months of holiday planning and finally we arrived in Chiang Mai, ancient city of northern Thailand. Xmas eve at the Raming Lodge and then we headed up to big Buddhist temple on Xmas day called Doi Suthep with a million Thais and a few tourists. East meets west. So we spent about 1 week in Chiang Mai: eating, Thai massages, walking, exploring the old city. Gotta love the Thai people, so friendly.
(Richard, some of our good finds in Chiang Mai were: the Green Bamboo massage for traditional Thai massage in the old city; Tj Collection Tailor in Loikroh road; little bamboo shack for cheap great coffee also on Loikroh rd. Also if you want some serenity head out of town to the Tweechol botanic gardens, which flys under the radar as a tourist destination).
Visited an insect musem (see spider photos), run by a world renown mozzie expert, who had malaria when he was 6 y.o. and had it cured by having his fever induced by........unbelievable.....being pricked in the bottom by thorns. This guy is amazing, he has had malaria 3 times, has discovered 150 new species of mozzies, has worked at the Smithsonian institute and has a view that mozzies are important in developing immunity in animals to lots of diseases. I still hate the little blood suckers, but he is probably right.
Anyway, we were anxious about seeing tarantulas more than mozzies in the Laos jungle.
Next stop....the Laos border town of Huay Xai after a 7 hour bus trip and dodgy boat across the mekong!