4x4's, Elephant's and near death driving experiences.

Day 11
Packed everything up and were out by 10am to go pick up our rental truck. The day was filled with crazy adventures. First of all Chris had to adapt to driving on the other side of the road and shifting with his left hand.

It seems like just driving on the opposite side of the road wouldn't be that big of a deal but it totally throws off your driving concentration and I found myself going towards on coming traffic a few times when I let my guard down. Combine that with shifting a manual transmission with your left hand made the truck extremely awkward to drive and I had to be in 100 percent concentration all the time.

Once we got out of town and into less crazy traffic. We took Mea sae road which had all sorts of tours and shows that you could see. Our first stop was a park with ten waterfalls you could walk up so parked and took a trail to the falls. The water was very brown but the falls were beautiful. Chris and I not the biggest hikers made it to the seventh waterfall and turned around to head to another destination. Got back to the main road and stopped at the Mesa Elephant Camp and watched a elephant show. I was amazing it was probably the coolest thing ive ever seen. They did all sorts of tricks like playing the harmonica with their trunks, spinning hula hoops, kicking soccer balls and painting pictures. It was awesome! Each elephant had a Thai trainer and caretaker who seemed to all have a personal relationships with their elephant. Afterwards we really wanted to go off-roading so we took the first dirt trail we saw and zipped down a narrow jungle road looking for fun. Explored the country side and went where most tourist don't because only Chris would decided to go up a washed out muddy road with deadly cliffs on the side. Ended up in the middle of farming village and from the looks on the locals face I'm pretty sure we were the only white people they had seen in a while. Took pictures and enjoyed the freshness of the air compared to all the exhaust fumes that overtake you in most cities. Decided to head north towards Pai, a mountain village where Shea and Jeanie had gone by shuttle earlier that morning. The roads were insane, people passed whenever and where ever they want. Chris got the hang of driving quick but it was a very stressful drive passing on curves and trying not to run over motor bikes.

This was probably one of the most stressful drives ever for me. The road has 762 sharp curves and cars and bikes are passing on blind corners constantly. They seriously have a death wish and we saw so many close calls and had a few ourselves. There really is no lane divider and you just drive where ever on the road you can with no regard for anything. After a while I started to get more confident and made some pretty sketchy passes around huge trucks which could of easily ended in disaster.

After the driving insanity and the distance seeming much further then we expected we arrived in Pai exhausted and in serious need of showers and food. Parked at a temple, grabbed our bags and looked for lodging. Walked down the street still in a daze from the days events. With our luck we see our girls walking the street and were just as excited to see us as we were to see them. They led us back to the hotel they were at, we got a bungalow, showered and went out for dinner.
Bottle of rum, new backpacker friends and great times. A group of us went in search of a bar with live music and one girl Eva and I went in and started dancing. It was a while before we realized that the rest of our group we had walked with never even came into the bar after us but we did not care and had a great night. The music was not so good but we overtook the dance floor that was empty. The music ended and I walked her back to her hotel.
Sat in front and talked for quite a while about travel, life and our passions. It was late, I was super tired, drunk and at this point realized I had the key to the room and Chris may be stranded so I said good bye and tried to make my way back to the hotel. I was totally lost and went up and down the streets without a clue to where I was. I asked for directions but didn't know what hotel I was in so that did not help. I only had the room key with a C on it and that was not enough info to lead me home.
When I had almost given up hope I see in the distance Jeanie and Shea walking towards me, my angels of the night and they took me by my arms and led us back and off to bed. I really love those girls.

After Zev left with another group I met some a group of five guys from Australia and we headed out of town a bit to a bon fire I heard about. They told me about their trip here and it was crazy. They drove the same road up here as I did and hit two motor bikes making them crash. The police came and they had to pay each of them 10,000 baht for the damages. When they got into town one of them accidentally broke a awning on the street and it turned into a shouting battle with a local guy.
The police ended up arresting all of them and threw them in jail for the night, right before this one of them had left their backpack with all the passports at a restaurant as well. What a disaster. They were still in high spirits though and we had alot of fun just hanging out around the fire until I decided to turn in.

Sunday Street Market

DAY 10

I didn't sleep much last night so when I got up I was still a little out of it. I got some pineapple from a street vendor and found a smoothie joint which was very rejuvenating. The whole crew was still asleep when I returned so I threw on my board shorts and took a swim in the pool to start the day. Chatted with our friend Claudia who was having breakfast in the front of the hotel and told her stories of the night before having a few laughs. Soon after everyone else showed up and went out to eat at Chit chi a little hole in the wall place which good food and prices.

