He'll probably not like this but what the hell. News from Dan:


Hi all
Just come back from 4 days in Chiang Mai. Amazing!
On Tuesday,after a couple hours of yet more temples, I went to a
snakefarm just north of Chiang Mai. There were 3 crazy snake-men
who fired these reptiles into a frenzy(one snake escaping into the
rapidly fleeing crowd) before completing death defying 'snake kissing'
type stunts. One dude got bitten on the arm, but he just laughed ot off
as crazy thai snake men do..
The Night Bazaar was alright ............ if you want to buy shitty, cheap
crap - shirts, shoes, watches, gemstones that aren't, hideous thai
crocheted things, dvd's that dont work. It was all abit tiring. Most of you
know shopping's not my strong point.
The next 2 days were great however.
I went in an orgainsed group of 15 pharang(thats whitie I think) with 3
guides, up to stay with some Hill tribe people.
Met some cool people. Ate some interesting food. Shat in some
altogether unsalubrious places.
We went bamboo rafting - thats when you pole yourself down the
murky river in a long narrow raft made of bamboo.(Looks like
Huckleberry Finn - you can imagine.)
Than elephant riding on this bad tempered beast which I named "Smelly
Hairy bastard", cos he was.
When we got back to Chiang Mai I had a genuine Thai Massage - and I
know what you're thinking, but it was a proper cultural experience, with
no happy ending.
Then yesterday I took a day trip up to "The Golden Triangle" Where
Eddie Murphy made that movie ; )
We took a long-tail boat which zooms up and down the river between
the Northern end of Thailand, and Burma, before depositing us on Laos
Island, where there's a market set up for stupid pharang to buy more
stupid shit.
I did give in, and bought a bottle of snake whiskey. It taste pretty rough,
but for 80baht (bout $3) I can hardly complain, or see straight.
Got an overnight bus back to Bangkok, where I'm sitting writing this,
then off down to Kho Phanang on another bus tonight. It saves $ on
accomodation. The down-side is I currently smell like the elephant I
rode.
How did Wellington's game go this weekend (and last w/end by the way)
Dan