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What can I say about Chiang mai, other than its amazing I love it, it's a city north of Thailand close to the mountains, but its so peaceful and chilled out, just what we needed after Hanoi. The first couple of days we just relaxed, its was so nice because it was a bit cooler and just so chilled. There are two guys staying in the same guest house as us and they are pretty cool guys so we spent our days drinking and chatting about rubbish, Des is from South Africa and James is English. The guest house is so basic and the rooms are actually really disgusting but it's a bed and its cheap, I wrap my sarong around the pillow as the pillow case has not been washed in decades and the fan makes a very weird choking sound, but its great and I love the place as its got character and the owner Julie is really cool, mad but cool, and there is free wifi and we can play pool for free and of course watch endless dodgy DVD's. The night life here is really good too, especially the reggae bar that has a live band every night, it's a really fun night and such a hippy joint.
We went to the tiger kingdom and I was so happy to find that they are not drugged and look very happy, so we paid to play with the baby tigers, as we were too scared to go into the cage with the big ones, it was an amazing day and the baby tigers were so playful, it is expensive and we were only allowed 15 minutes, but I guess its for a good cause, and no surprise we got ripped of by the taxi, we wanted a tuk tuk to take us but were told that it was 45 mins away and tuk tuk's were not allowed to go that far so we ended up paying twice as much for an air con taxi and it only took 10 mins to get there, but hey no point in getting angry as it will happen again and again. Besides It was a really good day and worth the money.
Every Sunday the streets of Chiang Mai turn into a market and its just fab, every little shop is different to the next and half the price as the shops and markets around town, and the food is really good, Darren and I first tried pork on a stick and was so yummy that we went for seconds, then we had some banana fritters with honey, divine, and then had a huge cup of corn with butter, so we have decided to stay until the next Sunday market for the food and of course some good bargains.
The reason we came to Chiang Mai was to do a trek and Oh my god it was so hard, I knew it was going to be but it was far worse than anticipated, but it was still amazing fun and we had such a great group. The first day we first stopped at an orchard farm which in all honesty was boring as hell and then went to see the snake farm which was news to me as we did not know that was included, anyway we went and watched some guys throwing and antagonising some snakes, it was ok entertainment and the enclosures looked good so I went away a happy girl. After that we went to the long neck village, which are those woman who put bangles on the necks and stretch them but we did not go see them as they charged far too much for one and secondly they are not even from Thailand they come from Burma, but we swam in the waterfall and prepared ourselves for the three hour walk up a steep mountain. Then it was time - There were times where I had to choke back the tears of frustration but counting my steps or thinking up reasons why I signed up to do it got me through it. I did it though and every stop at a waterfall was the best present anyone could have given me at the time. I was not the only one though, we were a group of twelve and we all struggled except of course the guide who did not even break a damn sweat, and he tried to keep our spirits up by cracking jokes, he was actually a lovely guy and was so funny. When we finally got to the village on top of the damn mountain we all sighed with relief, and now that we could actually look around and not the floor as to not fall over, the views were utterly breathtaking, I was sad to learn however that there were no monkeys left as the village people had killed and eaten all of them. Anyway so we get to our hut and were pleasantly surprised as it was very picturesque and the family that owned it were lovely too, although we did not spend too much time with them. There was one massive room with thin mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets, and just outside the room was a fire place where we all sat around and chatted and even had some musical people in the group, who played the guitar for us. There was not that much drinking that night as everyone was shattered. In every group however there has to be a snorer right, and what annoys me more than anything, yip you guessed it and the culprit was continuous all night, and its so annoying because just when I thought it was over, it started again, such joys, no one owned up the next day though!
The second day was an early start and this time it was going down the mountain to get to the next village, we all thought it would be easier but we were horrifyingly wrong, it was so steep and so hard on the knees and again the waterfall stops were so good. We did two hours walking in the morning and then another two hours after lunch. The lunch stop was pretty cool as we stopped at another village right next to a waterfall and just chatted while a few pigs wandered around. Its so amazing being in the mountains as its so peaceful. That night we went to bed even earlier as all of our bodies were just shattered. The third day was pretty fun and no walking, we had an elephant ride in the rain and then did some white water rafting, don't get too excited though as its not the Zambezi and it really just consisted of us floating down the river and occasionally getting a bit of the white water. We then did some bamboo rafting which again was just sitting on some bamboo and floating down but was very chilled and was a lovely end to a great three days.
We are now back in Chiang Mai but will be heading to Pai tomorrow which is about three hours away and is in the mountains but will be meeting Des and James there and hopefully getting up to some mischief.
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