After our "taxi" ride from the train station, we arrived at SK Guest House. We dropped our stuff and grabbed some breakfast. We went out exploring afterwards, figuring that since we were in the old section of Chiang Mai, and surrounded by a moat, there was little chance we would get too lost in our tired state.
As luck would have it, we came across a great little travel agency, and signed up for a short trek the next day. After doing some laundry (much needed, let me tell you), we decided to find Mike's for some "damn good hamburgers." (Hey, a woman can only eat so much rice and eggs, ok?!) The burgers weren't half bad, they came with fries, and Jen had herself a delicious vanilla milkshake. We walked to the night market afterwards, made a few purchases and moseyed on back to get some rest before our early morning pick up.
Although the bus showed up late to get us, we were blessed with an enthusiastic tour guide and amiable fellow tourists. We headed first for OUR ELEPHANT RIDE, the part I had been most excited about. (Can you tell?) But, similar to our experiences at the Tiger Temple, we both ended up a little disillusioned. The elephants were chained and our "driver" spent a lot of time hitting our elephant with a stick and poking him in his ear. But, when we stopped so the elephants could get some water, we were able to feed them bananas, which was pretty awesome.
Next, we headed to one of the hill-tribe villages, and looked around for a few minutes. Very quickly we were on our trek, hiking towards a waterfall, and then onto another village. Jen and a few of the others took a swim at the waterfall and we were able to relax in the shade a bit. After the second village, we stopped for lunch.
Then, bamboo rafting! The rafts, such as they were, consisted of about 10 long bamboo poles lashed together. There were three of us to a boat, with one guide operating the complicated "stick pole in water and push" steering system. (Our boat also had a first mate, who kept falling off. If he was supposed to be learning the ropes, I don't know how successful he was.) Along the way, we encountered lots of locals out for a swim or rafting as well. It soon became de riguer for them to splash us, in fun or out of anger, I couldn't quite tell. (The children laughed when they did it. The older folks seemed mad. I'm gonna use my innocent American tourist blinders here and decide it was all for fun.)
Thus thoroughly soaked, we disembarked and hopped on the bus for the ride back to Chiang Mai. You'll be happy to know that we decided against hamburgers for the second night in a row, and went for Indian food instead.
But, we may have headed to the UN Irish Pub afterwards, for a beer. And to watch the last third of the Chelsea v. Man. U. game (Go Chelsea!), as well as the Newcastle v. West Ham (Go Magpies!) game that followed...
As luck would have it, we came across a great little travel agency, and signed up for a short trek the next day. After doing some laundry (much needed, let me tell you), we decided to find Mike's for some "damn good hamburgers." (Hey, a woman can only eat so much rice and eggs, ok?!) The burgers weren't half bad, they came with fries, and Jen had herself a delicious vanilla milkshake. We walked to the night market afterwards, made a few purchases and moseyed on back to get some rest before our early morning pick up.
Although the bus showed up late to get us, we were blessed with an enthusiastic tour guide and amiable fellow tourists. We headed first for OUR ELEPHANT RIDE, the part I had been most excited about. (Can you tell?) But, similar to our experiences at the Tiger Temple, we both ended up a little disillusioned. The elephants were chained and our "driver" spent a lot of time hitting our elephant with a stick and poking him in his ear. But, when we stopped so the elephants could get some water, we were able to feed them bananas, which was pretty awesome.
Next, we headed to one of the hill-tribe villages, and looked around for a few minutes. Very quickly we were on our trek, hiking towards a waterfall, and then onto another village. Jen and a few of the others took a swim at the waterfall and we were able to relax in the shade a bit. After the second village, we stopped for lunch.
Then, bamboo rafting! The rafts, such as they were, consisted of about 10 long bamboo poles lashed together. There were three of us to a boat, with one guide operating the complicated "stick pole in water and push" steering system. (Our boat also had a first mate, who kept falling off. If he was supposed to be learning the ropes, I don't know how successful he was.) Along the way, we encountered lots of locals out for a swim or rafting as well. It soon became de riguer for them to splash us, in fun or out of anger, I couldn't quite tell. (The children laughed when they did it. The older folks seemed mad. I'm gonna use my innocent American tourist blinders here and decide it was all for fun.)
Thus thoroughly soaked, we disembarked and hopped on the bus for the ride back to Chiang Mai. You'll be happy to know that we decided against hamburgers for the second night in a row, and went for Indian food instead.
But, we may have headed to the UN Irish Pub afterwards, for a beer. And to watch the last third of the Chelsea v. Man. U. game (Go Chelsea!), as well as the Newcastle v. West Ham (Go Magpies!) game that followed...
3 comments:
I decided I need a picture of this 10 bamboo pole raft you speak of. So I can imagine how big it is. And the stick pole. And the dude that fell off. I imagine that if I had been the driver of the bamboo raft, I would have never fallen off. AND my raft would have beaten all the other rafts down the river. Elephants eat bananas too?
Seriously, where are said pictures??? Everything on here is just happy times. Where is the drama? Without pictures these all just seem like lies ;-)
yay elephants! i ran out of funny comments.
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