(no subject)
>_> Uhm. Neglecting my LJ? Me? Absolutely not.
Day Thirty-One
WELL. XD I think I'd better explain where I've been for the past week or so. XD;
I'VE BEEN IN THE JUUUUUNGLE MAAAAAN 8DDDD Been keepin' it real up in the hells, yo.
So, on the 11th, I sent off to the station and got a train up to Chiang Mai! 14-hour train journey in a sleeping car, but admittedly not a lot of sleeping happened. >_> The trains aren't exactly the most peaceful 've ever been on, put it that way... Anyway, I met a few really nice people on the train, one of whom wason the same trek as me, so that was nice, at least.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai at about 9am, the guesthouse sent a truck to pick us up and take us there; dumped my rucksack and went downstairs to lurk for a bit. Some of the other trekkers started arriving, and two of us decided to go explore the old City and take a look at some temples and stuff - t'was nice. The air in Chiang Mai is so much clearer than BKK @_@ It was probably about the same heat, but with none of the humidity and a nice breeze.
Anyway, at 6pm, we all had a briefing meeting, which didn't go terribly well as our guide's English wasn't exactly brilliant, but after that a few of us went down to the night market to have a look around and get some food. We ran into the other girls from the train, which was amusing XD;
The next morning, we set off at 9am, turns out that our guide had been taken ill (bit of a worry), and we had a new guide, Dat. So, off we went 8D First stop, tourist police station >_>... and then onto ELEPHANTS 8D Elephants are big. xD We stayed there for... well, I dunno how long, but we went for a little wander on elephants backs, got covered in baby elephant snot.. y'know, it was fun. xD (For the record, ellie snot is actually the same colour as melon soda. DX)
After that, we had lunch at a little shack cafe and began our trek. First was about 20 minutes of straight up xD; Dear god. After about an hour or so of walking, we arrived at a waterfall and went for a swim :3 it was ealy nice - the water was icy cold >o<~~
We stayed at the waterfall for a couple of hours before beginning the trek up to our camp for the night, which turned out to be an awesome bamboo hut on stilts suspended over the side of a cliff =O~~ I think I nearly died getting there thought, sweet jesus the walking was hard - I thought my legs were going to drop off.
Oh yeah, I should mention that I've been trying to get tickets to see X Japan live next month, right; and a lotto had just opened, and it was pretty much all i could think about, despite being halfway up a mountain in the middle of nowhere; so there's me sort of delierious, thinking my legs are actually about to cave in and fall all the way back down to the bottom, mumbling the lyrics to Kurenai to keep myself going.... I must've looked like a mountain troll or something, god. xD
Aaaaanyway, we had a nice meal and stayed up drinking all night. :3 Well, not me.. but everybody else was drinking, and they were fun to watch. XD I don't need to drink to get my kicks, I just watch other people who do. XDDD Took a walk round the village itself - really interesting, they use a lot of solar power =O
The next morning we set off at about 10, and had a walk for an hour and a half pretty much straight down xD; I can't really decide what was worse, tbh - Up was much more physically straining; but down was far more complicated and required more brain power on where to put your feet. But at least on Down, I could keep up =X;
The new waterfall was great - there was a natural slide made out of rocks that we all went down XDDD T'was fuuun~
After that was another walk - more up, more me getting left behind. My knee started playing up again, bloody kickboxing XD but regardless of that, I made it and the place we stayed was AMAZING - it was another bamboo hut, but it was in a little private valley with a tiny dusty path leading down into it, with a campfire site and a WATERFALL 8D
So yeah, another swim and washing hair in the waterfall - I'm not sure my hair was planning on forgiving me for that - I'm just glad there aren't many mirrors in the jungle, because I must have looked a WRECK. xD;
That night, we sat around the campfire and sang sillysongs tghat none of us knew the lyrics for... and played some ridiculous games, which I won't try and explain to you here becuase... well, we didn't really get it at the time. XD But every time you lose, you got a charcoal mark on your face. Since we were all so rubbish at it, we all ended up with black faces, moustaches, unibrows, sideburns.. you name it. XD;; It was fun anyway, although the Thai guys had much more patience with it than we did - we all got kinda bored with it after the 20th time, but they wanted to carry on all night xD;...
