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Getting in at 12 midday on the 14 hour sleeper train from Bangkok, our expectations of the room we had booked at the Chiang Mai hostel were pretty low due to our previous room in Bangkok, but we were pleasantly surprised upon seeing the fantastic room we had been allotted at Jonadda Guesthouse - full double bed, good views and more importantly, plenty of hot shower water.
The first evening saw us get our bearings around the city and then sample the local cuisine. The food here is the best we have had so far, with three especially good restaurants recommended by the guide book which were absolutely perfect. The favourite dish has been Northern Thai Curry (pork, ginger, tamarind), closely followed by Mussoman Curry, Pad Thai and Khao Soi.
On Wednesday we took a tour of the main temples around: Wat Phra Singh is the largest, with its own Buddhist Monastery; Wat Chiang Man, where the Sleeping Buddha resides. In the evening we watched Liverpool v Inter in the local Irish Pub, very agreeable all round.
Thursday was the best day of the whole trip so far, however, as we went trekking in the mountains south of the city - our group of six went Elephant Riding, Bamboo Rafting and visited a real hilltribe village with a local scout.
The elephant we were given was fairly mischevious - we weren't able to feed him his bananas as quickly as he was used to so he proceeded to spray us with copious amounts of water while cooling himself down, none of the others did this! We also attempted to use an authentic Hill Tribe cross bow, which we were predictably unable to hit the pappaya target with. To finish the day we bamboo rafted down the Ping river, thankfully missing out on getting capsized as many others seemed to. An absolutely fantastic day.
We visited the Doi Suthep Temple on our final day, supposedly the North's holiest shrine and high up on the mountain of the same name, overlooking the city. We had just enough time to see the temples and the fantastic views, before we made our way back to the train station for the 14 hour train journey south to Kanchanaburi.
Kev
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