Full Moon for Loy Kratong

Monday 06Nov2006
Yes, I know that I have written all of this about Loy Kratong- it is apparently such a huge heal here. AND we are told that today, Monday, not Sunday, is THE day for Loy Kratong---Even bigger party than yesterday we are told. REALLY??? Thai people are krazy for Loy Kratong!!

So we started off the day organising our trek into the jungle- we were in the internet cafe at this hotyel and saw some people looking at pics fom their trek and decided to ask them about it, well, I had Shawn ask becasue he can talk to anyone! They really had a good time and explained about it, the girlk even took us to the place where they booked it. That was good beacuse we had hear soo many mixed stories about the treks and wanted to go on one really bad- I mean its the jungle out there and all, so you have to be careful. We met the lady Vivi and she showed us the tour it is called "non-tourist tour" becasue apparently you don't see anybody except the villagers for the 3 days that you are out. Very cool. Sign us up!!
After that we decided that we needed to sit down and organise the rest of our time- I mean 6 weeks seems like a very long time but we are finding out that it is not enough time at all!! We ended trekking all around Chiang Mai which was very cool to see different parts and went to the airlines and a travel agency and ended back up at the hotel internet with me booking the flights--I can do it and save us some money-- you know me-- pinching every baht!!!
We decided that for ease of travel and time that we would take the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok when we got back from the trek and then from there fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see Angkor Wat for a few days. After that, back to Bangkok for another flight to Phuket to the beaches!!! What a wonderful plan!! Yeah!!
We had a meeting for the trek where we could meet the tour guide, the other trekkers, and register ourselves with the TAT-Tourist Authority Thailand Police- so that they knew that they were taking us on a trek- that is a good sign of a reputable company if they do that. There was a time to go over what to bring and what we will do then also a time to meet the other people on the trek. A couple from Australia and 4 Frenchmen. Cool! There were also a few others that signed up buit did not show up to the meeting. Shawn and I were stoked!!
We met up with Pam and ate dinner at this Darrats Restaurant in Chiang mai- seemed good- lots of people and cheap beer!!
After eating we got to see a bunch of Thai boxing- men and women!! Very cool and enticing!! Then we cam upoin another parade that lasted literally for 4 hours!! I mean at the end of the night when were were going back to the guesthouse the parade was still going on!!
After that Pam and Shawn wanted to continue drinking so they headed up to the rooftop bar Tribal Heritage Conservation- which has a very cool lookout of the festivities from way uptop.
From the rooftop you could lay back and see the millions of lanterns in the sky!! What a sight!!
I opted for a massage of the feet amist all of the party. Soo nice after walking all around town for the last few days!! After the massage I headed to the rooftop bar and saw Pam and Shawn partying with the Frenchmen from the trip--now they are a trip!! They were soo excited that we were cool and were looking forward to the trek--so lets drink!! The rooftop bar had Buckets!! They were Thai Whiskey, Coke, and some sort of potent Red Bull ( I mean WAY MORE potent than Red Bull-- if you can imagine!) They also had such drinks as Sex on the Roof!! The Frenchmen were getting shots of Uzo and lighting them on fire and drinking then and then lighting their mouthes on fire-- I told you they were crazy!! Very amusing!! I only had a few sips of the bucket-I haven't felt too much like drinking on this trip so far- but the buckets kept on coming!!
I finally decided that since we have to get up early and trek in the morning that we should head out and so Shawn and I left the bar for a good nights rest.........