31/05/13

I feel so disgusting right now.

I've been on this train for 10 hours, before that, I had an 8 hour bus journey, before that a 2 hour boat ride and I still have 5 hours left on this sweatbox. The feeling, when I was trying to sleep, was very similar to the hammock on the beach. It's clammy and cold, but still I wake up sweaty. Before I boarded I had a cheeky KFC and met 2 Columbians; Jose and Ellie, who were also boarding the train. They got to the station a mere 15 minutes before I did and managed to grab the last air conditioned sleepers, but for 750THB, whereas I'm in the sweat cabin for 430. Save some money, sweat my balls off. It's not like I'm soaking wet though, it's like a stickiness you just can't get rid of. It's only for 15 hours and I'll have a hostel which SHOULD have a shower. Anyway, they joined me in my half empty cabin, played cards and chatted from when we left until about 1am, then we got some sleep. I got woken up by the breakfast lady and had a club sandwich and cold chips. I now feel gross at 08:26, unsure whether to try to sleep more or read my book.

I slept, woke up, read my book, and played my ukulele. Unfortunately my laptop is really low on battery so learning German and watching films is out of the question. It's now 13:17. The train was scheduled in at Chang Mai at 13:00. Apparently we still have 2 hours left. I have been travelling for approximately 27 hours. The Columbians came up a minute ago, so I'm going to go and sit with them in their Air Con cabin probably for the next 2 hours. I hope the hostels I've looked up aren't fully booked or I might cry. Likewise, I hope the money I transferred has gone through or I might not be able to stay in them anyway! Oh, travelling.

I spent the last few hours in the Air Con cabin with Jose and Ellie, met an American dude; Riker and a Dutch girl; Ellen. The 5 of us are now at the same hostel, eating, hanging out and seeing Chiang Mai together. It's really good. This is what travelling is about! The hostel is pretty decent too; pool, awesome wifi and the 'dorm room' is only 3 people. When we went out to walk the city and see what it had to offer, we bumped into Shaz and Fiona from my ThaIntro week and Koh Tao! What are the chances?! We all decided to explore the city together and went to see the night market. I regret buying food earlier. I was starving, so I couldn't really help it. But the food at the night market was insane. Such good food and such low prices. Pad Thai; 10THB. I know where I'm going to be eating this week! We walked around, we got some pancakes and headed into the inner city wall where we found a bar; Zoe's bar. It was a decent place to grab a beer but we left before 10ish.

01/06/13

The first of June, what a crazy awesome 5 months I've had in 2013 already. Anyway, today I was stroking, hugging, spooning and high-fiving tigers! So I have hope that this month will continue the awesomness of 2013! We couldn't go until the afternoon when my washing was returned, but we still had plenty of time to get there and back on the 200thb tuk tuk ride and had tons of pictures taken. The tigers aren't sedated or drugged at all; they are raised from birth by the same trainers and are naturally sleepy during the day due to the heat and their nocturnal nature. We were told to lean on the first tiger who was pretty sleepy, I leant on him a bit too hard and made a sudden movement with his head, brought his front paw up and moved it towards me pretty quickly, the sudden movement made me sit up, and in true Steve Borland fashion, simultaneously brought my left hand up and blocked a tiger paw. I imagine simply getting off him made it okay and by no means do I think that I could beat a tiger at a fight, but for a second, I just beat a tiger one on one. We walked around the park, looking at all the other tigers and cubs when the weirdness of last night's accidental meeting was relived. I bumped into Ting and Georgie from ThaIntro. Weird! To make matters weirder, when I met up with Laura, Shaz and Fiona later that night we found out that Laura had met Riker on the boat over from Koh Tao, AND! That she met him last night in the bar we were at. We didn't even meet up with her until today. Crazy s***! This evening after the tigers, me and Ellen made plans to move to Pai in a couple of days and went for some cheap grub. I should have learnt my lesson from last night, I ate 40thb rice and pork which was decent enough, but when I met up with the girls later on we went to another market. God dammit! The food was so good and so cheap but I just wasn't hungry! Not even for pancakes tonight!

02/06/13

Today I splurged on a cheeseburger and chips, strawberry milkshake, chocolate milkshake, an hour long massage and a fest of food at the night market. But you know what? I didn't exceed my budget! All I skipped was a beer in the evening, so I might give beer a miss for a while. The day started the same as yesterday, swimming in the pool before getting hungry and going for breakfast. It was 11am by this point, so we headed out for brunch. There was a picture of a full English, but apparently they don't do it. This annoyed me, but I went for a cheeseburger. Day after day of Pad Thai or rice has taken its toll and I really need some form of western food. Cheeseburger and chips fulfilled this need. Me and Ellen went Templing around midday; we walked around a couple of temples within the city walls. They were different enough to see a couple without getting bored but too similar to see more than that. To be fair though, it was too hot and humid to see more than that too! We ducked into an air conditioned coffee shop and that's where I had the chocolate milkshake. We met up with Laura, her friend; Olivia and an American chick they'd met at their hostel just for a drink before we decided it was too hot to really do anything. Me and Ellen went back to our place for a swim and that's when I decided to go for a massage. Fiona was in the area so she came with me and for 120B we had an hour long Thai massage. Unfortunately, mine was all elbows and fingers, deep tissue finding knots and pressing them as hard as she could! Whereas Fiona had a nice relaxing palm massage. There were parts of that massage which hurt more than my tattoo. I went for a swim afterwards and had a sleep, awaking at 7pm and ready for the feast that the night market would offer. Not like the last couple of markets, I had waited for food. This was a good decision as the Sunday night market has an entire street of food stalls. I had a mini food crawl, having potatoes on a stick, some samosas and a gurt sausage. All in all, it was bloody lovely! We did go for a beer today, but Fiona bought me one because it was her last night. She will be going back to the UK in a few days, it was a very reflective drink and she's caught the travel bug a bit. She's promised me a visit if I end up in Australia. I had a chance to reflect a bit on my travels when we were talking and f***, I am going to miss this when I settle. But that's a little while away yet.

