By this time the gang from OEG had returned from visiting one of the other schools in Nan with the three guys teaching there in tow. I met them at the hotel we were having dinner in (on OEG). They had just enjoyed a 5 hour car journey so were a little tired themselves though they were surprised to hear i had taken a songthaew all the way. Mostly you wouldnt be in one for too long so it is a bit odd. Anyway we enjoyed a lovely buffet meal (i particularly enjoyed the veal sausage in bbq sauce) and had a laugh basically. It was all very informal but i had to tell my school it was important to get away in time. After dinner us teachers went on a mad session and i got hammered pretty quickly. I had been through a hectic two week period and had a lot of steam to blow off, which i did quite emphatically.
The next day the other group arrived off their overnight buses from down south pretty early. I went down and met them at the gate of the hostel so they would know it was the right one. They wouldnt come too close to me as i was reeking of booze so they laughed and said they would go a'wandering and to call them when i detoxed. I went back to bed and by the time i was up and ready to do something they were tired and fit for bed! So they went back to the hostel to relax and i went to the zoo with two of the guys from Nan. In hindsight we left it a bit late to go out (mid afternoon) and didnt get to see everything. The zoo is big and sprawls all over so we wandered around a lot and didnt get to see the pandas which are the star attraction (even if all they do is sleep). However, we did find our way to the games/activities section where we found a few weird things that i wouldnt expect to see in many zoos. We tried out the luge which for those unaware is a thing you sit on and fly down a hill. Generally its a winter sport but these guys had their own take. Basically we got a helmet and some pads then jumped in a pickup which struggled up a pretty steep hill. On the back of the jeep were our cars. These were, essentially, three wheeled vehicles which we sat in and had steering off a mountain bike with two brake levers. You sit in and plummet down a track cordoned off the path up the hill. The track was about 1km long but it was all over in a flash. We went down in convoy, led by a thai guy, and zoomed around a few corners. I even got a bit of drift going round one which the owner congratulated me on. All in all it was a pretty cool experience and got the adrenaline going! We saw a few other activities but were conscious it was getting a tad late and if we wanted to see any animals in this zoo then we should get a move on. So we wandered a bit more, not really knowing where we were going and eventually we were told the place was closing and that we should leave. So we headed back to the city centre and since we were starving we rang the guys and told them to meet us in a mexican restaurant where we had decided to get dinner this evening. We got a decent meal and went back to the hostel to begin the night's festivities. Today was the King's Birthday and apparently nowhere was due to sell alcohol so we had bought some the previous day so we could at least sit in the hostel and drink. Then we realised that all the bars were trying to open and simply hide drinkers from the police so we found a place and i gave the gang a lesson in darts and pool. The pool table was european to my delight and the gang's dismay as i wiped the floor with them all while they complained the pockets and balls were too small :)
The next day some people wanted to go to Doi Suthep. Having been there twice already i was in no rush back and let them off while i went computer shopping. To do this i went to the aptly named computer plaza and tried to explain to each shop what i wanted. They looked at me as if i was mad when i said i wanted a small, light laptop with a dvd drive (apparantly this is hard to find) so i settled for a small, light laptop with an external dvd drive. I got a good deal (HP mini 110 plus extras for around EUR300) and arrange to pick it up tomorrow as i didnt have anywhere to store it safely in the hostel plus they didnt have the colour i wanted and were getting one sent down from another store in a different city. I took off for a walk around the city and heard from the guys they were coming back from Doi Suthep so i met them back at the hostel. It was about this time that the guys from the computer shop called me to tell me they couldnt get the colour i wanted till later in the week but that they had a pink one that i could use till then. I wasnt too thrilled with this but agreed anyway as i figured i might as well have something for the few days while i waited for my one. For the rest of the evening we spent most of it at the Sunday Walking Street which is bloody massive. We got tired before we saw even half of it id say but it was good all the same. I finished my christmas shopping so there will be a parcel going in the post to Roscommon soon. We had a drink back in the hostel and then went with pretty much everyone else from the hostel (including the owners) to a reggae bar. This turned into a deadly night and we all had great craic.
The next day all i did was get some breakfast before saying my heartfelt goodbyes (i'll see them all for New Year in Phi Phi anyway) and went to pick up my pink laptop. They told me to come back on Thursday and they would switch it for a black one to which i consented. I had the day off (another thai holiday) so it wouldnt be too much hassle. Afterwards i went to the bus station and caught the next bus and spent the evening on the net with my cute pink laptop!
P.S. In the first pic there is Markus, myself and Jessie. Jessie's the one eating his knees :)
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