Chang Mai 09/03/08

Ok so just tried to upload some pictures and it still wont bloody let me! AHHHHHHH! So i've given up with that!

So where was i? Elephant ride and oh yes Bamboo rafting. THree hours of Bamboo rafting on no food, so we have a tired, cold, hungry S-J on our hands and as most of you know that is never a good thing! I was, lets face it not in a great mood!

Only things were abuot to get better, soon i would be wet and bleeding to add to the mix! I make it sounds really bad when infact it was my favourite part of the trek, it was so funny! Bascially you see this raft which is about 6 pieces of Bamboo tied together in three places with a triangle at the front with everyone's rucksac's and sleeping bags tied on. Then you have three separate bamboo poles with which you steer and generally move you along. We there are sseven of us on two rafts, one guide for each raft. We had Stuart an America 60 year old who is from America who works as a political advisor to Hilary Clinton (we had a very interesting debate about politics the night before, made even more interesting by the fact that i clearly had not idea what the hell i was talking about but a fancied an argument!! Take the girl out of sales but you can't take sales out of the girl!!!). He had the back location with the pole and he was in charge of bascially keeping the back moving in the right direction. We then had Kate and Caroline, two Irish girls who were as light as a feather and kept talking about food which was amusing to the point when we realised we really weren't getting any for 3 hours and then we tried to chnage the subject but it still kept coming back to the fact that even a piece of bread and butter would do just not another bloody banana!!. Then we had me with my pole, not really quite sure how the hell i ended up with the first pole shift but i did and i didn't do too badly - to be honest i was just glad to be using my arms and not my legs, my knee really couldn't have taken much more rocks, hills or tree roots! Infront of me we had Stephanie one of the Danish girls i had met on the train who i didn't realise was going to turn out to be a complete spoiled brat when she didn't get her own way! The we had Sara her friend who i also met on the train who had the best position at the front holding onto the sturdy bag holder and finally Motree our guide at the front with the final pole.

We didn't really start off that well and after about 5 mins both rafts were sinking, mostly to one side but definately sinking. I was quite looking forward to having a bit of a swim becuase at this point in the hot sun the river looked quite inviting. After all whats a bit of elephant poo twice in two days. i had survived it once! We had life jackets on, which i think spolied the fun a bit, the water wasn't really that deep at any point but then again soem of the people we were with would not have stood for that. Infact they were saying we should have helmets because of the rocks! I mean please! Where is your sense of adventure! So after about 15 mins we pulled into the side and managed to get some more bamboo and sort the raft out so it didn't sink anymore . The the slog really began, we had to negotiate through rapids with massive rocks on and half the time we were stting so low on the rocks we felt it shudder underneath us as we grazed the top of them. We had been going for about 1 hour and then one of the other girls Caroline took over. Stephanie and Sara said that they didn't want to do it and that was that - didn't go down with the rest of us that well seeing as you don't really get to see much scenery when your doing the poling and someone is shouting to you left left and raising thier right hand!! And seeing as i'm not the best person when it coems to left and right anyway it was all very amusing. I am pleased to say there were no crashes on my shift! Ha ha ha!

Back to Caroline's shift, i don't really know what happened but basically we crashed into some rocks and we all piled onto each other. Sara was ok as she was holding on but i piled onto of Stephanie, Kate on top of me and Caroline plus pole which hit about all of us on the head on top of her. OUr Guide Pino went into the water and Stuart lost one leg and the pole to the water. So anyway we all got up bleeding, me from my ankle and my hand, Kate from her leg, Caroline from her ankle and Stephanie from her ankle. To have hear her afterwards you would have thought her entire leg had been severed and that the guide had done it on purpose! We then had two Danes shouting at our guide to "Give clearer instructions" and "Be more careful" and "We should be wearing Helmets this isn't safe!" So anyway we all get back up and it happens again 5 minutes later, less injuries this time but more water!! I was completely covered on one side, Stuart fell in, Caroline lost a leg and Kate headbutted the Pole! Steph and Sara were fine. Oh and Pinot went in again, to be honest i wouldn't be surprised if he had done it on purpose! We are all cracking up at this point, well most of us apart from two, you can guess which ones! We carry on for another half or so without a hitch and then comes another crash with three people going in i lost my flip flops and had to go in after them (after this i tied them to my life jacket and went barefoot, very dangerous again apparently!!). It was great the sun was shining we were going through "White Water" rapids on a few pieces of Bamboo!! Talk about adrenilin rush! However the next set of rapids come along and we are told to crouch down - this worked out to be a much safer strategy when we crashed and to be honest me Kate and Caroline wanted to carry on standing up but we couldn't cope with the worry about the bloody Danger!!

