Intrepid as F*&k

Details to come, but we blasted back into Chiang Mai at 12:30 this afternoon: completing the route known as the Mae Hon Song loop and an amazing 7 days of hairpin bends, full-throttle straights, rice whisky, disturbingly fresh buffallo soup and national parks.

Circa 8am tomorrow we have fly out to Bangkok-Phuket to spend our final five days winding down on the beaches of Phuket.

MISSION STATUS
Day: 6
Time elapsed: 108 hours
Time remaining: 58 hours
Distance covered: 405 km
Gasoline bill:circa Bh 800 (NZ$ 30)
Accomodation bill: Bh 650 (NZ $26)
Max speed: circa 130kmhr
Flat tyres: 1

Hey folks. Just back in Mai Sarieng after an eye-opening two days up in the hills at a tribal village. Before getting into that, i'll update ya on the eventful drive from Mae Hon Song to Mai Sarieng.

We decided to crank the 170km trip from Mae Hon Song to Mai Sariang ("MS") in one hit, rather than splitting it up with an overnight stop in Khun Yuam. The map showed a few 'caution: very steep" warnings on this route, so it was always gonna be a fun drive. I revived a bit of mapping and trig skills and worked out that we should able to get to MS in just over 5 hours, including windy roads; breaks; occasional explorations of whatever attractions we stumble upon and gas stops. While I was at it with the calculator and ruler, we realised that we could spend a night on a trek somewhere and still make it back to Chiang Mai in time for our flight down to Phuket on the 14th. Beauty! Had to ask around a bit to find out what day of week / date it was though, as we'd pretty much lost track (not for the first time). So yeah, the motorcycle tour was extended to a 7 day clockwise trip, including 2 days of trekking and a trip up Thailand's highest peak (Doi Inthanon). All on the one change of clothes we jammed into our daypacks on the 7th.

The Motorcycle Diary
7 Feb - Day 1 - Chaing Mai to Pai: 135km
8 Feb - Day 2 - Pai to Mae Hong Song: 110km
9 Feb - Day 3 - MHS to Mae Sarieng: 160km
10 Feb - Day 4 - Trekking somewhere out of Mae Sarieng (staying overnight at a hilltribe village)
11 Feb - Day 5 - Trekking somewhere out of Mae Sarieng (returning to Mae Sarieng at night)
12 Feb - Day 6 - Mai Sarieng to Doi Inthanon : 160km
13 Feb - Day 7 - Doi Inthanon to Chaing Mai (fly out 8am the next morning for Phuket)

Walked up a hill that overlooked Mae Hon Song to start the day: comparable to Mt Eden. Past a few Bhuddist temples, but were gretted at the summit by nothing more than some massive radio transmitters and a pack of angry dogs. After bearing out teeth at them we made our way down and hopped on the bikes for the drive.

All was going well on the road, even though there were some pretty serious gravel patches and potholes that snuck up when you least expected them. Until coming out of a sweeping right hand bend I felt the back of my bike slide sideways waaaaaaay more than it should. Serious oversteer. On a dry road and a pretty easy corner. Figured something was up, so I eased off the gas and came to a stop about a hundred metres down the road. By this time Dom and overtaken and was out of sight. I jumped off and looked around a bit - only to fit a flattened rear tyre. Pretty bl00dy stoked that didnt happen on any more of a corner or at any more speed than it did.

By this time Dom had doubled around to see what was up. Our bikes didn't carry spares; and since it was my rear tyre (with chain etc attached), our only real option was to ge the bike to the closes town for a tyre chang. We knew we were roughly 10kms from the rural town of Khun Yuam, so figured we'd flag down the next passing ute and see if the driver was keen to lend a hand. And it worked! Within 2 minutes I was sitting on the tray of some thai dude's hilux, holding onto my bike as we weaved into Khun Yuam. Ended up at a local mechanics workshop that looked like it was staffed with high school kids who hung there in the weekend. No worries. New tyre. New brake pads. We law around on the workshop's lawn while the boys sorted out the bike. Good as new b 500 later. That put us 70km down and 90km to go on the way to Mae Sarieng. The rest of the drive went smoothly, though I eased off a bit conscious of the lack of anything between me and the hard asphalt if anything similar were to happen at a serious click.

