Pictures etc

This will be a long one, since I have the camera here and will post some pictures if I can.

But first - here's our phone number. 011 66 80 6005 509 (this is exactly what you need to dial from canada). Keep in mind that we're 9 and a half hours ahead of newfoundland time.

Here are a few pictures from our first couple of days. You can click on them to see the full size (i think...)


So to continue from the last post - The massage was...different. Traditional thai massage doesn't really conform to our Canadian version. It's more like chiropractic/physiotherapy/acupressure/medieval torture. Basically I paid $6 to have a 5 foot tall thai girl beat me up for an hour. Would you believe it actually felt pretty good once it was over?

Last night we went to the night bazaar here in Chiang Mai. Basically just hundreds of stalls in a town square and along the sidewalks. Lots of thai handicrafts, jewellry, etc. But also tons of knock-off designer goods. Rolexes, Gucci bags, you name it. Pretty cool to see how that economy works, and we had lots of fun bartering. And, as always, lots of food vendors selling a huge variety of thai food for a dollar or less. We can safely say we will not go hungry on this trip.

So today we went for our adventure tour to the north of the city. Adventure tourism is turning into a huge industry here, with young tourists looking to get out of the city and see the jungle. We signed up for a full day rafting/biking/elephant riding excursion. For anyone in Thailand right now, we booked through Chiang Mai Adventure - their number here is 086-678-0645

We started with the white water rafting on the Mae Taeng River. At the end of the rainy season, the rapids are apparently huge. But right now (at the beginning), they're ranked 3 out of 6 for difficulty. Truly, I have no idea what that means. After a quick into to maneuvers and safety, Mark, Krystle, AK and I got into our own raft with a guide, and headed downstream. Some nice easy rapids to start, followed by some extremely fun (and drenching) harder rapids. Pictures below.

Since it is the rainy season, it poured on an off while we rafted. This was fine while we were in the water, but once we got back to shore we were supposed to bike for 10k up the mountain. Couple the pouring rain with the shoddy quality of the mountain bikes (I snapped the brake on mine in 5 minutes, and ended up on a tour de france style road bike....not great for muddy mountain trails). and you have a somewhat miserable experience. But on the upside, the scenery going up the mountain was incredible.

We biked all the way to the elephant park, which was pretty depressing to see. 20-30 elephants all chained to the ground in a huge pen. We rode them in a wooden canopy slung across their backs. It felt incredibly exploitative, and the drivers (called mahouts) are pretty vicious with their disciplining of the elephants. We all agreed it would have been much nicer to learn about the elephants and see them in their natural habitat. Or at the very least, not see them pounded on the head with a metal hook. Kind of a downer to the end of the day, but still overall enjoyable (the rafting being by far the best part)

We were pretty exhausted when we got back. Had supper at a restaurant, and then everyone pretty much went to bed. Minus me, who is in a sweltering internet cafe trying to upload pictures. Hopefully these turn out ok.

Tomorrow is our last day here, then we head to Krabi for some beach time. Will probably post again from there.

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