I've realised that I hate using the pronoun I. xD; God I'm so bloody linguistically mitigated, it's a wonder I ever speak at all. Oh wait, I don't. >>;;...
Uhmm, what else.. I picked up a guitar for the first time in 2 years and dear GOD I want to start playing again >o<;; My nails were too long, so all i coudl make were duff notes, but it was so nice to hold a guitar and play again ;3;...;; (Must not tell Yada.)
Some of the guys went off frog-hunting (THEY WERE SO CUTE!); brought two back, chucked them on the fire and ate them. >_> I have to say that frog is one thing that I don't think will ever be appealling - frog and cockroach, no. Anyway, they seemed to enjoy it, and Pan was pleased with himsef (our other guide - he was 18 and originally came from a Hill Tribe, he was pretty amazing - JUNGLE BOY! Hopping from rock to rock across a waterfall in the dark... man. @_@)
After that, we unanimously decided it was bedtme and toddled off to sleep, despite Dat's requests for me to stay and sing Doraemon no Uta with him on guitar xD;; The sleeping arrangements were... uh... @_@; There were 6 banks of beds (read: bamboo mats with a very thin mattress-thing that you coudn't really call a mattress because it was more like a blanket); with 2 beds in each, and a big mosquito net over each one. The first night, we'd had sleeping bags - did I mention how COLD it gets out there overnight?? Jesus. So this time I was sleeping in my jeans and a jumper xD;
We had sortof duvet things, but like the matresses, I only call them that because I don't know a better word and they don't really fit the description at all; mine looked like it may have had a teddy bear print on it at one time, but it was so grey and old yuo couldn't really tell anymore... we alos had these thick grey blankets made of wire wool or something... xD; and as we were getting into bed, somebody piped up "Hey... do any of YOUR blankets have blood on them....?", so that was... reassuring. xD;; Anyway, despite ocncerns, once it hit abotut 4am, it was so cold, I didn't even care anymore, huddled under all 3 and wrapped them round my head (did I mention there were no pillows?) @_@; But yeah, I was MUCH less cold than I had been the night before, so that was good.
Next morning we set off after washing our charcoal faces and having breakfast; set off up the hill again... and then down, down, down... 40 mins later, we arrived at another waterfall, but just stopped for a drink and I didn't bother swimming. LIPTON ICE TEA :'D~~ IT WAS SO DELICIOUS! It remins me of beach holidays when I was a kid >3<~~~
Then we walked onwards, a lot of straight down for about an hour, it was pretty painful by the time we stopped @_@ We crossed wide rivers on bamboo bridges, wihch were quite literally a few sticks lashed together and an act of balance. @_@ I wiped out and landed on my ass in a little stream that was coming down teh side of a cliff and across our path - let's face it, somebody had to do it, and if it was anybody, it would be me. XD One of the uys nearly wiped out too, but he grabbed out at the bardbed wire next to the path and....... well, let's say, although I had orange sand all up my legs, ass and back, I wasn't bleeding like that @____@;
So yeah, that last walk was pretty hardcore, but eventually we came to a road and along came Dat with a pickup truck 8D 11 of us in the back of a pickup, sitting on the tailgate... good times, man. He drove us back the the first place we'd stopped for lunch.
As we wandered in singing a silly song, somebody pointed out people sitting the restaurant - big groups of people, all sitting together, looking sort of awkward.. that was us a few days ago; and now we burst into song as if we are in a musical together. XD; It's amazing how close you can become to people in a short space of time - THE CHAKARINRINRIN TRIBE!!!
Aaaaanyway, after lunch we went bamboo rafting 8D Which was... 9 thick stalks of bamboo tied together with rubber, a driver, and a stick to steer. XD; We all got soaked, and our driver managed to totally wipe out and almost throw us all off by accident (He had been trying to do it on purpose a moment previously, so he deserved it. xP); they shouted "NO WET NO FUN!" and slapped the water with their sticks, trying to soak people on the other rafts and knock them into the water. XD It was good.
