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Published: January 23rd 2009
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Wallowing
hippo taking a dip 11th January 09
After a slight problem with our passports at the Laos border, we were successfully across the Mekong and in Thailand. We stopped for a quick bite to eat and some yummy Thai tea - made with condensed milk - we caught the bus to Chaing Mai. We passed through yet more beautiful mountains and forests and got to Chaing Mai in the late evening, enough time for a look around the Sunday market and have some yummy dim sum and spring rolls.
12th January 09
With a lack of any better ideas we had a look around Chaing Mai town. We got to another market and I got some new sunglasses to replace the ones lost in Loas - a lovely pair with over the top diamante detail on the arms - ain't nobody gonna be stealing these beauties! We wandered through a few streets before deciding we needed a better purpose for the day. We'd read about a zoo in the Lonely Planet which sounded a bit rubbish in the review but it was something to do. We hopped in a tuktuk to an area outside of town and got to the zoo. We were surprised
Yummy banana
Blowing kisses as I feed my new giraffe buddy to find the zoo was actually AMAZING!!! I was so excited! They had hippos and giraffes, pandas and tigers, lions and elephants, jaguars, gibbons, squirrel monkeys, panthers, loads of birds, reptiles, penguins etc etc etc! Had I known, i would have left way more time than the 2 hours we'd dedicated to it. We ran around and saw everything, even stopping to feed bananas to the giraffes and bits of meat to the Jaguars and panthers. The jaguar was particularly excited to be being fed. Excited to the point of violence. The mother jaguar was terrorising its cubs which hid in the corner of the cage while it hissed and spat at them from across the enclosure! There is a panda captive breeding program at the zoo so we got to see the pandas which were really close to the members of the public with an open cage and just a moat to separate us. Moving on from the pandas we followed a path round the back of the zoo which seemed to be a legitimate path around to see buffalo and deer but we ended crossinga cattle grid and seeing signs stating no entry to the public. We ignored
the signs and crossed the cattle grid to find ourselves surrounded by deer with rather large antlers all staring at us. The sign said 'open zoo' and so we had fears that we'd wandered into an enclosure that was meant to be driven through instead of walked through and that we were gonna be attacked by monkeys or ... lions .... But we carried on walking through anyway! The thought crossed my mind that we'd carry on walking to find ourselves trapped inside one of the exhibitions and we'd behind a fence with tourists staring at us! Fortunately this was not the case. We continued through the zoo, getting further lost around the other side of the zoo, running in circles around an elephant that was just walking free through the zoo (it gave me a look like it was going to charge me, I wasn't happy!). We rushed into a tuk tuk to take us back to town in time for cooking school. We started the class by having a trip through the market and the teacher showed us all the ingredients used in traditional Thai cooking including the herbs and spices, the fruits and vegetables and all the
different types of rice and sauces. Then we went back to start cooking. In total we learnt to cook Tom Yam and chicken coconut soup, pad Thai, Chicken and cashew nuts, spring rolls, red and green thai curry paste and the curry itself and mango sticky rice. Each course was cooked in the specially designed kitchen then eaten in a beautiful teak house on axe pillows on the floor. It was great to see how our favourite Thai dishes were made, and how to roll spring rolls! We also got to try the mango sticky rice people had told us about. It's like cold rice pudding made with coconut milk and serves with sliced mango - delicious! We couldn't believe we'd made what we were eating as it all tasted so good! We got a recipe book to take home with us too so we have no excuse not to be able to recreate it all back at home! We didn't finish our action packed day there though, we then rushed off to meet our new friends at the Thai Boxing. We were a little disturbed by the first few fights which were young boys between the ages of 8
and 12 years, slathered head to foot in Vick's Vapo Rub kicking the bejeesus out of each other. It felt a bit wrong watching them like they were scrapping in the playground with no one to break them up. The fights with people of legal drinking age were much better though. Pretty viscious. I'm not usually one for watching people smack each other but in the heat of the moment we got really in to it and were urging them on to whallop each other! During the boxing we tried the local whiskey 'Sang Som' which aparently has anphetamines in it but... I don't know if that's true. It was pretty nice though. After the boxing we went for a few drinks in a late night bar but had to leave when the awful techno music got too much and the prostitutes outnumbered the customers. All 5 of us then climbed into a tuk tuk and headed to a rock bar where we played Connect 4 and Jenga all night till 5 in the morning.
13th January 09:
Feeling a little jaded from the night before, i was still determined to see some elephants. We headed up to the
Lunch
Munch munch munch elephant sanctuary with enough time to see the baby elephants in the nursery before the start of the elephant show. They start off by having a good old wash and play in the river then go up to the arena where they perform various acts such as a music and dance performance, football game, darts competition (elephant vs man) and painting. The painting was amazing! They all drew various trees or flowers and their trainers weren't directing their trunks or anything, it was so cool! After the show we went on an elephant ride in the jungle. Next stop was the insect zoo which was really interesting. The curator of the zoo showed us around and told us a little bit about the live exhibits including lots of scorpions - edible aparently! There were also butterfly and dragonfly enclosures. We then went to see the tigers in a place where you can pay to go in and play with the tigers. We were a little unsure about the morality of the place as we weren't sure whether the tigers were drugged to make them placid for the tourists. We went and saw them through the cage and it all seemed
Feeding the panther
I swear, I'm not poking a dog with a stick, I'm feeding a black panther a piece of meat on the end of a pole. a bit seedy so we decided against it. Also, my camera ran out of battery and I wasn't going in to play with tigers without photographic evidence. I try to have morals but... I want to play with tigers!
14th January 09:
Flight of the Gibbon. We went to somewhere deep in the jungle for an aerobatic jungle experience! A series of 11 zip wires and 3 vertical drops in the jungle had been rigged up for our flying pleasure. We got harnessed up and zipped through the jungle around 300 foot in the air, culminating in a 150 foot drop straight down to floor level on nothing but a little rope. Quite scary! Most of the zip wires and drops were over deep jungle and dense trees so you couldn't see the floor - the lowest thing I could see was the tops of the palm trees- but the last few zips and the last drop were in the open so you could see just how far you had to drop if you fell. Which you wouldn't of course! This was definately the most fun we've had so far! We went for a short walk in the jungle
Feeding the Jaguar
This stroppy madam liked to eat all the food and not share any with her cubs. to see a waterfall before heading back to Chiang Mai where we were dropped at the train station to catch the overnight train to Bangkok. We spent most of the evening playing cards and drinking Wine Coolers, avoiding going to bed so we didn't have to go to our separate bunks. It was mine and Toby's last night together before Toby went home so we didn't really want to be separated but one bunk really isn't big enough for two!
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anonymous
non-member comment
in the cooking photo it looks like you and toby are wearing matching sexy tops!!!