28.07.08 : VERY VERY STUPID AMOUNTS OF FLYING!

Day 1: 29.07.08 Bangkok

Arrived in thailand about half 9 and unsure if we had an airport pick up found out we didnt and so got a taxi to the hotel, new world lodge. we made it to our hotel room after waititng about 30 minutes to check in!! room was lovelly and spacious and even had a balcony, we were very hot and sticky at this point but decided we would head out to see bangkok! we walked down and found khao san road which was quality, the main tourist spot. loads of roads leading off it were all crammed with stall which were all crammed with everything!! we thought we wouldnt shop much, oh how wrong we were! we carried on walking in this crazy maze and stopepd in a little cafe for soem food to watch the world go by! we both ahd noodle with shrimp, yum yum. we headed back out trying to fidn the river to no avail and ran out of time before our meeting with our group. after the meeting we literally went to bed, havign met max,alice and sanit (more to come!!) at 7pm

Day 2: 30.07.08 Bangkok

Slept like a baby and woke up in time to shower before meeting at 10:30. we met the rest of our group, natalie and richard and peter then went on a city tour beginign with the grand palace which was amazing!! all the buildings were encrusted with gold and jewls in a very complex design, absolutly breathtaking! also brim made the best purchase of the entire trip....a 23p fan!! caught a river boat which we managed to wangle for free...accidentally! the river is blooming dirty :( we went to central bangkok wehre we aught the sky train to downtown! hit the ridiculously exspensive shoppnig centre and onyl bought food :p then having lost budda max for 30 minutes finally caught the train and boat back to the hotel just in time to leave in a PINK taxi to the train station. we caught the overnight train with actual beds where we were literally PUT to bed at 9:30 by the crazy train man!

Day 3 31.07.08 : Chang Mai

After about 12hrs on the rickety train whilst kim slept through everything and everyone else had about 4hrs sleep we loaded our kit onto the back of a truck an jumped on ourselves with sanit literally hanging off the back! we arrived at hotel serenity and checked in then prepared to do the thai cookery course. were picked up at 9.30 and drove to the local market to get the ingredients needed and some general education about the dishes. after visiting a mushroom stall and a meat parlour with chicken heads an feet dangling around everywhere brim went back feeling very unwell. kim spent hours slaving over a hot stove!!!!! cooked 4 dishes-pad thai, tom yung soup, thai green curry(uncle rich u have competition!) and mango with sticky rice....then ate them all....MMMMMMMMM! brim meanwhile went to the local chemist for anti sickness pills and was asked if she was pregnant! astounded she went home and slept until kims return at 2:30! headed out to find some grub but got nowhere and went back to the hotel. met the group at 7 and were introduced to the last members of our group-tash, lucy and emma (3 19yr old girls...oh dear!!!!) (brim is going to bournemouth with tash-happy times!!!!) and reto and stephanie a swiss german couple who had us in stitches the entire trip! we headed to the trek shjop in order to hrie kit for the next few days where we learnt the best way to dispose of leaches was to either flick them or set fire to them whilst on ur leg!!!! needless to say we bought a lighter! we then moved onto the night market where we grabbed some food and a few last minute bits after getting very frusrtated about the need to wear real clothes (covering knees and shoulders!!!!) but the pick of the day has to be our "designer" sunglasses....oh yes, gucci and chanel for about 4 quid each...BARGAIN! go a taxi back with our adopted friend pete who was travelling alone and again hit the sack, absolutely shattered!

Day 4 1.08.08: Chang Mai

Checked out at 9am and drove to the local tourist police to check we were allowed to travel and to be told to ring 1155 in case of trouble...when we had no signal in the jungle-genius! we drove for around 40 mins in our truck, us 5 girls and a very lucky pete! we stopped at a local market for a quick break where we met our local guides- arthid and sang-AWESOME! purchased some funny fruits which we had great fun peeling and throwing the remainders as unfortunate passers-by, 10point for a bike shot, 20 for a body and 50 for a head!!!!! we arrived at the mhok fha waterfall and walked up a muddy and lsippy hill in the rain to a beautiful sight...the waterfall. we stripped off and ran and dived in! us girls went a little snap happy, apparently becoming fhm girls (if we cant do it now, we never can!) we headed back on a slippery slope to the point where we began our trek. we donned our oh so sexy ponchos-kim in luminous orange and brim a vibrant blue!brim, tash and lucy stormed ahead while kim was happyto look after emma at the back who was suffering a little as her bites were in their early flaring stages! after a while brim, tash and luce arrived at some wooden huts and thought it best to stop rather than overtrek with tash and brim having just had the most sureal sigh of turning round and seeing lucy on her phoen trekking the jungle!!(dont worry tourist police-we can get hold of you!!!) everyone else arrived and we headed up to our "hotel" at ban-mae-jog and everyone collapsed until we finally decided to actually shower in the open jungle with freezing water....kim went last and the water had run out!!!!! sanit came to the rescue! we were shown the room the 5 of us would share above the dining area and chilled on the balcony while sanit serenaded us on his guitar! dinner was served and buddha max, aged 51, came down with no shirt on-classic!!!had a gorgeous dinner of chicken, veg, cashew nuts, rice, chinese something an of course jungle pineapple and bananas! here we discovered stephanies banana fettish!!!! we sat around the table by candelit for the remainder of the evening, singing, listening to various songs on the guitar with varyin standards and generally being stupid! we also learnt about the traditions and cultures of sanits village and the karen tribe-no kissing or sex before marriage!!!!we headed up to bed to find a humongous spider (even kim agrees it was massive!) and had all the villagers searching for insects, while kim in her bravest hour removed the spider!!!! we settled down to watch open surgery on kim by sanit as he removed the p**** bites by cutting them our of her legs! (yes brim could of been sick! but still found it very funny!!!) iodine on open wounds-not so nice! then we "settled down" for the ngiht which resulted in many hilarious pictures involving mosquito nets and ridiculous faces!! fun times!!

Day 5 2.08.08 : Jungle!!!!

We were woken at 7am and weall lazily crawled down for brekkie, which was astounding! we also had jungle tea, which literally tasted of trees, defintely not earl grey standard!!! we spent half our time avoiding the squatting toilets which had to be flushed with a bucket of water due to someone unfortunately missing in the night whilst taking a number 2-could have been mistaken for a very large slug!!!! shoved on yesterdays disgustingly wet, dirty and sweat clothes for the days trek ahead! we had a small tour of the village due to the jungle rain (its no drizzle!) trekked up and down "mummy" hills with blooming monty (who resembles v strongly mowgli, in both manner and appearance and who brim wants to adopt!!!!!) in his flip flops popping out 100m ahead!! lucy stacked it on a downhill....v hilarious as she managed to get only one bumcheek muddy! we took a break where monty took great delight in chasing the girls round with a large orange beetle! kim took off her poncho for 2 mins and achieved as many bites!!!! we headed into the rice fields, all going well until we reached a stream...brim decided to show how it was done, then spectacularly threw herself into the river!!!!!! definitely NOT the way to do it! we then climbed the most mammoth hill ever, but still smiling and with no fuss we made it to the top! brim, pete and monty behaved like jungle children until kim upped her game after helping a v scared emma over the slippy hills and had great fun sliding down the muddy mountain and saw the elephant camp through a clearing....AMAZING! the best part ahd to be invincible monty's major fall at the end....comedy!.....................t be continued