Life's Hard... crystal clear beaches...beautiful weather...

Ok well I'm back in an internet cafe with time to spare, but I've put off doing a proper blog for so long that I really can't be bothered thinking of everything. I'll write a condensed record of the last week or so but otherwise I'm afraid pictures with have to speak louder than words... which I think they do. I'm currently at Hat Sai Keow on Ko Samet around 4 hours from Bangkok, staying for one night in a bungalow then heading to the airport tomorrow. The beach is gorgeous... I've never actually seen such crystal clear water before... come to think of it, this is only the second beach I've ever swum at outside of Australia. Ok...After my first couple of days in Bangkok my tour group headed up to Chang Mai by sleeper train, I got bottom bunk so I head a pretty reasonable sleep. We were picked up from the station by two ute/truck thingies and taken via Chang Mai to the home of the drivers. This was probably one of my favourite times... their property was amazing, we slept upstairs in mosquito nets and our hosts put on the most amazing spreads for breakfast lunch and tea. We went for a bike ride through the village that was so much fun and incredibly beautiful... something you can't really imagine. We weaved in between shacks, sheds cows and temples, stopped next to feilds to sample the produce and waved at kids that ran out to say hello. The 'entertainment' at the homestay was a classic, our host organized all these school kids and his children to perform traditional music, dance and 'martial arts' all night, the whole time the kids mucked around and talked over whoever was performing yet our host was very proud and tried to keep it professional. I had the best massage that night out of the 5 that I've had this week... it was greeeeeat. Also went to a cave that wasn't as good as ones I've seen in Adelaide Next we started the first leg of our hike, went for a short walk to a waterfall where we had lunch and had a great time sliding down rocks into pools. It was amazing to see monks swimming just near us...the bathed in their orange robes but would not let us take a photo of them. Our guides Trent and Kris therefore had to resort to pretending to take photos of each other with the monks in the background! The trek was beautiful, we didn't walk as long as expected but it was harder work than expected.... turns out I'm still bloody unfit and I really struggled up the hills. We got into the first Hill Tribe village at dusk on the first night and of course I was last in... I was greeted by the most beautiful sight of two young girls waiting at the top of the hill with huge smiles just for me. They hugged each other out of shyness but they were so excited to see me. It's amazing how similar my Hill Tribe experiences are to a World Vision add, these children weren't starving but they are incredible isolated and don't get the most nutritious diet. (rice and rice) Oh yeah I forgot to mention our porters... we had several men from one of the villages carrying water food and other supplies the whole time we were trekking. They were absolutely amazing, every time we had a break they'd have watermelon or pineapple cut up and served before we sat down, and they cooked all our meals while in the village. When I was stuck down the bottom of the hill and everyone else was way ahead Trent and at least one porter would always be sticking by me, making sure everything was cool. Their English names are easy to remember - Superman (leader of the group, older, wiser and ohhh so cool with a woolen hat on constantly even thought it was 35 degrees) Superboy (young guy), Spiderman (spindly) and Ken. Ken spoke excellent English considering he's lived in such an isolated village his whole life. I'll get some picks of them up soon hopefully. The second village was easier to get to but I became so dehydrated that I was really ill for a few hours. We went down to a small waterfall near the village and everyone slid down the rocks with the local boys and a bit later they played soccer with the boys (the pic I posted earlier). They stopped soccer so we could go feed all the children in the village an omelet and noodles each out of money we supplied, as I said the kids don't have the best diet and they got so excited about it some were waiting patiently with metal bowls for 2 hours before food was served. Our group had moonshine whiskey that night and a good chat, then all the school kids came back and sat in our long room on one side while we sat on the other and sang songs. Now that was a scary experience... this room was at least a metre off the ground on stilts with just thin bamboo sheeting around 3mm thick as the floor, and candles between us and 30 dancing kids! Everytime they danced the whole building shook so much at least one candle feel over and I swear it was a miracle the whole thing didn't collapse. Anyway they were amazing and put us to shame, the only song us Aussies actually got write they already knew (waltzing Matilda) they even knew the actions to YMCA! It was a fun night. Next morning I stumbled out of the room and down the makeshift stairs at 5:30 to find 6 women setting up their craftwork outside our hut in the dark, making sure they got the best position. That was an amazing thing to see.... by the time it was daylight there were several hundred brightly coloured scarves, tops and necklaces hanging up like the flags you see in Tibet around the Dalhi Lama's palace. Of course it goes without saying I promptly purchased 4 scarves and two necklaces, paying each woman direct for their work. The last day was a very easy walk out of the national park to our trusty vans and back to Chang Mai. I've since said goodbye to all my Intrepid buddies, 5 have gone down south for another month, Anne is going home to Perth, Russel home to England, and the Japanese girls home to their country. We had a couple of days in Chang Mai and Bangkok to get drunk, eat and generally bum around and said goodbye yesterday. Ok well this blog was definitely not as brief as planned, I'm gonna have to go down to the 7 eleven and get more cash out to pay for this internet visit... 2 baht a minute, what a rip off! Going back to Bangkok tomorrow (I now know two streets of Bangkok very very well but couldn't tell you a thing about the rest. If you want to see one of them check out where Leo goes in the beginning of The Beach.) then I'll be off to the airport and Destination 3... London!