Raj's Round The World Trip

I hope I caught somebody out with yesterday's blog. It didn't happen. It was just a quiet day taking in the sights.

Today it's off to the jungle for a trek. I'm not expecting too much from it. We're not expected to encounter Puma and Leopards or the like.

We travel in a large 4x4, carrying twelve of us, for an hour to a national park. We stop off at a local market on the way to stock up on essentials like water.

Our first point of call is to see a waterfall. I would say it's just over a hundred foot high and the water falls into a pool which is about the size of a swimming pool. It's quite impressive and peaceful to look at. There are eight girls and four guys in our group, plus two local guides who are guys. There are three German girls, who are university students, on their midyear holiday. There's a German couple, a French couple, an English couple and two Irish girls. We stare at the waterfall for a while before the three German girls and a chief guide strip off and jump into the water. It's not often you get a chance to stand under a waterfall and swim under it, so I do the same. I was a little apprehensive at first, but I'm really glad I did it ! It's better than watching others do it from the bank. The water wasn't particularly cold and it's quite invigorating.

The jungle trek begins at a gentle pace. After about half an hour it becomes apparent that this is not a stroll in the park. At times walking up and down steep hillsides, winding tracks and rickety bridges makes it testing. Another three hours of trek was to follow. We finally get to a small village inhabited by only thirty families. There's a collective sigh of reilef. However, another group has beaten us to the accommodation so we have to go on. It's forty-five minutes later; another small village; it's getting dark and we're all a little tired. A river flows past the village and we all strip off to bathe in it.

We're given a Thai cooked meal. They're well geared up for groups like us at the village. The food tastes extra nice; we had built up an appetite. After the meal we play a few party games and get to know each other. At about midnight we're all in our beds. It's just a big wooden hut accomodating all of us, with thin matresses on a wooden floor. We have mosquito nets to keep the bugs out. Earlier I had been asked by the three German girls to help save them from a jungle creature (it was a big beatle of somekind) which had some how managed to sneak into one of their beds before the mosquito nets had been pulled down. I wasn't scared at all, your honour. Well, not as much as the girls anyway.

I'm looking forward to sleep as much as Homer Simpson looks forward to food.

I wake up with a big headache, a handful of ping pong balls around the room, a tattoo of a ladybird on my shoulder and underneath the tattoo it looks like it reads 'Ladyboy.'

I remember catching a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and it's a blur after that.

I've got to get this lasered off or something !

One day of cooking won't turn me into a Chef, but let's give it a go. I take a Thai cookery course. There's only two students on it, me and a guy named Jeff from the U.S. First we're taken around a market and we buy various ingredients. The market itself was an eye opener. It's another one of those where you need to see it for yourself to appreciate it. There are fruits and vegetables, many I don't recognise; fresh fish; squid; a whole host of stuff.

We cook six courses and eat our food after having cooked it. We don't eat all of it as that would be very glutinous. Under the supervision of the Chef, the food turns out okay. I manage to offend Jeff during lunch by ridiculing George Bush. It takes a little while before we're on friendly terms again. Luckily, in the meantime, he hasn't bipassed the United Nations, labelled England a rogue state and sent the troops to flush out Alqaeda. It's been a successful course - we got to cook and eat food without messing it up. And I get to talk to someone who has travelling experience in other south east Asian countries.

In the evening I go to watch Muay Thai (Thai boxing). There are six fights fights to watch, beginning with youngsters of about ten, up to an adult ladies fight and the main event: a fight between a local Thai and a Belgian, who has flown in especially for the fight. Every week it's Thailand against another nation.

All of the fights end by stoppage. Either one person has taken too many knees to the belly and is doubled up in pain or there's a knockout. It's no pillow fight; you wouldn't catch me in there. Apparently, there's some place where they let tourists go into the ring to fight a Thai girl Muay Thai fighter. It usually results in some burly tough guy being beaten up by the girl. This I wouldn't mind seeing, maybe another time.

I sneak up to the corner of the ring. I hear the Belgian's corner man give him final instructions, "Slowly, John, start slowly !" He nods in acknowledgement. The Belgian looks good for about 45 seconds landing a few heavy punches flush on the chin of the Thai. Could this be an upset ? He's still looking good until the Thai fighter quickly spins around and catches the Belgian on the temple with the back of his fist. The Belgian does a brief impression of Bambi on ice before crashing to the canvass and being counted out. He's come along way for a one minute fight and ignominious defeat in front of his girlfriend and a few hundred fans. And his mate caught it all on his expensive video camera. That's one travel video the family and friends will not want to miss.

I have my picture taken with the champion. He's not that big and bad with his nancy boy haircut, I could take him on if I wanted.

Now I'm in Chiang Mai, I find things are cheaper here than Bangkok and Koh Tao. There's a lady with a board at the railway station who's a Sales Rep and she offers hotel places. I pick a name from the board and she even has taxi's that can take you there. You have to pay for the taxi of course. There are plenty of excursions that can be booked from travel agents in Chiang Mai too.

I wonder around to get a feel for the place and book a few things to do. My short walk turns out to be about three hours as I get lost, but no worries I don't have to get anywhere in a hurry. In some ways its like Bangkok; you can do all the same things. And you see plenty of older western guys with their Thai girlfriends here too, some with big feet. But there are fewer people around here - partly because it's low season for visiting tourists.

At the hotel the Manageress suggests a 'Thai Cultural Show' I can see in the evening. At about 7pm a taxi takes a group of us from the hotel to a restaurant / village hall type place. We have to sit on the floor, which isn't very comfortable, and have a platter of food bought over for each person.

The food isn't too bad. We get a Thai green curry, rice, KFC style fried chicken and a few other things. The group playing 'traditional' Thai music in the background seem to be taking a long time to tune up. I soon realise they aren't tuning up at all, they're playing - silly me. They're quite generous with the food, which is just as well because the evening wasn't cheap, and they offer refills of all the plates - it's all you can eat affectively.

The dancers appear on stage in what I assume is traditional Thai dress, and perform their dances. The dancing is really slow and what you could describe as 'posey', but it's interesting to watch.

I've been looking forward to a change of scenery and can't wait to get on the train.

I've loaded my ipod with a couple of films and tv shows bought from Khoasan road. Totally legit of course.

I go by taxi from the hotel to the railway station. The taxi driver puts the meter on and I get to my destination quickly, efficiently and cheaply. If only it was always like this.

On the train I end up sitting with two girls and a guy from Devon. They're good company and we share stories.

At about 10pm two guys from the railway company go down the train carriage and convert the seats into beds. The 'beds' aren't perfect but good enough. You get a curtain that you can draw across and have some privacy. I had heard earlier that its best to have a bottom bunk, which is slightly more expensive than the upper bunk, but nobody complained in the morning. I watch a film on the ipod and go to sleep.

Our train stops at about an hour's journey from Chiang Mai and is delayed for about half an hour. Apparently, somebody had jumped in front of it. We could see railway workers outside inspecting the train and passers by staring. Nobody in our carriage saw anything gruesome. And we were all relieved when the train started moving again.