Our time in Chiang Mai

---

Whilst in Chiang Mai we have been pretty busy, the end of our travels is fast approaching and it won't be long till we'll be back in Manly. Some people might be sad to come to the end of such a fantastic trip but we are both looking forward to catching up with friends, etc, so I'm sure it won't be that bad. How bad can living on the Northern Beaches be? :-)

Anyway, what's keeping us busy? Sharon and I attended yet another cooking class, at this rate I may well learn something! There were 4 of us in the class and it started off with a market tour in Chiang Mai followed by a 15 minute truck ride out to a lovely open air cooking classroom. We cooked some fantastic dishes, shared our food and had a great time. The cooking class has only been running for a month or so and Nancy, our teacher, was excellent, very professional and definately recommended. Check out their website www.siamricethaicookery.com to see photos of us on the 21st August class. (just checked and they are not up yet).

We've enjoyed an evening of Muay Thai boxing at the local stadium sitting in the front row seats feeling the tension of the trainers in the corners as their fighters combat. We watched bouts of various weights, of which only one was heavier than Sharon! These guys are small but being so close to the action soon made us realise that they can pack a punch, kick, knee and elbow for that matter! All the fights were accompanied by enchanting music and with the ceremonial starts to each match, it was more than just a bit of violence. Whilst visiting the bathroom, I noticed one of the defeated fighters cleaning blood off his face, even though he looked worse for wear he still turned and greeted me in the traditional Thai way of wai and smiled. Even battered and bruised Thai people are still friendly and welcoming!

We also had another memorable evening of food and live music at a riverside bar/restaurant called Good View. They have a band of about 12 musicians who chop and change during the night to give you the widest range of cover songs I have ever heard. They were full of energy, very talented and looked like they were having fun, perfect ingredients for a great band and they gave us a great night :-)

You can't come to the north of Thailand without riding an elephant through the lush rain forest. Maybe we didn't choose the best day to go because after two days of hard rain the ground was treacherous turning our ride into more of a hang on for dear life! As a mode of jungle transport, our elephant proved to be amazing. Okay, he slipped once causing Sharon to shreek but our guide, on his own elephant ahead of us, led us through some extreme terrain. Sharon's comments of "We can't go up there!" and "We're not going to get down this way!" fell on deaf ears as we moved through the jungle. It was fun even though we had to hang on very tightly at times. Steep slippery inclines and declines definately increase your adrenaline!

We've visited a couple of hill tribe villages, the Hmong tribe and the Karen tribe. It was really interesting to learn a bit about their beliefs and lifestyle and see how they live and survive in their habitat.

Sharon is also very proud of our bamboo rafting experience. Due to a large amount of rain a couple of days before, it felt like we were white water rafting on a few pieces of sticks at times ! Even though water crashed around us totally soaking us and with her fear of water, Sharon still though the elephant ride was more terrifying :-)

Tomorrow we head north west from here to Pai, towards the Myanmar (Burma) border.

---