We cruised into Mae Sarieng just after 4pm (just as my mapping skills had estimated!) and found a shady place to sit on the lawn the browse the LP for a good place to crash (our general pattern after arriving in a new destination on the bikes). Walked into one of the guesthouses on the banks of the Mae Yuam river and hung around for a while waiting for someone to attend the desk. But no one came. We ended up talking to a couple of american chicks who were already staying there and they said it was generally pretty good: clean, cheap, relatively comfy. Right up our alley. They were actually volunteers; teaching english up at a hill tribe village and were just in town for the night... as we found out during the next hour as we sat around waiting for someone to come to the front desk.

When they did, we mentiond that we were looking to spend a couple of days doing a trek and having a nosy around a hill tribe village. They called up some dude who they recommended and he came around for a chat. This was our first meeting with "Pat", (his real name Hommeang, which we shorted to "Hommie"... coz he was our hommie" Pat talked up his eco-tourism tours up to his village, where his mother was a bhuddist nun, and where we would get a unique experience (unlike the "plastic" trekking tours that he said were run out of Chiang Mai; and the "broken" villages that they visited). Pat / Hommie was thai, but had pretty decent english and a colour brochure which he had made himself . Probably what sold us was his genuine enthusiasm for both the tour and helping the people of his village. The American girls were headed back up the village the next morning too (to the primary school where they teach), and with the renovations at the temple waiting we were meant to all be ready to leave at 8am.

Day: 4
Time elapsed: 96 hours

Naturally we slept in. Pat came knocking on our door at 7:57 and we quickly gathered (what we thought were) all our possessions and rammed them into our daypacks. Soon enough, we were heading up some dirt roads in the back of Pat's car. After about an hour we arrived at his mum's temple; but were just too late to move the last of the big golden bhuddas that were being relocated to a new prayer building. We explored the grounds for a bit, and the american girls (Elder and Jenny) showed us the 4 square metre hutt that they'd lived in for the last two months. Before long it was time for an early lunch for 12 (all locals loitering in the vicinity are invited), consisting of super-yummy pork soup, steamed pumpkin, rice and a few other dishes. Cuisine that was quite different from what we'd eaten off the street and in restaurants so far. The flavours from each dish came across as really distinct - not clashing with each other... if that makes any sense.

Post-lunch we jumped in the back of Pat's Mum's ute (yup, she's a bhuddist nun WITH a hilux AND a smoking habit), while he drove us to meet families of villagers. Between us, the american girls and a few straggler locals from the temple, there were about 6 of us in the hilux tray. First up we went to a village house where the family have two cottage industries going on: cotton production and coffee beans. Tens of kilos of beans were laid around on huge tarpulins drying before they were to be put through the grading and roasting process. Found out that these very beans are purchased by Starbucks and used in their brews. There were various cotton garments too, and we saw the entire process from cotton flower to thread, dying and weaving. I even had a go at the weaving on this bamboo and wood machine they had built to make the process less effort. Also pretty interested were the chants coming from a Catholic chuch nextdoor..... apparently large proportion of the village are varying denomiations of christianity after missionaries came to these parts in the late 19th century. They bought the coffee beans too; and many villagers continue cropping the coffee beans because the returns are greater than possible through rice or cotton (those those crops continue too).

After hangin at a few village houses, we hiked around the terraced crops growing on the 'organic farms', run by a cooperative between the local government and villagers. There's some relationship to the King in all this too; but unsure exactly of where he fits in. His idea? Some of his coin? The crops, irrigation systems and greenhouses were all pretty amazing considering the relative remoteness of the villages and their ancient culture. Crops ranged from tomatoes to fancy lettuce, passionfruit, cabbage, soy bean, plums, cherries, pumpkin and eggplant. As well as some local mellon they call 'Pamello'. Produce is harvested in the hundreds of kilograms to fulfill orders from as far as Chaing Mai and Bangkok. Pretty mean!

Back to the temple, and we got into a game of soccer with the local kids as dusk set in. Don't want to brag or anything, but I did score a hatrick.... even though some of the village kids rekoned Dom looked like David Beckam. Pity he couldn't deliver on the field! Dinner was just as diverse and yummy as lunch; and after it we helped the american girls with all the dishes (one of the perks of being a volunteer english teacher at the local school apparently), before Pat led us to the roof of the temple to watch a stunning sunset over the hills.

