Northern Thailand

What, another update in less than 3 days, we must be bored or something. On the contrary, we've been quite busy in Chiang Mai, since the last update we've done a full day Thai Cooking course as well as a 2-day 1-night hike into the mountains of Northern Thailand. So where do we start.

The cooking course was great. We went to a local market to pick out the fresh ingredients for the days cooking. This was probably my favorite part as we've been passing these markets for weeks now without having a clue what half the stuff is (besides the fact that they are vegetables ofcourse). We learned 7 dishes all together from Pad Thai (great noodle dish) to Green Curry. The wierdest part was when we had to kill a live chicken...that was strange...just kidding...the chicken was already dead we just had to pluck the feathers...OK, kidding again...it was nicely chopped up for us just like at Safeway...hehehe. Check out some photos.


Let the Apron jokes come forth.


Getting instruction from Perm, our master cooking instructor.

The trek into the mountains was fantastic. Along with just the hiking we also had a ride on elephants, which, except for the fact that they were elephants, was kind of similar to horse rides back home. We both enjoyed the ride, a unique experience for sure. The only drama was when the elephant started freaking out, roaring (or whatever that sound is that elephants make) and our guide jumped off to smack it on the head...Not kidding this time. I mean, its just me but, if you smack an animal thats 10 times bigger than you on the head with a stick, that would seem a little dangerous don't you think...especially when your two guests were still on top. For a second there we thought we'd be another statistic of the many people that have been carried off never to return on the back of a rampaging elephant, oh the horror (hehehe). Actually the crisis was shortlived and no harm was done (except for maybe a bruise on the elephants head).

Pudong (the elephants name I think) and our guide just after getting off the contraption on its back. An interesting experience.

We were soon on our way to start the hike. The rest of the day we were walking through jungle, rice fields and around swamps (in Kendras case she walked through the swamps, but thats another story, see the photo below). The hike was fantastic, we had heard mixed impressions of the trekking up here in Chiang Mai as some people reported that it was kind of fake and boring. Ours, however, exceeded expectations. Along the way we were able to swim in waterfalls to get away from the heat, and at the end of the day we stayed with a family in a village of 150 people. There were 6 of us and the people we stayed with were the guides cousins. I thought that it would be uncomfortable intruding into the village but I was wrong. The people seemed genuine to us and we enjoyed a night out in the mountains. Some trekkers/hikers apparently go to villages that are all decked out for the tourists making the trip seem fake, this village (in the words of our guide who does actually live there with his wife) is a working village who supply vegetables and cows to the local markets, they understand the value of supplementing their income with tourist dollars and seem to enjoy having people come in once or twice a week (different families host the guests each time). All in all a good experience.

The next day was more hiking and another great escape into the cool of the mountain waterfalls. The last adventure of the trip was a cruise down a river on a bamboo raft. Tonnes of fun. It was the weekend so there were lots of people picnicking along the shores, what made it more fun was that currently Thailand is gearing up to celebrate the Songkram Festival (or Water Festival), which, without to much detail, is a massive 4-5 day water fight. Needless to say we were constantly attacked with splashing and water guns by people along the way. Pretty funny. Kendra was a particularily favorite target as they would sneak unexpectedly up to her while she was lying down on the raft...ofcourse, the rest of us didn't want to ruin the suprise...hehehe.

Some of the hiking photos.

The coolest spider I've ever seen, Kendra loved it...kind of. Thats our guide, La, holding it.


Kendra and I in front of one of the waterfalls along the way. The water was perfectly cold to keep us from overheating on the hike.


On our way to the village. Its currently the dry season in the area, they will wait till June to start planting the rice again. They also burn some of the fields to clear out brush for new crops which is why it appears a little hazy here. Nevertheless a beautiful sight.


I just missed taking this photo when Kendra fell into the swamp, it doesn't look that deep but she was in above her knees with visions of leaches flashing through her head I'm sure. She was unharmed. In case your wondering she's the one in the back looking a little off balanced. The puppy behind kendra was a stray that befriended us from one of the villages for the next 2 days, we called it Scrappy.


The Bamboo raft. If you look behind us you can see some people along the shore splashing the people on the raft. Its the Water Festival so be prepared to get wet. In the cars on the way home we were more than once suprised by people throwing buckets of water at us from the streets (and the festival isn't supposed to start till Wednesday!).

After all that we are headed back to Bangkok on the Night Bus today. We should get there by 6:00am tomorrow and from there organize ourselves for the next leg of the trip. This should be a suprise for you as well as us, because we don't quite know yet where that will be. We will keep you posted though and our next update shall have all the answers.

Cheers,
Mike and Kendra