Advertisement
Published: July 27th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Chiang Mai - View from Hotel
The heavens opened just after this pic was taken We arrived in Chiang Mai,by an over night train, took around 13hrs, an hour late.
The hotel was really nice, we could get used to staying in places like that! , had a walk around for some breakfast, we went the wrong way as we couldn't find anything, but later that day we turned the other way and all the restaurants and bars were down there. There was still a small amount of girls selling themselves but not too bad.
Sue and I dragged the boys around the markets (we love them!), had some good food and drink. Dan wasn't feeling very well so didn't really enjoy the food (missing weston food we reckon!)
We had a day trip out to Chiang Rai, we sent a fair distance by private mini bus, we went to the Opium Museum, saw an impressive White Temple, the new loo block was just as posh but painted in tacky gold, Saw the Golden Triangle, which is Thailand, Burma and Laos and stopped at the border town with Myanmar/Burma.
We left Chiang Mai to visit our Lisu Tribe and lodge. It was around an hour away, we turned up and it was
really impressive, stunning lodges and gardens, we had a relaxing few hours until lunch arrived, then after this we went Ox Cart riding and it was really funny but very sore on the backsides, Sue and Daves Ox kept trying to go through the bushes, after this we went to the Lisu Village, drank some local rice whiskey, quite nice! then that evening we had dinner and some local children danced for us.
The next day we left Lisu Lodge for the next lodge called Khum Lanna, but to get there we did several activites: first was a bike ride, this was around 10kms, it was quite hilly, Sue thought her head was going to explode with the heat, so she got on our truck that was following us, Dan and Stu were off, which left, Dave, myself and our guide, our guide called Charlie told me to start breaking as there was a large steep hill coming up and he went shooting passed me, so off we went down, and around, and down and around.... i got to the bottom with everyone else, apart from Dave.... Sue's reaction was "wheres Dave, he was just behind you Lisa", i
said that i havent seen him, i thought he was quite away behind me, then we shout herehe comes........... we didnt notice anything until we looked at his bike helmet and there was a twig sticking out, then his arms, hand and legs were grazed, cut and covered in mud, then he turned around and his tee was just caked in mud, a small rip at the top, he was a state! we asked if he was ok and what happened then we all started killing ourselves laughing... even the truck driver who couldnt speak a word of english was peeing himself, whilst cleaning Daves cuts.... tee hee
Dave said he started to come down the hill, but with their bikes their front brake is where we have our back break, so Dave thought he was picking up speed and pulled the brake and off he went flying into a ditch on the side of the road, he cant remember it fully but some how his bike followed him and made its mark on his back! Even a local stopped as Dave was climbing out of the ditch to see is he was ok.
The boys carried on
another 3kms to the Elephant Camp, Dave had the smallest Nelly there, we think its because our guide thought Dave would fall off or do something silly. We all really enjoyed the elephant ride, they were really looked after, could eat when they wanted and werent forced, some of the way none of us had drivers, good fun.
After this we all got kitted out with helmets and life jackets and went Grade 2 white water rafting, it was great, the rapids were nice, good for beginners, so now when Stu and I get to NZ we can do a bigger one.
After this we had a nice picnic lunch and drove back to collect our bags and went to the next lodge, which was around 1.5hrs away, we checked into our nice lodge, we had the whole lodge to ourselves, so couldnt complain, that afternoon we had a cooking class and made 4 dishes, even Dave cooked and enjoyed it!
The next day we got up at 5am, out on our bikes by 5.30am, we all had to wear lovely shirts, we went to 2 local markets, visited a temple and fish pond then came back
had breakfast and took a walk around the gardens and picked herbs, we were taught how to marinate pork chops and then we had a BBQ and it was so nice! (Lisa: Mum and Dad, I eat pork now!!!)
Before we left we all had a Thai Massage on our decking of our lodge, there were 5 ladies with beds waiting for us, they gave us clothes to wear, so we all got changed, there where really loose, light cotton shirts and baggy trousers, apart from Daves outfit............. Sue and Stu nearly wet themselves when Dave came out of the room dressed like ..... well Andy Pandy.......
After a great couple of days we headed back to Chiang Mai.....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.126s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 15; qc: 63; dbt: 0.072s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb