Chiang Mai and back again

Chiang Mai ended up beinf brilliant, we had so much fun we didn't mind the other group and they went off and did their own thing. We took a sleeper train up there which was so comfortable: huge beds, a privacy curtain and air con. lovely. Arrived at about 8am and went off to book our white water rafting trip the next day. Then went to find a hostel. We tried to get into Julie's guesthouse which is in Lonely Planet and looked lovely but it was full so we went to this grim little one called Nat guesthouse round the corner. It wasn't very nice, lots of bugs and a bit dirty. and a really wierd guy sharing our room but I suppose that wasn't their fault. We got a tuk tuk to Wat U Mong which was really pretty and had lots of tunnels and a lovely lake. Rachel got shat on by a pigeon. Spent the afternoon lying in a really pretty park, but we couldn't move as it was so stupidly hot. That evening we went to the night market which had so many beautiful things but I was good and only bought a bracelet. oh and a top. There was then a mini monsoon while we were at the market so we got stranded there for a few hours. Rachel Bella and I left after this so we would be fresh sor rafting but Mike and the others stayed out and woke everyone up laughing at about 4.30am.
Sunday we got picked up and went rafting and it was soooo good. We went with a company called The Peak who are brilliant, really professional but lots of fun, they have the best job in the world. They drove us down this winding dirt track for about an hour, several times it looked like we were going to fall down a ravine into the river. Got there and had lunch and taught how to do everything and then got into our rafts. On the way in a huuge spider crawled up mikes leg and all the girls screamed. Then we set off. it was just brilliant, so so fun. We went down lots of little rapids and 5 or 6 big sets where we were just flying all over the boat. Half way through we had a really long drift down river with no rapids and we all got out and swam and floated along with the boat. The scenery was beautiful, we got all the beauty of trekking but got to stay cool in the water. I can't bum on about it enough if you're going to Chiang Mai you have to do it, it was one of the best things that we've done travelling.
Got dropped off at the train station and caught another lovely air conditioned sleeper back. They are so much more comfy than our beds here. We though we were getting in to Lop Buri at 4am so we all got up and dressed and then the attendant came and told us that we were running 2 hours late so we all trudged back to bed. Got a bus back to Twin House in time for breakfast and ready to start 'Culture Week' with real gap.
Culture Week is worse than Introduction week. There is even less to do and even more 'free time'. On monday we had a chat to some monks. I'm sure mike will have a rant about how most of us feel about some of the monks out here so I will leave it. Tuesday we set off for our temple stay which I was really looking forward to. It started off really well, the girls had a really nice little house to stay in and there were mats to sleep on and pillows which I wasn't expecting. We all had to rent these white pyjama things which made our group look like a group of mental patients. They were great I loved them. There are quite a lot of photos of us dancing in them and looking like idiots. We went to a temple and a really sweet monk taught us how to meditate. I don't know if I did it quite right but it was very calming and it was good to have someone teaching us how to do it properly. mike fell asleep. Then we went to where the boys were sleeping and did some chanting (which wasn't that great) and some more meditating. that is where it all started to go a bit wrong. We did some sitting meditation which was good and standing which was harder but ok. At this point lots of inch long flying ants started appearing. First they would fly around our heads, then along the ground, then they would have lots of loud buzzy spasms as they forgot how to fly and fell out of the air, lost all of their wings, crawled all over the ground and then died. We did walking meditation which was impossibly hard and the bugs were a bit offputting and then lying meditation which was awful as by this point there were bugs all over the carpet and they kept flying into our glowing white pyjamas. And it kept getting worse. Outside the windows we could see there were thousands (I am not exaggerating) of bugs underneath the lights, and the girls had to go through these to get to our dorm. The worst bit was the staircase to our floor. The bugs were like a solid wall and walking through them they got everywhere, in our hair, ears, under our clothes. As we walked and our feet lifted off our flip flops they would fly underneath so you would squash five or six with your feet with every step. Everyone was screaming and running around and it sounded like a horror movie. We managed to get up to our room and pull our group in before bolting the door (someone had left the bathroom lights on and there were hundereds in there, opposite our room). After blocking up all of the doors and windows (more were creeping in underneath the door) we turned all the lights on and each of us grapped a weapon and set about killing all of the bugs in our room. Five minutes later we were surrounded by hundereds of squashed dead bugs. Everyone then wrapped up in sleeping bags, rain macs, eye masks... to stop any bugs from landing on us as we slept, and swearing at everything we went to sleep. The next morning we woke up at 5am to do some more chanting and meditation. It was still dark and we had to go through the whole things again. It was awful, I am so scared from that night I now have a proper issue with bugs. When it was light and they had all died we could see piles inches thick of dead bugs. The wings were everywhere and it was just really disgusting.
