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Day 1-
We arrive in Chiang Mai after a 10 hour journey and head straight to the sunday night market. The roads are lined with hundreds of stalls selling souvenirs, home made jewellery, touristy bric a brac and street food. We stumble across a small courtyard dotted with food stalls serving meals from all the over the world. The turkish kebab stand looks tempting but we settle for a thai stall. Im still on this vegetarian diet of mine and opt for the fried rice thai style. Now, I have been very experimental whilst in Thailand food wise, but the only way I can describe this meal I spat out after a milisecond of it touching my lips is cat food. We head back to the hotel for what we don't know will be a night of little sleep due to pesky mosquitos eating us alive.
Day 2 -
We get up early and visit every travel agent on the street comparing prices for little trips to go on whilst in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is excursion central, everything is possible here. Its going to be a very hectic couple of days as we have so much we want to do. You have to book most excursions a day before and as we arrived late last night it wasn't possible to book anything for this morning. We sign up to an evening thai cooking school as it was something we have never done and it was really good fun. The school picked us up from the hotel and the first part of the class involved visiting the local market and getting all the ingredients we needed for the afternoon. I saw fruits and vegetables I didn't know existed, and at least 20 different varieties of rice. At the end of the market is a fishmongers, there s a small paddling pool with all sorts of fish swimming around in it, the idea is you pick your fish, he grabs it, chops off its head and voila, dinner is served! If you liked he'll even bbq it for you. The cooking class was really good fun, it was amazing how quickly Thai food takes to cook, although the time consuming part is in the preperation there are so many ingredients, most of which I have never heard of. The Thai are very precise, we have noticed this... fry this for 10 seconds exactly, walk down the street for 13 minutes, ok so about 10 minutes away?.. no 13 etc etc. Anways, we made 5 meals. First up was Spring rolls, they are SO easy, will definitley be making them at home. Mine were delicious! Next we made a Thai soup I forget what it was called, but also very nice, the spiceyness made me cough! Each time you make a course you sit down to eat, after 2 courses I was already getting full. Thai green curry was next, this has ALOT of ingredients but once you have the ingredients it only takes 2 minutes to make. Our teacher was really good, he gave the class little tips on what we could use as alternatives if we couldnt find these ingredients back home. We chose our spiceyness, only half a teaspoon of Thai green paste will make a really hot curry so I spooned in just over a pinch. Half of the ingredients you put inside a thai green curry you're not actually supposed to eat, bet you didn't know that? Most of the ingredients are just for flavouring and if eaten alone will taste disgusting. Next we make Pad Thai, I have been eating this all week at street stalls, its my favourite Thai meal so far. Mine doesn't come out as nice as the street sellers. Finally we are fit to burst but there is stll one course left, its called a rotti which is basically a pancake filled with anything you wish, we make ours with banana and cover it in consended milk, its yummy. I could do with a nap now.
Day 3 -
I am convinced to do something adventurous today, we are picked up at 8am and taken to the moutains where our first activity is mountain biking. MOUNTAIN BIKING?....Oh great, my helmet is far too loose, my seat too low and I have no idea what I'm doing with my brakes. But I throw my leg over and make my way up and down the winding streets in the mountains. The road is rocky and my helmet is bouncing around on my head. I have a headache after 2 minutes. There is a couple from LA on our tour and we soon seperate into boys at the front, girls at the back. We are squeeling and giggling at how useless we are as the boys speed off ahead. We cross a rickety bridge, the wood was bamboo or some other thin material that doesnt feel safe at all, I walk as fast as I can, my inner voice telling me to carry on, don't look down and ignore the snapping sounds beneath my feet. I think about my Mum and how she would be if she saw this. We FINALLY arrive at our destination; an elephant camp. My bum aches, and my head feels like if this was a cartoon I would have little stars and birds flying around my head. We are shown to our elephant, and step on his shoulders to get comfy on the seat. I feel bad doing this as I don't agree with it but I put it to the back of my head for the time being. They seem healthy and well looked after. It was a nice experience but I don't think I would do it again. Next up was white water rafting, this was FUN! I thought I would hate it but it was great! We we're in grade 3 rapids and we're being thrown everywhere me and Melanie were at the back of the boat screaming and laughing the whole way through. The boys again at the front, their competitive side glowing. It took a while to get used to the instructions from the guy at the back guiding our dingy. There was a Russian couple on the tour too, he was really rude to his guide and mimed slitting his throat to him.. he threw his shoes into our boat and as we went through the big rapids he flipped their boat over. So rule learnt; don't mess with the guides. Luckily ours was a dude and every time we conqured some rapids we high fived with our paddles. I will definitley do this again! It was amazing as we were floating through a quiet patch of river an elephant walked through the river for a bath right in front of us. That night we visit the night market, I make a few purchases and we meet up with the guys from LA again for beers. I reign in the side of me that just wants to ask them all about LA and instead talk about their upcoming wedding in Phuket in a few days.