As the horizon's hue faded from an electric orange to grey, Pat suggested that Dom and I should jump in with him and go to the villager's hutt where we'd be spending the night. Our bed's were blankets on the wooden floor of their lounge; where we started off by being shown photos of the family at various tourist attractions around Thailand. Before long we had been invited to the neighbour's to hang on the floor of thier hutt's kitchen, plied with rice whisly and conversing / laughing with the families in the room through Pat's translations. Lit only by the glow of the open-fire in the middle of the room: it's walls and ceiling blackened by ash from the smoke. It was a pretty cool scene, with even their 7 year old son trying to finish his homework for the weekend late on this Sunday evening!

More people arrived and there were more questions for us about ourselves, our studies, life in New Zealand and how much we like Thailand. One of the young girls in the audience training to be a nurse in nearby Chiang Rai. It was widely accepted that New Zealand was very pretty, but that the culture there is a lot different to life in the village. We were also offered more delicacies in the form of a big salty ball of mashed up soy beans (to be eaten with a clove of garlic, which you use to spoon the mash and then swallow the whole lot); bitter tea leaves (to be chewed with a pinch of salt), and more rice whiskey. (not too damaging, considering my initial taste reminded me of the almost-100% ethanol that my science teacher distilled in third form as part of an experiment!) It was good times when Pat busted our his guiar and started sining some thai/english hybrid tunes.

A young man who was among the visitors that night invited us to a huge feast that was to be held as his new hutt the next day as a form of blessing (their equivalent of a housewarming). In fact, they were going to be cooking all that night for the crowds of people that he was expecting. Thinking that this sounded like some serious immersion into the local culture, we offered to help out with the cooking. What we didn't realise was that the cooking was to be of a pig and buffallo, which Pat had muttered something about throughout the day.....I'd kinda firued I'd be involved at a level more along the lines of chopping the carrots for the salad. At some stage Pat referred to the buffalo as a 'farang' (meaning foreign) buffalo, and made some crack about having a 'farang' bbq (ie. a Nick and Dom bbq!). We realised then that we could be in for quite the evening. Here we were: being plyed with booze, fed herbs and condiments (essentially marinated) while the whole village waited with anticipation and hungry stomaches!

At around 11pm, we all got up and were taken to the new hutt: where there were trenches filled with burning wood and at least 40 people had gathered both inside and outside the hutt. A huge black buffalo was tied up ouside and a pig was lying on the ground. We were lead into the hutt and offered more whiskey with marinade.

Things stepped up a gear when we heard a ghunshot. Rushed downstairs to see the buffalo on the ground. Without getting into the squeamish details, lets just say that I didn't miss not having my camera on me as they slaughtered and dissected the huge mammal. There were at least 20 men involved, and despite the gruesome reality of it, the whole operation was quite a sight. It was interesting to witness Pat deal with his own Bhuddist convictions (mum's a bhuddist nun remember), by not partaking in the butchering but instead busing himself with the roasting and grinding of the spicies to be used instead. Pat told us how he wouldn't take tourists to festivals like this, only friends. Which was quite cool, because even though he didn't know how we'd handle it, he took the risk. We dont call him 'Homey' for nothing. Personally the scene made me question my own carnivorous policies. Killing animals is a necessary condition of making the decision to eat meat, so it would be ignorant and not hypocritcal to condemn or be disgusted by the slaughter. Yet it was still pretty gross and sad to watch such a magnificent beat die. Then I started thinking about how it differed from killing/eating say chicken, or fish? Where do you draw the line? Isn't drawing a line per-se grossly arbitray? Food for though.

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Yet again, the internet place is closing up. Will get back in touch from the top of Doi Inthanon if possible; otherwise Chiang Mai on the 13th!
-Nick

To come:
- raw mince salad / cooking every last part of it (in soup etc) - 90min later all that left was of the buffalo were a pair of horns / 2am escape after "food just about ready"
- sleeping on the floor of some vilager's hutt, even though I had put on a hoodie and jacket "just in case" - getting woken up by about 5 roosters doing their thang at 5:40 in the morning
- walking to the housewarming as quickly as possible because they were"waiting for us", then having whiskey chucked in our hand and being sat down with homeowner for a breakfast of rice and buffalo-bit soup. Avoid the crunchy parts
-the creepy village 'spirit house'
-visiting the village school and dominating them at volleyball
-"massoman" chicken curry for lunch, heaps like indian chicken curry
-visiting a waterfall and a limestone cave on the drive down from the village

Loggin on after a few days in the hills (above), so this bit carries on from below.
ie. After a pretty late start, we hit up brekkie at a cafe set in a sweet Swiss-inspired villa on the way into town. Turns out it's run by some Japanese people, and they're doing a wicked job......

