Thailand - Chiang Mai

Our first stop in Thailand was Chiang Rai but it's fair to say it was relatively short-lived - 18 hours to be exact. We arrived, had a wander round but there was just nothing to do and Chiang Rai itself lacked any sort of appeal after laidback Laos. Maybe we just needed abit of time to adapt to a faster pace of life again.

The following morning we made the four hour bus journey to Chiang Mai. I was certainly abit taken aback initially by how westernised it was - McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Baskin Robbins. I suppose this was mainly because when I was reading up on the area it focuses very much on the fact that it has 300 Wats so I had imagined it being alot less "neon" but then you remember this is Thailand. We mulled over what to do the rest of the day whilst devouring a Big Mac (well it has been 8 weeks of rice and noodles)

It just so happened that it was the final day of the Lanna celebration of the refurbishment of the largest temple in Chiang Mai. This was one big party, there were Monks attending from all over Thailand, traditional dancing & music and alot of fireworks. It was a real experience to attend such an event and witness how these people celebrate something that is so important to them.

Trekking is very big business in Chiang Mai so we signed ourselves up for a 2 day, 1 night affair starting the following day. We were greeted the next morning in the guesthouse reception by quite possibly the most hyperactive and smiley Thai guy ever. Mr T was his name and there was no way this Trek was going to be dull with him at the held.

It took quite a while to pick up all the other trekkers from their guesthouses, it appears Mr T wasn't so familiar with the urban jungle. Eventually, after a few laps of Chiang Mai all 12 of us were on the road. It was a good mix of people, some lads from America, a few Canadians and the rest were Europeans, not to mention the 3 Dutch stunners who thought quite rightly, it was perfectly acceptable to trek in hot pants.

We had a four hour trek that day, the going wasn't too bad but it was really hot so we were all slightly relieved when we reached the village we were staying in that night. When we booked the Trek the overnight stay was pitched to us a "Tribal Village" but to be honest we had found Chiang Rai alot more tribal. This was abit disappointing as I was really up for mingling with some authentic hill tribe types. We had a walk round all the same and took lots of photo's of the huts like you do.

That evening we all sat down to eat and then the evenings entertainment cranked up a gear courtesy of Mr T being the wrong side of a few Chang beers. It seems the guy had an endless array of magic tricks and riddles he was only too willing to share (if he could stop pissing himself laughing long enough to perform them). Check this one out for size - "What has roads but no cars? Rivers but no water? and Cities but no people?" He kept us guessing for a good 10 mins - it's a map apparently - pure genius!

After a pretty much sleepless night due to the fact that I managed to pick the only bit of floor space directly below a hole in the roof and it pissed down all night we were up at 7am for day two. We trekked for a further 3 hours to look at another waterfall. I did a spectacular fall on a slippery rock and almost got washed away, I'm really not having a good relationship with water at the moment.

They had laid on activities for the afternoon, first up was an hour of elephant trekking. Mark and myself were assigned what had to be smallest elephant in the world (how Mr T laughed - alot) which just followed the other normal sized elephants smelling thier bottoms. Then it was time for whitewater rafting which was really good fun, amazingly, against all odds I managed to stay in the boat. But they had saved the best till last, bamboo rafting. We didn't have as much luck with this one. The guide seemed think a raft made from bamboo could hold the weight of 7 men so we all climbed aboard and promptly sunk about 4 inches underwater. The guide then steered us straight into a concrete bridge forcing us all to abandon ship and we spend the next 15 mins helping the poor guy rescue his livelihood from the bottom of the river.

Next on the agenda was an authentic Thai cookery course. We were taken to the food market early in the morning to buy all our fresh ingredients and then it was to the kitchen to cook. To be honest it was a really good laugh, the group was made up of Brits, Americans and Canadians all our age so we all got on really well. I made Thai green curry, sweet & sour pork with veggies & Pad Thai in the morning then we broke for lunch and ate our dishes. In the afternoon I made spicy beef salad, chicken & rice soup and mangoes with sticky rice. I was really impressed with how damn good they all tasted - I evidently inherited my mothers culinary skills. I will be laying on a Thai banquet to celebrate my return to the UK so look forward to that one guys....

Our next stop - Koh Pha Ngan via Bangkok