Enough about bugs for a while, we went off with a monk as he walked round the town and collected food from all of the townspeople for the monks to eat. Then more meditation. Had some of the collected food but it was all cold and not very nice. And then finally we got to leave. I really enjoyed it and in ways it was hilarious, but it was also so so horrible and awful I would never ever stay there in the rainy season again.
Got back at 1pm, free time for the rest of the day. Thursday two massage instructors came to our house and taught us how to do Thai massage. Mike was my partner and hurt me so so much. I screamed in agony and laughed the whole way through. That lasted 2 hours, rest of the day was free time. Friday we went to a zoo which was really cool. There were bears that weren't behind cages, just dunks in the floor, and loads of lions and tigers, and orangutan that you could hold and a really big aviary you could walk around with lots of peacocks and vultures. Oh and 'rabbit paradise' which was an island with lots and lots of rabbits on. There were some baby angora (? the really fluffy ones) who were lovely. Then to a market that was crap. It was a local market for people to buy their food and childrens toys and tables. not really for tourists. Then back to twin house and more free time. We had a toga party that evening which was really good. Our gang played drinking games in Nina and my room first of all and got very drunk on a horrible mix of thai wiskey and something in between tequila and vodka. Then went to the bar where hardly anyone else was dressed up and just kept on drinking. Very funny but I can't remember that much of it. Lots of people were very sick the next day. Saturday I just lay around sleeping and watching south park with the gang.
Sunday we left for 'the resort' which sounded very exciting. Oh and we went to a Thai Tesco superstore which was very cultural. The resort had big room and air con so I was happy. Although the en suites had to be reached by a balcony which was the worst idea in the world and meant I had to deal with some more of the horrible flying ants that evening. mike was very nice and went and squashed lots of them for me. We spent the day playing in the pool and playing basketball. Next day the trekking lot (including mike, lucy and bella) left us and we have now come back to twin house. and i have to finish there as the internet cafe is about to close and i am being chucked out. xx

Siem Reap to Bangkok to Real Gap

We managed to spend hardly any money on our last day in Siem Reap and had a lovely day lying in hammocks and eating happy pizza. Border crossing from Cambodia to Thailand was pretty painless. The roads were all pretty good and we arrived in Bangkok before dark. We had to wait at the border for about 1 1/2 hours and the buses were a bit squashed but we paid $9 for the whole trip so was pretty good. We checked into the first hostel we saw (Rainbow Guesthouse just off Khoa San Road) and stayed there which was ok. Then went out on Khoa San. I was a bit worried about being there because I had read so many scary things about it being absolutley mental. I was expecting muggers and child prostitutes and drugs and all sorts. And it's really not. It's busy and very western with lots of neon but I really liked it. The shops are designed to cater to backpackers so sell loads of stuff that I want. There are lots of bars so after a 50p meal of Pad Thai off a street stall we sat down and started drinking beer which was almost english prices! Ended up talking to 2 pretty cool english people who had just arrived and were off to do their open water on khoa tao the next day. Also met a bluddy wierdo who just sat and talked about himself until we stopped nodding and started our own comversation.
Friday we checked out of our tiny little room and checked into the Royal Hotel where we were staying with Real Gap. We could really see where our money had been spent, it is huuge there! Our room was so posh and had air conditioning. In fact the whole hotel was so air conditioned it was really cold. We spent the day walking around Khoa San and buying clothes to replace our ruined stuff from 3 months travelling. I bought one really horrific one which really does make me look like a prostitute. Not on purpose.
