Elephant riding and Bamboo Rafting in Chiang Mai 2.8.13 - 4.8.13

FRIDAY 2ND AUGUST

Did a recap of family and jobs with p5 then had a nap as  I was shattered followed by another class. Wore a wee summer dress but was absolutely roasted! I did my washing luckily I bumped into Wat and he let me try the motorbike again, along with my headphones on full blast, it makes me feel so free, definetely need one when I get back!Riding scooter helped a bit, I can more confidently turn and start now and I even went on the motorway myself which was good. J decided that we could go to Waisali ancient town as it was dry tonight, thank fuck for more distractions, the town is a ruin, a frontier defence town from the Chams of the east, over 1000 years old, in the Khmer style, similar to Angkor wat apparently, it was interesting, plus I saw a snake haha. Wat and Dang had gone with us, apparently all the men find me attractive in Phaisali as im white and wear shorts. So I must be careful, they kept winding poor Wat up and saying he was included, next we went to eh ancient Buddha footprint, they don’t know what design or story was carved into it as its so faded, its 2556 years old!! Older than Jesus :O I hadn’t realised Buddhism was that ol, then again the language barrier may have made me mishear them. When I was there, the noises from my wall started, turns out its bats in my ceiling, more class animals, I have an exotic zoo. 

SNAKE!

Wesali ancient town

beautiful bead paper and floral handicraft around the temple

 We went for diner in a restaurant in Phaisali, had stir fry veg, tried a curried eggplant, was ok.. And YAM, steamed veg and some noodles that has a combo of spicy, sour, sugar and salt, it was nice! With some rice Ofc. Back at j’s the others left and Batoway appeared, she’s always so cheery, Bla went to Lopburi to her brother as he’s in a coma, something about water in his lung, from what I gathered he’s been like that for a while, maybe he’s taken a turn for the worst, not a good day it appears. chilling in mine until half 10 when we leave for the bus, Tom gets in around 3am and plans to stay at the bus station and kip, mad man, im meeting Malik on the bus, spoke to him briefly on it, lets hope I can get some sleep!

my tutors tried to tell me it was a grasshopper....i don't know if its poor english or knowledge of the animal kingdom..

On the plus side I saw a wild snake today, a scorpion outside my house and a preying mantis while waiting on my bus…as one does!

SATURDAY 3RD AUGUST
CHANG MAI! ELEPHANTS, BAMBOO RAFTING AND LADY BOYS

The bus last night finally showed up about 11.15, 20 minutes late, 710b but V.I.P, foods, pillow, reclining seats, air conditioning, and what I accidentally discovered, a built in massage in the chair, fancy! We and picked up Malik on the way, I’d paid for his ticket so he’s just going to give me the money when we get to Chang Mai, he’s 23 and according to Tom only learnt how to speak English since he was 15, but he’s got a full brummie accent, he talk very slow, like he’s constantly relaxed, but I talk too fast for him sometimes or maybe he doesn’t get my accent, he hates the pink though, but to be fair its nearly all faded! At a pit-stop we befriended a Thai guy and his friend, an Austrian girl, apparently we were being too noisy on the bus and had to be quiet! Slept on and off on our way to Chang Mai, not the best, but far better than the plane, im sure I’ll get used to it, Malik let me listen to some of his indie music in an earphone which was pretty relaxing and helped me doze for a while. 8 hours later we arrived in Chang Mai bus station to Tom sleeping on a bench, he’d arrived at 3am and didn’t want to pay for a hostel, fair enough lol. Apparently he’d had a decent sleep, ffs! We got a tuktuk to “SoHostel” which some of the other E.T.A’s were already having arrived yesterday, we booked 3 beds in a 6 man room, unfortunately there was no space for Robin L Tom, Malik and I all have top bunks, the people below us are 2 guys and a girl, ironically all teachers, the 2 guys from England and the girl from Ireland lol. They’d been to the islands and showed us some videos of the things the Thai’s encourage white people to do drunk, such as fire skipping, it’s how it sounds, skipping with a rope that’s on fire, what is with health and safety standards in this country?? I got electrocuted again the other day in the school by the plug. Asia is dangerous! We decided to go for a nosey and get our bearings, went and had a mixed Thai fruit smoothie, yum! Did some price checks for trips and our van to Vientiane in Laos. We ended up getting a bit lost and had to get a truck (first time!) back to the hostel to meet Robin who had just arrived, it was only 20B each, so much cheaper than a tuktuk, never mind a taxi! Got a shower, its communal, male showers and female showers, like the gym I guess, hot or cold settings, fancy haha (how sad and easily impressed I’ve become!) no towel so had to use a t-shirt again, it’s a recurring thing I do now I guess haha that, and I’ve decided to wear bikini’s instead of underwear when I can lol.
We waited downstairs for the others, I called over to some white English people but was blanked, Tom, Robin and I had decided we wanted to go on the elephants since that was Robin’s desire for Thailand, but when the others came round (turns out they were the ones who ignored us….)they wanted to go to the waterfalls and weren’t up for a compromise, the one girl, Rosie I think she was called, seemed whiney and that it was always her way or no way, defiantly a trendy, she may as well have been wearing a swag t shirt along with her hipster glasses… lol im turning cynical in my older years :L or maybe I’m just spending too much time with Robin! We decided we’d just do our own thing, we needed to book our bus to Laos anyway. 

