| Water fights, Boxing, ladyboys, hill tribes and liver battering Posted Wednesday, 19 April 2006 | ||
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| We went back to Bangkok for a couple of days feeling recuperated and to prepare for our next push to Chiang Mai. before getting the sleeper train we took a look at the Forensic Science museum at the hospital...it was quite fun taking a look round a Thai hospital, in parts it looked more like a post office with people queueing and kiosks..i have no idea what that was all about. the museum was horrific loads of pickled babies, autopsy photos and a parasite bit... I now walk around in a all over mozzy net...they had pickled elephantiasis scrotum of some poor chap..( about the size of a seat cushion)..Rachel you would have loved it! what amazed me was that people took their children there?! Thai people go to see the dried out mummified remains of their most prolific rapist and serial killer who was sentenced to death...really weird experience, but good to do something not so touristy.. shame no postcards. soon after getting to chaing mai on the sleeper train which was great fun (the disco/dinning cart was basically lights out, flashing Christmas lights and the staff getting sloshed and dancing for us). we sorted out going to a real Thai boxing fight. the ring is surrounded by bars. we naturally were attracted to the lady boys bar who all soon became our best friends... to the point where after some Thai rum I played you show me yours and I'll show you my breasts with our friend Loulipa.. she said I had watermelons, but hers were only omelets..she was still saving for the op. The fights were great. loads of theatre and the local people obviously with bets on, would go wild almost throwing themselves in the ring.. next night we try to find a bar with no prostitutes which was a little tricky... but we found one and attracted other tourist couples also doing the same thing, not that me and Ben are a couple you understand (you can only imagine the amount of times I have tried to slip that casually into conversation)... the Thai barman took a shine to me and asked if I wanted to pick the DVD for the wide screen...naturally i chose the Elvis 1968 comeback tour ( with THAT black leather outfit)... I turned to the old bloke beside me and made a comment about liking Elvis, he said he liked him too as he had been travelling around the world for 17 years in an Elvis tribute band...well me and 'appy' from Holland chatted like old friends for hours.. Ben entertained some moody couples. you only meet moody couples travelling. even honey-mooners hate each other. the night ended with the Thai barman buying me drinks... Got back yesterday from a 2 day tourist trek to stay with the Karen hill tribe people. on route we dipped int some waterfalls rose elephants and some more bamboo rafting. Before we went I joked with Ben that they hills people will b discussing how the tourists are coming and they will need to hide the satellite dish, kids would have to turn of the PlayStation and have to get into the traditional gear...I wasn't far wrong. they have solar power and can watch premier English football. Some local teenage lads came and joined us in the evening for some whisky (and later threw up) wore England t shirts and knew some wicked drinking games. they welcome the tourists for the money to send the kids to school and to stop the girls from having to go to the cities and be prostitutes..grim. whilst on the first leg of the trek i felt a very unnerving feeling up my trouser leg which was large and scratchy and moving very fast. I convinced it was a scorpion started a tirade of what can only be described as tourettes.. nobody could work out what my problem was. then i fell down on the slanted rock i happened to be on nearly on the thing that was now scratching at my hip...convinced i would go into a death rattle i got up and managed to undo my trousers and released the beast. to my relief it was a Iguana measuring 30cm.. fortunately i only suffered a grazed elbow and bruised pride as all my new trekking friends got a good look at my pants which I was grateful I was wearing. One guy who was nearest to me at the time said he was unsure whether to help undress me as we'd only known each other a few hours (that and his wife was there too) which is a consideration I have not found in men in the past. The Iguana was grey/ white which i can only conclude was due to shock, or it was one of those camouflage ones and had blended into the colour of my (still) porcelain skin. It is Sonkram here the Thai Buddhist new year currently 2549 (they also celebrate Jan 1st, but not as popular). they have a lovely tradition where by the children pour rose scented water over the hands of their elders in a cleansing ritual...OK OK what actually happens is 100,000 people descend on the city to have a full on 4 day water fight. there is a square moat that surrounds the old town which people line with buckets on string dip into pull out and chuck at anyone and anything; motorists, mop heads trucks, tuk tuks, pedestrians, dogs, children, whatever. You also ride around in trucks with drums of water like mad max getting people on the street. children are in their front yard with very clever manovers and ambushes ( too clever for me anyway).. when bamboo rafting, families were on the river banks having picnics waiting for us tourists to soak... there are meant to be rules about it all like; not after sun down, no OAPS and not to infringe on women's modesty...um yeah right it is just a wet t shirt competition on a grand scale and I've seen some oldies giving as good as they got. I found that as long as everything is in carrier bags, you wear swim wear and have a super soaker on charge and finger on the trigger you are safe to leave the hotel. oh and avoid air con.. | ||
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