Asia Lampang Hotel

Wow hard to believe that its the third day already...no sleep...have absolutely no ability to control my legs....but hey misery loves company...and yup Shauna is in the same boat...she crys more than me though....girl thing. Well sleepless night....can barely move...and manage to roll out of the torture chamber known as our bed....amazing...managed to get a bruise from trying to sleep...that is a new one. So we kinda get up....time for a coffee....I sneak to the door not ...

... monkeys away with my crs of "OHHHH MYYYYY BUDDAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"....B ob thought it was really funny...I'm always glad when I can entertain. Then we is off.....ohhh did I mention it was pouring out......the weather was off and on in the rain department but it was all good...as if it was sunny out...you would be reading an obituary right now cause ohhh my buddahhhh it gets smokin hot in da jungle...the rain keeps the heat down a bit. So off we go and truck down ...

... the elephants to laugh and point and maybe stomp me to death cause I was an obvious new guy and all and also looked like a dork... So fine Shauna has her gear on....looking as geeky as me....and next thing we are whisked into a group of similar dressed folks from around the world in a big area that elephants might play (note no time for bug juice aforementioned or sunblock)....in a matter of a couple of minutes...we each are paired up with an Elephant ...

... where there was a brightly painted elephant and lots of Thai people. Steve and I were asked to join a big group of Thai people for a group photograph and we obliged, confused (especially after looking so bad after cycling around) and we got some kind of celebrity treatment. Not quite sure who they thought we were?! Old Sukhothai is beautiful and we spent much of the day cycling around and admiring the old temples and ruins, before heading back to New Sukhothai where ...

... of the other sites. Another impressive temple is Wat Chang Lom, which has enormous stone elephants built into the base. Looking at it now in its ruined state, you can imagine how imposing it must have once looked. Once we had finished at the ruins, we cycled back to the bus station to wait for a bus that would take us north. One of the difficult things about traveling around Thailand is that the bus ...

... Gre enostavno za skuterje ali mopede, katerih vozniki imajo oblecene brezrokavnike kricecih barv in so opremljeni s stevilkami in k katerim lahko nato prisedejo eden, dva ali trije potniki. V primeru, da prisede turist je seveda skuter omejen na dve osebi, pri domacinih pa tudi 4 osebe na enem skuterju niso nekaj neobicajnega. Taksna voznja do 5 km dalec stane le do 1 evro. 2. Moto taksi za vec oseb ponuja ze vec udobja, saj ima moped ali skuter ob strani ...

... a bit of a gamble as we had no map and the TAT was closed so we sort of headed blind towards the riverside where our guide mentioned a couple of guesthouses were situated. We somehow made it to one of them, called Tip Inn Guesthouse and after dumping our bags we went round the corner for some dinner at a strongly recommended place called the ...

... Ah well, live and learn. Chiang Mai is a cool place and it'd be great to visit again, although maybe in dry season next time. We didn't do a couple of things we'd thought about due to the weather, especially having been out in that rain in both Sapa and Luang Nam Tha. It just takes all the fun out of it so between experience and Maria's foot we didn't go for it. As I say maybe next time. And so back to Bangkok for a 6 days in total, some of which we intended spending outside the city.

... Besides, the elephant bath degenerated into some water squirting melee, so the audience didn't really matter in the least. Sopping wet we moved out of the bathing pool and onto the road. The audience walked by and exclaimed on their way to the show ground. Then our elephants began their walk back to the show ground. And then there was no dismount. Well, Mahout dismounted, but I was left on Look Khong and sent directly into my first show. So much ...

... t get much easier. It was hard enough to get used to the idea that we were sitting on such an enormous animal. I watched the other tourists looking down, wide-eyed in amazement, at whatever the elephant happened to be doing at the moment. It was just that kind of day. A "wow I'm on an elephant" kind of day. After another bath, a second show, and another training session, the day was over for the elephants. It was time to take them ...