 we now know where the Lady boys shop

 he wants to do jousting, elephant jousting, tuk tuk jousting, bamboo rafts, he's not too fussy

For 1,000B from Penguin tours we could go bamboo water rafting AND elephant riding!! Had our on van, just the 3 of us, and our seats were fully reclining, we lounged about like the tired Kings we were (and Queen, cant forget me and my royal wave!) our tour guide was so obviously gay, as Jongrak would say, Lady boy! His actions and voice just needed a finger snap and a uh huh girlfriend! He reminded us of Mr. Chow from the hangover? Maybe this is were they got their influence, he definitely is the Thai Mr. Chow and we took to calling him it haha! He even sort of looked like him!! The journey up was about an hour long, for the water rafting we couldn't take anything with us, I’d luckily changed into a bikini top t shirt and shorts but as I didn’t have flip flips Robin and I had to go bare foot, that would have been okay, but we all needed a toilet break before, and Ofc the only toilet was an outdoor shack squat toilet, fair enough, but the floor was much, and along with the spilt water, and most likely urine (BOKE) it was a disgustingly squelchy trip, it was traumatically squishy and gross, I hate that sounds, especially when made and felt by me!!

The bamboo raft was long and narrow, the bamboo “planks” or shoots really, were the biggest I’ve ever seen, long and wide maybe about 10cm in diameter! The river had the odd bump and lots of rocks in it, it was narrow and we had a driver who stood the whole time with a bamboo stick and directed through the current and the rapids, which were small, we all tried standing for a while but it could get quiet bumpy, I was on the back so any time the front adverted a rock I still hit it!!! My phrase of that ride was definitely: “I’m going to die” haha. Even bashed into some trees! Unlike the water in Cambodia, this was more of a murky grey brown, strange. Had my feet in the water which was soothing as it was cool. Im convinced the “driver”  was a sexist who hated white woman, because ever time I splashed the guys he splashed me with his bamboo rod! Bastard haha! Its like something my dad would do, so most definably it was because he hated the white woman, also why I was on the back probably lol. There was a particularly rocky rapid part which he made us get us and climb over the rocks at the side and meet him at the next bit, which looked a bit dangerous, but he just casually, standing up may I add, sailed through it. I would really love to be at the careers day here in Thailand that decides what the kids should be when they grow up, like when does someone decide they want to be a really annoying tuktuk driver or bamboo raft driver?!?! The bamboo rafting was a fun experience, maybe not as exciting and dangerous as I had expected but that’s probably a good thing as I doubt my silly insurance would cover it like everything else I’ve done, it doesn’t mention tutktuk accidents nor riding elephants haha! There were lots of different sized dragonflies fluttering along the river which was charming  and even though we weren’t drenched by the end of it, when we were about to get off, some of the other bamboo drivers exclaimed that we weren’t soaked enough and persisted to splash us, definitely drenched by the time we got off! We past a western couple, in their 50’s maybe doing the rafting, not the nicest site, she was in a bikini and lets say she didn’t have the shape any more…grim lol. We absolutely soaked the van when we got in, there was a small puddle on my seat haha! We’d got our picture taken near the start and Robin and I got one each, in a charming frame with an elephant saying Chang Mai, might be nice for mum or dad. Tom didn’t get one as he was looking away as he’d told Robin when it was getting taken they’d try to scam us…silly tom! Some vendors came over so haggled for a thick elephant bangle in silver, had wanted one for ages, and they’re so expensive at the markets back home, got it for 50B, bargain at £1! White elephants are very rare and special in Thailand and they are automatically given to the king, according to Tom when the king things someone if getting to big for their boots, so to speak, he gives them a white elephant, as it’s an honour the cannot say no, as its royal, they cannot ride them, and the elephant is really expensive to look after, they cannot kill it either so eventually it lessens them of their money and good fortune, cunning eh! It started raining unfortunately, to make matters even better there was some monks funeral on and there were lots of lots of people around giving their respects, did see the funeral pyre still smoking gin the field though which was interesting, in Thailand, when you did you are cremated but part of the bones are kept for th family for special ceremonies etc, bit wired but then again we keep ashes. Tom, have from exhaustion spotted some chickens and referred to them as monkeys, so we spent a good portion of time repeating this and referring to the monkeys as chickens haha.
