So its day 7 now. One week since we fly out of Brisbane. One week til we fly home again.
We just arrived in Pattaya after 3 wonderful, relaxing days in Chiang Rai.

Day 6 (in Chiang Rai)- It was raining before breakfast which didn't look like a good sign, since we had booked a long boat at 9am to take us to the elephant camp and Karen village. But it cleared up as we ate, and we set off about 9.30am. The river isn't very deep so the boats are very shallow but very long (to keep afloat). The boat ride was 45 minutes, and we rode through all the northern thailand countryside. It was really beautiful.

We arrived and sadly it turned out to be a DIFFERENT Karen Village - NOT the long neck one I had thought it would be. We got out of the boat and were greeted with these HUGE snakes in cages. I'm talking 2-3 metres long, and about as thick as my thigh! Mum and I both squealed like girls as the guy tried to convince us to take photos with the snakes wrapped around us. He had dozens of photos posted up everywhere of all sorts of Farangs (foreigners) with snakes wrapped around them. But there was NO WAY IN HELL I was going to have one of those things wrapped around me, no way jose!

So we scuttled off and booked our elephant ride. A large group of americans had arrived before us so there was a 20 minute wait but we checked out all the markets and local stalls. Chatted to a few other foreigners and took photos of the elephants going by, of the elephant poo lying in big heaps on the road.

20 minutes later it was our turn and we climbed up the bamboo structure so we could climb aboard of noble steed. We were on one of the smaller elephants but it was still absolutely huge. Our driver was a little boy no more than 9 years old. An older guy followed us the whole time so the boy was obviously "in training".

If you haven't ridden on an elephant before, let me tell you - its not that pleasant. they move fairly slowly but sitting in the little cane basket on top of their back, you sway back and forth, side to side/forward and back with every step it takes. I have a bit of a bruise on my lower spine today from being knocked around, but its pretty fun!!!

We had been told by a fellow farang that the ride was 20 minutes but ours was close to an hour! We wandered up the mountains through the beautiful green countryside (rainy season remember - its been a long time since i've seen such green grass!!!)

Mum kept saying "what goes up, must come down" but it wasn't until we started going downwards that I really realized what she meant. We were both gripping on for dear life, especially as we went along some pathways that had quite a drop on one side.
I know the elephant knows what its doing, and its probably more sturdy on its feet then humans ever could be, but it was still so scary when the elephant would walk so close to the edge. And then it would decide to lean half way over the edge to reach some delicious, tasty bamboo to eat - OMG We were both freaking out so badly as the basket we were in didn't exactly have a front rail. You just had to gripe onto the sides and gripe on tight with your legs/thighs.

But we finally made it back to land (sweet land), and took lots of photos feeding the elephants. Then it was back to our boat (side stepping AROUND the big snakes in cages) and back to the Legend resort.

We went back to town that afternoon and got caught in another huge rain storm, so we hid in the net cafe for an hour til it passed. Then we walked, shopped, ate and got a Tuk Tuk home again. A nice quiet night, which included dinner at the resort and then we were off to bed early as we had an early flight this morning.


Day 7 - up at 5.30am to shower and be out to breakfast by 6am. We finished packing and got the hotel car out to the airport. This time I was NOT hungover so the plane ride was quite enjoyable and we had a driver booked and waiting for us at the bangkok airport. He drove us 90 minutes to Pattaya and we checked into our hotel.

First thing we noticed was the amount of old, wrinkley white men with relatively young and attractive thai girls.... in the hotel, in the pool, out on the streets. We went for a bit of a wander to find some lunch and we were just blown away. We found a little restaurant and sat and stared at all the ugly Farang men all around us. Barely any of them were alone. Most had a thai girl decorated their arm. The ones that didn't, looked like they were definitely on the prowl. We were surrounded by so much horribly sunburnt white skin - guys without shirts with potbellies and wrinkleys and flab everywhere we looked!

Occasionally I'd see an old white woman with an old white man, and I've seen one white man with two teenage daughters, but that's about it! the rest - old white men with thai young women.

