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Published: September 22nd 2005
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Chaing Mai
Visiting a butterfly farm/ orchid farm Hullo Again!!
After heading back to Bangkok for a few days we caught a bus to Chiang Mai, which was a harrowing 12.5 hours on a bus!..Quite the experience!!
Chiang Mai is very beautiful..alot smalleer than bangkok, alot more spread out but a noticeable difference in culture.
Markets places everywhere, lovely little resturants with ferneries..the atmosphere completely different.
The first day was a recovery day from travels but later went out for tea for some traditional pizza!!..not bad, but not as good as my favourite barbeque chicken!!
The following day was spent being chauffered driven by Pi, via a tuk tuk. Not so good in peak our by one of these!
We first went to visit the elephants, in time for their show. How amazing!..they played soccer with each other, painted, so many things..such friendly giants.
We were able to feed them and take many photos.
We then went to see the monkeys which was quite sad. Monkeys in cages and tied up. Quite aggressive little fellows when they want to be. Watched a monkey show which only made things worst..was glad to go.
The day was strectched with visits to the Thai silk company, seeing the process form from
Chaing Mai
Visiting a butterfly farm/ orchid farm cocoon to end result. Quite amazing. Lyndon had a shirt made which was delivered to the guest house the following day!
Because our driver took us to where we wanted to go..he asked that he take us to places he wanted us to go!..this is part of their commission if we buy anthing at their shops. Mostly carpet places ran by very pushy Indians..I insisted on no more cashmere!!
On the way back we stopped into a shooting gallery where we had a choice of hand pistol (.22, .44 magnum, .9mm S&W) and pump action (22 rounds!)..because of the price we opted to wait until we went to Vietnam where it was cheaper and the choices more varied!..was word of hand grenades!!
After a few days here we then took a bus up to Chiang Rai.
Wow, what an amazing place..finding the guest house relatively easy we settled in quite well meeting a few other travellers.
The hosts - Tom and Mod. were fantastic people. Made us feel so welcome, speaking great English which helped to break the barrier. (I am now inspired to learn another language/s..Thai and hopefully some Portugeuse)
The next day was huge!..taking a river cruise for an hour we saw so many amazing little huts, villages and houses. Our first stop being at the elephant village. Thirty or so elephants all gathered (and shackled) for the tourist. Also two HUGE pythons!..one weighing 60 kgs, the other 100 kgs!..you could take a photo with it if you wanted for a price.
We ate lunch here and walked through the village being followed by little children trying to sell us things! Afterwards we began our trek..we went to visit some hill tribes.
Our guide Ki was fantastic!..great sense of humour joking around all day and trying to spin us out!
Walking through the forests..he found a Rhino bug in a tree..climbed it..showed us and then ate it!!..fortunatley I have this on video recording to spin you guys out too!
He later found another one much bigger..deciding to tear its prongs off and stick it in his pocket for later..apparantly better fried!!
We went through some amazing villages..life is so simple there..Mostly farmers, some opium up on the peaks. Each village we passed having their own language.
After a long trek we reached the waterfall..absolutely amazing!..This time I was not going to miss out on a swim! Quite cool but refreshing.
We then preceeded down hill for another couple of hours getting caught in the pouring rain. Little rivers develped on the clay roads making walking difficult..Little waterfalls created another river beside the road.
When we reached the bottom we swam at the hot springs..what an experience!..the closer you got to the main pipe, it was almost boiling hot!
Afterwards we were shouted some Thai Rice Whiskey by our guide who insisted on following tradition!..later preceeded to continue this tradition back at the guest house!
The following day our host took us to see the Karen Long Neck Hill Tribes..that was incredible..also sad to see their set up being accomodated again for the tourist..but a tourist I am also. The rings around the womens necks were over 5 kgs and 250 ml long!..I have some beautiful photos of children and one girl in particular was just lovely..sitting all by herself
We gave them a donation for their troubles.
We then went to see the most beautiful of Buddha temples in the world, constructed by a local artist - Wat Rong Khun, who is now world renown.
The temple is all of white and looks like something from a White Christmas..i know that the pictures will not do it justice.
We are now making our way up to cross the border to Laos. Will camp at Chiang Khong and cross at Huai Xay, then catch the boat which will take 2 days on the mekong river to where we will get off at Luangprabang.
I hope you are all doing well and miss you all..
Please keep in touch.
Love Mitch xxx
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b
non-member comment
yo, long time
been following your travels here and there, thought it was probably about time i said hello. ...hello... things here remain much the same, working a lot. the little group sort of imploded after J left Rosies house and Nicky left Rosie for CJ. CJ left Bec for Nicky so mostly its just me and Chris hanging out and alternating between hanging with CJ and Nicky or hanging with Bec and Bobby. J seems to want a lot of alone time at the moment. which is a shame cos i miss the big boy. Business is ok. Chris and I are leaving soon to go up the bush and go pig hunting. thats about it for now. I envy you heaps much. I will be doing the same thing as soon as they will let me out of the country again. Ciao -B