Day 8 – Thai Jungle – Wednesday March 9th 2011
Breakfast was another black coffee and more eggs on toast. When given the choice between black coffee or coffee with milk powder, there is only one real option for me and that’s black.
We were away pretty early and made the short walk to a waterfall resort. I say resort, but there were a couple of buildings and some waterfalls and pools. It was completely deserted so we had the place to ourselves with no staff or anyone around. We got to bathe in the pools, rub mud on ourselves and swim under waterfalls.
Frank donned his mankini and tried the most pathetic dive into the pool. If he didn’t have his bare arse cheeks out, it would have made me an easy £250 on You’ve Been Framed! He actually fell off a log and ended up with scratches all down one side.
Lunch was a box of pretty bland noodles so I spiced it up with loads of chilli flakes. After lunch we were collected by pickup truck and taken for white water rafting. There wasn’t much white water but it was still a good laugh. We used the Peter Andre song Mysterious Girl as our rhythm to row by and paddled way faster than the other team. We got so far ahead that we even had time to jump off the boat for a quick swim to let the others catch up. Our guide did have to drag us from the water as we couldn’t get back on the boat ourselves.
The Winner Inn
Back at the Hotel we had baths, packed our backpacks and got some laundry done. Nic and I put our laundry together and it cost about £6 (320B). It didn’t come back completely clean, but was definitely cleaner than it was before. I tried to wash my trainers in the bath, but couldn’t really dry them out properly as our room had air conditioning. I ended up hanging them outside the window to dry in the sun. They were never quite the same after that, and always had a strange smell.
That night, to combat our jungle noodle overload we went for a pizza. It may have been the best pizza ever made. it cost about £4 (190B)
Muay Thai
After pizza we went to the arena to watch some Muay Thai boxing. We were a bit early and got ringside seats. We played pool in the bar while we waited for the fighting to start. At one point the ladyboy waitress from our bar brought over some vodka shots for us. We were all too worried about it being some sort of scam that we just left them.
Frank got chatting to a long-haired Italian guy Axl, who turned out to be a bit mad. He had no problem drinking the free shots. He was funny and chatty at first, but when some street kids came in later to sell their wares he got quite confrontational with them. It wasn’t ideal. One of the kids shouted at him, “Suck my gock!” We understood what he was trying to say.
Jay from the jungle trek came in during the fight and said hello, but then was gone again.