Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hey Everyone!
Today is my last day in Chang Mai - we get the overnight bus back to Bangkok tonight so I thought I'd better write and let you all know what I've been up to! Having a great time up here in Chang Mai - its really chilled out and the people are really friendly. We've been visiting loads of Wats (temples) as i'm sure you've seen from my photos, our guesthouse is right behind the oldest temple in Chang Mai and we've been to see Wat Phra Singh which was really pretty - lots of golden Budda's everywhere. We've been to the park and went on a little walking tour round the old city.
I went on a 1 day trek by myself as Mel didn't really fancy it, it was really cool - i met some lovely girls from london and chatted to them most of the day, i got to ride an elephant which was a bit scary as we went down this really steep muddy hill and i nearly fell out of my rickety seat - had to grab on for dear life! My elephant wasn't impressed with me though and kept showering my with red dirt that he picked up in his trunk so I was covered in it my the end of the ride!! Then we went on a bit of a trek to a waterfall - health and safety would've had a fiel day - i was wearing someone else's shoes and they weren't particularly suitable for clambering about on wet rocks and over rivers so my mum would've freaked out if she'd have seen what I was doing! it was quite a scary trek but the waterfall was reallt pretty and i had a dip in the pool at the bottom even though the water was freezing!! Then we had to head back to do some white water rafting - I was really worried about that bit but it was quite easy to do but i did squeel every time we hit some white water! Our group got split up into 2 and I went in the raft with 2 lovely german couples - both of the women were as scared as me so it was quite funny all 3 of us looking petrified everytime we had to get over a difficult bit! our raft got stuck on 2 rocks and we were there for ages whilst our guide tried to get us free which involved lots of shaking and moving the raft - we got off it eventually but only after the locals had taken loads of pictures of us looking like fools ha! Then we got out of the rafts and onto Bamboo rafts and floated the rest of the way down the river which was very peaceful even though we were soaking wet and sitting in freezing cold water!Our last stop was to visit a hill tribe who worked the rice fields on the mountain, they had stall selling their homemade produce which was half the price of the things they sell in the markets but i left my money in the truck so didn't actually buy anything! So i headed back to my guesthouse sopping wet still, cold and tired but it was an excellent day and I'm really chuffed I did it my myself!
For the pasy few days its been the Yeepeng Festival here in Chang Mai - Tuesday night we went to the Night Bazaar which is a load of market stalls that are open 6pm-midnight and there was a parade through the street with lanterns and all the thai people were in traditional dress. We did a bit of shopping and watched the parade go by so that was cool. Then last night we had a party at our guesthouse - they did a crazy 'BBQ' where you had to grill your own meat on these little hotplates - they provided the food so we only had to pay for our drinks which was bargainous! During the day the staff were all making these little boat type things from banana leaves and they were getting all of us to make them too so me and Mel made one each - we had a piece of banana tree for the base then we had to fold banana leaves into triangles to make the sides of it then we decorated it with flowers, candles, incense and sparklers! after the party we took them down to the river (we all had to bundle into a pick up truck - there must have been about 15 of us in there!) then all we had to do was to put a coin and a piece of our hair in them, light the candles and set them afloat on the river! it was cool watching them float away - there were so many people about the river was lit up with these little floating boat thingys and all the thai's were setting off fireworks and sending up lucky balloons which ae like paper lanterns that float up into the sky when you light them - it looked so pretty but it was a crazy night - loads of people and loads of fireworks - i got one to the foot but came away unscathed so it was ok!! i took loads of photos but they all came out blury! will try and upload them later anyway.
We've met some really lovely people here so I shall be sad to say goodbye to Chang Mai but am really looking forward to getting to Oz and hopefully seeing a few familiar faces!
miss you all, loads of love
Carls xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- comments