good bye snow...

chiang mai and a bunch of excuses...

Hi again everyone!

So I have a few stories to tell. Hopefully one of the following excuses will satisfy your rage for my lack of blogging. Ready...

1. The usual... crappy internet/really busy!
2. I can't upload pictures because my camera connector was kidnapped and taken back to Canada with one of Lisa's friends.
3. All of a sudden blogger is in Thai... all of the functions... the instructions to upload pictures... how to start a new message... how to finish a message... you can imagine how frustrating it is when you think you are sending something when actually you just pressed the Thai word for delete. Gah! If any computer nerds out there knows how to get my blogger back to english, I promise to be more dedicated.

Anyway, I suppose I should write about my long weekend in Chiang Mai... that I went on in cough beginning of March cough!

The trip began in a bit of a panic. The travel crew was Lois, Emily T, Kristen and I. We got to the airport and first I made the lady at Air Asia very happy if she works on commission and very angry if she doesn't... because I bought about 18 airline tickets in one shot... for when Jamie and Javier come.

Then I get a call from Emily saying that she is still downtown because she has been waiting for a cab for over an hour. She stood at the base of the BTS stop and waited... and waited... and waited...

I had her ticket so I checked in for her... and had a boarding pass issued... but obviously Em had to show her passport to get it. We waited around for a while... but time was ticking. So the three of us went to the gate. I was thinking of my game plan to make sure Emily got on the plane. Fake an injury, pretend to have a bomb, develop a hysterical phobia of flying... but luckily I did not have to test any of these because within literally 2 minutes of boarding Emily arrived at the gate. YAY!

So we had a nice flight, and then arrived in Chiang Mai. The hotel we stayed at was pretty nice. The first morning we just wandered around the city. We did some shopping. Lois did A LOT of shopping. And then went back to our hotel for a swim or a nap and then went out for dinner. After that we went to the amazing Chiang Mai market. Good times.

I liked Chiang Mai a lot, because it's city enough to always have something to do, and it had a lot of character, but it's quainter and cleaner than Bangkok. I thought it would be a lot more lush than it was. We had fun though. The old part of the city is surrounded by walls, so it makes for a very pretty setting.

The next day, we did our tour package day. We began by riding elephants. Emily and I opted not to go, because I felt so badly after my experience in Kanchanaburi that I couldn't do it again, Emily felt the same. However, Lois wanted to go, which was a decision that she later regretted. Kristen went with her. Apparently riding the elephant was a pretty scary experience for Ms. Lois - she ended up black and blue from gripping the seat so tightly.

After that we visited the Karen Tribal Village. It was kinda strange wandering through the village and making a spectacle of the local people. But, apparently the tourism industry is what keeps them off the opium, according to our guide.

The last stop on the tour was AMAZING! We went on a bamboo raft ride down this beautiful river. It was super cool. I got to stern the raft, so basically I had this big, long bamboo stick. At first I tried to do it kayaking styles... but without a paddle it's a lot of effort and completely ineffective. Then I watched the Thai guy and the front of the raft, who was actually steering our boat, and realized that it's anti-canoing. You literally take the stick and poke it into whatever you can, and push off that to move the right way. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty fun. Although, it's not me if I don't have a klutzy moment... remember that I am one who has fallen out of a paddle boat! So we were getting suspiciously close to land, and I saw the Thai guy turned around and made a weird noise, and seemingly out of nowhere, there was this giant tree right if front of me. So like a champ I took my hand to push off the tree, and proceeded to knock myself right off the raft. Apparently a 100 old tree is stronger than me, who knew? So I quickly slid back on the raft, brushed off my ego, and continued to paddle (or push is suppose). It was smooth sailing from then on.

Good times though.

That night, we met up with some other friends who were in Chiang Mai also, and went out for this amazing dinner at a restaurant right on the river. It was really fun.

Then we went to the Sunday market, which is exactly as it sounds, a massive market only open on Sunday. It had some really good stuff... including the best pair of flip flops ever, which I wish I bought ten pairs of, cause I wear them everyday!

The last day, Kristen and Lois had to leave at lunch. Emily and I had a later flight. So we caught a songtoew and drove up a mountain to go to a temple on the mountaintop. It was really pretty. It supposedly had the most breathtaking view of the city... but unfortunately we wouldn't know because it was pretty overcast.

After the temple we wandered around for a few more hours, grabbed dinner and then headed to the airport.

Overall, it was a pretty chill trip. A lot of fun but relatively uneventful.

Anyway - today I am heading into the city... so I better get ready. Emails are my friend!

Miss you all. Coming home soon... June 20th to be exact.

Apparently if you click on these links you can access the photo albums that I have posted on Facebook. Hopefully, that will make up for the lack of photos in this post.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1934&l=bf84e&id=505066750

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2592&l=2b066&id=505066750

posted by Crystal @ 6:18 PM