A spot of rain...!

I left Siem Reap on a bus bound for Poipet - the Thailand/Cambodia border crossing. The journey there which takes about 7 hours is notoriously horrible, and yeah being squashed into a minivan with no aircon on the bumpiest road in the world wasn't particularly pleasant, but never mind we made it in one piece. After that we had to switch busses as I was heading straight down to Koh Chang rather than Bangkok. Here I struck gold and had a gloriously air conditioned minibus with just another passenger - a Hawaii surfer dude called Kent. Excellent. This one took about 4 hours and we got to the port just in time to catch the last ferry over to Koh Chang. It was a little bit scary at this point as is was chucking it down and a bit stormy but the crossing was fine and I eventually got to the island and met up my friend Linda with whom I was going to be staying. I was so looking forward to spending a few days basking in the sunshine, topping up my tan and doing nothing. Unfortunately, it didn't stop raining the 5 days I was there. Seriously, non-stop. And I think it washed my tan away. It was really disappointing actually as there is nothing to go on Koh Chang in the rain, and I'm not talking a little drizzle here - it was full on heavens have opened completely and utterly p**sing it down. At one point Linda and I thought we'd go crazy and battle through the rain to go out for lunch, only to get stranded at a restaurant and forced to huddle practically on the roof and the water levels got higher and higher. It really wasn't the island paradise I had hoped for. After 5 days of reading and staring morosely at the never-ending rain from our balcony, we decided to make a break for it and got the bus to Bangkok. No doubt Koh Chang is now enjoying glorious sunshine and soaring temperatures while I am enjoying a cold.

I stayed a night in Bangkok with Linda and then as soon as I could got the hell out of there (by the way, I have come to realise STA blogs are the most politically correct and innocent blog thingy - they keep censoring me! The other day I wrote something about the popular actor who stared in Mary Poppins and Diagnosis Murder and they censored his name! So apologies if sometimes things don't make sense, its not me, im all for swearing. But such is life). Anyway, I booked an overnight train up to Chain Mai which is in North Thailand (been here already but have a week booked with some Elephants next week up here) which is normally fine, but on this occasion it took about 24 hours, rather than 12. This was particularly annoying because of my weird Asian Dizziness Disease which I get if i am on transport for too long and also because I had paid loads extra for a ticket which got me to Chang Mai early as I wanted to go straight up to this placed called Pai the same day! Anyway, we got in to Chiang Mai eventually at about 3 and I legged it to the bus station to grab the last bus to Pai half an hour later. I made it, just. The bus ride up to Pai was as terrifying as it was beautiful. I shared it with 3 Thai young army men and a monk, and even though I had my eyes shut most of the time, what I did see was some of the most spectacular scenery I've seen anywhere. Lush. Green. Mountains. And very very steep and very windy.

Got to Pai on Tuesday evening feeling pretty knackered. But I love it here! It is so beautiful. It's a tiny little town set in a valley in the mountains. Everything you read about it describes it as as laidback and relaxed. And it is, its a really cool little place which is sort of like the Green Fields at Glastonbury - lots and lots of lovely hippy thai and westerners mingling together. It's got loads and nice restaurants, delicious food stalls and live music bars. I love it and I could stay here forever. The first day I didn't really do much, just hired a bike and cycled around (the beautiful countryside!) but yesterday! Well yesterday I was fabulously brave and went white water rafting! Oh yes I am an adrenaline junkie now. It almost didn't happen ( a long story involving secret notes and an older thai man sneaking up on me in only my bikini bottoms...) but I'm so glad it did! It was very very fun and actually not as scary as I thought. There were about 10 of in total but about 6 people were doing a 2 day trip so there were four of us in one raft and it was me with 3 American guys who were really lovely and actually quite hilarious. We were called...obviously...Team Awesome. The three of them spent the days making really rubbish jokes ('Why doesnt anyone want to be friends with Tigger? Because he plays with Pooh') and informing me, tounges firmly in cheeks, why America was so amazing ('Did you know America invented England?' 'Do you know why America is so awesome...because its American') They were great. Honestly! The rafting itself was good too!!

Today I had a day of Yoga! I had booked myself in for a one day course (not counting on the amount I would drink last night...!) and actually despite the horrible dehydration is was great. It was called Mam Yoga and was run by this woman (who delighted in telling me she was 61 about 5 times - she looks 30) called Mama and who wore bells around her ankles. This morning i had a two hour session with some other people which was good and hard, and then this afternoon it was just me and we went through the steps again and she explaing lots for me ('Downward dog possition....good for ankles, bladder, ovaries, to connect body and mind'). All very interesting!

I leave Pai tomorrow having loved it. It's probably quite a good thing I came here at the end with limited time left else I may well have spent the last 4 and a half months just right here! Next stop Chiang Mai and elephants!!

Lots of love to everyone, hope you are all well.

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