Because of the funeral the Elephant riding had been closed for the day, thankfully Mr Chow had organised it in advance but they’d forgotten so it took ages before someone finally arrived, by then however it had ceased raining which was good I guess. We stayed up in the wooden platform area where you embark on the elephant ride, but we were getting bitten alive by Mosquitoes! The Thai man arrived and went to get the elephant, seemed like forever while we waited. Robin of course spotted her first, it was amazing watching the elephant marching down from the jungle hills, we were only getting the one elephant not two like we usually would as it was closed, meant that all 3 of us of us would be on the one, two on the seat on one on her shoulders. We let Robin do this as this was part of his dream for Thailand.  Our elephant was so cute, a girl, im sure that’s die to Bull elephants being harder to work with, we named her Jasmine, or Jazz. The seat was built up before us by the man, lots of leather mats, pilled on top of her, a metal seat frame balanced on top with ropes then somehow tied under her though the man never left sitting the top of her, and then a mat on top of the seat, Tom and I got on first, myself on the left and him on the right and then Robin stepped in her back and snugly sat astride her shoulders between her ears. Took my shoes off to feel her skin, it was so strange, so dry and warm, thick too, and she had a bit of a hairy head too haha! The Thai man directed her with some word, she was quite slow and seemed like she couldn’t really but bothered (don’t blame her) stubborn like a true woman, trying to go off to eat, taking a poo and at one point actually step stopping to eat. She was careful were she waked which was interested, making sure she didn’t step in poo or anything, interesting to see the animals degree of cleanliness. She sorted of purred and grunted at one point, was so weird, like a mixture between a car and a horse haha! We travelled upwards through the higher raised jungle area where the elephants lived, felt a bit like an ancient Queen or a warrior! Regal of course, and did my royal wave for a photo haha. Poor Robin wasn’t sure if she liked sitting on her shoulders like a true elephant rider as he could feel her every movement with each step sitting on her shoulders, it was the cooler place to be though! Took some videos, and say another elephant further on in a clearing, wee went up a really steep slidey bit at one point and wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to make it, kind of scary to be honest! At the clearly the man let her drink from the tap and I gave him my camera and he took some photos. The other elephant we saw though had a chain around its leg, to stop it running away, felt a bit bad that I was doing the ride then an exploiting this creature, but what was done was done, and sadly I only felt slightly guilty, im sure they’re better cared for than other elephants in the world that are in use or captivity I guess? And at least they aren’t being poached? It was an epic experience!

 Robins excited when we first finally saw her

Back near the beginning platform Chow took some more photos. When Robin tried to get off he did so too early and quick, Jasmine moved slightly and he basically fell, clinging onto a foot of the platform, Chow helped him up, lucky, may have resulted in a broken foot or worse! don’t think insurance would cover it, our insurance doesn’t seem to cover much that we do on this trip haha. Again, someone nearly “died “ on this adventure haha. Us and our Thailand experiences, we do “live dangerously” as they say :P 

Sort of dozed a bit on the way back, exhausted is no name for it! All the trips to Laos are at night so looks like we’ll be spending another day here and I’ll be travelling the night of dad’s birthday arriving in time for the consulate on the Monday morning. Booked with penguin tours again for 1000B from our hotel at 6.30pm Had a text from mum, they remember I live… had to wait on Malik coming back for us to get in our room, we chilled and got showers, Tom got us towels from reception, don’t even know how this happened but our latest line from Robin is, “How do you like your towels” “I like my towels how I like my women, white and lined with cocaine” hahaha our “stupid ho” conversations on Nicki Minaj started again, apparently im a temple whore haha, it’s the worse song ever, she’s such a bad influence to the youth of today with her falseness and horrid songs! But it does make for a hilarious quote!

