baht to take us out for the afternoon, that's about 5/6 quid. It's 20-km out of Chiang Mai to Mai Rim!

STOP NUMBER 1: The Snake Farm! 200baht entry (roughly 3 quid). To say Chris doesn't like butterfly's and such (hehe)................i'm one hard son of a ***** (Chris writing now - debs got bored). We were the only people in there and there were King Cobra's, huge pythons, water snakes, spitting cobra's, and no Health and Safety... the full works!!!! Most were in cages but the guy's working there were so laid back they left the cage door open on a Tiger python. We were petrified! Debs now for a sec - Chris is well hard! I take it all back! I was so scared, the guys were obv. professionals but the experience was so raw we had to basically look out for ourselves! Unless u go to this place, I guarantee you'll never get so up close to the worlds worst snakes (unless u go trekking through Africa of course!) Didn't like it whilst we were there. I never knew I was a chicken....I'm ginger for god's sake!
Chris again..... Then it was time for the snake show..... these guy's are either brave...or idiots! firstly one bloke was playing about with 2 king cobra's - getting them annoyed so they would rear up and jump at him! He had a finger missing and shed loads of scars, the snakes would attack and they even got their fangs stuck in his pants, they were that close before the guys jumped out of the way! at the end they actually milked the poision out of one of them to show us how dangerous it was... insane. Then there was the python show - this thing was huge!!!! They got it out and put it in the 'ring'. Almost straight away it headed for the audience! People had photo's taken holding it (us included, but debs only because a young American girl went first! - check the pics). Then the snake went into the pool of water , and the crazy snake man dived in after it, the thing was about 4 meters long!!!! check the vids!!!

STOP 2: Debs here. The Monkey School! 200 baht again. This was funny! Monkey's playing basketball, riding bikes, un-doing knots in shoe laces and everything! They even lifted weights, did press ups and sit ups! I even got a photo taken with a monkey on my knee!!!! Tick boxes for pose with tiger cub, python, and now monkey! Hehe! They were so cheeky, what else can I say! Check the pics! Not as good as the snakes because they were only monkeys, but still highly entertaining!

STOP 3: 'X-TREME Sport Centre'... Go-karting! 600 baht. This was so god damn good! The highlight of the 10minute race around a dirt track (wearing helmet and goggles of course) was when I raced Chris on a lap! We beagan being cautious and most adult- like, but once we warmed up, we were unstoppable! We both haven't driven for a month, and we have to keep up with the Thai driving standards! I nailed one corner, perfected it with top speed, a sharp turn, slammed wheel around, power slid and whooped Chris' ass! Turning around to see if he gained on me....I saw him sliding like a maniac! Dad Trickett, I've much improved from the day at Towneley many moons ago when I drove a 'motor-bike' into the wall of tyre wheels as soon as I got on it! Know to never confuse brake with acceleration these days! However, keep ur applauses for Schummacker Chris (can't spell it- only did English at uni)....he did a belting complexed corner! i always slowed right down, the brakes were pretty rubbish, but Chris whizzed around! When I tried, I went through a massive puddle! By the end, our helmets and goggles, and the entirety of our bodies were black with muck! We were still alive though - taking into cnsideration the near-hit when I had to brake to avoid Chris, skid a 180, and get back on course! What fun.

Right, from this weekend we Will be heading to Luang ProBang (Laos) before getting to Vietnam on Tuesday, so will do a blog when, and if, we find an internet cafe next week! Have really rusty plans, but keep popping on because we like u!

Lots of Love, Chris and Debs

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