After that, we headed off home :3 Loaded into the back of another van and within an hour or two, we were back where we started. Took a shower, and then went out for dinner with some of the tribe, before heading out for drinks with the girls we met on the train. T'was a very nice evening. :3
The next day, I went for a short walk around Chiang Mai by myself - took some photos and ended up in a shopping mall, hah. If there is one, I'll find it. XD Anyway, bought something silly for Dad's birthday and then went back to the guesthouse, checked out and waited for my ride to the station. Another trip in a van, and woomph, I was back on the train headed home. (Next to this really irritating yank family who were using all the bloody storage D]... I hope 'he' was a she, and left them some babies. >________>;; XD *evil*
Didn't get much sleep because the train was much earlier than the previous one, and I was woken up at 5am by the conductor using a bloody loudspeaker RIGHT IN MY EAR DX;; Got a taxi back to the hotel and crashed out trying to find out if we'd won X tickets or not. XD;
It was a really great experience - very difficult, and I've not even covered half of it here, but I'm too lazy right now - I posted pics on my facebook - same dealy as before - if you wanna see, let me know your FB addy and I'll add you 'n stuff. :B
In other news, I am going to see X Japan. Not once. Not twice. But THREE TIMES, OH YES. I already gushed about this on DA but EEE! Those of you who know me know that I've loved X for god knows how long, and the chance to see them live is... *_* Quite literally a dream come true. I'm sad that hide won't be on stage, but what can ya do, huh... silly man. f(^x^);
I was gunna add in some silly anecdote about putting on my bra on the outside in my haste to buy X tickets for the 29th, but I think enough of you know how retarded I am by now, so I don't think I even need to explain how I managed that. XD
Thankyou to EVERYBODY who's helped me get tickets - not only did Jess-rin and I get tickets for ourselves, we also managed to help a load of other people get tickets too, and we have people flying in from overseas just to see this gig with us. I also managed to get a ticket for Mr Tommie-B, which is like.. the best thing ever. I feel USEFUL. XD Everybody deserves to see this gig, we've been waiting far too long already :D
Right, I'm off to Hong Kong this afternoon =O Bit random, but yeah. XD I'm pretty much packed, just waiting for my straighteners to cool down, and then I'll go check out and lurk in the lobby for a couple of hours before my taxi... I'm going up super early, but I can get some food when I arrive and just chill out for a bit before going to meet my parents in the Dep. lounge at Suva. :3
See you all soooon 8D
Day Thirty-One
WELL. XD I think I'd better explain where I've been for the past week or so. XD;
I'VE BEEN IN THE JUUUUUNGLE MAAAAAN 8DDDD Been keepin' it real up in the hells, yo.
So, on the 11th, I sent off to the station and got a train up to Chiang Mai! 14-hour train journey in a sleeping car, but admittedly not a lot of sleeping happened. >_> The trains aren't exactly the most peaceful 've ever been on, put it that way... Anyway, I met a few really nice people on the train, one of whom wason the same trek as me, so that was nice, at least.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai at about 9am, the guesthouse sent a truck to pick us up and take us there; dumped my rucksack and went downstairs to lurk for a bit. Some of the other trekkers started arriving, and two of us decided to go explore the old City and take a look at some temples and stuff - t'was nice. The air in Chiang Mai is so much clearer than BKK @_@ It was probably about the same heat, but with none of the humidity and a nice breeze.
Anyway, at 6pm, we all had a briefing meeting, which didn't go terribly well as our guide's English wasn't exactly brilliant, but after that a few of us went down to the night market to have a look around and get some food. We ran into the other girls from the train, which was amusing XD;
The next morning, we set off at 9am, turns out that our guide had been taken ill (bit of a worry), and we had a new guide, Dat. So, off we went 8D First stop, tourist police station >_>... and then onto ELEPHANTS 8D Elephants are big. xD We stayed there for... well, I dunno how long, but we went for a little wander on elephants backs, got covered in baby elephant snot.. y'know, it was fun. xD (For the record, ellie snot is actually the same colour as melon soda. DX)
After that, we had lunch at a little shack cafe and began our trek. First was about 20 minutes of straight up xD; Dear god. After about an hour or so of walking, we arrived at a waterfall and went for a swim :3 it was ealy nice - the water was icy cold >o<~~
We stayed at the waterfall for a couple of hours before beginning the trek up to our camp for the night, which turned out to be an awesome bamboo hut on stilts suspended over the side of a cliff =O~~ I think I nearly died getting there thought, sweet jesus the walking was hard - I thought my legs were going to drop off.