05/06/13

So! 2 days missed, and with good reason! The first day (3rd) I started by going in the pool as standard. Something I already miss about Chiang Mai. I had 1 thing I wanted to do that day, find a park, and chill out. I went to the 7/11 and grabbed some water for the walk and a cheese and ham toasty for the grand total of 39 thb. I walked in the hot sun around streets of Chiang Mai that I would never see, parts of the city with no English writing and no Tuk Tuk drivers offering lifts. This is one of the best parts about travelling. I knew the rough direction, I had all day to do stuff, I could afford to get lost. Unfortunately, my sense of direction was too good and I got there in a fairly direct route. The park did not disappoint. Plenty of green, fountains and trees for shade, this is a pretty ideal park. I sat next to the main fountain under a palm tree, getting a spray every now and then when the wind changed direction. Playing my ukulele, I just loved the fact that there was a chilled out spot in the city to relax and do nothing, besides the pool. I put my iPod on and moved to the stone shelter in the middle of the pond and that's when I noticed it. A middle aged Caucasian male talking to a young(ish) Thai woman. They had food in-between them and it looked like a date. Without being judgemental, I assumed the innocent. This didn't stop my curiosity, so I took my headphones out, lay down and listened. I was wrong not to be judgemental. I was wrong to assume the innocent. As the first thing I heard was him saying "You look nothing like your profile picture, you're much better in real life". Oh dear. This is the start of a Thai Bride scenario. I played my ukulele with a select audience of the Thai-bride couple, an Asian guy on the bench next to me and a Thai guy sat opposite with his back to me. It was this Thai guy, let's call him Joe, who entertained me the most whilst playing. Any time I would play, he swayed like a musically activated toy. I stopped, Joe stopped. Shamefully, I did this quite a bit to test his responsiveness. When the Thai-Bride couple left, the man, now identified to be from The States, thanked me for the music, we had a quick exchange of words about my travel and his plans and they left. Apparently he's staying in Thailand for a bit. No s***. After they left, I played for a bit after and then and left. I said goodbye (sawatdeekhrap) and got a tuk tuk home. It cost me 60thb and saved me a 30minute walk in the sweltering humidity. This was the highlight of my day, the rest was spent in / beside the pool and skyping with my Mum and Selina. We went out for dinner at a Thai place as a big group and then for a drink after. I know what I said in the last entry, but this was saying goodbye to the Columbians.

I woke up the next day to the sound of my alarm, which can only mean one thing; I'm moving on. I am writing this from my hostel in Pai, more specifically; I am writing this from a hammock in a hut, overlooking a rice paddy and mountains in the chilled out town of Pai. I am wearing my genie pants which everybody at this hostel seems to own, and if you've seen Wanderlust, it feels exactly like that. Just not as extreme. I do like it here, and for 150thb per night, I am tempted to stay for longer than my designated 3 nights, but a moped is almost essential, so it does cost that little bit extra. Yesterday when we got here, Ellen and I rented mopeds and went off to find the waterfalls in the area. We failed to find the one closest to us, but took the long drive out to the other one. The waterfall itself isn't particularly spectacular, but the drive is incredible. It's proper rural Thailand, workers in the fields, mountains in the background and passing little villages made the ride awesome. In the evening, the hostel had arranged a 100thb set meal at a bar/restaurant. This was not enough food for 100thb and most of us ended up getting more food from the street stalls.

