So we had reached Chiang Mai: 16 hours covering about 600km (probably as fast as Usain Bolt in full flow). We arrived at about 2 (on Thurs 10th May) found a nice guesthouse called JJ to stay at as well. We'd decided that this being one of the most laid-back cities in Thailand would be the perfect place to do a variety of activities. But more of that later...
Obviously the main reason we were going to South East Asia was to see temples, and become scholars in Buddhism. We paid a visit to Wat Phra Singh (a large temple which the Thai PM was visiting the next day) and we all felt... a little enlightened. We then moved onto the night bazaar - Chiang Mai has some of the best markets in Thailand, food, clothes, laser pens: everything a person could ask for.
So the next day we'd booked an action-packed day of white-water rafting. Well because it was off-peak season apparently the company had closed (feasible) so we did a 1 day excursion: some elephant riding including feeding them bananas and them snotting on our hands: it was fairly cute and they made a face like I didn't really mean it, so it was all ok. We then had an hour walk to a waterfall (we've almost seen as many of them as temples) where we had a swim, and a pad thai wrapped in a banana leaf (but not simultaneously).
Then luckily, we did have some white water rafting and a little bamboo rafting which we all really enjoyed. In the evening we had a few drinks and if we're honest a McDonalds - the 3rd in 4 days.... poor form, but we set some teachers from England and the US and played a bit of pool.
The next day we did a bungee jump: we all dropped into a pool of water at the bottom, it was really cool, a fairly unique feeling compared to the rest of the trip/temple-hopping. In no contrast to the theme of the day, we then went to the Chiang Mai zoo, where we admired giraffes, kangaroos and many other unheard of animals. It was a really nice place, spread out, open to walk around... there were tigers and lions everything you could want to see. We then walked to Huay Kaew waterfall had a nice swim, came back to the GH and went to see some Muay Thai boxing! That was something difficult... there was even a blindfolded match where people were randomly kicking the air, doing windmills etc. and the ref even drop kicked someone when he got hit. We bet on a couple of matches, unfortunately our gambling addiction meant we lost about a couple of hundred Baht... that 2-3GBP was never going to come back... it put a real downer on the trip so far.
Our penultimate day, we went to the flight of the gibbon: it was a series of ziplines and abseiling all through the forest and we did actually see a gibbon there! It was good fun. In the evening - pretty tired we went to the Sunday Walking Street - another market but we had been told it was the best shopping experience in Thailand and I think that was probably right, the row of stalls/shops never ended it had a bit of everything - buskers etc.
The next day we were heading to Laos, a minibus in the morning took us to Chiang Khong where we crossed the border (by boat) to Huay Xai. We then caught a bus to Luang Prabang at about 5, and we got there 6am the next morning... it was about 19 hours of travelling in all...
But we were in LAOS!
With love from Dan, Harry and Josh
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