Day 26 - 28: Chiang Mai

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After a pleasant overnight train journey (pleasant in comparison to Malaysia anyway!), we arrive in Chiang Mai - and only just over an hour late. We had already booked accommodation so off we trekked out of the station ready to be harassed by tuk tuk drivers. Funnily enough, it isn't half as bad here we found a driver and showed him the directions, but following the patten that happens a lot out here, they didn't have a clue where it was, not even when we showed him the map! Bon made a poor attempt at pronouncing the road name but the guy seemed to understand and with a big smile, we set off.

Chiang Mai is a lot bigger than we originally thought it would be, with the old city enclosed by a moat surrounded by a new city, All in all though, the vibe here is already a lot better than Bangkok. We drove straight past our guesthouse and had to wave our arms about in a silly fashion to get the Tuk tuk driver to turn around, he then drove us all the way down the drive and dropped us a few steps away from the reception - now that's service!

The guest house is a little bit away from everything, being in the North West corner of the old city (All the goings on is in the eastern part and outside the moat) but it was set in a lovely well looked after garden, you wouldn't think you were even in a city the amount of greenery surrounding us. The room was lovely too, a little brick style shed ( and I say shed in the nicest terms as it isn't very big) with air con and a en suite, nice and clean with a lovely communal area complete with fish pond and free toast, tea and coffee all day!
We set off looking to book a 2 day 1 night Trek into the hills surrounding Chiang Mai. The area is home to a number of indigenous hill tribes, that basically live off the lands keeping to traditions that date back for hundreds of years. After a little shopping about we booked onto a Trek that involved a morning stop off at a local market, Elephant Trekking, lunch, walking into the hills stopping at a waterfall for swimming before heading to one of the Karen hill tribes to spend a night. The next day would be spent Trekking back and Bamboo river rafting - Fantastic! In the evening we headed back out of the old city to a restaurant over looking the river called Riverside recommended by the guide book - what an amazing place, the atmosphere was great, guys playing live music, the people were lovely and the service was really good and all importantly the food was lovely - I highly recommend the butterscotch Sundae for dessert!

We woke up in the morning and our taxi was ready to take us, we jumped in and drove to Julies Guest house where we picked up Sam and Caroline, a pre university couple who have been all over! Turns out our group of 8 was actually just us four! We stopped off at the market for supplies (mine being a well needed ice cream, which I managed to get all in my hair on the drive). We stopped off at the elephant trekking center, Brought some Bananas for our hungry Elephant (he was twice the size of Sam and Carolines) and off we went. I got covered in a lot of Elephant snot, as this trunk just kept appearing wanting more and more bananas - so much so we had to buy more along the way (I'm sure the elephants are trained to do this so you have to buy more, but who can resist a hungry elephant?!) Anyway Silly Bon then dropped his wallet and money flew everywhere, the guy had to pick it up - smoooooth (Almost as bad as the time in Langkawi when he walked through newly set concrete...what i didn't write about that before I hear you say...I wasn't allowed so I Sneaked it in here!!!!). Anyway a few minutes later we stopped off at another place where you could bye more bananas and the other twos guy asked for some water and dropped his cup and the elephant picked it up and gave it back to him, cute! Our trek lasted almost an hour we walked or forest and through a large stream, where the elephants went crazy over the vegetation.

After the trek we stopped at a little bar and had some fried rice with watermelon and pineapple served for dessert and just chilled for a little while. After lunch we drove to the start point of our trek where we picked up this little dog, that followed us until the next morning, she doesn't belong to anyone, apparently she joins on to lots of groups, stays the night in the hills and heads back again - must be the food, we fed her lots! The trek must have lasted about 3 - 4 hours in total but we stopped of twice to swim at two different waterfalls, which was really refreshing, I cant even begin to explain how hot it is here!

Once we reached the Hill tribe we were taken to our hut, which was kitted out with a few blankets and pillows and mosquito nets, and we all grabbed a bed. We spent the evening playing cards before our guide handed us some special Smoked Venison, I had a little nibble, rude not too - as they only eat this on special occasions, he also brought us some moonshine, which is really potent rice vodka!! We then settled down for tea and as the night drew in, our guide played us some tunes on a guitar before we settled down for the night.

The following day we were joined by Adam and Darren who had been in another group who were doing a longer trek, as they were only doing the one night they came back with us. The Trek back was excruciating, it was even hotter today and we had to clamber up an almost vertical hill for about 15 mins - I was Shattered, but apart from that it was pretty easy, we walked back to the restaurant we had lunch at the day before and cooled off with some nice cold drinks. Soon after we were heading for the Bamboo rafts, Only 3 to a raft so we teamed up with Adam while Caroline and Sam took Darren and the race began. It wasn't really a contest our 10 year old driver was much more skilled than there 7 year old one who kept beaching them and we headed off leaving them somewhere behind. It was actually really fun people were still celebrating Songkran and splashing us to bits and going through the tame rapids was also quite exciting. We finished our little rafting experience and all headed back to town and said our goodbyes.

We arrived back at our guest house ready for the next day, we tried to book early morning bus tickets to Chiang Kong ready for our Border Crossing to Laos, but were told it would be fine if we arrived at the bus station by half 7 - lets wait and see

(apologies for the poor grammar, Bon is writing Bangkok and hasn't got time to check over this one!)

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Comments

[Ruth]

Just had a mammoth reading session! Got addicted and had to find out everything you've been doing, it sounds like an amazing adventure! I had to laugh at the bit about Bon walking through wet concrete! lol and the elephant ride sounds crazy. Glad you're both having so much fun. x