All counties in South East Asia give you a visa when you arrive at the border but for Vietnam you have to send away for your visa in advance so Chris and I went to a travel agent to get our passports sent off preparing for our upcoming Vietnam visit.We shopped around for 4x4 trucks so we could explore the surrounding area's and of course get muddy. Tried to take a nap but couldn't sleep so instead we went to the pool and bumped katcha fire on the ipod speakers and goofed around. Got my laundry done, did some facebooking and the rest of the crew geared up for the Sunday Night Market.

Walked together to the market and then split up, the girls doing some shopping while Chris and I went strait for food. Our plan was to save our shopping for the end of the trip so we didn't have to carry around extra weight the rest of the trip. The Street Market was huge and super crowded. Tried as many dish's as we could stomach from all of the the different carts. The best by far was three spring rolls in a banana leaf with special sauce for only 10 baht. Cruised around the market more and tried a assortment of bugs and ant egg omelette's which actually were not bad. After a couple hours we were burnt out and tried to make our way out of the market which was not easy. As we left we bumped into two Canadian girls Andrea and Jamie who were also trying to find their way out. We got acquainted as we walked back towards the main strip and ended up going to the Rooftop Lounge for a beer together. Jeanie and Shea showed up for a bit but were leaving to Pai in the morning so they left early. The two girls energy was a good match for Chris and I and we got along well laughing and joking around. Decided to leave that bar and we all hopped in a tuk tuk to a strip club for some more laughs. It was quite a show and almost to much to handle as the girls were the worst dancers with no rhythm, skill or enthusiasm at all. It was quite comical though and the four of us could be heard laughing over the music. Took off shortly after to find some food and ended up at a late night burger shop. As we sat there, two Thai men and a three year old baby elephant came out of the shadows and we fed it bananas and took a bunch of pictures. We exchanged info with the girls and planned to meet up again another day calling it a night. When I got back to the room I turned on my ipod and typed the days events still fresh in my mind. Off to sleep for me, tomorrow 4x4 jungle mission and elephant tours.

Chang Mai

DAY 9
Woke up on the train with about 3 hours to go since the train was delayed. I walked the train again and re introduced myself to people I had talked to the night before. Met lots of cool people and made plans to meet up later that night once we were all settled in. A woman told us about a nice hostel with a pool which is a big selling point for us so we hopped in a cab to check it out. Chris and I have had a craving for Mexican food since we arrived so we found a Mexican style restaurant and got burrito's which still kind of tasted like Thai food. I then took a swim in the pool and decided to walk around the city for a while. One hour turned to three because I was kind of lost. I bumped into a German couple I had met the night before on the train and the three of us tried to navigate our way back to the hostel which was not easy.We did eventually make it but but only before finding two more temples we had missed. In one temple there was a wax monk that looked so real to me I sat cross legged thai style and stared at the figure for a good 5 to 10 minutes. I had to ask another monk if it was alive or not because it looked so real.
Came back and got Chris and we went out to find the other people from the train at the Rooftop Reggae Bar. The Candian girls were already there and were deep into their bucket style mojitos. There was a great group of people there and we all hung out together cracking jokes and sharing stories. We walked the girls back to their hotel and then headed back to our room. About a block from our place we saw a disco that looked packed. Chris was done and called it a night so I made my way over solo, met new people, danced and had a great night.

Night Train to Chang Mai

DAY 8
Chris and I took it easy today, got food and watched a movie in the lobby of the hotel while Jeanie and Shea took bikes around the city to more temples. We had some more of Sato's fabulous Pad Thai and said our good byes to the family before we left. Took some quick showers at the hotel then all got a tuk tuk to the train station for our overnight sleeper train to Chang Mai. We made quick friends on the train with a group of Canadian backpacker girls on our same car.
Almost everyone in our car was a backpacker, so Chris and I made our rounds meeting people in very high spirits. We met some American and started a dance party with Chris' ipod speakers in the middle of the train. A train police came up and took the speakers out of Chris' hands and started walking away with them. We had to go after him and take it back showing him we would turn it off with sign language. I continued to wander the train while most people had closed their curtains and gone to bed. I snapped pics of all my friends as they slept as well as other random people until I collapsed into my bottom bunk bed and slept like a baby the whole night.