 chilling round SoHostel waiting for Malik

 Thai truck for going round the town

The four of us decided to try the Night Bazaar as its close to us, got another silver bracelet for 50B and a Chang t shirt for 120B. Chang which means elephant is the name of the Thai company which produces a range of bottled water and beer. Looked round all the different stalls before going to an Indian restaurant that had sheesha’s, we were on the second floor on a raised platform, we had to take our shoes off and sit on cushions, awesome! Felt very Indian, I tried a Malaysian tea. It was really different but lovely! Sort of sweet, with a sense of cinnamon, and a hint of spice, lovely, for 50B! Afterwards we wandered round the arts section of the market which was indoor below and above ground. Got some purses as wee gifts for whoever, for 10b each and Tom, Malik and I went for a massage, means I’ve taken both of their massage V cards haha! I was in the middle and again there was no curtains separating us. It was so good, so relaxing, I got a full body one again. And both the boys were giggling like little girls! Robin lay on a nearby bed and sort of napped haha! The really creepy bit however was when the massage was finished, we’d heard giggling and we open the curtain to find a dirty old man and young Thai girls, she was oiling up and massaging his leg and he was giggling as was she, BOKE. 

 night market Indian restaurant

 Amazing artwork in the Art section of the market, FANTASTIC!!

so realsitic!

Malik decided we should go for a drink in “Friends Bar” there were loads of frigging trannies! Another older fat perverted guy was chatting up a Thai girl and had the cheek to ask if she was a lady boy!!! I would have slapped him!! We ordered cocktails, mine was sublime, though 120B called “Malibu beach” a blue cocktail it was sugary with a strong coconut flavour, divine, the others drinks were all very sugary as well, the lads got a bit worried at the sounds of satisfaction I was making over my delicious cocktail but were very soon distraction as the obvious lady boy came over and squished his/herself in beside Robin and Malik facing tom haha she started stroking Maliks face and poor Tom’s leg, but I think he would have been more exhausted if he didn’t seem so high and out of it from lack of sleep, turns out his contacts had reacted with his new solution, so he was seeing things in a spaced out way too haha! The most appalling bit was when the Lady boy explained the advances to being 31, something about being more stretchy BOKE. She then went on to show us how to properly perform certain activities, lets say…I don’t think I will every forget, she sort of parted and proceeded to lap and look hungrily at Tom!!! Bokebokeboke. We quickly moved to other topics thankfully, she left Robin alone as he was 19, too young and decided she would have me a game of connect 4 to decide if she should make a move of Malik, it got pretty heated haha. She did had a really cool flower arm tattoo, black in all down her left, beautiful and only 200B!! Malik is trying up for getting a tattoo and keeps trying to persuade people to join him haha. Tom then had a random outburst about nicknames and I got referred to as “kinky Kelly” maybe he is high haha. As we were talking about new teachers names and winding him up about his Cambodia massage gf and kept saying in an Asian accent “oh Mister Tom why you laugh haha” Tom was Exhausted and headed back, Robin and I were going to head with the others who joined us for a drink or whatever but after 5 minutes we had to turn back, the annoying voice girl was all around the afro guy and her hipster ways and voice went through me, almost at the same time on our way back we voiced her as the same reason for leaving hahaha! Chilled in my room for a bit before he left for sleep. Random night with the three amigos and Malik as per usual!

 