Today was a full scooter day, starting with a rough start. I crashed. I have insurance, there aren't many marks on the moped itself, and my body is relatively unscaved. I have a graze on the inside of my right thigh and a cut added to my Koh Phangan leg but that's it. We went to the waterfall first, 7 of us in a moped convoy/crew/gang. This again, got off to a rough start. They went to the petrol station, whilst Ellen and I sorted our own crap out. This meant that we were split up and couldn't find each other for a while. Eventually, we did, and we headed off. The waterfall was empty when we got there and we took a few photos before trying out 'The waterslide'. There is a part of this waterfall which goes at a steady angle straight into the water, slippy from the water and algae; it creates one hell of a slide. Yes, I checked the water at the bottom before trying out the slide. It was awesome. We played on that for a bit before carrying on with our road trip. Next on the agenda was food. None of us had eaten since the free toast at 9am this morning, and it was already 2pm. We went back into Pai for food and I had a Massaman Curry, delicious. After lunch we headed to the hot springs, this is where we lost 2 of the group. The other 2 guys. They got left behind and missed the turning, leaving me with the girls. Standard. We didn't go in to the hot springs because it costs 200thb and to be honest, it's hot enough in Thailand. So we just dipped our toes in the one outside the entrance, said 'Oh, that IS hot!' and left. We went looking for the boys, passed 4 elephants by the side of the road, and eventually, somehow, ended up by our hostel. We went to the canyon for 'sunset' and decided it was too cloudy to see the sun. We took some photos and left to go back to the hostel.

09/06/13

I awoke this morning to a huge itching sensation on my left shoulder. After ignoring it, my standard reaction to any mosquito-style itching, it persisted. I felt it, about 2 inches in length and made up of tiny little bumps. Having this after discovering yesterday that people are in Pai Hospital after contracting Dengue Fever isn't the most reassuring, especially as Dengue fever starts with a rash. Slightly worried, I googled the symptoms. This is usually a bad idea and tends to end up with the diagnosis that you have HIV and/or AIDS. Thankfully, I had a positive response, coming to the conclusion that I do not have Dengue Fever. Mainly because I don't have fever symptoms. I asked the owners of the resort and they informed me that it is a venomous caterpillar which rubs its poisonous fibres on you causing this rash. Interesting! On my travels so far I have been; Bitten by a spider, stung by a jellyfish, lunged at by a snake, been poisoned by a tree, attacked by a tiger and now, poisoned by a caterpillar. I'd like to make a request to nature: Please stop it. It's not fun.

The last couple of days things have slowed down, a lot. I no longer reside at Spicy Pai, the social hostel with the chilled out vibe, I am now at yawning fields, the hostel which is so chilled out, it may as well be asleep. This place is awesome for relaxing, recuperating and not spending money. It's the same price as Spicy, but I get my own cabin with double bed, it's closer to town, and because it's not as social, I'm not tempted to buy a beer or 3 and socialise. Yesterday, I did sweet F.A. It was glorious. Well, actually, I say I did sweet F.A, I returned the moped in the morning and had a full English breakfast at Big's Little Café, and that was amazing. Proper sausage, awesome homemade hash browns, proper toast (the Thai cannot do toast), mushrooms, fried eggs and beans. BEANS! Fantastic. I didn't eat until 19:30. I just sat in the common area, watching films and skyping people. Then, someone arrived. This was strange, I'd barely seen anyone around, and this girl was clearly looking to check in. I took responsibility and told her to relax as the owners pop in and out when they feel like it. She sat down and we chatted occasionally. I was watching sliding doors for the first time and was quite into it, so I wasn't very chatty. I found out her name was Ellie from 'stralia, Tasmania to be precise. Later on, when I was still in the common area, having eaten, she asked where is good to go for food in town. I suggested a couple of places and gave her directions, but, being new to the area she asked if I could show her. Dressed in my genie pants and a shirt, I was in a CBA mood, but went anyway. Just out for a slice of chocolate cake and a beer. Enough time to beat her at pool and have a bit of a laugh.

10/06/13

Today and yesterday have been much the same, not doing anything, eating on the cheap and amusing myself with a bo staff that I fashioned out of some bamboo, and teaching the kid that I seem to have adopted whilst staying here. He didn't really pick it up very well; he was constantly trying to go too fast and getting distracted. But I was patient. Whenever I'm in the common area he comes up to me to see what I'm doing and asks questions. So many questions! That's good, if he remembers the answers. Unfortunately, he's asked me the same questions numerous times, so that's quite annoying. Today, as I said, is another chilled day. I went into town for lunch at 1ish and opted for a standard 40B Pad Thai, fairly decent one too! Plenty of (well cooked) pork! On my way home, I had an experience which makes it very hard not to believe in Karma. I was walking home, over the bridge. A Thai woman was sitting in the shade; we had a brief exchange using hand gestures signalling that it was hot. I had seen her before, sweeping the bridge. I don't know if this is her job or if she just likes the bridge clean, but I sat next to her, reached into my bag and gave her some water. She was very sweet, using the lid as a cup. Or maybe she didn't want to catch my germs, either way, it was nice. I established that she lived next to the bridge and she had lived in Pai her whole life. She thought I was American, so I kicked her in the face and left. Ha, no I explained I was from England and I think she understood. After I left, a woman pulled up on a motorbike, the woman who owns the hostel I'm staying at. She gave me a lift back. But that hasn't been the only part of today, I've also been planning the next week, and a lot of things have come together. Oh and dinner, yesterday I ordered a Massaman curry and rice, they said no. Because it takes 3 hours to make, but they said they'd make it for me tomorrow (tonight), holy curry it was amazing. 90B for an incredible curry and rice.

NB: I didn't find a place that sold pies, so I was unable to eat a pie in Pai.