Southern Thailand, check…now off to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. After almost missing our flight…we finally made it to Chiang Mai and checked into Daret’s House. It was a great Hostel! Everyone spoke perfect English, it was in a central location, it had great food…and best of all, it cost $3 per night! The day before the rest of the travel crew got in, we decided to explore the city. The city was beautiful, with a temple at every corner. Each temple was gold or bronze covered in beautifully coloured mosaic tiles. Once we thought we had seen the nicest temple, the next one would be even bigger and more spectacular. We couldn’t get enough of them. Later, we decided to head to Sunday Market street, which is only open on Sunday's. The street was filled with booths of jewelry, art and accessories. We stopped off at this beautiful food garden with any variety of food you could imagine. We gravitated towards the Kebab stand, which we paired with a freshly blended strawberry smoothie(North Thailand has the best and freshest strawberries!) The meal was delicious.
The next morning, the others arrived and we were able to get all 7 people a room in our hostel. We spent the day catching up and went to see the hilltop temple. The hilltop temple(still don't know the real name for it) was just like the temples we had seen the day before, except it was more flashy. The entire temple and every artifact in it was gold. In the afternoon, we went to the night market. The night market was very similar to the Sunday Market. The next morning we were off on our Chiang Mai Jungle Trek, which only cost us $30 per person!
The trek started early in the morning. We had a pretty young tour guide that spoke minimal, but just enough English. The trek began a little disappointing, as are first stop was to an orchid farm. It was very random, however the orchids were quite beautiful. Little did we know that everything was going to be uphill from there. We then stopped at the bottom of the mountain and were given some delicious fried rice to fuel us up before our trek. We stopped in a cave, walked through a hill village and hiked through the forest. The view, as we got closer to the top of the mountain, was unbelievable. The trek took about four hours in total and by the end of it, we were exhausted and filthy. We arrived in a long-neck hill tribe village, where we stayed overnight. Our beds were in a bamboo hut. Each bed was a thin cushion with a bug net overtop. (Since the whole hut was actually just bamboo, Jas had fallen through the floor at some point in the night haha) This village was actually in the middle of nowhere. There was no electricity and certainly no electronics...just a series of huts, a fire pit, and outhouse bathrooms. In the village there were piglets, chickens, puppies, and children running around. For dinner, the locals made us a delicious curry chicken dish with potatoes and rice. Since we were starving from the four hour trek, every mouthful was well-deserved. At night, we just relaxed around the fire as the sky grew darker. Once it got completely dark, all we could see was the stars and the fire, which was so calming and beautiful. We sat around the fire while Jas played some songs and we sang along. Later, an elderly village man came out to play us some beautiful Thai music on a flute-like instrument. It was such an amazing, authentic experience.
The next morning, we were awakened by a gunshot. A villager decided it would be fun to try and shoot a bird from underneath our bamboo hut. Definitely different from any other wakeup alarm I have heard before. Once we had toast and eggs for breakfast, we headed back out to finish the trek. Our first stop was to the elephant sanctuary. Each of us rode an elephant through the jungle and were given bananas to feed them. Some of the elephants had quite the personality. For instance, they would only accept the bananas if you gave them two, they would never accept just one. After riding the elephants, we zip-lined across the water.
Lauren and I riding the adorable elephants
The girls getting in gear for zip-lining
Next up, we were off to a waterfall to cool down, followed by some whitewater rafting. The waterfall was beautiful and felt great after being in sun all morning. We all stripped down to our bathing suits and dived into the cold, refreshing springs. Next was rafting. Since we were all beginners, the currents weren’t too intense. Every time we would go over a current, we would scream and laugh our heads off. It was hilarious. At one point our tube got stuck on the rocks and the other group of rafters crashed into us. At the end of the ride, we all got a good laugh as we looked at the action shots they got of us. Our faces were priceless.
Loving the waterfall
All pumped up for whitewater rafting
Clearly professionals...
After a long day of activities, you would think we would be exhausted…nope not us. Instead, we decided it would be a good idea to “rage”. It was Xander and Jas’ birthdays in December, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone. We went to a local pub-type bar, but decided to turn it into a big dance party. At the time we thought there were a lot of people partying and dancing with us, but looking back at the pictures, it seemed to just be the twelve of us. Oh well... that’s really all we needed to have a great night! Chiang Mai was the perfect way to end off our travels as one big group. A trip I will never forget.
RAGING never gets old in SE Asia
"It's our last night all together...DRINK UP"
Aww...it was a sad goodbye
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