After a terrible bus, the ugliest looking thing from the outside and not much better on the inside, no padding on my seat and we felt every bump in the road. O well, you win some, you lose some. No water or buns unlike the last bus. But we made it to Chiangmai and there were no taxis around, so hopped in a tuk tuk, expensive as expected but got us there. We arrived at our guesthouse Vanilla place at around 9pm, to be greeted by a lovely thai lady called Kat, who had the cutest dog ever, called Happy. She checked us in, and said she'd help with transport to the embassy tomorrow so that was good. She advised us to eat at Lemongrass restaurant so chucked the bags in the room, which looks nice enough and off we went. The food was really good there! Well impressed with it. We will def go there again for another feed. Had a wonder around the night bazaar, then called it a night.

Up early the next day to tuck into the complimentary breakfast which was great; proper coffee, toast, fruit, pastries, just what we wanted. Kat let u print a few things for our visa then off we went to the Chinese embassy. Spent about 30mins filling in the form. Kenny even did his all by himself which he hated then waited our turn. It was easy enough once we highlighted some details for the lady. 1,900 baht pp for 2-3days, perfect, could pick up on Monday and leave on Tuesday. Headed back to the guesthouse to get showered, and met a lovely British couple Ian and Margaret who were travelling as all their children had grown up. Good on them. We spent the next hour chatting to them about Myanmar where they had just come from and his job as a hot air balloon pilot; what a cool job! We got our stuff together, then headed out for a day of exploring, via the post office to post a letter I've had for two weeks. Hope it makes it as of course we've heard dodgy post stories too. We walked around the city, basically just letting ourselves get lost, seeing temple upon temple, with golden decorations and lots of Buddha statues. We really haven't a clue which ones we visited, they all kinda blended in but did see monks meditating so that was a first. Also got a bubble tea (thanks for the intro to them Lauren Poon), and just pointed to ingredients hoping they were what I wanted, as all written in Thai, but worked out well. Spent the evening again walking around the night bazaar which was right by where we were staying and booked our elephant visit and cooking class for a few days time. Kat and her daughter Maew really went out of their way to help us with it.

On Saturday, we did a 12km jungle trek. It took about an hour in the back of the truck tuk tuk, which wasn't the most comfortable, but we made it one piece. We were given our lunch to carry and off we went. We had been walking for about 5mins when we came across mummy and daddy dog, with about 7 puppies. There are dogs everywhere around Thailand but we rarely see puppies, soo cute. We start an uphill trek with mummy and daddy dog following/leading us, and only one of the puppies makes it to the top. So one of the girls decides she'll bring it with us, carrying it in a scarf made into a baby carrier wrapped around her. Crazy woman. The trek is lovely, nice scenery, stopping at a waterfall along the way, seeing cabbages grow, farmers tending their fields, leaves of all different colours, bananas growing everywhere, up and down, being careful not to trip on the tree roots. Kenny got to test out his new walking boots, and get them dirty. We also stopped at a Chinese village, Lok Lok, where the people there had no common language with the Thais, and were basically isolated there. The kids didn't go to school, they had no medical facilities unless they hiked for days to reach them, but the village was basically self sufficient, in the middle of the jungle. 27 people in total. It's sad in a way, but the kids seemed happy tho and very cute.
We stopped for lunch which was fried rice wrapped inside a banana leaf, which had kept it warm and a monkey apple; not my favourite fruit so far. The next part of the trek got more difficult so we took turns carrying the bag; I'm always over-prepared so needless to say it was heavier than if Kenny had of packed it lol. Lastly we reached a bat cave, that we had to climb down into. It was stinking, but was cool to see thousands of them hanging upside down. Made it to the end, Kenny was relieved, it wasn't his idea of fun. Then back to have a hunt for street food. We ate a few strange things but found a pad Thai for 10baht and it was hot and fresh; very impressed.

