The rest of Chiang Mai and this week

This week was definitely less stressful than last. Justin's shoulder and neck are feeling better and we didn't stay late at all at the office. This week we also bought two bikes!! I bought Keysa's bike and Justin bought this guy Carter's bike who was a teacher some where else in Surat. We also got a new wheel on the motorbike because it was giving us flat tires. On Tuesday we went out to this Japanese place for Keysa's last night in town. I had a laughing attack there, I forget what about. It was a little embarrassing, but mostly funny. The restaurant was really good, I'm sure we'll go back again.

This weekend on Saturday I accidentally broke a water pipe outside our house so we didn't have water till Sunday morning when the plumber came by. Saturday we also went down to the night market and out to a bar with Andrea and David. It was a fun bar with a live band and a guy singing karaoke. We were the only ones who clapped at the end of the songs.

Sunday I went to a yummy vegetarian place for lunch with Andrea and to the three tier market which is near the river. It's like a giant open stall mall with food on the first floor and fun clothes, shoes, etc. on the second and third floor.

Not much else exciting is going on. The internet guy came by and gave us a router, but there's something wrong with the telephone line outside, so theyre going to have to get that fixed as well. Oh and it stopped raining so much and now it's pretty hot. We're going to try to go swimming soon.

Miss everyone!! Write if you have any questions or anything!

Here's the details from the rest of the trip to Chiang Mai.

WEDNESDAY24/10/07
The trek: We left around 9:30 with five other German people and our leader. There were two women traveling together on holiday from work and two men traveling together on holiday and than one man traveling alone. First we drove 3 hours in a tuk tuk then a yummy lunch and a hike for about 45 min with a waterfall at the end. The hike was pretty treacherous and slippery, but we did alright. The waterfall was really beautiful. Here are some pictures.






After the waterfall we drove again and then hiked another 2 hours into a village. There was a funeral going on in the village for a young man our age who had died of AIDS. He had recently started working in Bangkok where he contracted it. Chan (out guide) said this happens a lot to young people who come from villages into big cities.

The first village we stayed at was a Kharen village. Most of the people in this village were refugees from Burma at some point. Most of the villages and hill tribes speak there own languages, not Thai. These village had about 50 people in it. They had a few cows and pigs as well. They had recently bought a motorbike together to get into town with instead of walking a couple of hours. They had a solar panel for electricity that the last Prime Minister got for them. Our guide talked a lot about him and how he had worked hard to stop the use of Opium in these hill tribes and had sent a lot of people into rehab for it. He also did a lot to help end poverty here, like giving them solar panels and small loans for buying livestock.

This village was in a very beautiful spot with a nice view of the mountains. It got pretty cold the first night - maybe in the 50s. It was very nice. Chan said that in some parts they get frost in the winters.

Oh and while we were hiking we heard this high pitched sound - kind of like a dentist drill. We'd heard it all around Chiang Mai and we couldn't figure out what it was. It turns out its cicadas. I was very surprised that it wasn't a man made noise.

We had a delicious dinner that night of green curry and sweet and sour chicken. We both slept well in the little we had set up.

Here are some pictures from that village.



You can see the solar panel in this one.





THURSDAY 25/10/07

Justin and I got up early and walked around the village before breakfast. We had a yummy breakfast before starting the hike. There was a lot of up and down in the morning with nice views at the tops of the mountains. At the top of the highest mountain we were at 1,050 miles above sea level. We were also about 70km from Burma. There were a lot of Pine trees up there which was new to see. Here are some pictures from that hike.

This is Chan our guide.


And this is us of course.



We hiked for about 3hrs before lunch. We went for a swim in a river after lunch and then onto the elephants for our elephant trek. It was pretty scary at first but we got used to it. There was a little baby elephant who followed our elephant and was very cute. We werent sitting right on the elephant, but on a little chair thing attached on top. The elephants were only really scary when we went up or down hills. We mostly walked along the river which sometimes looked just like a river in Missouri.

Here you can see the baby elephant following along.


We rode for about 3 hrs before getting into the next village. That village was a little bigger and less isolated. We met a little boy there who was very cute and walked around holding our hand. Here he is.


There was also a little puppy who I made friends with who was very cute. We played cards at night after dinner before going to bed.
Here's the puppy.



FRIDAY 26/10/07

In the morning Chan finished building the bamboo raft and after breakfast we went on the raft. Here is the boat getting worked on.


It was very fun and a little tippy. No one fell in which was good. There were times when we had the boat nearly half way in the water. We were on the boat for a few hours and then we had some lunch and drove to an Orchid farm. The Orchid farm was pretty touristy but pretty.




After the orchid farm we had lunch and then drove for about three hours in the back of a tuk tuk which was pretty uncomfortable before getting back to the guest house. Friday night we relaxed mostly, I went to the night bazaar for a bit.

Tuk Tuk Ride home:


SATURDAY 27/10/07
Saturday morning we went for a really delicious breakfast with three people from the trip. They had really amazing pancakes. We hung out till our train at 4. The train backk was much nicer. The first was a sleeper car that was super comfy. The only thing was that there was no free dinner or breakfast like on the second class train. We got into Bangkok around 8 and took another second class train to Surat Thani and got a free breakfast and lunch on the way back.

Here's Justin enjoying the 1st class ride.