Chiang Mai

I left the hustle bustle of Bangkok for the ancient city of Chiang Mai on the overnight train. The train station in Bangkok had so many train fumes I wasn't sure I'd wake up but sure enough I did and made it to Julies Guesthouse in time for breakfast.
Chiang Mai is the ancient capital of Thailand (previously Siam) and now a Mecca for temple fanatics and backpackers looking for a chilled out vibe. I visited two temples out of the 300 in the city. They were similar to ones in Bangkok with more elephants sculptures. I never realized elephants were so important in Thai culture, I guess I only think of African and Indian elephants. The national beer Chang means elephants.
The main reason for me coming to Chiang Mai is to do the Gibbon Experience (a zip lining roller coaster of fun) and trekking. The gibbons came first and 5 Israeli's and I made our way on the 3 hour drive to the Thai forest where we were met by instructors who wished to dish out pain to my thighs. The harnesses weren't coming of easily. The zip lines were immense and about 50-100ft off the ground. They would be about 10 seconds long (longer than it sounds) and weaved in and out of the forest. The problem with these kind of things is that it goes very quickly so is over before you know it. There weren't actually gibbons in the forest. I enjoyed the day but in hindsight it was a long way to go for a couple hours of fun.

The following two days I went trekking to the Lahu Hill tribe near the Thai-Burma border. Although they tried to fit 14 of us in a 8 man songthaew (like an army vechicle) we survived and drove the 3 hours to where we would start treking. I being the sensible one didn't really remember what we were doing for the couple of days so was slightly surprised to turn up at the elephant park. I got chatting to a nice Irish couple, Sean and Maureen who I would hijack for the next week. We got to ride the elephants in what we were assured was a good elephant farm (i have my doubts), the ride was good and reminded me of the camels in Mongolia. There were a couple of baby elephants that came along for the ride and had far too much fun in the water, splashing all of us.

The elephants were followed by what can only be described as a torturous trek up mountains for several hours. The views were amazing but the walk took its toll on the group. We got to the hill tribe (don't let me make sound like we were going into the unknown this was a well worn tourist path) and had the best curry I've ever had. 4 bowls of it later I was stuffed and we were 'treated' to the towns best guitar player who played covers of beatles , oasis and other most british music. However he wasn't too sure of the words and made them up as he went along. This kept the now sleepy group amused. By midnight we were all 'safely' tucked up in bed preparing to see the damage the mosquito's had done.

I was awoken by barking dogs and over a dozen bites around my legs. The mosquito nets had obviously been rubbish. After the hard boiled egg breakfast we headed down the hill which was actually harder than going up and after a brief stop at the waterfall went white water rafting. This was easily the highlight of the trip. We left the rafts for bamboo boats and floated the rest of the way down the river.

The trekking was an awesome experience although they play on the hill tribe notion a lot. This was more a tourist camp that had some immigrants from southern China and Burma in it. They did live far from the cities but had access to many facilities. When you quizzed the guides about them you would get slightly different stories from children attending schools in the city to a tribe that the government would expel from their borders. It all seemed a bit of a show but hey I enjoyed myself for the experience of the views and activities. I would do it again.

After all this tiring adventures I decided I had to leave Chiang Mai even though I could of stayed a life time.