Air conditioning...... what a wonderful thing. You certainly miss it when you don't have it, especially in 30-35c of heat!
Well, we've headed up North to Thailands 2nd biggest city, Chang mai - just in time for the Full Moon festival, which is a slightly different affair to the Full Moon Party that you hear about in Thailand. On the 16th November each year, the little ol'Thai folk have a mass street parade, light lots of candles on floating flower things to let go down the river, and release small hot air balloons, all with the intention of getting rid of the evil spirits and having a more prosperous following year..... good stuff! We've been in the thick of it for the last two nights now and the parades have been fantastic, with a displays of traditional dancing, fire eating, dressing up etc..... but the best thing in the parade was a full on boogie'ing donkey. I don't know how many years of torturous training it went through to get there, but it sure looked cool! We joined in on the flower lighting/balloon releaseing too, although our first attempt at sending up the balloon went tits up! We bought a cheap-ass one from a group of students, and when we lit the fuel it released a fireball of flame and some ominous black smoke. Everyone around took cover as we tried to keep hold of the damn thing until it filled with hot air and would take off, but the heat got too much too quick and we sort of launched it skywards with a hope that it would make it! However, the wind caught it and it sailed up into the nearest tree - panic time! I thought the damn thing was gonna set the tree alight and we'd be the bloody foreigners recking the joint, but luckily it escaped the clutches of the branches before going out and plopping back into the river to start it's sad journey downstream. We looked like proper muppets too, all a bit embarrasing and not a good way to clense the evil demons - the thais around us certainly had a good laugh! Oh well, we managed to release another last night with success, so there's hope for us yet!
Chang Mai is a few degrees cooler than Bankok and has less pollution, I much prefer it. There's less hassle on the streets and a much more chilled feel. We've had a couple of lazy days, which is great after all of the manic travelling. The bus up here was a 12 hour overnight affair, bloody awful... think we'll splash out on an air fair for the next long-haul trip!
We're off for the 3 day trekking trip tomorrow in the hills, which I think everyone who comes here does.... we're apparently doing the 'non-tourist' trip.... yeah right.... of course.... All the usual fun and games though, elephant riding, bamboo rafting etc.... you know the score.
After that it's a journey up to Laos, followed by the 2 day slow boat trip (Sorry Hannah, we booked it before your advice not too!) and eventually we'll head South.
Alright, enough waffle, gotta get this damn external CD writer working to get the photo's sorted out!
A BIG THANK-YOU to those that e-mailed me back after the last post... now let's see if I can get a couple of photo's onto this thing!
Oh yeah, we did a Thai cooking course the other day too, so be prepared to be impressed with some xmas red curry when I get back!
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