SUNDAY 4TH AUGUST

Eugh that girl below me last night, every time she moved the whole bed violently shook, so much so that at one point I thought she was getting it one with someone below me, she wasn’t though but it was irritating. Awoke about 7.30, cant really remember what a lie in is anymore, think I read about them some where…   Had another shower, its so nice to have a proper warm one! I went to call on robin to find the door to his 12 room open again with some butt naked guy with part of the blanket covering his bum on a bottom bunk and decided that I’d call him to waken him instead…awkward. Malik, Robin and I then all went to the SATANI RUT for him to get a bus back to his school, there wasn’t any until 3 so he had like 6 hours to kill. We dandered round exploring and somehow managed to get fucking lost, I really don’t know how we do this, this is the second time Malik and I have got lost!! Annoying! I did find the really cheap clothes shop getting myself a maritime short and something for Rebecca all for 120B I caught up with the others and we continued our attempt to find our way back, I ended up with a blister from my flips flops and took them off until even my feet were sore from that! Robin had the bright, socially accepted idea of wearing his Pj bottoms as they resemble the hippy backpacker trousers most are spending a fortune of purchasing here, I was in a bikini top with my bleached waist coat, couldn’t get away with that at home! We FINALLY got a truck that would take us to the bus station and then back to the hotel as worrywart Tom was panicking we were going to miss check out, he thought it was at 11, silly Tom! Turns out we weren’t even THAT far from the station, the Thai car mechanics said we were but I forget that they try not to walk any distance and use a bike for everything! Got a cold shower to try and refresh myself and then we checked out, had to go hunting for Malik’s towel which the cleaners had taken as we couldn’t check out without it, we glanced at the E.T.A’s from the night before and made a quick dash down the stairs so we didn’t have to talk, this was Tom and I, may I add, so maybe I’m not that bad after all if Tom felt the same haha! Luckily we were able to leave our bags here like lots of other backpackers., Tom booked us another Hotel in Laos last night and with that we decide to have a look at the Sunday “walking street” or open market near the old city gate and get some food. Western preferably! And we found a restaurant to suit our needs, haven’t been this happy in ages at the thought of a meal!! it said “no solicitating” on a sign outside, I found this HILARIOUS and Ofc got a photo beside it! We were all so happy to not eat Asian food for once, and Robin and I had been talking about Mexican food for 2 days now, so that’s what we both went for while Tom had an English breakfast dish. I tried Chimmy chonga, it wasn’t as good as I hoped, im sure It’d be better in a Mexican place so I’d try it again, it’s a fried burrito really, it had beautiful chilli sauce with it, of course the Thai’s would have that part down to a T. and the salad, nom! I’d forgotten how much I’d missed it. Not too bad for 190B, I’m sure I could have gotten cheaper but I wanted Mexican there and then haha The place had wifi so we showed Robin the clip of “the room” and Tom finally saw Nicki Minaj do “stupid hoe” he’s scarred for life but addicted already, he does a hideous yet similar impression of her doing the epileptic eyelash blinking thing ahh! I keep quoting “the room” “cheap cheap cheap” and we’ve all started doing “oh hi Mark” our other quote, from Robin is “Living the dream” we went on to find an English bookshop, the first of its kind since we got here, ended up nearly buying a few, but I don’t want loads of heavy things in my suitcase, was so tempting though when I found a sequel to Michelle Morgan’s “Neferteri” but on her niece! 

 no solicitating

 YES!! WESTERN FOOD!

 I AM A STRONG INDEPENDENT SUCCESSFUL BLACK WOMAN

 as they do. random poster in the book shop

We went on up to a temple “Wat Ou Sai Tham” it had a jade Buddha in it that was over 300 years old, neared booked outside though as the guys were nice enough to point out a large decapitated head of a lizard, with no body in sight, you could see entrails. GROSS! It was huge too, the head was the size of the decomposing cat I’d seen outside my house the other week :/ it seemed to be a blue spotted leopard Gecko, or was from what I could make of the remains from afar. Went to a café beside Walking street and sent a birthday message to Dad and made him a sketch “To Richard” his nickname from all those years ago in Spain when I called him a dick and he said I couldn’t call him that, as his name wasn’t Richard. Looked up free things to do on the wifi, and found a temple near the old wall with a highly hand decorated Buddha, found it on the map and we headed, just in time as lots of school kids had arrived in band uniform to do a parade, I get that every morning I don’t need it when I’m off for the weekend by another rival school from the North haha. We got to go round several of the old city gates on our way to it and ruins such as “Thai Phae gate” and we went to some other temples as well, “Saimon muang”  it didn’t seem to know, or couldn’t decide what year it had initially been built, either 1030 A.D or 1827, quite a difference haha! When we neared the temple we sought I saw a white squirrel running along an electricity line beside a house, how strange! Unfortunately after all the walking the temple shrine was closed but the outside was gorgeous, nicest temple I’ve seen yet I think since Bangkok anyway. So colourful and beautiful dragons decorated it, strangely though, one of them appeared to be eating a woman… it started raining so we chilled in one of the gazebo shelters inside the temple area, it wasn’t as heavy as earlier when we were at walking street so after a while we decided just to head on back., past the Hill tribe village area and found a beautiful building in an alley that’s part of the “Terracotta art centres” we kept quoting lines from Cambodia through out this, especially my French response to a painting to the vendor at Angkor Wat, I forget how random I become when I’m tired, “NON, I KNOW PRICE, JE SUIS UNE ARTISTE!!” reminds me of Shan’s birthday in the Beach club where a guy started trying to talk to me so I spoke to him in French until he went away haha. Think I might do A level French when I get home, or even As, in tech, handy to have I’m sure. Chatted loads about random things, apparently when Robin decide to learn a new hobby for uni he decided to learn how to read tarot, he told me to pick a number, I choose number 7 of course, my favourite, it means strength, endurance, fighter etc, sounds about right for me doesn’t it? Especially with Kelly meaning warrior in Gaelic. Death means change, and the fool means start of a journey. And wheel of fortune of course means either good luck or bad, luck will bring you high or make you fall very low. Thanks to Phillipa Greggory Ofc, I know the symbol for this. Also turns out his mum is a pagan, cool eh?  He read a Philippine girls tarot and she freaked out so much she started going to church haha. 

