Chillin' in Chiang Mai

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After a 4 week slog of lesson plans, assignments and assessed teaching I have passed my CELTA (TEFL) course!! I am now qualified to teach broad Lancashire anywhere in the world! But not just yet... We've just spent a week relaxing in Chiang Mai, staying at a beautiful guest house called Baan Orapin. Our days have been spent wandering the small, quiet lanes of the Old Town, checking out the temples and reading a novel instead of a grammar book.

We had a day at the zoo, a strange place not much visited apart from the odd gang of school kids. It's a big sprawling jungle-like park, some bits still unfinished, some bits harking back to a bygone era. We fed bananas to a greedy giraffe. We saw some lions but didn't hang about. There didn't seem to much distance between their open compound and us. Hidden in the undergrowth we found flamingos, bears, giant pandas, lots of monkeys, deer, crocodiles, koalas.... Then it was time to hone our bargaining skills with the song tao drivers. The only public transport here are tuk tuks or song taos - converted pick up trucks with 2 benches in the back that pick up people if they are going the same way. Price depends on your bargaining skills.

Then the day I've been waiting for - a trip to an elephant camp. The highlight of my trip! When we arrived the elephants were taking their morning bath in the river. They were also kindly providing showers for the onlookers - I got soaked. Then they showed off their football and painting skills. Our elephant was into erotic art (see photo). Next was an elephant ride through the jungle with the occasional stop to feed her bananas and sugar cane. We were dropped off at a hilltribe village where we were given the hard sell on their arts & crafts, before getting into an ox-cart for a very bumpy ride back to base. In the afternoon we went bamboo rafting and I expertly steered us towards an embankment. Then we visited the craziest man alive - Mr Snake Charmer, who wasn't in possession of all his fingers or marbles. The snake show was made all the more entertaining by the techno soundtrack and gangster stylee Mcee with his catchphrase, “hey, not funny, Mr Snake Charmer!” When Mr Snake Charmer wasn't running into the audience with the snakes, he was kissing cobras, putting snakes to sleep and swimming with a python. Madness.

Unbeknown to us, Friday night brought with it the start of prohibition weekend in Thailand. It was pre-election voting this weekend. We were told that it's an attempt to stop party officials from throwing huge all night parties and getting everyone to vote while drunk. We did manage to find a rebel bar, though we had to hide our beer under the table. Saturday was the big crackdown. Most of Chiang Mai was shut, apart from a few restaurants. After a half hour beer hunt we resigned ourselves to a fruit juice on our big Saturday night out. At least Man City won. Electon proper is next weekend (and prohibition), but we'll be prepared this time!

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