Southeast Asia

Didn’t wake up until 9:30 this morning and by the time Dee and I got ready and went out for breakfast it was time to meet with the British girls for the elephant trek we had booked a few days earlier. The designated meeting time was 12:30, when the girls still hadn’t shown up at 1:00 we went and knocked on their door only to find them asleep, very much hung-over from last nights escapades. They rearranged to do the trek the tomorrow so it was just Dee and I and 2 guys from NY, James and Pete who claimed to be 26 but then again I’m 16………

At the elephant camp we spent a bit of time getting ready to know the elephants and feeding them bamboo. Our elephant was named Ot and she was 27 years old, we asked for her specifically because Zoe and Antony had her a couple of days earlier and she apparently loves the water. Climbing onto the elephants was scary, they pick up their leg which you stand on and then pull yourself up by their ears, I was so worried about hurting her. First we took a 1 hour ride through the jungle which was heaps of fun because we were riding the elephants bareback and would slide forward and back as the elephant went up and down the hills. At one point Dee dropped her jumper and Ot picked it up for her and gave it back, it was so cute.

Leaving the jungle we went down to the river which was really beautiful and where the fun really began. The guide would ask you if you wanted and shower and then Ot would drop to the side and throw you into the water. There were numerous variations on the method of throwing which included her dunking her head or lying down on her side but always ended up with Dee and I in the water in hysterics. It was really quite gross because you could see the occasional elephant dung floating past in the water but it was such good fun. The guide would say something to Ot and she would spray us with water from her trunk. This continued for at least half an hour with us being thrown off in every which way and climbing back up her trunk to get on. She would lift you up with her trunk over her head and then you scrambled onto her back. I have no idea how, but our guide managed to stay completely dry even when Ot was almost entirely submerged at some points whilst playing around in the water. Afterwards we rode the elephants back to the farm, the guide was suppose to be on our elephant, but Ot refused to come close enough to the rivers edge to let him on and flicked river mud at him instead.

[i will be adding more photos of us playing with the elephants in the river once i have uploaded them]

Back at the guesthouse we immediately took showers because the smell of elephant was overpowering and it was rancid. Went out for Indian for dinner which was ok, but not great. I’m going to stick to the Thai food here because you just cant beat it. After dinner we went down to the bakery and grabbed coffee and cake with the 3 British girls and chatted for a couple of hours. The girls have decided that they’re not going to hang around Pai for xmas, instead they’re going to head down to Koh Chang in the south despite of the crappy weather. Which means that tomorrow night will be their last night.

Dee and I went out with Brendan, Zoe, Antony, James and Pete for a bit but we drank very little. We started at Ting Tongs which is a really great shack/outdoor bar and then we moved on to Bebops for the live music.

After Bebops the NY boys decided that we had to see their 3000B (Aus$100) a night hotel room. It was nice, had cable TV etc and was a whole lot cleaner than where Dee and I are staying but then again 3000B for me equates to 2 weeks accommodation so to me its not worth the money, but it was nice to hang out there. James, Pete and Brendan got stoned; it was an ok night but for Dee and I watching other people do drugs is not particularly thrilling. We didn’t hang around long and left and went to bed at about 2:30am.

Waking up in Pai is like waking up on a farm, the rooster are crowing, birds are singing and the chickens are making a racket. Thrown in a few dogs barking and the resident cat meowing at the door and you have some idea what I’m waking up to.

Dee and I decided that since we had the bikes for the day we may as well get some use from them, they weren’t due back until 5:00pm. Looking at the tourist map we decided to go and visit the caves that our guesthouse owner told us were an hour away. The ride was extremely difficult, the roads were steep up and down hills, exceptionally winding and there was a lot of loose surface. There was also a huge amount of road works going on most of the way and so we were constantly being pushed onto the wrong side of the road. The only blessing was that there was very little traffic. The entire ride was about 55 km sand we stopped about half way there at the viewpoint over the valley for hill tribe coffee and to take some pictures. There were also a lot of stalls selling hand woven bags and scarves and a group of women playing what looked like jacks with a bunch of small stones.

The ride ended up taking us over 2 hours because we took it slowly and enjoyed the ride. The final section which was off the main road was almost like a winding path through a forest and there was no other traffic at all. The road went through a small village where the kids all came out and yelled hello and held out their hands to get high-fives as we rode past.

At the caves you pay 100B to hire a lantern and a guide and 300B to hire a bamboo raft that you take down the river through the caves. We also bought a few bags of ‘foodfish’ [fish food] from the local women selling it for 10B a bag. The raft was great fun and there were so many fish it was unbelievable. We would go on the raft for a bit and then pull in and our guide would take us up into the cave and show us all the special formation. It reminded me very much of Jenolen caves except that these caves were much more open and without all the lights. There were also no little walkways through the cave and so with the exception of a few stairs every now and again it really was just like exploring a cave. We could also hear all the bats squealing on the ceilings.

The final cave is known as coffin cave since it was once used as a burial chamber. The locals had originally discovered dead bodies in wooden coffins in the cave. There was also a 2 or 3 thousand year old painting on one of the walls of the cave. The whole place was amazing.

We opted to walk the 1.5km’s through the forest back to the bikes rather than go back on the raft. The forest was gorgeous and so dense, it was a really nice walk. Back at the bikes we were just about to leave when a woman came running up to us yelling ‘hey you’ and pointing to Dee’s bike. Closer inspection revealed a flat tyre. We knew that there was a town about 15 mins away so Dee rode on the back of my bike into town to find a mechanic. It took quite a lot of charades to communicate the problem to the mechanic and then even longer to get across the point that there was nothing wrong with the bike we had brought with us the problem was with another bike that was 15 mins down the road. He eventually understood, although I’m sure he thought we were quite mad, and he and Dee went off to fix it while I hung around the town. My biggest concern was that the sun was setting and we were going to have to ride back in the dark, it was also getting very cold and I only had a polo top on so I went and bought a jacket from the only shop in town that sold clothes. It was a huge fake Adidas black zip up jacket which cost 380B but was worth every cent because it was warm and windproof, not exactly a sexy look though.

We left to ride back at 6:00 while there was still a bit of light and once it got dark we took it very slowly. There was almost no traffic though, we only saw a couple of other bikes the whole way. The ride home only took 1 hour and 15 mins which was surprising because we thought we had taken a lot longer. We went straight back to the bike rental place and explained the problem and he didn’t charge us for the extra 2 hours.

Met Brendan for dinner and 7:30 rather than the 7:00 we planned and had a great chat about the day since he had also been to the caves. Sharon, Sheena, Lauren, Zoe and Antony were all going out drinking but Dee and I were wiped out so we came home and went to bed. I have decided to stay in Pai for x-mas, I love it here, its like a resort and it is really beginning to feel like a holiday.

Despite not getting to bed until 5 i woke up at 8:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Met 3 British girls, Sharon, Sheena and Lauren, who are friends of Dee's for breakfast. I was so hung-over and felt really ... [Continue reading this entry]

Slept ok last night but there was a lot of noise so i had to dig out the ear plugs. Chaing Mai also seems freezing relative to Bangkok and after adjusting to the 30-35*c heat 25*c is damn cold. Eva and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sorry i cant be at home, but happy birthday. I love you. xoxo

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Just a quick note to say that uni results are out and i didnt fail anything. ECON335 75 D ECON361 70 Cr ECON360 63 P MKTG304 ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Slept really badly last night thanks to this terrible cold. i think i was also a bit stressed about moving onto a town where i had no accommodation booked. Went out at 10 to cash travellers cheques, although i should ... [Continue reading this entry]