Oh yeah, I should mention that I've been trying to get tickets to see X Japan live next month, right; and a lotto had just opened, and it was pretty much all i could think about, despite being halfway up a mountain in the middle of nowhere; so there's me sort of delierious, thinking my legs are actually about to cave in and fall all the way back down to the bottom, mumbling the lyrics to Kurenai to keep myself going.... I must've looked like a mountain troll or something, god. xD
Aaaaanyway, we had a nice meal and stayed up drinking all night. :3 Well, not me.. but everybody else was drinking, and they were fun to watch. XD I don't need to drink to get my kicks, I just watch other people who do. XDDD Took a walk round the village itself - really interesting, they use a lot of solar power =O
The next morning we set off at about 10, and had a walk for an hour and a half pretty much straight down xD; I can't really decide what was worse, tbh - Up was much more physically straining; but down was far more complicated and required more brain power on where to put your feet. But at least on Down, I could keep up =X;
The new waterfall was great - there was a natural slide made out of rocks that we all went down XDDD T'was fuuun~
After that was another walk - more up, more me getting left behind. My knee started playing up again, bloody kickboxing XD but regardless of that, I made it and the place we stayed was AMAZING - it was another bamboo hut, but it was in a little private valley with a tiny dusty path leading down into it, with a campfire site and a WATERFALL 8D
So yeah, another swim and washing hair in the waterfall - I'm not sure my hair was planning on forgiving me for that - I'm just glad there aren't many mirrors in the jungle, because I must have looked a WRECK. xD;
That night, we sat around the campfire and sang sillysongs tghat none of us knew the lyrics for... and played some ridiculous games, which I won't try and explain to you here becuase... well, we didn't really get it at the time. XD But every time you lose, you got a charcoal mark on your face. Since we were all so rubbish at it, we all ended up with black faces, moustaches, unibrows, sideburns.. you name it. XD;; It was fun anyway, although the Thai guys had much more patience with it than we did - we all got kinda bored with it after the 20th time, but they wanted to carry on all night xD;...
I've realised that I hate using the pronoun I. xD; God I'm so bloody linguistically mitigated, it's a wonder I ever speak at all. Oh wait, I don't. >>;;...
Uhmm, what else.. I picked up a guitar for the first time in 2 years and dear GOD I want to start playing again >o<;; My nails were too long, so all i coudl make were duff notes, but it was so nice to hold a guitar and play again ;3;...;; (Must not tell Yada.)
Some of the guys went off frog-hunting (THEY WERE SO CUTE!); brought two back, chucked them on the fire and ate them. >_> I have to say that frog is one thing that I don't think will ever be appealling - frog and cockroach, no. Anyway, they seemed to enjoy it, and Pan was pleased with himsef (our other guide - he was 18 and originally came from a Hill Tribe, he was pretty amazing - JUNGLE BOY! Hopping from rock to rock across a waterfall in the dark... man. @_@)
After that, we unanimously decided it was bedtme and toddled off to sleep, despite Dat's requests for me to stay and sing Doraemon no Uta with him on guitar xD;; The sleeping arrangements were... uh... @_@; There were 6 banks of beds (read: bamboo mats with a very thin mattress-thing that you coudn't really call a mattress because it was more like a blanket); with 2 beds in each, and a big mosquito net over each one. The first night, we'd had sleeping bags - did I mention how COLD it gets out there overnight?? Jesus. So this time I was sleeping in my jeans and a jumper xD;
We had sortof duvet things, but like the matresses, I only call them that because I don't know a better word and they don't really fit the description at all; mine looked like it may have had a teddy bear print on it at one time, but it was so grey and old yuo couldn't really tell anymore... we alos had these thick grey blankets made of wire wool or something... xD; and as we were getting into bed, somebody piped up "Hey... do any of YOUR blankets have blood on them....?", so that was... reassuring. xD;; Anyway, despite ocncerns, once it hit abotut 4am, it was so cold, I didn't even care anymore, huddled under all 3 and wrapped them round my head (did I mention there were no pillows?) @_@; But yeah, I was MUCH less cold than I had been the night before, so that was good.