 Wat Ou Sai Tham

 the temple with the huge beheaded lizard :(

 sophisticated wrist bands...peados and what not

 THAE PHAE GATE

 walking street market

 birthday wishes for my dad from afar!

 not just any pizza, white people pizza and food! the best.....

 unable to decide when it was built....

 getting my Lara croft on in the ruins

 beautiful 

 what a large horny head you have there mr dragon

 I LOVE MY DRAGON

 Terracotta arts centre

 The others went to chill at the hostel, I visited the temple beside the hostel after dropping off my stuff I’d got in my rucksack, need to consider what to get my mentors, should I get them stuff from here or see if I can get something sent from home? All I have is biccies and that flask =/ particularly when Bla, Dang and Chongrak have done so much for me, for instance she gave me 2 Nakhon Sawan t shirts and plans to take me to get ones for my family from her! How nice!

The shrine inside the temple on luang road beside the hostel was huge! So much gold guiding and paintings. Went on to the night market, instead of going right like the night before I turned left and found the main one, it even had cabaret shows in it, for free! It had lots more stuff in it, unfortunately it was only half set up. Bought my pillowcase the hill tribe design one that I’d had my eye on for a while, some wanted 350b but I got it for 120, about £2.50 bargain! got a fridge magnet, 3 patina’s, one for myself, mum and Nan and silver earrings, I then returned and got on the van at 6.30pm. We stopped and picked others up from the main office around 7. The driver was taking the actual piss though, he didn’t stop for 3 ½ hours for a toilet break, I thought I was going to explode, bastard. Why to van drivers hate my life here??? couldn’t really sleep either, even though all the lights had been off since we got in, could only listen to music, grim. Th 2 guys in front of me were from Northern Ireland, got very excited hearing them haha. Turns out ones from Ballyclare, just like Joanne and Melissa from Uni. Poor Robin couldn’t sleep at all really, I dozed a bit though, Tom was lucky, there were only cases behind him so he could fully recline, he was out for the count, bastard! And my frigging neck pillow kept deflating, its broke. Useless thing! Disaster! These van drivers seem to be out to make me suffer! Checked the exchange rate for the Lak or Laos Kip, $1 = 7,801 £1 = 11,925 or  1B = 250so if I got 1000b exchanged I’d get 250,000kip, going to feel minted! Arrived in the border area nearby around 6 to fill out forms and get a form of free breakfast, had coffee with sugar and real milk! And I got to brush my teeth too, feeling glorious for that! Got to the border paid $35 or 1500b for my entry visa, that’s visa number 4 in my passport this year. At a worst case scenario and we cant get a 60day visa we can actually go to Burma ;) and if that happened and I only got 2 weeks I’d just pay a visa fine at the airport he he. So far since Friday I’ve spent 5,000B my whole pay for this half month.. But I am seeing and doing A LOT. I’m going to tow different countries and back, the next visa should be 1000b plus then 1000/2000b spending money so 8-9000 for a trip of nearly a week then Bangkok for a cheap one next weekend for the Queens birthday/ Mothers day. Then a really cheap one in Attayuttha with Chongrak etc. then only 3 weeks to go! This whole trip is costing £160-180 but I’m having great fun doing exciting things, seeing lots of new different things and experiencing different cultures with 2 great people who I can talk away to, quote random things with and most importantly have a great laugh!