MISSION STATUS
Day: 3
Time elapsed: 59 hours, 55 minutes
Time remaining: 108 hours, 5 minutes
Distance covered: 405 km
Gasoline bill:circa Bh 800 (NZ$ 30)
Accomodation bill: Bh 650 (NZ $26)
Max speed: circa 130kmhr
Flat tyres: 1

Yo everyone.

Having an incredible time road-tripping around the North East.

Day 1: Chiang Mai - Pai. 135km
We kicked off the voyage about 9:30 on the 7th of Feb and spent about an hour on a freeway heading due north from Chiang Mai on HW107, before hanging west onto 1095 for the bulk of the 135km journey to the settlement of Pai (population 3000). Called a coffee stop at this sweet rural cafe near a 'Coffee Research Plantation' about an hour into the drive before beginning our ascent of the range surrounding the mountain Doi Mae Ya (2005m). Dense jungle vegetation on either side of the road made for picturesque viewing as I was flicking through 2/3/4 gear negotiating the many many hairpin bends and steep sections of the road. Pretty awesome driving with a real variety of road surface / traffic / corners to work through....kinda like a gorge.

Before long we were on the ridgeline, though this lasted briefly before we plummeted the last 40km into Pai. Pai had been talked up in the LP (Lonely Planet) as a chilled out hippie town with plenty of resident foreigners who never escaped its laid back vibe. And it delivered. Some girl that we talked to a ferry at some stage over the last week described Pai as "like Switzerland"; and while descending onto the horticultural plains that Pai sits on; surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges, it was easy to see how she drew the comparison. Pretty mean landscape, plenty of photos on the memory card.

Had a bit of difficulty securing accomo (accomodation) because we were arriving on the crest of a wave of tourists, both domestic and international, who were coming to town for a reggae festival that began the next day. Luckily we scored a place for a sly B300. Behind some reggae bar. Bed consisting a mattress on the floor. Single mattress. Avvverage.

So after a quick chill, we set about getting amongst some of the hippie vibe. And it wasn't hard: there were sweet buskers on the streets until late at night, heaps of cool open air restraunt/bars with live bands, and every second bar was playing Bob Marley's Greatest Hits. Wasn't complaining though. Must have been subconsciously missing the festivities of Waitangi Day, as we spotted this Thai dude on the street that was honestly the spitting image of Tama Iti! Dont worry - nabbed a few paparazi photos of him! Ended up in a bar (you guessed it....playing Bob Marley) hangin with a group of english dudes, a Slovakian and some girl from England. Oh, "Have a big fun in Pai" is what one the vocalist from one of the streetside bands said as he introduced one of their songs and welcomed people who had come for the Reggae Fest into town.

Ended up a pretty sweet night, but called it kinda early because we knew the bikes would be calling us the next morning. It probably wasn't worth it though because it was so cold even putting all the clothes I brought didn't make sleep easier (okay, I have a total of two pairs). Neither did sharing a single mattress with Dom. Come to think of it, nor did the sound of some dude snoring in the adjacent room. Paper thin walls.

Day 2: Pai - Mae Hong Son. 110km
After a pretty late start, we hit up brekkie at a cafe set in a sweet Swiss-inspired villa on the way into town. Turns out it's run by some Japanese people, and they're doing a wicked job.

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Sorry, the internet place is about to close around me. So will carry on in a few days when we're back from a trek that we booked into a hill tribe village. Long story, but it sounds like there's a bit of 'working bee' going on up there - and I think we're being roped in to help the village's Bhuddist temple with its relocation and renovations! Should be a larf!
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CONTINUED
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Back heading NE on HW1095 and the road swept through lots of banana plantations and over a few rivers before ascending into the mountain range dominated by the 700m peak of Liu Lum). Scenery here was substantially differnet from that of the last range - with many more cliffs and less dense vegetation. Lots more hairpin bends, which we couldn't bear to not have documented: so got out the trusty insulation tape and secured by camera to the handlebars. Have now got some awesome motorcycling vids!

