Chang Mai

  Chang Mai, Thailand
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

We spent a long time here, partly due to the fact that Mini applied for his Indian visa which takes a week or so to process and partly because we really liked the spot.

02. Long neck lady

Its the biggest city in Northern Thailand but again with the feel of a small town. The old part of the town is completely surrounded by a walled moat which is still intact. Here the Thai government have put restrictions on buildings near the moat. They have for the most part not allowed any tall buildings to be built in the area, this has helped to keep the character of the city.

The city is surrounded by hills and mountains, inside the city are a number of impressive Wat Temples. There are a number of different markets to go buy whatever you want and a huge selection restaurants serving some of the best food that I've had in Thailand not to mention the pubs.

They have plenty of things going on here to keep ya occupied. We took things at a fairly relaxed pace spending 2 days doing a trek over the mountains and staying at a small village. Doing a bit of Bungy Jumping and a small bit of shooting just to keep us occupied.

The trek consisted of a 2 day 1 night trip. We were collected early in the morn and driven out to visit an orchid farm, that was followed by a quick trip to the Long Neck village. Here all the women have placed ring in their necks to extend them. They start early in their life and keep adding rings until the age of 45 or so. The main objective here is for them to try and sell their goods.

09. In the water

There wasn't really an authentic feel to this place, that their only there because the likes of us keep coming. But then again every day all they have are tourist coming upto them to take pics of em, I suppose I'd lose my enthusiasm as well if I was them.

We then took a trip to do a bit of elephant riding. I wasn't too impressed with this bit. I didn't particularly like the way some of the Mahouts treated their elephants and wouldn't ever do it here again if I were to come back. Having said that there were some nice views and it was very impressive to see the sort of terrain that these guys can cover.

The final part of the day was a few hours of a trek over the bloody mountains. There was a group of about 10 of us as well as a guide. Bout 10 minutes into it I was regretting going. If it wasn't bad enough going over a mountain we were also going through jungle. The weather wasn't the best and bout half way into it, it really started to pour down. Which was the last thing we needed when we were already walking on narrow mud paths with some pretty impressive falls. It was slow going as we were sliding quiet a bit. Besides that though the views were fantastic and as we walked along we were able to pick lychee's directly from the trees and eat. They are a sweet fruit that taste brilliant.

Our day ended in a small village where our guide and a few other cooked for us a nice meal and we sat around and had a few drinks and a chat. The next morning woke up to the treat of about

12. Our home for the night

60 mosquito bite on my feet. Little fecker had really gone to town on me. The day involved another few hours trekking over the mountain but at least this time it was dry. We went to visit a small waterfall where we were able to do a bit of a cliff jump into the water below (well 1 or 2 meters to be fair). Our day was to finish with a white water raft down the river (unfortunately it didn't last that long) and a spin on a bamboo raft (which spent most of the time touching the bottom from the amount of people on it.) And finally before we got our bus back we were able to have a look at them chopping up a bit of freshly killed pig.

At nights in Chiang Mai we found ourselves a nice local bar that we went to pretty much ever night.

35. Gone

The Chiang Mai Saloon. Besides the great food there the staff were good fun with a few free shots thrown in for good measure every now and then. Twas also the place where we met another few Irish and a French couple whom I married. I even wrote an official document. So if anyone needs someone to marry them off, just give me a shout the rates are cheap enough.

Meself and Mini rented ourselves a few motorbikes and made a trip out to a bungy site. Twas only 50 meters but its feckin high when your up there looking down and I was bricking it . The jump is directly over a small lake and the idea was that I was going to get a head dip as I hit the lowest point. That never happened but I did have a great laugh and can't wait to try those New Zealand jumps.

One of the last activities we did was to head to the local guns clubs, pick up an array of different guns and have some fun. The guns included a pump action shot gun, a Smith &

44. The best one yet

Wesson .38 revolver (6 shooter), a Gloc .45 and some other .45 hand gun (I'm sure Darren will be able to tell me what is was when he sees the pics). The kick from the hand guns was unreal, and the shot gun was just great fun. I got a video or two thrown up for ye to look at.

Besides that the rest of the time in Chiang Mai just involved walking around to the various Wat Temples and the town in itself. It is one of the few places in SE Asia that I could live in if I had to move. The only downside been that its not near the sea.

The next stop for us was Koh Tao where Mini and meself would learn how to dive, wohooooo