Despite a tropical depression for 2 days in the dry season, Chiang Mai has been amazing. Yesterday I spent the day at the Elephant Nature Park (elephantnaturefoundation.org). One woman has single handedly developed this and taken on the job of rescuing the elephants. She has 32 of them. The babies are adorable. We got to feed them and bathe them...

Ladies and gents I (Joe aka positive Patty/optimistic Olga) have specially requested to wirte this blog entry in hope that we will make you laugh outloud wherever you may be when you read this particular entry. If you do not care to hear about what we saw, where we are staying, what we ate or what mode of transportation we have used to get here ...

We've made it back from Pai. The drive through the mountains was absolutely incredible! It took us just at 5 hours to get back and every minute was amazing. I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful it was. Pai was a very interesting town. It is a very touristy town, and most of them were hippies. But it was a wonderful little place. On the ...

Up in Northern Thailand, the city of Chiang Mai is a great place to spend some time. The climate is relatively cool, and the food is both delicious and cheap. If one were inclined, he could eat his fill for under $3 a day. But, pretty soon, that same person would probably realize that he could eat and drink like a king for $10 a day, and would a...

Well I arrived at the Galere Guest House afer a very pleasant flight on Thai Airways where I finally had an empty seat next to me. My previous flights were all packed! I took a taxi from the airport and like most taxi drivers on a fixed fare (120 baat, about $3) he drove like a bat out of hell. One thing I hadn't realized is that Thais drive on ...

I got up at about 7:45 and just chilled. Breakfast was at around 8:30 - French toast and bananas, yummy. We had no trekking to do that day. From the village we were to travel by bamboo raft for a couple of hours to our final destination where we'd have lunch and be picked up by the Eagle House truck. They made the raft before our very eyes and I...

Dear family and friends, Hello! How is everyone doing? I am sitting here in an internet cafe off campus, in the wonderful city of Chiang Mai, typing my first online blog entry. I am exploding with memories of the past week and a half, and can hardly keep anything straight in my mind. I will start from the beginning. I flew on a plane for 22 hour...

Today was day one of a three day trek in Chiang Mai province. We were picked up early and the van went round the guesthouses picking up the other people in our group. The group was ten people - 2 Dutch couples, 3 Australian lads, 1 Japanese lad and a Russian guy. Our first stop was a local market and the Russian guy bought a beer and some dried ...

Chiang Mai has many Wats. Miwa, Dane, Justin and I went on a day-long Wat self-tour. We took our lonely-planet guides and set off exploring. At one, the famous Wat Chedi Luang, we were able to talk to some Monks. One, named Polo offered to give us lessons in Thai. So, now every Monday after school Miwa and I grab a taxi and meet Polo. He won't a...

Having been condemned by nature and fortune to an active and restless life, our intrepid travellers took leave of the bustling city of Chiang Mai. Tim Canterbury, Gareth Keenan, and Dawn Tinsley began their expedition accompanied by one other explorer, Keith, and an entourage containing two sherpa, one linguistics expert, and a minstrel. To prep...