Made a brief stop just after the township of Soppong at a place called "Coffin Cave", which had a blurb in the LP - supposedly caves up in the cliffs with ancient coffins (made from hollowed out whole tree trunks) inside. After half an hour of searching for the turnoff we found ourselves climbing up a scrubby hill, bikes parked on the side of the main road. A few hundrew metres up we found the network of caves and, upon further creeping around, found some trunks semi-suspended behind a rope cordon and a "do not cross". Didnt find anything else after some more creeping, so figurd that these trunks must've been the coffins. Pretty sweet I guess, but not much to really look at.

A couple of hours on the road later, we descended into the town of Mae Hong Song (popuilation 8300). Not before realising that that last 90km had drained our gas tanks of hte morning's fill and our gauges were both hovering pretty damn close to 'Empty'. So we tactfully chucked the bikes in neutral and rolled most of the last 10kays into town.

Mae Hong Song (MHS) was a pretty large town that looked to be geared mainly for locals. No places really catering to tourists; but we managed to find a sweet room at a lake-side guesthouse for all of B150 ($6!). Went for a bit of a cruise 'round town on my bike and stumbled across what looked to be some kind of trade fair / carnival gig being set up; which we returned to check out that night. Was totally sweet: over 1000 locals along two streets, completely lined with stalls and exhibits relating to agriculture and general riff raff. Heaps of imitation stuff for sale, food, and even a stage set up with singning, danging and the likes. Soaked up a mean exhibition game of one of the national sports, which is essentially volleyball... but played solely with the feet and head (sort of soccer-volleyball).

Ok so we had a brainwave this morning.

Decided since day-long bus rides are boring and cramped, and being guided around temple after temple with flocks of other tourists is equally mind numbing: so we've hired a couple of motobikes, packed the essentials plus a change of clothes into our day-packs and are going to embarking on a 4-5 day motorcycle voyage of north east thailand tomorow. Should take us through the likes of towns called Pai, Soppong, Doi Inthanon National Park, Mae Sariang. The highest peak in Tailand is somewhere along the route too.

Coupla of websites we've come across have said "ride the famous Mae Hong Son Loop one of the worlds top Motorcycle roads", so it's gotta be good for ya (us). Gonna be awesome riding through the countryside and staying where/when we want. Will probably do a 2-day trek from some town along the way; hopefully involving a bit of bamboo rafting and stuff - seems to be lots on offer in the region

Picked up our bikes today from a place recommended in the Lonely Planet and run by a couple of sweet english blokes. Dom's on the ususal 110cc scooter, but I've upgraded to a 125cc semi-automatic jobbie. Badass. Also boosted the 40-odd kms about up the mountain range that overlooks Chiang Mai. Super-windy roads, which was a lot of fun. Stumbled upon the winter residence of the Thai Royal Family up there too..... Looked alright.

Should arrive back in Chiang Mai aroud the 10th of the month, when we'll decide what our next move will be. Might be east. Might be south. Might be south-east... who knows.

Happy Waitangi Day back home. Hear Tama Iti was back to his usual tricks!
Nick

Checking in from Chian Mai. Had a wicked day sifting around this city (1300 odd km north from where the last entry). Took plenty of different twists and turns, having just flown in from Phuket at 5pm and browsed amongst the (massive) Nighttime Walking Market on the streets last night.

Okay so started out today aiming to do the 'Chiang Mai Walking Tour', as described by the lonely planet. But all of 20minutes into it we got talking to this old monk. (Old probably an understatement, this guy was decrepid! Must've been at least 110) and he's all like "Come with me... I show you my place". So we thought 'yeah all good, sounds cool and pretty intrepid'. Ended up shouting him lunch (though we were stopping for a cup of tea - then he orders a cupla plates of mains!) and, while at his monastry, getting a commentated guide thorugh all 4 of his massive photo albums. Photos of him doing his 'monk thang' in Paris, India, Australia, NZ, everywhere'. Basically just posing with people and attractions..got pretty boring... he kept going on about all these friends he's got over the world. Then he tells us he's spending a week in the nearby region of Sukothai as of tomorrow morning and we must go with him: even gets on his mobile and gives a holler to some mate of his who's supposedly a 'Dr', the Doc then speaks to me on the phone and is all like 'yeah yeah, come to Sukothai.....blah blahh.. All good and well, but we'd already sussed a bus trip up north, via Chiang Mai and up to Myamar / Burma to renew our Thailand visa's tomorrow. Promised we'd come visit later in the week, but he wasn't having a bar of it. After another few attempts, he finally accepted we weren't gonna hang with him and we continued on the tour of the monastry with him. But he just kept wanting pictures of HIM next to different statues! Weird. This guy was one serious photo-slut.

