Continuation of Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Jan 12, 2008
1
14
15
Trip End
May 10, 2008
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
In continuation from where I left off on my last entry, Anca and I spent a few more days in Chiang Mai...
On DAY TWO we did a tour of a Burmese village where the women spent their days weaving fine silks. They live off the land and obviously any income they need comes from the tourism profits. It felt like we were intruding tourists but they carried on with their normal lives and seemed very welcoming. In the end, we're both benefiting from each other I suppose.
From there we did a long walk through rice fields, to a waterfall, and then another small village that sold handmade crafts. A quick stop for some quality homemade Thai food filled us up and got us ready for our next adventure, elephant riding!
We rode elephants in pairs up into the jungle, to the top of a hill for great views and back down just before it started to rain. This experience was way better than the circus-- there were no scary clowns and there were only two or three people per elephant instead of ten. The best part was feeding our elephant bananas as we went along... my elephant, however, was the delinquent one of the bunch, refusing to move unless we fed it bananas continuously. It was like, A.D.D. elephant. That's okay though, just meant I enjoyed a longer ride!
Onto the next part of our adventure trip: rafting down the river! It was still raining at this point but we didn't care, we knew we were probably going to get wet anyways. The rafts were probably about 15 feet long and only 3 feet wide, made of tied together logs. We had three people on a raft plus a Thai guide guy who directed and steered us with a really long stick. They didn't speak English but still played around with us, splashing us with water and having a laugh. We got to see wild elephants and villages here and there along the way. No pics from this as I didn't have my camera.
Later that night we toured the hundreds of stands in the night markets.
DAY 3
We decide to spend the day traveling around the city and visiting temples as there are many many temples in Chiang Mai. The first one we go to is located right near our hostel. As we walk to the entrance we are approached by a tuk tuk driver who introduces himself and makes friendly conversation. He tells us that for only 100 Baht ($3) he can take us to a bunch of different temples around the city as well as a couple of factory shops where we can buy souvenirs and see how things are made. He showed us a route on the map and we liked the plan! So we visited our first temple then hopped in our tuk tuk. He took us to one temple and then another and then long story short, spent the rest of the day taking us to many factories where he earned a commission for taking us tourists there.
Now, don't get me wrong, even though that wasn't our plan, we still enjoyed our little "detour". We visited a The world's largest jewelery store (which, I personally think, was pretty small. but who's checking, right?) also an umbrella "village" where they painted on umbrellas, a Jade factory, a Carving factory, a Leather factory, an Icecream factory, a Silk factory, and a Carpet factory. and I probably missed one...okay I guess we didn't visit an Icecream factory, but I wish...
We were exhausted by the end of the day, didn't really see much for temples, but came back with plenty of souvenirs and a brief education on the processes of making each of the products.
That night we spoiled ourselves with 1 hour full body massages-- did I mention Thai massage is known to be the best in the world? I met people from the states that were there just to study it. For only 250 Baht ($7.50) I got 60 minutes of pure relaxation. And with that, we're ready to fly! The next day takes us on a flight to Koh Samui, an Island off the lower east coast of the country where it's a completely different scene.
So more to come! Stay tuned...
Comments
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I don't know if I could be anymore jealous :) Sounds like a blast lady!