Chaing Mai, Thailand

Chaing Mai was my favorite Thai city. The people were more friendly, the city was more laid back, and our guesthouse was a blast. We also got to participate in the Thai New Year festivities..

 

first American breakfast since leaving home.. (other than the wonderful pancakes Jacki would make us from time to time) + Thai Iced Coffee, which is always sugary and delicious. Our room looked like a crime scene and had scratchy blankets, but they sure made a great meal.

one of the many mystery meat-on-a-stick vendors

thanks to a poster of different fruit in one of my classrooms in Korea, I knew that these were durians..

Jacki and I in the back of a Sawngthaew (no idea how to say that). These were red covered pick-up trucks, with benches in the back, that drove around town, and would take you wherever you needed to go, for less than $1, as long as it was going in the same direction you were.

through our hostel we booked a jungle trekking tour..prior to entering the jungle we visited an orchid farm..

 

all of these orchids were hung, and didn't grow in dirt..

fried rice in a banana leaf..

the beginning of our jungle trek..

one of our guides, Mr. T

it was about a 2 hour hike to our campsite..

..our other guide, Rocky

little girls swimming in the small creek we passed..

we're almost at the elephant camp!

the view from above..

elephants! this one stuck it's trunk out right at me!

this is the pool for the humans..it didn't really look different than the one for the elephants..

bath time!

we got to go for a ride on the elephants..this camp has tons of land, but they chose to take us up a steep hill..it was not comfortable..

our elephant and driver..

our elephant..

 Jacki and me on our elephant..

there was some downtime between our rides and dinner, so we fed the elephants!

Rocky cooked us dinner, green chicken curry!

our bed for the evening..it POURED rain that night. i was just hoping our hut wouldn't slide down the hill it was on..

bath time!

breakfast: toast with some sort of neon colored jam, and hard boiled eggs..

jimmy...the elephant camp dog..

after we left the camp, we spent the day at a waterfall and white water rafting.

we also visited a small village..this lady was selling trinkets..

Jacki and me with Rocky. This is what you look like after 2 days in the jungle.

Chiang Mai Sunday Market. This place was a mad house, you could find just about anything here..

banana spring rolls

one of many foot massage tents..

break dancing kid..

we stumbled across this church while at the market..

Mojito Garden. This was my favorite guesthouse. Boom, who ran the front desk, also did the laundry, did the cooking, and took us out at night. He was a wonderful host.

we had the only air conditioned room..totally worth the $6.50/night.

monday morning we attended a wonderful yoga class here..

then enjoyed a thai iced coffee

city walls..

inside the reggae bar we frequented..pretty sure our guesthouse was affiliated because they always suggested we go there..

Jacki and me

Wat Phrasingh Temple

Thai hipsters

the detail in these temples were amazing..

a little girl writing a prayer for the new year..

if you notice the strings throughout the temple..they're for people to hook their gifts too..

money gifts..

there were musical guests (because of the new year)..

i liked that they put glasses on this guy..

this monk was meditating and we honestly couldn't tell if he was real or not.

i found this fairly straightforward..

the best part about Chiang Mai, was the Thai New Year...it's a 3 day water festival...literally a 3 day water fight. You can't go anywhere without getting soaked.

 there was a lot of, "Welcome to Thailand!" SPLASH!

more temple details..

golden reclining buddha

in our experience, canadians were generally hit or miss, but nick, ryan, jacki and myself had a lot of fun with our super soaker squirt guns during the new year..our host Boom also let Jacki and I stay in the air conditioned room a few days extra, even though these guys booked it!

jacki and ryan