Saturday Part One: Into the Jungle

Well, haven't really left the building in a few days what with all the throwing up and that, so i though I'd make up for lost time and book a whirlwind trip to Chaing Rai, The Golden Triangle and include some exploitative gawping at hill tribes whilst I was at it.

We left Chiang Mai at 6.30 on a very warm wet morning, and as we drove up and up, the jungle crept up around us. Huge shaggy trees, bedecked further and ever more heavily with creepers, liana and vines became a solid wall of green texture surrounding us, with misty mountains further encompassing them and fronds of clouds nestling in furrows and dips in between.

At one point fleecy tuft of cloud detached itself and flumphed itself down on the jungle right beside the road, and swifts flew and dived in and out of it, drinking, or bathing, or catching their breakfast, or whatever swift business they have at that time of the morning in wet looking clouds.

As if this wasn't heart stopping a sight enough, our driver ramped up the drama in traditional SE Asian style by overtaking wildly on the crests of hills and blind bends, or a masterful combination of the two, however luckily I was sitting near the back of the bus an was unable to fully appreciate his efforts at adrenaline rushes and was mostly able to ignore our unseatbelted potential peril.

And then we were at the "hotsprings"....A little dissappointing as they now come out of a pipe in the ground, whereas I was hoping for something a little more natural. However the smell of sulphur andthe heat convinded me it wasn't just a high pressure hose. People were cooking eggs in the water.... i soaked my skankles for a few minutes at the pool..and then on we went.