Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Some Northern Thailand adventure – started at Roong Ruang (great location, but fully booked), moved to Green Tulip House (quiet location).

Wow, what fun we had in and around Chiang Mai…

• Rock Climbing at Crazy Horse Butress with Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures. It’s been a long time since any of us have been climbing and this was Dave’s first outdoor climbing experience. Our guide was excellent with safety precautions, and picked some great routes for our skill level. It was really exhilarating rappelling down into a deep (60m) dark cave at the end of the day.
  
  
• Mountain Biking around Chiang Dao Mountain with Mountain Biking Chiang Mai (rout 5a). Our biking guide (the owner) is an American, who turned out to be the same guy that taught us to windsurf in Hawaii 7 years ago! The ride was an exhilerating day of single track downhill, and lots of strenuous uphill peddling/walking. It was quite tough, especially after a day of rock climbing. Scenery was breathtaking.
  
  
• Playing with Elephants, and watching them just be elephants, at the Elephant Sanctuary(Elephant Nature Park). This was one of the biggest highlights of our trip. The sanctuary has been set up to provide a refuge for abused and retired elephants to relax, recover, and live a relatively normal elephant life, bonding with other elephants. We got to feed them, and went right in the river with them to bathe them. Our guide told us the heart wrenching stories of how some of them came to be here, along with some beautiful stories of how they recovered, and bonded with other elephants. After having been here, I’ll never again be able to entertain the thought of getting on the back of an elephant. It’s much more magical to watch them roam, eat, play, and socialize.

In between adventures, we browsed the many colourful markets, enjoyed excellent and cheap traditional Thai massages, and cruised around town in rented scooters. The best massages in town really are at the Conservation Centre for Blind Massage. They may in fact provide the best traditional Thai massages in the country. 90 minutes was barely enough time.

We had a blast celebrating New Year’s eve in Chiang Mai, listening to a very talented singer/guitarist, at the Brasserie. Throughout the evening, we saw hundreds of large lanterns floating up (or rocketing up) into the sky, as Thais sent up their wishes to the heavens. At midnight, we were treated once again to front stage views of the fireworks, an impressive display overhead. And to think they do this 3 times a year, plus once more for the King’s birthday!

Off to Cambodia… via the scenic route.

From here, we’ve decided to head to Cambodia, to see the ruins of Anchor. We could fly through Bangkok (expensive), or take the boat down the Mekong, to Luang Prabang (Laos) and work our way down to Siem Reap. The latter route would cost approximately the same as the flights, but would take a few days. But what the hell! We did want to see Laos, and this might be our only chance to on this trip. So, we decided to take the scenic route.

The two most common river trips are: 1 day by speed boat (noisy, uncomfortable, and suicidal), or 2-3 days by slow boat (also uncomfortable, but you can walk around, and it’s not noisy). We were going to change plans and fly, when someone (not associated with our guest house’s travel services) told us about the luxury boat. This boat takes one long day, is fitted with bus seats for comfort, isn’t noisy, and lets you walk around and take in all the views. It only goes once a week, and just happened to be leaving on the day we wanted to go. Perfect!

They picked us up from the hotel in a VIP van, and took us on a leisurely tour through some villages, stopping at some sights. We stopped at the hot springs (perfect for boiling eggs) for breakfast, and then visited Wat Rong Khun (a very new, white, temple), a monkey temple (great hike up to a view point), the Myanmar border, and the Golden Triangle, before getting dropped off at the Chiang Saen River Hill hotel for the night. Our boat ride would commence in the morning, and ostensibly take 1 day.

01 Chiang MaiOutdoor enthusiast paradise - Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand and in close proximity to excellent rock climbing, mountain biking and elephant parks. Here's Jo making a new pachyderm friend at the Elephant Nature park - a truly unique and responsible project. http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

03 Rinse cycleYou missed a spot!

04 SunsetSoaking it all in as the sun begins to fall. Elephants being elephants - what a concept!

05 Some mountain bike action...in the remote hills North of Chiang Mai. This is a sport that really hasn't caught on with the Thai people yet, but lucky for us, an American is operating a business and finding some killer trails. By odd coincidence, the guy running the business (Aiden) is the same gent that taught us how to wind surf in Hawaii 7 years ago!

06 Looking goodNice body armour (sure came in handy during those multiple end-o's!)

07 Relief!See that look on Jo's face? That's the look she gets when she realizes the ropes are going to hold after dangling over a 50m drop into a massive cave. A nice bonus after a day of great climbing.

08 Wat Rong KhunThe over-the-top modern Buddhist temple started in 1998, in Chiang Rai province on our way to Laos.

09 Hands from belowSymbolizing the lost souls in Buddhist hell - spooky.

10 Mae SaiThe Northern most point of Thailand is on the border with Myanmar.

11 Close, but not close enoughUnfortunately, Myanmar will have to wait for another day. This is as close as we will get for this trip.

12 Golden TriangleStanding in Thailand, the sandbar jutting out marks the end of Myanmar, while the land to the right of the river is Laos. Thus the "Golden Triangle" region.

13 Big BuddhaOn golden display in Chiang Saen (Northern Thailand).