No money, no boomboom

Because everybody could see that we were tourist and we were for the first time in the city, the tuktuk driver ripped us off when he took us to our guesthouse. I guess you need to be ripped off by a tuktuk driver at least once when you are in Thailand. That evening we where invited by the owner of the guesthouse to eat spagetti with her. It was really nice. After that we asked her if we could go to a cinema to see World War Z, it was a really cool movie. As kind as the people are in this country, they brought us there on motorcycle. She also came to pick us up on motorcycle.
The next morning she arranged a taxi for us to drive us to the Tiger Kingdom. Then we visited an other hill tribe market, also from Akha people and the Karen. The Akha people are the tribe with the black teeth from the beatle juice the chew. This is protecting their teeth, they don't have to brush them. You can see very old people who still have their theeth. The Karen is the tribe with the rings on their necks to enlonger it. It is kind of scary to see that. Even little children are wearing them. After dinner we went with the people from the guesthouse to a cabaret show. I know now that a caberet show in Thailand is really different from the ones in holland. It is in a bar and it is kind of playbackshow where people sing and dance on stage. The place was packed with ladyboys. Some start taking hormones on a very young age.
I got my second Thai massage here, a little more rough than the first one. I was folded like a wet towel in the most impossible positions. It hurts but afterwards it feels really good. Sunday evening we went to the sunday market on walking street. The whole street is closed and there is the biggest market of Chiang Mai
On monday Daisy left and I was alone for the rest of the week. Fortunately I met a bunch of people in the guesthouse and around town. I wnt out a couple of evenings, and i have to admit i was hung over a few times. What's funny about the local beer Chang is that it is a suprid everytime. It is a suprise because you don't know the amount of alcohol in it. It can vary from 4% til 7%. That's why local people are drinking other beer. One evening we went for a midnight snack at mcdonalds. While my friend was ordering inside, i waited outside. Once my friend was inside, a ladyboy appeared from behnd the bushes and kept staring at me. Then she disappeared. This was the one time i was scared in Thailand
Wednesday i went with a friend i met to Pai, a little travelers village packed with bars and guesthouses, just for one day. After a three hour bus drive i arrived wednesday evening and left again thursday evening. In Pai we rented a motorcycle, just one since i left my driverslicence at home. We went to many sights just outside Pai. After i got back i jut explored Chiang Mai a little more, i went to the monkey center and the insect zoo. The tuktuk driver wanted to take me, a guy travelling alone, to the prostitutes. He showed me a few photos of girls and asked me if a wanted boomboom. ' No money, no boomboom'.... I just wanted to see which insects had bitten me at the zoo. You can put on as much DEET as you want, but insects will bite you. Only 60% of the time it will work all the time. I got bitten by ants most of the time.
Sunday at noon i said goodbye and left with a bus for Chiang Rai. At the airport i met my travel group for the next three weeks. We left for Chiang Khong, a border town on the border with Lao. Here we had very nice hotel. I was used to the simple guesthouses. The next morning we went for the immigration office and took a slowboat over the Mekong to Pakbeng, with Thailand on one side of the river and Lao on the other side.
I'm a little sad to leave Thailand, but now it's time for a new adventure. Thai people, I like them but they are crazy:-)
The food here is really spicy, but i think I'm getting used to it now because I found myself ordereing extra chili with a dish that was not spicy at all. When you eat raw meat or drank unclan water, the alcohol in 'happy water' or the spices will help to kill parasites that maybe were in the food ot drink. I think this is a great 'excuse' to drink:-) So kill it, kill it with alcohol and spices! Spices will also help you to digest the food.

Nowadays, I found myself on the UNESCO World Herritage site of the city of Luang Prabang. We got to this city per boat via the great Mekong river. We stopped halfway at the village of Pakbeng to spend the night. The next morning we left early for a ten hour boat ride to Luang Prabang. We stopped at a very small mountain village and at the Pac Ou caves before we arrived in the city in the evening. Shortly when we arrived we had dinner with the whole group and briefly saw the night market. There is every night a night market so we visited it the next evening and also had dinner there. That morning I rented a bike and went to a village near the city were they made silk cloaths and scarfs by hand. It was really interesting to see. When we visited a temple, two boys came up to me an asked me if they could practise their english with me, so we had a basic english conversation together. Here in Laos they can speak English very well, even a little better than in Thailand. Tomorrow morning I will go to Vientiane, the capital of Loas.