29 May

Early the morning I was awakened by a pig and a dog fighting in our bungalow, after this I varied between lying awake and sleeping for the last 2 hours before rising for breakfast, again toast and jam. We packed our bags, greeted our hosts before embarking on the final 2 ½ hours. The walk back was incredibly picturesque, characterized by lush woodlands.

We stopped at the village "7/11" where we bought water while waiting to be picked up. Our lift came after about 30 minutes and we headed to a village below the forest where we had lunch before going on our elephant trek. The elephant trek was an amazing experience, sitting atop the elephant on a makeshift bench swaying and sliding from side to side holding on so as not to fall the 2 m to the ground as it walks on into the forest. After about 5 minutes our guide asked if I wanted to swap and play guide. We swapped positions and I sat on the Elephants head as it walked/slipped along the mud forest trail. We crossed a river and returned to the vehicle from where we would drive back to Chang Mai. In total the ride was probably 40 minutes.

Back at the hotel we made plans with the two guys from Holland (Niek and Mark) to meet later and download some pictures from each other before going to dinner. I decided to contact Image Collection who had made the suit and jacket to enquire whether they had mailed the jacket as promised. First the man told me he had not mailed it, then he abruptly changed his story telling me he had posted it. Not believing him I requested he fax us the proof of postage to our current hotel which he agreed to do.

We met them again just after 20h00, swapped pictures and headed out for dinner at a restaurant near us, we had eaten there before and really liked the food. Afterwards we walked around the streets looking for the roof top bar. A bar 3 stories up where the murals are Bob Marley paintings and you would expect a hippy atmosphere. The music is however far from the atmosphere one would expect, playing fast beat techno. We stayed there for almost 2 hours chatting with our Netherland friends and enjoying a large Chang, before deciding to head for Spicy bar.

Spicy bar, with its large "No lady boy" sign outside was empty when we arrived at 12h00, the good thing was there was a buy one get one free special and the Chang beers were reasonably cheep already. We got some beers while enjoying the tennis (French Open?) on the big screen. Soon the people started streaming in and the bar soon became crowded. At around 02h00 friends of the two guys, also from the Netherlands joined our group. I was advised to go get a massage in the bathroom where two masseuses await you for a 20 minute massage for only 30 Baht or at least that's all I had on me. We stayed until just after 03h30 before heading home, the bar was starting to get a bit much, sometimes as many as 4 or 5 Thai girls would dance around a westerner and they weren't shy. The walk back was just over a km and we were sleeping soundly as soon as we hit the covers.