That evening we went down to the foyer of the hotle and met everyone else on the tour with us and then wondered off to a bar, instantly forgetting everyone's names. We ended up splitting into 2 groups as there were 20 of us and we couldn't really all talk. Then the evening gets a bit blurred as we drank too many coctail buckets and wondered about. At one point Bella bought a bag of fried grasshoppers which we all ate and were actually really tasty. Rachel and I also ended up trying to find a toilet down an alley infested with cockroaches. We went to several bars and 2 clubs (one 'the club' was really good) but eventually mike got too drunk and couldn't speak so we went home.
Got up early the next morning for the free breakfast at the hotel. It was brilliant, there was so much food. Then we staggered back to bed and stayed there till about 3pm sleeping off our hangovers. We went down to the pool but I don't think we left the hotel until that eveing when we went out drinking on Khoa San again. This time about half way through the night we bumped into Melon (Mike's frined from home) and went off to drink with him with Nina and her friend from home. I left at about 1am and I think Mike got back about 4.
Sunday got up again for the breakfast and then we checked out and spent the morning by the pool. Then at 1ish we met Hong our tour guide and got put on a bus to come here to the Eco Houses. We're staying in Twin House and it is relly pretty, lots of little bungalows surrounded by seating areas and butterflies. The rules are a bit intense though, we're not allowed any alcohol on the premises, which considering everyone here is over 18 and on holiday seems a bit much. We've also quickly realised that the 'Thailand Experience' or any big organised thing through a company isn't really our thing. Firstly we've looked at the costs and we could have saved at least 300 pounds by doing it on our own. Also, even though we're here for a month we're not really doing any of the things we want to do in Thailand like going to Chang Mai or a full moon party. It's like being a school, everything is so organised and planned. We get driven to a place and told that we have 35 minutes to look around and then we get driven to the next place and so on. We've realised that half of what we've enjoyed over the past few months has been the 'adventure' of reading lonely planet and working out what we want to do and then getting there and doing things on our own. We feel really proud of ourselves when we 'discover' a restaurant that's not in lonely planet or go off the beaten track a bit. And here it's just not like that. It's just so planned and if we don't want to do something then tough. Urgh it's so annoying to think that we've got a whole month and a stupid amount of money if we think of what we've paid to do this and all the things we could have done with that time and money instead of being here. ah well. we're trying to make the best of it, and we have met some really lovely people, but it has still been a big mistake. I wouldn't recommend organised tours to anyone. It's so much better to do it on your own you get so much more out of it.
Sorry about that little rant. Anyway so over the fast few days we have gone to lots of temples (which are nice but they're built in the style of angkor wat and we've been to angkor wat so they're not as good), and today we went to a school (we stood in front of a class and sang incy wincy spider, and then they sang the thai version), and a really lovely riverboat dinner (and then they brought out the kareoke and it got a bit dire and i wanted to jump off), and we've had some thai lessons and did some thai cooking (our teams was inedible, they had to make some rice for us to eat instead). So lots of things, we're not bored, just not all things that I would choose to do or if they are fun then doing them with a big group of 18 year olds and someone telling me how much time I have to do them isn't the way I'd like to do them.
At weekends we have free time so our little gang (Mike, Bella, Rachel, Nina, Lucy and I) who are all a bit disillusioned with the tour decided to go on an adventure and go up to Chang Mai on our own. We checked all the train times and read about it in Lonely Planet and were really excited about it. One of the other girls on our tour heard us talking about it and asked if she could come. So we said yes. Then she told some of her friends and other people joined not wanting to be left out and now THE WHOLE BLUDDY TOUR is coming to Chang Mai this weekend. Some of them think it is organised by Real Gap and asked if the hotel and transport was all booked. Most do not know where Chang Mai is and none have done any sort of research on it. So our little adventure is now a big group outing. we are pretty annoyed and are not really sure how we can ask them to leave us alone. We're heading off on the night train from Lop Buri tomorrow so I'll let you know next time how it goes.
(sorry if i sound really angry in all of this. it is actually very nice, we have lots of food and nice accomodation and they do give us stuff to do. it's just not really my cup of tea and I feel like it's all going wrong a bit) xx