After about the 5th crash the two had really had enough and our guide - probably worried that he was going to loose him job made us get off at the begginng of the next rapid at one side and climb over the rocks to meet him the other end. Well with my knee this was actually not my prefered option but id din't really have much choice! Anyway Kate took over from Caroline and we only crashed one more time again with no majhor consequences which was a bit of a shame really coz it would have been nice to go otu with a bang!! HA Ha! So then we finally got to shore at another Bamboo hut and had lunch - Pad Thai which is a very famous dish out here and is made on all the street corners. After lucnh we had a two hour truck ride back to our Guest house. With 12 people crammed in a truck made for 10 it was extremly uncomfortable and me in my infinate wisdom had consumed nearly a bottle of water at lunch becuase we didn't have any for 3 hours while rafting. So were about three quarters of an hour through and i start to need a wee! I mention it to a couple of people to try and find soem comrades so they aren't stopping just for me and luckily i foudn soem people so we ask to stop and seeing as we have seen a couple of places serving soft drinks and food along the roadside on the way out of the jungle we think oh we will stop at one of those it will be fine. We have our own toilet roll ( i carry one with me at all times now!!) all will be well..... Oh no we stop at the side of the road and have to go back into the f-ing jungle and pee!! I'm peeing in a jungle where i have seen a million spiders who want to kill me and you want me to crouch down and pee??? Seriously!!! Oh my god! So anyway one girl bring a towell and another watches for bugs and we pee, i tell you talk about stage fright. I thought they were going to just walk off and leave me at one point! Nightmare! So after the trauma of peeing we are back on our way (that dry wash thing you made me take was very handy - thanks Mum!!) We get back to the Guest house and me and Kisty, the Scottish girl who works as a massuse on Yaught's (I am at a complete loss at how to spell that even remotely! Hopefully you know what i mean!) decide to share a room to keep costs down - the 3quid was getting a bit too much! So we get a twin room which is actually really nice coz you do miss having someone to arrnage things with. At about 8.00 we meet up with all the other girls from the trip, the 4 irish and the 2 Danes and we go off to dinner -which was a nightmare in itself when you have everyone trying to be polite but no one wanting to make any decisions. Fnally we decide on soemwhere and Kirsty who is a Veggie doesn't actually have anything on the menue she can eat but she says its ok and eats some of my Chips and were ok. It was an amusing dinner with two of the Irish girls who i was on the raft with being very talkative and the other two sisters who weren't and then the Danes going on and on about how Dangerous the last few days were and how she might get poisoning from the river water and asking if any of us have AIDS and can you get it from River Water, lets just say Kirsty and I now have a running joke about how dangerous things are! So after this we are all pretty knackered and the Irish girls go to the Pharmacy to get soem more insect repellant as they were leaving to go to Laos the following day and had run out and the four of us head back to the Guest House. Kirsty went on the Internet for a bit and then came back and we both passed out, pleased to be in a comfy bed with minimal bugs!!

The following day, Friday was fairly uneventful i went on the Internet loads and had a bloody nightmare trying to upload photos which clearly didn't want to upload!! And then had a Thai massage then it was off to the famous "Night Bizzar" which is bascially another place to shop!! I managed to resist quite well and only brough a pair of short/trouser type things which i had seen one of the Irish girls wearing and had wanted them and it was ok coz i knew what i was going to chuck out so they could fit!! We ended up having dinner in one of the little places in the Night Bizzare which had loads of Thai people in and live Shell fish ready for you to choose and they cook for you, the smell was terrible as you can imagine. I had to ask if we could move coz there was no way i was going to be able to eat one little thing with the smell of a bloody Fish tank next to me, yuck! Anyway after a lot of negotiation Sara, Steph and me decided to order a few dishes and share them and Kirsty decided to grab soemthing later as again the Veggie menu was practically non existant! Anyway the food comes and it does not look appetising in any way so i pick a bit and eat the rice which i think was probaly the only safe thing with my weak stomach! After complaining that we had ordered too much Stephanie then complained that there wasn't enough and she was still hungry and why hadn't we ordered more! I think she is clearly very used to getting her own way and telling others how its going to be!! NOt that i don't so that a lot but i do know when to compromise!! So anywa after this we walk along a load mopre of the same stalls repeated again and again and again, they are the smae everywhere you go. The same T-Shirts, Shorts, trinkets when you have seen one part you have seen it all. So after a while Kirsty and I decide we are going to go for a drink in one of the bars we walked past on our way. This does not go down at all well! We should stick together, is it safe for us to be in 2's, Are you sure you want a drink? HOw about we go for a Starbucks - a hot chocolate would be good!! Hummm! We were thinkign of soemthing a little stronger! Anyway so we went on our merry way and madam was not happy with us one little bit!!

I'm going to have to sign off now as i need to get a tuk tuk to the airport as i'm flying to Ko Samui tonight via Bangkok, if i can get internet at the airport i shall tell you more about the amazing story of what happens when you ignore Stephanie!!

Love S-J xx