There seemed to be cooking classes advertised everywhere in Thailand so whilst we were spending a few days in Chiangmai, we thought we'd give it a good. So used tripadvisor, and decided to go to Sabb e Lee cooking class. We were picked up at the guest house and firstly taken to visit the market to get the ingredients. The sisters taking the class, explained what each ingredient was, which dish we would be using them in and if we couldn't get them in our own country, what we could substitute them with. I really wana make an effort at home to buy more fresh fruit and veg from markets; the stuff in the supermarket has already lost half its goodness. An example of how fresh fruit and veg helps to prolong life is; Chiangmai where they basically grow everything they need and buy from fresh markets daily (it's more common to see them snack on fruit than us westerners on a packet of crisps) and also because they don't have as much pollution, sees many people live to over 100 years, whereas in Bangkok it's maybe only 80years lifespan.
But anyways back to the market... They explained which ingredients were just for garnish and which we should eat; if only we had known that 3 weeks ago as we try to eat everything on our plates lol. Also tried Jackfruit, which is a relative of durian, the smelly fruit. It's not so bad. Also tried a strange boiled egg, that had been syringed out, mixed with salt and pepper, syringed back in then boiled. Was really tasty. Next we headed to the class, where the lovely helpers had the vegetables washed and peeled for us. And we started on cooling our die dishes each. I made papaya salad, coconut chicken soup, cashew nut chicken stir fry and massaman paste and curry; all amazing!! Kenny made spring rolls (his favourite), hot and spicy soup, Tom yum shrimp and green paste and curry. You got to choose how spicy you wanted it, so that suited well. We actually loved them all, and they were so simple to cook. Kenny and a German girl even lead 'master chef' at one point, much to his pleasure. Really really enjoyed it, much more than we thought we would and got a complimentary cook book so we can try them out at home. We headed back to the guesthouse for a wee rest before venturing out in the evening to the infamous Sunday walking street market. It was insanely busy but you could buy anything at a cheap price; I got clothes, purses, a scarf, jewerlly, good street food. We must have spend a good few hours at it. A definite recommendation for anyone going to Chiangmai. Ended the evening with a skype to Mum and granny Pearl; perfect end to a perfect day :D

Having debated on which elephant park to go to, reading brochures, reading reviews, we decided to take the recommendation by Laura and Esther, and go to elephant retirement park. Thanks girls. We weren't too interested in riding them or seeing them do tricks as that's more like the circus. We just hoped to see them in a happier setting and we weren't disappointed. It was the most expensive activity we've done in a while 2600baht pp but this is about average price for the elephant experience. We got picked up early and driven about 45mins to get there. It was a good fun chilled day. There were 5 elephants: one 45years, one 10years, two 2.5 yrs and one 10months. We started taking pictures, feeding them and then getting kisses and hugs. They are very cute, and properly listen to the commands. They are very strange looking animals when you get up close and they are huge, each carrying tonnes. The baby one did try to charge us a few times, crazy little thing. We had a buffet lunch which was good and got chatting to a lovely Canadian couple, Susan and her husband. After lunch, they provided us with old clothes to get changed into and we headed back down to visit the elephants. This time in the mud bath. So in we get, with the mud right up to our thighs and we washed the elephants with mud. Having a mud fight and being squirted with mud by the elephants. Was good fun! Next to the water pool to wash the mud both off us and the elephants, absolutely freezing but did the trick. They really seem like gentle giants in this environment. Had such a good day, finished off with the 2.5year old elephant dancing to the music as we left.

On our last day in Chiangmai, we picked our passports from the Chinese embassy, visas are sorted yes! Then went on the hunt to find some US dollars, but it took us seven exchangers to find one who had small notes. (Wanted them for the Laos border crossing but in the end we would have got away with using a big note.) Then had lunch with the little cash we had left, 50baht pp (£1). Headed to chill and pack up our freshly laundered clothes, then out to our favourite thai restaurant Lemongrass. We asked Kat to join us but she was waiting on more guests to arrive. We met a couple of Australian girls outside Aliza and Georgia, and sat with them to have dinner.

The next morning, we posted our present purses home, using what little baht we had left. Our pickup for the next part of the journey was supposed at 10, but waited 1.5 hours for pick up but meant more time with Kat and Happy the dog. We were truly sad to leave this place. The best hospitality we have received on our whole trip. Thanks Kat, Maew and Happy at Vanillaplace.