One day trek (elephants!!)

Wednesday morning - elephant trekking. Yes! We scarfed down some granola with yogurt and fruit before our songthaew came and picked us up for our big day.  We spent about 2 hours in the back of this smelly cramped truck picking everyone else up and heading to the elephant park.  The camp sold bunches of bananas for 20 baht each ($0.66) so we bought one bunch.

Our first event was an hour long trek on the back of an elephant.  Each elephant had a chair set up for 2 people to sit in while the Mahout sat on the elephant's head.  Our elephant had an extra passenger, Tim, due to the odd number of people in our group.  He had to sit on the elephantss neck and spent the entire time trying really hard not to fall off.  For an hour we walked in a giant loop, down to the water, up a big hill, and back to the camp.  Elephants are not as smooth to ride on as horses; they shift a lot from side to side and up and down.

Lunch was waiting for us after our elephant ride, fried rice and fresh pineapple (not very sweet).  Next up: waterfall trek.  After driving half an hour to the start of the trail, we spent an hour hiking along a river through the jungle and over some precarious bamboo "bridges."  We passed huts which are where we could have stayed if doing a multiple day trip through the jungle.  At the waterfall we all changed into bathing suits and jumped in (well, we walked in).  The water was COLD!  It was so refreshing since the jungle was hot and humid.  After an hour or so at the waterfall we had to walk back through the jungle to get back to the songthaew.

Our next activity: white water rafting.  This was by far the event I was least looking forward too.  I have fallen out several times before while white water rafting and is just not my favorite thing to do.  While the guides were going over commands and how to paddle they told us we were going to be going over a five meter waterfall.  I was not excited to say the least.

It turns out that it was really fun!  The "waterfall" was nothing more than rapids which I guess dropped 5m but at a very slow decline.  I was imagining free falling for 5m in the boat.  Our guides were really fun and we splashed water at the other boats during the slow periods.  At the end of the trip we got onto bamboo rafts which were the dumbest things ever.  It was supposed to be some sort of authentic experience but it was just dumb and touristy.  For all of ten minutes we sat half submerged in the river trying not to tip over.  The raft guide said we weren't bamboo rafting but bamboo sinking!  Bamboo submarine!

The last event of the day was "visiting" a hilltop tribe.  Although this could have been a really neat experience, it was just dumb and touristy.  We were in the middle of the hilltop village on the only road surrounded by a couple of villagers who were just selling touristy things that had obviously been mass made somewhere else in Thailand (and we had seen at other markets in Thailand).

But after a full day of trekking and another two hour songthaew ride back to our respective hostels, we made friends with some of the other people on the trip.  We all met up for drinks later that night (after everyone showered and ate) and just had fun relaxing.  Andy and I almost didn't make it because we couldn't find the stupid place and wandered around for an hour and fifteen minutes before getting there.  It was a great ending to our trip in Chang Mai and ultimately Thailand.

In the morning we did a little shopping at the local market before getting on a plane headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia through Bangkok.

เชียงใหม่

On Monday morning we got up early to make our way to the airport and catch a 10:00 AM flight to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is in northern Thailand, about 12 hours by bus, but less than an hour and a half by plane. Our first day was pretty relaxed (as most first days someplace new are) and we checked into Julie's Guesthouse, had lunch (red curry with pineapple for me, pad thai for Katie) at the guesthouse and then wandered around the city a bit on foot.

Chiang Mai was originally built in 1296 (according to Wikipedia) and has a crumbling wall that encloses the old part of the city and a larger area outside of the wall that is more sprawling and less dense. Chiang Mai also offered decent relief from the heat and humidity of Bangkok because it is further north and higher in elevation.

One of the remaining parts of the old city wall

While wandering we passed by a firehouse, stopped in a park with some excellent panda statues and stumbled upon Wat Chedi Luang. Wat Chedi Luang has a really neat brick center structure that was damaged by an earthquake in the 1500s but has since been repaired to some extent.

Back at our guesthouse we had dinner again (sweet and sour chicken for me, white curry for Katie) and talked to a guy named Patrick that was a bit younger than us from Idaho. Patrick told us about his adventures and what he had done in Chiang Mai - he really enjoyed his visit to Tiger Kingdom and encouraged us to go, but we decided we would rather spend our money on other things.

On Tuesday we woke up pretty late and once again ate at the guesthouse (it was just so convenient and cheap!) I had a tomato/onion hash brown concoction and Katie had semi-pancakes with bananas. We then booked our trekking trip for the following day and rented a motorbike for the day for 200 baht (about USD $6.66). We hadn't originally planned on renting a motorbike because we had heard it can be quite dangerous, but a lot of people recommended it and it seemed like it could be good fun. It also saved us some money on transportation to some of the various sites around Chiang Mai.

We warmed up our moto skills by doing a few laps around the old city wall trying to get into the correct lane to get to a gas station. We foolishly filled up the tank for 100 baht and were on our way. As it turned out we hardly used any gas, so we basically donated a few liters of fuel to the rental company. Oh well. Our next stop was Doi Suthep (the temple on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai). We only had a rough idea of where we were going, and we weren't on any sort of time schedule, so we took the "scenic route" through Chiang Mai University's campus which turned out to be quite fun. We made it to the Chiang Mai Zoo about an hour later and decided to take a look. This was a bad idea. The zoo wasn't expensive, but there weren't a lot of animals, it was a lot of walking uphill, the panda exhibit wasn't included in regular admission (really dumb) and the whole place was sort of depressing. The animals didn't seem to have enough room to roam around and we saw a couple of elephants chained up or boxed into some tiny enclosures. If you're ever Chiang Mai, skip the zoo.

After only an hour or two at the zoo we started making our way up the mountain to Wat Phra Doi Suthep. This drive made the motorbike rental really worth it (much better than riding in the back of a songthaew with tiny windows). As we ascended the mountain the air continually got cooler, the traffic was light and the scenery was really pretty. There were even a few places to stop and see the view of Chiang Mai. The temple was really beautiful and there was a great view of the city from one of the terraces.

After riding back down the mountain and into Chiang Mai's rush hour traffic we made it back to the guesthouse. We decided to venture out of the guesthouse for dinner and went to Aum restaurant for some vegetarian food. The portions were kind of small, and the food was just okay. Back to the guesthouse and off to bed to rest up for our trekking adventure tomorrow!