Agreed on an exit strategy and started telling him we had a taxi to catch at 1pm, but he was seriously clingy. Ended up having to visit one of his on-monastry friends with him and also flick through HIS photo albums (as quickly as we could) before he'd let us go. Bizzare encounter.... I always thought monks were cruisy dudes. In all fairness he was pretty funny and freakin old. Maybe just a bit lonely?

Post-monk ordeal we tuk-tuk'd our way to a silver smith, as a while ago we hatched a plan to design and produce some top secret custom-made silverware. First got taken to a silver jewellery shop, but after explaining exactly what we were after to both the proprietor and our driver, we ended up at this tiny three-man jewellery shack. After some drawing of pictures and broken thai/english negotiations, we think we've ordered exactly what we're after. Will find out in a couple of days when we return to proof the design...

Drifted wherever the tuktuk driver wanted to take us for about an hour... checking out some pretty sweet silk and jewellery stores before we spotted a sweet soup-kitchen ideal for lunch, where we orderd by pointing to pictures on the wall of what we were after. Spotted a local Snooker hall across the road and thought we'd see what it was all about. Ended up shooting a few games of pool amonst the locals with a cupla Singha (luckily none of them watching, as out skills were utterly shite).

Since its still Health and Wellbeing Week, we opted to try walk back to the 'Old City' and our guesthouse. Figured it shouldn't be more than five or so kays. A few minutes into it we hit this classic clothing store that sold uniforms - for Thai people! After a bit of trial and errorm we ended up scoring these awesome thai boy-scouts shirts, complete with our own selection of badges and our name/call-sign sewed on in thai. Badass!

Back on the walk and before long we spotted what resembled a marketplace about a block off the main road. Headed into it and realised it was MASSIVE. (think the Chinesse Oriental Markets that used to be on the waterfront in Aucks - but bigger) Absolutely teeming with local purchasers and vendors selling all kinds of food, clothes, drink, a butchery, army-surplus merchant....everything. Explored it for ages, and it goes without sayign that we ate even more food.

Spending the evening chilling at the Ghouse tonight as we leave for a 7am-8pm daytrip furhter up north via some hotsprings, the city of Chiang Rai and up to the border with Burma/Myamar tomorrow. This trip primarily just to walk across the border, do a 180 and re-enter thailand so that our 30-day tourist visa is renewed; but sweet that we'll get to check out some destinations that we might spend a few days in during the next 1-2 weeks we've got. Plan after that is to spend a day mountainbiking or trekking here before either heading to Chiang Ria or west to a small town called Pai.

Briefly, Ko Phi Phi was pretty damn sweet. Highlight was probably meeting up with Alex and his mates a cupla nights and getting on the beers with them! We had a ferry-bus-ferry combo to get from the east to the west coast. Realising that it was gonna be 7-odd hours of cramped and uncomfortable travel, we decided to start boofing beers as soon as we got on the first ferry. Got through our first doz relatively quickly... and spent most of the rest of the journey talking smack and generally enjoying ourselves.

Immediately fell alsleep (despite it only being like 4pm) as soon as we'd secured some accom on Ko Phi Ph,i, but ended up hitting a dinner buffet later that night and running into Alex and his mates. Made for pretty mean times. Phi phi had quite a diff feel than the east coast islands, and had a different demographic of tourists. Heaps more oldies and europeans rather than the loose aussies of the east. Did a mean half-day longtail boat trip around smaller surrounding islands in the magnificently translucent waters. More mean snorkelling and some sweet swimming in a lagoon, as well as a cupla hours at the bay where the movie The Beach was filmed. That place was aight. Funnily enough bumped into the two norweigan girls that we did our camel trek through the desert in Jaisalmer (India) with the next day. Ridiculous!

Absolute shitta of a boat ride back to the mainland from Phi Phi before getting here. Seriously felt like they had 4x the maximum capacity of people onboard. Did my usual chuck-on-ipod-and-fall-asleep-on-the-floor trick. Never fails! Then we were onto our flight to Chiang Mai.... but with enough time to play a bit of imprompt circket in the airport waiting room. Niiiiiiice.