Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

---

What a week! After my whirlwind weekend of fun with Brooke Kelly, I met back up with Tory in Bangkok and took an overnight train to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Somehow during the trip, I got really sick and had a fever, runny nose, bad cough, etc. so the first day in Chiang Mai, I spent face down on my bed. All day. So unusual for me! Thankfully, we're staying in such a great guesthouse which for the first time since travelling has provided us with CLEAN SHEETS! They even smell nice! The downside is that the septic system is not so great and once in a while, our toilet backs up and we get surprises from the pipes from the rooms above. EWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Although my cold never went away, the fun began on my second day here in Chiang Mai. It's a large city with lots of temples and lots of activities to do! I started off with signing up to do a full day of outdoor rock climbing! It was pretty expensive (by Thailand's standards) but I've always wanted to climb outside and thought it was the perfect opportunity to see outside of the city and check out the mountainous surrounds.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is so cheesy, but honestly, I never thought I could ever accomplish what I did that day! There was a group of 6 of us, 3 American girls and a British couple who were all so nice. With our three Thai guides (who were incredible climbers), we headed out of the city and up the side of a mountain where we stopped to climb at a massive limestone cliff/cave called Crazy Horse Buttress (I have no idea why it's called that!). I can't even describe the feeling of climbing there because amazing is so inadequate. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures but basically, we were climbing sort of inside an eroded limestone cliff so that you were half in a cave... hard to explain. Anyway, having never been outdoor climbing before, it was a whole new experience. No coloured holds, no clear route. You just go for it and have faith that every move you make you WILL find something to cling to! I have never been so exhausted before - after the whole day of intense climbing up 25m high courses, I was like rubber. We topped the day off with rappelling down in to a 60m cave which was the scariest thing I have ever done. Way more terrifying than climbing because you're controlling how fast you descend, you can't see where you're going and there's something about dropping into darkness that is super scary! haahah! I made it though - what a rush. The British couple got some good picture of me going down so I'll post those when they send them along ASAP. I was just so elated by the end of the day - I can't wait to try it in Canada!

The next morning, I could barely move, I was so sore (and still so sick!) but decided to find another adventure with an American girl, Ali, that I had met previously at the National Park, Khao Yai. Our plan was to rent some motorbikes and bike around into the mountains. hahah good plan eh?! lol no map, no clue of where we were going to go... thankfully, we met up with two guys (Croatian and Swiss) who had more sense and soon we were biking out of the city in formation as the newly formed Chiang Mai Biker Gang! Baaaaaaaaaahhaha Anyway, we biked out to Doi Inthanon National Park, Thailand's HIGHEST PEAK!!! It took about 2 hrs on the highway to get there and then another hour at least to drive to the top (2565m above sea level). As soon as we started to ascend, we pretty much drove into a cloud and were instantly soaked! It was beautiful though despite it being cold and wet 😊 At the top we celebrated with a hot chocolate! The national park was really nice and I wish we had had more time, but we did check out the temple at the top, some waterfalls and stopped at a market on the way down when it was raining too hard to keep driving. It was such a random adventure and a fun day shared between 4 relative strangers... one of the best parts of travelling I think.

Yesterday, Tory and I went to an all day cooking class - no promises that I'll remember anything that I learnt but it was such a fun day. I ate so much. We made lots of different dishes with chicken, chillies, veggies, tofu, etc. I even made spring rolls! One dish, cashew chicken, had to be cooked over a HUGE flame - something I'll never attempt at home since I would probably burn everything down. If you have ever seen me in action in the kitchen at home, you know how much of a disaster I am - the cooking class was similarily messy but delicious and I 'graduated' as a Master Chef (I even have a certificate!) without cutting my fingers off or burning anything!

That night, to Tory's delight, we went to the cinema to see the new 'Sex in the City' movie which was fun but bizzare to step into a clean, air con mall and watch a big screen just like you would at home (minus the Thai subtitiles!) We were all entertained although I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was a good movie hahah more like brain candy than anything.

Our last day in Chiang Mai has been relatively relaxed - I'm pretty tired! We went up another mountain to see a beautiful temple, Doi Suthep. Interestingly, they run a program in Chiang Mai called 'Monk Chat', where tourists can ask questions about Buddhism and about the life of a monk while the monks answer questions in order to learn/improve their english. It was pretty interesting to chat to a monk and I learnt quite a bit although I still have so much to learn about Buddhism. In time...

Tonight, I'm getting out my bank card and we're heading to the night market for some shopping!!! eeee! I'll see what I find since they sell everything on the street here in Thailand. Anything you could ever want! Tomorrow, we head to a small town called Pai and then after we'll be going to Northern Laos. I can't believe it's only been one month and a bit. It feels like FOREVER since I've been travelling.

Ok, hope all is wel at home. Miss everyone lots as usual. Much love to everyone!
Celia
xoxoxoxoox

---

Photos

Fresh carrots!
We had to stop at a market since it was raining SO hard - I was craving fresh veggies so much and when I saw these carrots, I thought of Mom and our garden at home. I bought a whole bunch for about $0.10. YUM!