Bua Saree Chiang Mai

... about it except that it was a cave with a lot of bats in it. Funny that!

After a dip in a waterfall our guide informed us “we go to elephant camp now”. An elephant camp? It’s getting kinda late, shouldn’t we be getting into camp before dark? Let’s leave the elephant ride till tomoz hey? But as you do with any mystery tour, you just go with the flow. So off to elephant camp we went.

Well it turns out that ...

... not how to spell his name) waited while we had a beer half way round and later took us to a shop (in order to get his petrol;coupon for taking us there). Must confess it was a lovely shop and we bought a jade elephant. We were impressed by his sevices so booked him for the next day to go to the Elephant Farm. First we watched the show and fed the very clever elephants with bananas and bamboo. I tried to give mine one banana at a time but he ...

... package in which you could see both a baby and an adult, because when else in your life will you can an opportunity to do either? The baby tiger was about 6 weeks old and had soft but scraggly fur, paws and head way too big for its body, and a kitten-like playfulness. He would stalk our feet, bat his paws at my prayer beads, and meow loudly when his handlers tried to push him around. Baby tigers actually meow! Our 15 minutes were over way too quick and it was clear the ...

... stations and a main demonstration hall which had an angled mirror on the ceiling so you could see her work from a bird's eye view. It was oddly fascinating watching the same thing from two different angles at the same time. Our first task of the day was the make Thai red curry paste from scratch which proved to be a stress relieving. We got the spices and chillis and placed them in a mortar and then bashed them until they were fine and powdery. We then added wet chillis ...

... many unique Thai dishes (boiled chicken blood, chicken intestines, bamboo worms, crickets, fried chicken skin, tofu-coconut soft cookies; BTW, I would eat all again, save the intestines)
~Visiting and buying handicrafts in Burmese refugee village (where Akha, Pudong (sp) and Palong "longneck" peoples were allowed to stay per the Thai gov't) outside of Tha Ton and not negotiating price out of sympathy for refugees
Chiang Mai, Thailand texaspeyton

... for this trip - although one fellow american traveller jokingly commented "wow look at those - you guys must have something REALLY good in there" The journey was long - 16.5 hours in total but the beds were a godsend so it actually wasn't to bad. When we arrived at Chiang Mai station a Irish guy called Rob asked if he could jump in our tuk-tuk with us if we were heading to the same guesthouse. We ended up getting ...

... breeze comes across the patio as you stand looking down at the city below. It was a little hazy the day we were there and although the view was great we could not get any pictures. After an hour or so we headed back to Chiang Mai for lunch. We planned to go to the elephant nature park the following day and as a gift they give you a free meal in their restaurant in Chiang Mai. After eating only street food since we ...

... P*rce que c'est le billet le moins cher que nous *vons trouvé. En f*it, nous étions prêt à *ller n'importe ou. Sing*poure ser* donc notre proch*ine ét*pe. De là b*s, nous continuerons en direction soit de l* M*l*ysie, puis de l'Indonésie, soit le contr*ire. L* seule contr*inte que nous *yons est d'être à Ku*l* Lumpur pour le week end du 3 Avril pour y voir le Gr*nd Prix de Formule 1. Nos billets d'*vion nous l*issent encore une sem*ine de v*c*nces en Th*il*nde et nous ...

... br>
It was a very busy day. We woke up early and headed to an orchid farm, as the north of Thailand is popular (apparently) for orchid farms. They were beautiful, but not that exciting, so I was happy when we went to our next destination - the long-neck women hill tribe village (Karen Village).

The long-neck women are those women who you often see in issues of National Geographic - with the metal bands around their necks to stretch them out. For some reason, they ...

... so we felt ok about it.

You walked up a ramp onto a boarding platform, and sat behind the owner of the elephant, who sits at the top of the elephant's neck. You're then locked into a rather uncomfortable 'seat', and off you go...



To be honest it was much better than I'd expected, a full hour all around the area, through rivers & streams, up and down ...