WEEK 3: THAILAND

CHAING MAI

For our last week we decided to settle in Chiang Mai for five days before heading back to Bangkok. The travel up to Northern Thailand was stressful and long, but finally after two ferry journeys and a never ending coach trip we reached Krabi to then get a flight to Chiang Mai the next day. We had planned to explore Krabi a little bit and cross that off the list before travelling upwards, however the coach journey took five hours longer and we reached Krabi too late! 

We arrived at Chiang Mai around midday and booked into a hotel before leaving the airport, which made our lives a lot easier. Our hotel was The Chiang Mai Gate resort (here) and only cost us 1000 Thai baht (£20) per room per night, which is an absolute bargain!! After getting settled and changed we set off to explore the city, and the cities temples. Chiang Mai was a lot less touristy than what we had been used to, which I liked, it had a more rustic feel than Bangkok and they seemed to take more pride in keeping there city clean and keeping everyone safe. 

After wandering around for a while we found a travel agents and decided to book up some excursions, we finally decided on Quad biking, White water rafting and a jungle overnight trek. 

(Grey vest: River Island, Black shorts: Topshop, similar here, Flip Flops: Haviana, 
Bag: The White Pepper, Sunglasses:Market)


For the equivalent of £40 we got to spend the morning quad biking and afternoon white water rafting which I thought was really reasonable. For the quad bikes we had two to a quad, and of course the boys had to drive!! The guide took us along roads through and up to the jungle. To start of with we were a little disappointed as we were expecting more "off road" terrain and was a lot of concrete, this changed when we go to the jungle and the competitive nature of everyone came out!! 

The afternoon was spent white water rafting which was amazing! We had four too a boat and Ryan and I decided to join forces with Aaron and Toni leaving Josh, Jess, Becca and Blane in the other raft. Again the competitive side to all of us came out and we spent the afternoon racing down the Mae Tang River with river reeds in our helmets and jumping into the rapids - sounds dangerous hey!  

  

(*White water photos by CMA adventures, link here*) 

The jungle trek was an experience, but I don't really know what we expected for £20 for two days worth of adventurous exploring! - for this price you got four meals, a guide and a "bed" to sleep in. After getting picked up at approx. 9am we had a what was supposed to be a thirty minute journey to the markets to pick up the essentials to then travel another two hours to meet our guide, obviously because Thai time and English time don't quite match it took an extra two hours!! 

The rest of the afternoon included a walk through the jungle to where we would be staying via a stop of at two waterfalls, the first we decided not too swim in as it was only a short stop and apparently someone had drowned only the month before! The second however we did, the water was so clear and warm and perfect too cool down in, and a perfect natural water park as you could slide down the rapids like slides!! After drying off we carried on through the jungle to camp, passing farm yards, other villages and rice fields, it was interesting as you got to see how rural Thai people live and realise how lucky we are. 

A night in the shack that we slept in was definitely enough for me! After playing cards and eating dinner by candle light we headed to bed at 9pm and then didn't get much sleep! This was the longest night I've had so far, sleeping on sheets that looked like they had never been washed and on mattresses that felt like they had been filled with stones!! However it was all part of the experience! The following day during breakfast I had a little incident with a monkey, I moved the baby off our breakfast (no one wants monkey hairs on their watermelon - right!?) and the mother monkey went crazy and started chasing me round ! I've never been so scared of anything so small in my life - but the girls seem to think it was the funniest part of the holiday!! 

We left the camp at around 10am to carry on the trek through the jungle and too the elephant camp. This took another hour or so and then a short taxi ride the rest. The elephant camp was a sad place, full of chained down elephants and bull hooks, I don't want to dwell on this as I know it's part of there culture but I couldn't help but feel saddened. After the rest of our group who we had been trekking with had rode the elephants we headed off to do bamboo rafting, this was supposed to be an hour and a half long but was actually only thirty minutes, which to be honest was enough! We were half in and half out of a murky river and got pretty cold under the tree shadows, but it was very relaxing and got to have a good gossip with Jess and Becca!! Aaron said he saw a snake but lucky we missed it!!     

Our final night in Chiang Mai and our last night with Becca and Blane came way too quickly, after today we were seeing them off for the next 18 months as they travel the rest of Asia and then too Australia - Boo Hoo! We decided to treat ourselves to an "expensive" meal, and lots of courses, red wine and cocktails. We had been joking about getting tattoos the whole trip and with the wine making us feel more confident we set off looking for a tattoo shop, and Jess, Toni and I all got matching elephants. Aren't they cute!?

(Sandals: ASOS - Similar here)



BANGKOK

 
Our last full day in Thailand were spent back in Bangkok and staying in a hostel just behind where we stayed the first time. We spent our time here spending the rest of our money in the markets on Khao San Road and going for a wander around the city, mainly to find a park and some greenery to sit in but because there are still protests going on we found an old castle and a river instead! 

Our last evening we got a taxi up to The Golden Mountain to watch the sunset over Bangkok however due to the weather just watched fog cover the houses and temples below. It was beautiful at the top, full of gold and glass mosaics which glistened in the light and if the fog had lifted would see a 360 view of Bangkok. We also got to give an offering to Buddha which will hopefully bring us good luck and peace. A perfect ending to a fantastic holiday! 

Thailand I will be back!