We went back to our hotel as it was stinking hot and we lazed by the pool in the shade for a few hours. Then headed out again and had an hour foot massage (for less than $10 AUD oh yeah!!!!).
We spoke to the girls massaging us and asked what they thought we should do in Pattaya. She said there isn't much to do for us - the shopping isn't as good as bangkok, there's just lots of bars and lots for "men". oh well, at least we can enjoy the cheap beer I guess heheheh. And its nice to just laze by the pool, eat good food. We're hopefully going to check out the beach tonight or tomorrow morning. Its just a bit too hot during the day.

So that's about it for now. 3 days in Pattaya. its mum's birthday on tuesday and on tuesday night we're going to an Alcazar show - a 'lady boy' caberet show. The best transvestites in all of thailand and perhaps in the world are here in Pattaya. Its not dirty or wrong. its just these amazingly convincing drag quens in costumes, singing and dancing. hehehe should be interesting at least.

Labels: alcazar, chiang rai, elephant, farang, lady boy, massage, pattaya, pool, swimming, thai, thailand, village

Day 3 continued - After the net we had another beer and some food at a place near where I stayed last time. So many of the crappy little bars selling cheap beer, had been replaced with shops which was really sad to see. We wandered back to Khao San road and had another cheapie foot massage (120 baht for half an hour = $4.28 AUD).
We continued on and would stop in a bar and have a drink, then continue shopping.
Then stop in another bar and have another drink.
Then keep wandering and shopping.
Repeat too many times.

We ended up at one bar and saw this young guy sitting all alone at a table. Being the dags that we are, with a few too many drinks under the belt, mum and I both went over and invited him over to our table. His name was Willie and he was 20 and from Germany. it was his last night in Bangkok, and it was ours as well, so the Beer Chang kept flowing.

I'm sure you can all piece together the rest of the evening.

Fast forward to Thursday morning (day 4) and we both woke up feeling rather seedy. The kick of the elephant was strong indeed!
I couldn't quite muster up the effort to go downstairs for breakfast so we just finished off what fruit we had in our bar fridge and very slowly made our way downstairs to check out. We left some baggage (mostly full of gifts and wintery clothes we bought) at the Arnoma Hotel since we will be returning there for our final night before flying home. And we were worried that we would be over the 15kg baggage limit of the internal airlines.

We almost had a disaster when the girl at the hotel told us that Air Asia flew out of the OLD airport. I kept insisting she ring and check and when she finally did, it turned out that Air Asia did fly out of the NEW airport. Thank god we didn't go all the way out there. The airports are both about 30 km from the city IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS!!!

We checked into the flight super early, found some awesome food, and then slept like babies on the hour flight to Chiang Rai.

The resort we are staying in is about 5-10 minutes drive from the town center, but its right on the river and absolutely divine. Its called the Legend Spa and Resort and its the most ritzy place I've ever stayed in. We have a bungalow room and a double bed and a single bed. The shower is the whole bathroom. You just stand in the middle of the room and shower. The toilet is obviously seperate!!

We've got a balcony with a swing seat. Mosquito nets over the beds on bamboo frames, which looks so beautiful, plus aircon, all the fancy stuff.
The whole resort has been landscaped with beautiful gardens. Mum is going crazy checking out all the differnent types of plants. They have a pool that overlooks the river, fitness room, restaurant with great views, beauty center. With the package, we had a dinner included as well as an 1.5 hour thai massage each. Buffet breakfast every morning too.

We had the free dinner last night and went to bed super early last night. This morning we had breakfast, had a swim, had our massage, did some exercise in the fitness room, had another swim, walked down the road and found a noodle shop for lunch.
We then just sat around watching tv in the room while a massive storm went by. Thunder, lightning and buckets of rain. It is definitely the rainy season here!!!! It finally broke about 5pm and we got a driver to take us to town at 6pm. But the night markets are a bit slow at setting up because of the rain so we're just killing time in the net cafe.

Tomorrow the plan is to get a long neck boat from the hotel pier down to the Karen village. Right next to the village is the elephant camp where you can go for an elephant ride. Then in the afternoon we're booked in for some more spa/massage treatments.
Oh yeah, we're really living the hard life!!!!

Is eveyone jealous yet? hehehe

Labels: Bangkok, beer, chiang rai, cocktail, drinks, elephant, holiday, khao san road, markets, shopping, thai, thailand, travel, trip, vacation, village