Shangri-La Hotel Chiang Mai

... et qui savent qu<il y a une province canadienne au Canada.

A titre de dernier rituel, nous avons mis une feuille d<or dur les pieds d<un bouddha, ce qui, semble t-il, doit porter chance au voyageur.... J<aurais du lui en mettre plus qu<une epaisseur parce que, une heure plus tard...nous voici en passe d<essence a l<exterieur de la ville. J<ai donc eu droit a mon premier tour de toeing-tuk-uk (nous avons fait 10 ...

Today I wanted to take it pretty easy so I limited my activities to just one. I was going to take a half-day cooking class but I decided to sign up for a full-day cooking class tomorrow and go bungee jumping today. I've bungee jumped two times before: once in the Wisconsin Dells when I was 19 and once in Queenstown, New Zealand when I was 21. The jump in New Zealand happened to be the second highest bungee jump in the world. I felt that I had ...

... a group photo to finish.

Really glad I did the course and kind of wish I had time to stay next week for level two (most of the others in my class apart from Jeff are carrying on). But no matter, I'll maybe think about coming back in September if I get time before I fly home.

Argh - biggest mozzie keeps attacking me so time to skoot! May see if I can go chat to a monk this afternoon!

... to eat. Oh, adventures in Thailand!

For dinner, we went to a local market and bought our own dinner which was a blast. While we ate it, the leader of the Lighthouse shared her testimony with us and told us about the ministry they do here in Chiang Mai. After that, we went to a night market and walked through the red light district to see where a lot of their ministry goes on.

... time we got an answer wrong, was funny but not so great to wash off without a sink! Suprisingly we slept quite well and i braved it in the outdoor shower which was freezing and basically see through but i felt much better for it! We were then taken to some steps to get onto our elephants. The seats were wooden and not so comfy and our elephant was not only a snacker but a bit of a rebel and decided to ignore the path and walk through trees...we gripped on screaming as branches slapped ...

... me to smithereens. As I said before this was elephants choice ride. About halfway thru the trip he found a puddle of water and proceeded bath himself with great joy for several minutes which resulted and me being bathed from the thigh down in muddy water and elephant snot and Jessie's shoes got a soaking. After the mahouts were finally able to convince the elephant that there were better things ahead, off we went. He for some reason refused to let the elephant ...

... of a worry. We know this goes on in Thailand and have now seen a little of it first hand and it leaves us feeling bad about visiting the ele camp at all. . The last thing on the itinerary is the 'orchid farm' and 'butterfly farm'. Both are not really our cup of tea but fine to peg onto a tour to add a little variety and interest. Unfortunately neither are actually any good - apparently it's not hot enough for butterflies (!) so these were few and far between ...

... Just as a note, I'd recommend sticking to beer or whiskey in this country... Night one of our trekking adventure brought a serendipitous good time reminiscent of days spent camping in Colorado. We were off to a promising beginning as our sawangtheaw (common mode of transport involving a pickup with benches aligning the back bed) collected the passengers. A motley crew indeed, I was curious to see how this trip would turn out. Instead of the typical team comprised of ...

... I would usually meet at the look out point at night to soak in the view of the city by night, watch the planes coming in and drink hot chocolate (which amounted to our dinner!). It really was one of the most spectacular city views I've ever seen. On one of the nights I went looking around the temple when it was really quiet and took some photos... It really is a beautiful temple with so much gold. Our rooms ...

... of pain... With about 30 minutes of the course the monsoon rains came down again, which was fantastic. Using the oars and keeping in the right position was hard work, but the rain was soooo refreshing, I don't think I'll ever forget that part, rafting through rain after a good workout and a great time, with incredibly lush wildlife around us (it was like the ...