Day 4 -
Its Toms birthday and we're off to the Elephant nature park! I'm hoping this will provide some karma for my conscience after riding the elephants yesterday. This really is an amazing place and I'm SO glad we came, the price is a bit off putting compared to the other trips available in Chiang Mai but once you visit you understand its worth every bhat. The elephant nature park is a rescue and rehabilitation centre about an hour and a half away from Chiang Mai, all elephants here have experienced maltreatment in their past whether it be they were circus acts, domestic pets or used in the logging industry. There are 36 elephants in total at the park 2 of which are babies. Each elephant here has a mahout, this is a carer who helps treat the elephants and provides them with 1-1 care every day. No elephant here is punished for bad behaviour, their whole programme is based on positive reinforcement which bascally means they are fed bananas, watermelons and pineapples every 10 seconds. Whilst at the park you can walk around freely alongside the elephants, however you are warned about a cheeky few who are known for being a little naughty. One elephant inparticular called Hope, he wears a bell around his neck so you know when hes coming. A guide tells you all about the elephants lives from past until present and some stories are very hard to understand and come to terms with. One elephants story made me particularly upset, she was an old lady with a broken back and a broken leg, in the past she had been used for logging and was part of a breeding programme where bulls were literally dropped on top of her. Her whole back was slanted and only walked on 3 feet. Another elephant has walked over a land mind and only had 3 legs. It was a very upsetting trip and brought a lump to my throat many times but Im so glad I went and its so nice to see the elephants now so happy and in peace. We fed the elephants and bathed them in the river, they loved it, they just stand there and take it rolling around as we throw buckets of water all over them. Next we meet the babies, they are adorable one boy and one girl. I stand next to one elephant and give him a pat on his trunk, next thing I know is hes swinging his trunk round and planking a kiss on my cheek, obviously a trick he has been taught in the circus. For the rest of the day I have elephant slobber and mud marks on my face. We are asked to watch a documentary about the treatment of elehpants in Thailand and the processes they go through to be made into domestic pets, its awful, I can't watch. Before the documentary a staff member says to the crowd " is there a Mr Tommy here? " Next thing a cake is being brought over to Tom and the whole crowd is singing Happy Birthday to Mr Tommy!
That night we meet up with our new friends from LA, its their wedding in a few days and neither of them had a bachelor or bachelorette party ( a hen/stag doo to you and me). This is soon going to change, Tom heads of to the Muay Thai boxing with Daniel and me and Melanie hit the markets for a girly evening. First up is manicures, then we go to a Ladyboy cabaret, well this was... different. I laughed all the way though, some of the ladyboys actually looked amazing and had gone the whole way with boob jobs and the chop downstairs, others not so much. We then go for a thai massage and doze off after having just 1 beer, the lager here is 6.9% and is enough to put me to sleep. We giggle uncontroably as we are pulled and twisted in shapes my body just shouldnt go, at one point I have a small Thai lady on all fours on top of me as I lie on my front. We head back to the hotel and fall asleep on the sofas in the lobby waiting for the boys to come back. All in all, a very good day! Happy Birthday Mr Tommy!
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