Elephants in the clouds

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Days 182-185

Arrived in Chiang Mai about 5 am and found our way to a nice little guesthouse via Tuk tuk. We had a little snooze then checked out the city. It was a gorgeous hot day (if we'd known it would be our last we would have made the most of it) and a really cool city. Much more chilled than Bangkok. We had some breakfast and booked an unplanned 2 day trekking trip for the next day. Had a swim in the pool at the guesthouse then walked down to the night market. It was huge - neverending in fact, with loads of bits and bobs for sale. We didn't spend that long there as it was the FA Cup final and Carly sliced open her toe on the shoddy pavement. We had a gorgeous indian meal then went to 'The Local' (a horrible English pub that we'd usually turn our nose up at) to watch the match.

We were picked up and drove in a rather uncomfortable bus/taxi for hours. Eventually we got to a waterfall, which we had a look at, then drove on into the mountains. We stopped for lunch then met up with our guide, Jackie Chan for the trek. There was just us and a lovely retired couple who have been sailing round the world for the past 7 years (lucky buggers!). We walked through 2 villages, although right next to each other they don't talk as one village eat dog and monkey brains (while the monkey is still alive). We saw some monkeys in cages that were soon to be dinner. We walked on up the mountain (luckily it was a cool day) and through the jungle, right up into the clouds. After a couple of hours we arrived at an elephant camp where we boarded our elephant. The elephant took us to our lodgings for the night. It was a pretty uncomfortable ride, but it was a very cool thing to do! We arrived in a sweet little village which was inhabited by Burmese refugees. We had a delicious dinner then they lit a fire and sang and danced for us. They all wore these bright coloured outfits and it was a really great night. After they'd finished their repetoire, they asked us to sing for them! Pat and Olivia sang some irish songs then we sang the old english classic - Old McDonald. It was definitely something different and was a really great day.

The next morning we were woken by the cockrals early doors. We ate our breakfast whilst the villagers embarrassingly laid out their wares to sell. We didn't have any money so just looked at their stuff. We then left and walked through the jungle for a couple of hours. We had lunch then went bamboo rafting! It was quite bizarre - strips of bamboo tied together which was half submerged in the water so our feet were wet, while we parked our bums on a little seat, which was just a raised bit of bamboo. We cruised down the very still river, where there was nothing to see but the river bank and reeds and got stuck in the mud a couple of times! When we eventually got to the bottom, we were picked up and taken back to our guesthouse in Chiang Mai. We had a much needed hot shower then spent ages looking for somewhere hot to spend our last few days but everywhere in Thailand is raining for the next 10 days! Ahhh! We had some dinner then walked down to the night market again.

We checked out and were picked up in the morning and taken to a Thai Cooking School. Again, we were really lucky as it was just us and another couple in our group. After breakfast, we set about making thai green curry paste. Then we made spring rolls from scratch. They were delicious! We then made Thai green curry with chicken and sweet and sour vegetables. That was lunch! We were so full after lunch we could barely move. In the afternoon Carly made pad thai and bananas in coconut toffee sauce and Stuart made thai fish cakes and sticky rice with mango, our favourite! It was all delicious and it was a really different, cool experience. We'll definitely be putting our new skills into practice at home! Got dropped off at our guesthouse. In the evening we caught the bus back to Bangkok.

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Photos

View from the mountain
We took one picture of this view, but there was a tree in the middle next thing we know, our guide decides to cut it down as he said the view wasn't good enough!

Comments

[Colin]

Heffalumps! *points excitedly*

[Lee]

F*&$ing Hell!!!
What the hell is that thing stuck to Stuarts head?!!!!!

[Linda and Ken]

Sawadeeca
Hi u 2, Glad to see you are enjoying Thailand it is a beautiful country and probably a good place to end your trip in. Good on you doing the elephant ride and the Thai cooking I would have liked to have done that. May be next time. The time has gone really fast for you and you have packed an awful lot in. We are both very well and continue to work our way down the coast. Take care of yourselves and safe journey back to the UK. Love and best wishes.