Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai has been our favourite stop so far. It has been less busy and the people here are so much friendlier. They aren't trying to con you out of your money for a start.
We are staying at a hostel that was recommended in our guide book, although it is very basic, it is only 2 pounds a night each.
We had a look around the street we were staying on which is mainly full of tour guide shops and travel agents. We booked a hill tribe trek with the cheapest company (everywhere was offering it at 1500 baht and we got it for 1100 each (less than 20 pounds))
We went out the first night we got here so Lewis could watch the football - poor Liverpool losing and Man U thrashing Arsenal. It was quite funny as we met another welsh guy who was a man u supporter and the guys he'd done his trek with were arsenal so there was lots of banter as you can imagine.
Our early night turned into going to bed at 3am. We had to then get up and get ready for our trek pick up at 9ish. We sat in the back of a truck to make our way up towards the jungle. They managed to swish in around 11 of us, all from different places, including canada, japan, argentina, spain, austria, italy and israel. Everyone seemed very nice.
After the hour drive we stopped in the jungle and ate lunch - fried rice - trying to avoid all the flys - nice! Another group of people joined us - from Sweden, Japan and Phillipines.
We then started our steep steep climb in the midday sweltering heat up into the jungle. Needless to say we were all virtually dying after about 20 mins and kept taking breaks! Lewis, who insists he is an athlete, was whinging the most.
We stopped first at a hilltribe village to look at how they lived in their bamboo huts and what their lifestyle was like and then trekked another 2 hours to a Lahu hilltribe village where we would spend the night.
It was quite a cute little place, a few bamboo huts scattered around, a volleyball court in the middle, benches around the fire and tables to eat our lunch. There was a tap where we could wash and a small hut with a hole thing in the floor to go to the toilet.
The tribe had lots of animals there, chickens roosters and dogs. They dont seem to take good care of their animals as one of the puppies looked like it hadnt eaten since it had been born and the thai guide calmly said - yes hes dying! There was a random smell near one of the huts too and apparently a dog had died the week before so they'd thrown it into the bushes - very nice!
The most active dog was nicknamed pig dog by us, as he looked like one and tried to eat our pork later that night.
We played cards until the tribe arrived. They were the long necks from Burma, who put gold rings around their necks to make them look longer. They were making and selling pashminas.
As it started to get dark at 6ish we all sat at the tables for our dinner which was green thai curry. Obviously we had avoided the spicy food up until this point, what with how we were in Bangkok so it was nice to try some of their local food. It was very good. Later that evening they roasted two whole pigs over the fire. Only four people wanted to eat it so that technically meant half a pig each! - Of course Lewis was one of the four.
When it was ready, Eddie our tour guide held up the pig to Lewis and told him to just bite into it. In the darkness, Lewis accidently bit the pigs tail, which even now we insist was the pigs willy!
It got really cold in the night so we all put as many layers on as possible and climbed into our bamboo beds. Gemma managed to sleep all night without a problem but after four hours Lewis woke up needing the toilet and couldnt properly get back to sleep, especially as someone was snoring and when the rooster woke everyone up at sunrise.
We ate breakfast - toast eggs and fruit and trekked one and a half hours to the elephant camp. There, we had a buffet lunch (rice, green thai curry, potato curry, spring rolls, etc) and after climbed onto the elephants. Two people could ride one so we climbed on and we must have had the naughtiest elephant. It wouldnt walk when we wanted it too and it kept pinching everyones bananas. The first part it had to walk downhill and cross a river. Well, straight away it felt like we'd fall off and Gemma wanted to get off as soon as it started. I did last the whole ride and once you get used to it, its fine.
After the elephant ride we drove to see a waterfall and then went white water rafting. That was good fun, it was the two of us plus the austrian and italian girl in our boat and we must have hit every rock on the way down the river. Everyone else overtook us and as they passed we all splash each other with the paddles we had. By the end of the river we were absolutely drenched from the ride and we all undressed into our swimwear to ride the bamboo rafts.
We were on the bamboo rafts for around 15 mins, then took our truck back to our hotels to finally all have the shower we needed!
We met up with the swedish girls for dinner and they took us to a thai restaurant. We both tried a new curry which was really tasty.
We shared a taxi truck to the night bazaar which is a huge night market, where we bought a few things after using our best bartering skills lol.
Funnily enough, we managed to bump into Jade and Becky there even though neither of us knew if we'd be staying in Chiang Mai at the same time.
We later had a few drinks together before calling it a night.
Tuesday was our last day so we spent it looking around the temples in Chiang Mai and going to another market where the thai people go - cheaper one too!
Next we plan to head down towards the islands and beaches - first stop Koh Phangan for the full moon beach party!

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Part of trip: Around the world trip!

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