23/03/09

We wake around 6am to get our bus for Flight of the Gibbon and some cable flying fun! There are two Welsh people (he he) in our group of 8. We sign our lives away and then get kitted up. We have two guides North and some other guy, North is a bit of a joker and starts saying things like ‘The equipment is safe because it’s made by the French not Chinese’ although I think he might have been serious on that one, even though we all found it funny. But also things like ‘Use the break or the tree will be your break, not that we mind how you stop but we don’t want to hurt our trees!’ and ‘Does anyone know you’re here, do you have a place we can send your body’ etc etc. This along with shaking the zip line as well as saying you can go and the screaming wait like your not hooked on properly. The zip lining is great funny and we’re both loving it! The course has something like 18 zip lines, three abseils and one bridge. The abseils aren’t very typical, they involve a rope being tied to your back and then you putting all your trust in the guide holding the other end of the rope to lower you down, needless to say everyone screams a few expletives at this point, especially when they don’t lower you down gently and it’s more if mission impossible drop! The day is full of screams and laughing and although you can’t see the Gibbons you can here them all the time. Once were finished we all get a photo taken, eat some really good food, see a pretty water fall and head back to Chiang Mai. After a busy day we have to have a nap, get on the computers, eat some more good food and get ready to travel to Pai.

24/03/09

We get up a decent time and get a tuk tuk to the bus station (only after some bargaining mind). The bus ride to Pai is around 3.5 hours and the drive there is amazing, the scenery is lush jungle all the way, we’re also both pretty happy to be enjoying some free chocolate soya milk and strawberry wafers too! Once we find a hostel I persuade Karen to let use hire a bike (cost of 2 pound for 36 hours use) as it’s the best way to get around here, with quieter and better roads. It’s an instant hit with us riding the bike as it’s so much fun and proves to be so much easier to get around, we head straight for the Hot Springs, only they're to bloody hot to swim in. At the top point, before the spring water mix’s with the river water, it is 80 0C and there is a sign saying please don’t boil eggs, he he. We decide to take some pictures here and that’s when we panic! I take the camera out but the SD card with all our pictures is missing, Maggie thinks she may have left it in the internet cafe the day before, but we are very panicked so ride back to our guesthouse to see if it's there, it isn't so we call our place in Chiang Mai to see if we've left it there but no, we're very worried now but the guy says he will go to the Netm place and check if it's there unfortunately it all gets a bit lost in translation so we're not sure if it's there or not!?

With the card weighing on our mind we try to make the best of Pai and just ride around to see what we'll see then we come back and get some dinner and later on go for a night ride before coming back and getting a cocktail at a crazy converted Tuk Tuk bar before bed.

25/03/09

The next day we get up really early and ride to a temple on the hill, it's not amazing but the views are pretty good if a bit obscured by the morning haze, then Maggie drives us to try and find a waterfall which is on the map but after riding for some time we still cannot find it so turn back for town where we pick up some mango and sticky rice for breakfast and head out to Pai canyon to eat it. The canyon is not exactly the grand canyon but it's ok, then we go to a war memorial bridge and ride the long way back to town past all the elephant camps, we stop to take a few pictures but I don't think the people want us to especially as we're not buying a ride! We get back to town just in time to bring the bike back and catch the bus.

Once back in Chiang Mai we get the pickup into town and go straight to the internet cafe who luckily have our memory card, panic over we get them to burn the photos to dvd so we can save ourselves the panic in future then after all the stress we go back to the guesthouse for a rest and have a chilled out afternoon and evening.

26/03/09

We're tired of the small spate of early mornings so we treat ourselves to a lie in and get breakfast at Sailomjoy again, the shakes are so good we can't stay away! Maggie has a watermelon one this time which is really refreshing! We then book a tour for the next day have a little walk around town and spend some time on the internet.

In the afternoon we decide today is the day for our Thai massage so we pick a place and go for it, we feel very reassured by the man in the chair who is dead to the world, mouth wide open, snoring his head off so we sit down, only to be moved to the mattresses on the floor where we begin with an hour of pulling, poking, pinching, pushing, kicking, stretching, being sat on! It was like absolute torture, we both wanted to give up the information but we didn't know what it was, Maggie felt quite good afterwards but my back hurt from something he did right at the end which ruined the good feeling for me. After we paid for our torture we were so tired we went back to the guesthouse and slept! In the evening we went for a walk, had some beer and dinner and then went back to bed!

27/03/09

The day of our tour and the bus picks us up at 8ish. First stop is an orchid farm which is ok, lots of orchids in different colours, then the white water rafting which was lots of fun, we have water fights with the other boat and get caught on the rocks a lot as the water level is a bit low but when there are some rapids it's so much fun. The next stop is lunch before the elephant riding, they smell like cows have really rough skin and wiry hair, it's not a smooth ride and you really have to cling on as they walk down really steep hills. All the elephants are characters stopping along the way to scratch their bums on trees and our one keeps flapping Maggies feet with her ears, she also stops at a puddle and sprays us with water and when she walks through the river! After we are finished with that we go bamboo rafting and all 9 of us get on, the raft is mostly submerged in water but still afloat somehow!? and we only get stuck once or twice. Our last stop is the long necked Karen village so obviously it's only right that Karen poses with a Karen. After this we take the bumpy road back, rest a little, eat a little and then go to bed early ready for our trip South.