the life of pai

evening :)
after a long journey to pai on many winding roads, we arrived at our destination. the search then had to begin for a hostel which we thought would be difficult with a group of 6! luckily though we found a lovely, cheap apartment above a burger restaurant with massive beds and a nice living area.
we ventured out for a meal and met some more friends from our other hostel in Chiang Mai, unfortunately the food was not only horrible but expensive too, which greatly upset us for many days.
we decided to drink in the apartment before heading out that night however when we left at around midnight, most places were closing up and we could only have 1 drink :( we have got more used to the early closing and more relaxed culture though now.

the next day we visited a lovely waterfall, however it was very cold. many Thai children performed some very dangerous looking stunts which a few of our group then attempted. we did not partake in this activity as we feel too mature for such activities!!

we next visited the hot springs which have several pools of different temperature water which was really relaxing. there's a special area where you can boil eggs so we attempted this too. unfortunately we failed with both our eggs so a kind German man donated us an egg which we then pretended to our friends we cooked.

another friend from the jungle trek campfire joined us in the evening and we are pleased to say we had a delicious meal of falafel that night which cheered us up. We then traversed to a fun reggae bar caled don't cry, where someone did cry when Holly broke his dreadlock during a game we played called 'behold the dreadlock''. We then had to quickly evacuate and run home. oops.

p.s
our punctuation is usually impeccable however the effect is ruined by writing the blog on the kindle.

it's a bug' s trek

hello bugs. hope you are enjoying the snow haha. we experienced similar conditions on our  "VIP" bus to Chiang Mai. The air con was freezing. we finally arrived early morning and after befriending 2 fellow travellers, began the search for a room. we did not realise how difficult this would be but eventually stumbled across a gem. the owner is a lovely father figure who waits up for us to return every night. He also said he would pick us up from anywhere in the town if we were stuck. sweet.

we then bugged along to a temple and went along to a ' monks chat' where you could ask monks questions about their lives. our monk said some have facebook and they can only eat if people donate them food. we then went to the night bazaar where we suffered much hotel envy after seeing some of the gems Chang MaI has to offer! the next morning we were DYING from too much healthy eating, vitamins and that one barcadi breezed we shared at a club called zoes. we were rudely awoken from our sleep by the leader of the cooking class we forgot we booked. with haste we put on shoes and left the hostel. the cooking course was completely organic and set on a beautiful rural farm with lovely hammocks for napping, which we appreciated. we cooked green curry, jungle curry, pad Thai, veg spring rolls and many other Thai foods. Stephanie had to overcome her phobia of shrimp when she had to step up to the mark and cook some of hollys food when hollys illness took a turn for a worse. however  holly was soon as right as rain and we could both enjoy the farm an d the course. we particularly enjoyed the hour set aside after lunch especially for sleeping. upon our return a new guest had checked into our hostel who surprisingly went to stephs old school. it's a small world after all. we all went out to a cool reggae bar where we met some Thai locals who taught us many useful words such as ' free' ' ma' which means more and 'baa' which means crazy.

again we felt tired for the beginnings of its a bugs trek (which for those of you who do not know is a 3 day 2 night trek to visit hill tribes) and did not enjoy the orchids farm as it was yawn. we really enjoyed the elephant ride yet Elmo often got precariously close to the edge of many treacherous drops. the long neck tribe was also interesting yet we decided we would hate to be a long neck and would leave at first opportunity.

then the actual walk began and holly became sick again and lost her appetite. we decided that being ill on a jungle trek was going to be awful. luckily a kind German soldier carried her rucksack which he said added '1 kg to his weight". outside the gate of the hill tribe 4 hours on holly was finally sick and could begin the long road to recovery. the accommodation was substandard yet very natural. we slept for 11 hours roughly so believe we were truly exhausted. it's a  bugs trek continued the next day still in our converse and vans navigating the treacherous conditions of the jungle. other bugs were more prepared in hiking boots and with sleeping bags. it is unfortunately not in our nature to be prepared. We went to some beautiful waterfalls which were deceptively cold however holly braved the freezing conditions and Steph dipped her feet. finally we arrived at our destination for the night, which somehow managed to be more cold and uncomfortable than the previous night. We did however enjoy a campfire sing song with another bug trek and there were many nationalities present. there were French, German, Dutch,English, Danish and American and we sang songs from all nations.

we awoke stiff and cold after little sleep. we walked a bit more, until we stopped to do white water and bamboo rafting. this was very fun but very wet. we both managed to fall between the bamboo rafts though luckily we're unhurt.

now back in Chiang Mai, our dream is a pizza which we shall have soon. tomorrow we are off to pai where we will chill out and recover.  

goodbye

Tuk tuk love

greetings bugs from Thailand! we eventually made it to the hostel; henceforth known as the hovel. the staff are really nice and love us. the food is also delish and Indian whoop. first night out we met standardly many creeps which we subsequently have been avoiding ~ hard in a tiny road. during an escape mission, we bumped into some rich Canadians who we spent some of days in Bangkok with. they were lovely guys and when we were with them (as they said) "you girls don't have to pay for anything because we will". cute. their hotel was also AMAZING especially the roof top pool! in an unfortunate twist of events', they became a little obsessive and we felt began to ' clip our wings'. we did not respond well to this and thUS it was bye bye to the Canadians :(. we have had many fresh Thai experiences - we had a Thai massage which hurt Stephanie yet I thought was relaxing :). we've also eaten loads of street food like pad Thai and noodle soup! hols even ate a scorpion and a creepy leaf filled with flying ants. creepy. itsabugslife/death. we think we are finally getting over our jet lag but our sleeping pattern has been strange. but oh well. there is so much fake stuff here we've got hats and glasses and creepy trousers. and some nice hair braids!! our haggling skills have definitely become great cos you have to haggle for everything!
Due to the slum like conditions of the hovel, we are yet to spend a night here, thus have befriended many fellow travellers with generous spirits who kindly share their expensive facilities with us. we are sure they expect something in return but offer them only our wit and companionship. Then the Great Escape ensues again.

We have become buddies with many street children who love us because we encourage our new friends to purchase the roses they sell.

However it may seem, we did not just come to partay thus tried to visit a temple earlier, but were rejected for inappropriate attire. Tomorrow we are going to the Grand Palace so had to buy some creepy trousers so the monks do not get offended. We will also go to the floating market to buy yet more crap. In the evening we will finally depart Bangkok for Chiang Mai which we are very excited about :)

laters

Day one

airport was very long..we feel like we now live at one as we spent the majority of our last 2 days hanging around waiting for flights. Dehli airport was pretty nice although strangely really cold - outside temperature was a freeeezing 3 degrees! Currys on the plane were really nice though, entertainment not so. We've never been fans of creepy films like prometheus! We almost got upgraded on the second flight, but our amazing first class seats were cruelly taken away from us when someone realised we weren't actually meant to be there!