Kaomai Lanna Resort Chiang Mai

... happening as all the shopping is down mainly at night! <br><br>Tonight we went to a thai cookery course. 1 word - amaizng! it was run by this family, the company was originally set up by one of the sisters but she passed away so they kept it running in her memory. It was really weird cos we were sitting in their front room picking what we wanted to cook. there was an american couple ...

... however, and was very speedy, so it kept falling over in the mud and scrambling about trying to keep up with the adult elephants; it was quite a cute little thing. Some of us had bought bunches of bananas, and feeding an elephant was fun; you would hold it out and the elephant would reach up with its trunk, grab the banana and toss it into its mouth, after which it would immediately whip its trunk back up ready for another one. This would go on forever, I&#8217;m sure, if you ...

... head, neck, shoulder massage. All for 2000 baht for two people. That's less than $35USD per person. Here a package is $200 at the very least with some sort of promotion. So the steam room wasn't too fancy (a canvas tent with a bench situated above a huge rice cooker boiling water) but it smelled nice and was clean and effective. Scrub was good, massages were excellent, but reflexology. Oh my god does that **** ever hurt. They use this stick thing to poke the ...

... 8212;with the exception of our hotel (but that Australian tenderloin and French wine was worth every penny)&#8212;is ridiculously inexpensive. Our meals yesterday at mid-ranged restaurants with appetizers, entrees and drinks totaled $24 combined. Such living easily fits into our budget for accommodation, dining, transportation and massage when we move to Cambodia. In addition to our volleyball scheme described more fully yesterday ...

... with Dudley we are placed aboard the largest Elephant they have, which also turned out to be the least obedient. Cramped into the seat Dudley and I endure a close experience more adapt for young couples madly in love. Our guides lead us off into the jungle. The sounds of rustling leaves and the wind are barely audiable above the waves of screaming crickets, the sound is not far off that which my landlord makes when he's sawing paving slabs in the ...

... Our handy guidebook (thanks Joci!) pointed out several great restaurants downtown, so we braved the heat and humidity and walked into town. The weather really started to spike around this time in the trip, similar to Florida this time of year. Oh well. It is late July, after all. We wandered around the old city for a bit, finally settling on lunch at a vegetarian restaurant &#8211; pad thai and spring rolls. (Yum!) A certain Tuk Tuk driver had been following ...

... in the craziest capital city in the world, during a state of emergency, at five 'o' clock in the morning. and driving around burnt out buses from the previous nights rioting. After no sleep. That's a fun packed twenty four hours right there. The culture shock you get in Bangkok is something else. I imagine it would be special arriving from England but after the best part of three months in India with it's tolerance for practically nothing it's unbelievable. Even at six ...

... but was able to explain the dances clearly. Jessie was working on the sword dance while I was there and it didn't take her long to figure it out. I left about midway thru the day and went back to the room to pack up my stuff and relax until Jessie got out of class (the benefits of finishing my class on Friday). We didn't do much after Jessie got back but try and get everything in our packs and decide what to send home. If you ever go overseas don't pack any ...

... crops. Our guide said they plant rice but these slopes were easily over 30% and there's no way they would be terracing them, especially when the vally floors were already heavily terraced. They must plant other crops up there. Anyway, he said they work them on a seven year cycle. At least they do that because if they worked them year after year the topsoil would slough away and there would be massive mudslides and the land would be unusable. It was a tough day. The hiking wasn't ...

... did a little shopping and then hit a bar. ahhhhh bars how we had missed them after downing a few beers (in my case) and cocktails (in jess's case) we befriended two women Zoe and Amy who were from england and looking for somewhere good to go. We ended up drinking more with them before heading to The Club on the Khoa San to consume yet more alcohol. The girls were really good fun but clearly had loads of money. The club closed at two things happened, firstly this ...