Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand, and the furthest north I would go in this country.  My blogging creativity has been on serious drought this whole trip so once again, I'll just describe it with photos!

My first day there I decided to skip the tuk tuks and mopeds and do the whole city tour on foot.  Most of the sites were Buddhist temples.  But this city is pretty cool due to the ancient moat that surrounds it, with some of the ancient wall still standing to protect the city.  I also went to the history museum.  Mostly because it had AC, but it was interesting too.

One of the many markets.

 

 

 

Ikea?

Look what I found!

My next day I woke up real early to go on a jungle trek!  Along with and Aussie guy and 6 Belgians I was picked up and put in the back of another pick up truck.  And our first stop was an orchid and butterfly farm.  More of a rest stop really, but still kinda cool.

 

 

Then it was a quick stop at a market to load up on supplies and off into the jungle.  Ironically, on this jungle road in the middle of nowhere produced my scariest driving experience as the driver tried to pass another truck at the most in opportune time possible as a third truck was coming the other way.  We clipped both other trucks as they both skidded off the side of the road.  Not cool.  But the hike through the jungle was.  We emerged from the jungle in a little village.

 

 

 

The local gas station.

After several hours we finally made it to the elephant camp.  This would be where we spent the night.  But first we got to go for an elephant trek through some more jungle, and watch the big animals clear some forest and make short work of the bamboo.  Elephants were used to clear forests and move big stuff back in the day.  Then we learned a bit on how to train them.  Took them down to the river for a bath, and even got to ride pistol.  We slept in a big hut on the hill with complimentary mosquito nets.  It was really nice, especially since it was all just our little group and the guides.  In the morning it was bath time again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we were supposed to hike to a waterfall.  But the Belgians had to catch a plane that night so instead we got picked up in a van and taken to the river where we did some river rafting.  I was quite pleased that the river turned out to be pretty intense, I had expected a slow meander since all the rivers I had seen so far were pretty mellow.  This was fun though, at the end when it did mellow out we ditched the rubber raft for a bamboo one.

 

 

Our last stop was a local village.  You know those photos of the people with the gold collars that they have worn their whole lives making their necks really long?  Well it was that kind of village.  Though it was not what I expected at all.  The whole place was built as a tourist attraction complete with a ticket booth.  The people there were just sitting in their huts along a path with heaps of tour bus passengers walking around gualking and taking photos.  It was awkward and I didn't much enjoy it.  It felt wrong.  I still took a picture though.  It was in a very beautiful place...

 

Cutting the day short turned out to not be so bad.  It gave me enough time to clean up at my hostel and catch the 16 hour overnight sleeper train to my next destination!