Next morning we set off after washing our charcoal faces and having breakfast; set off up the hill again... and then down, down, down... 40 mins later, we arrived at another waterfall, but just stopped for a drink and I didn't bother swimming. LIPTON ICE TEA :'D~~ IT WAS SO DELICIOUS! It remins me of beach holidays when I was a kid >3<~~~
Then we walked onwards, a lot of straight down for about an hour, it was pretty painful by the time we stopped @_@ We crossed wide rivers on bamboo bridges, wihch were quite literally a few sticks lashed together and an act of balance. @_@ I wiped out and landed on my ass in a little stream that was coming down teh side of a cliff and across our path - let's face it, somebody had to do it, and if it was anybody, it would be me. XD One of the uys nearly wiped out too, but he grabbed out at the bardbed wire next to the path and....... well, let's say, although I had orange sand all up my legs, ass and back, I wasn't bleeding like that @____@;
So yeah, that last walk was pretty hardcore, but eventually we came to a road and along came Dat with a pickup truck 8D 11 of us in the back of a pickup, sitting on the tailgate... good times, man. He drove us back the the first place we'd stopped for lunch.
As we wandered in singing a silly song, somebody pointed out people sitting the restaurant - big groups of people, all sitting together, looking sort of awkward.. that was us a few days ago; and now we burst into song as if we are in a musical together. XD; It's amazing how close you can become to people in a short space of time - THE CHAKARINRINRIN TRIBE!!!
Aaaaanyway, after lunch we went bamboo rafting 8D Which was... 9 thick stalks of bamboo tied together with rubber, a driver, and a stick to steer. XD; We all got soaked, and our driver managed to totally wipe out and almost throw us all off by accident (He had been trying to do it on purpose a moment previously, so he deserved it. xP); they shouted "NO WET NO FUN!" and slapped the water with their sticks, trying to soak people on the other rafts and knock them into the water. XD It was good.
After that, we headed off home :3 Loaded into the back of another van and within an hour or two, we were back where we started. Took a shower, and then went out for dinner with some of the tribe, before heading out for drinks with the girls we met on the train. T'was a very nice evening. :3
The next day, I went for a short walk around Chiang Mai by myself - took some photos and ended up in a shopping mall, hah. If there is one, I'll find it. XD Anyway, bought something silly for Dad's birthday and then went back to the guesthouse, checked out and waited for my ride to the station. Another trip in a van, and woomph, I was back on the train headed home. (Next to this really irritating yank family who were using all the bloody storage D]... I hope 'he' was a she, and left them some babies. >________>;; XD *evil*
Didn't get much sleep because the train was much earlier than the previous one, and I was woken up at 5am by the conductor using a bloody loudspeaker RIGHT IN MY EAR DX;; Got a taxi back to the hotel and crashed out trying to find out if we'd won X tickets or not. XD;
It was a really great experience - very difficult, and I've not even covered half of it here, but I'm too lazy right now - I posted pics on my facebook - same dealy as before - if you wanna see, let me know your FB addy and I'll add you 'n stuff. :B
In other news, I am going to see X Japan. Not once. Not twice. But THREE TIMES, OH YES. I already gushed about this on DA but EEE! Those of you who know me know that I've loved X for god knows how long, and the chance to see them live is... *_* Quite literally a dream come true. I'm sad that hide won't be on stage, but what can ya do, huh... silly man. f(^x^);
I was gunna add in some silly anecdote about putting on my bra on the outside in my haste to buy X tickets for the 29th, but I think enough of you know how retarded I am by now, so I don't think I even need to explain how I managed that. XD
Thankyou to EVERYBODY who's helped me get tickets - not only did Jess-rin and I get tickets for ourselves, we also managed to help a load of other people get tickets too, and we have people flying in from overseas just to see this gig with us. I also managed to get a ticket for Mr Tommie-B, which is like.. the best thing ever. I feel USEFUL. XD Everybody deserves to see this gig, we've been waiting far too long already :D
Right, I'm off to Hong Kong this afternoon =O Bit random, but yeah. XD I'm pretty much packed, just waiting for my straighteners to cool down, and then I'll go check out and lurk in the lobby for a couple of hours before my taxi... I'm going up super early, but I can get some food when I arrive and just chill out for a bit before going to meet my parents in the Dep. lounge at Suva. :3
See you all soooon 8D