Chiang Mai to Chaing Rai

Seriously - those are the names of the cities.

Click here for 1/4 of my pictures from the trip to Thailand.

Jer and I got picked up in the back of a pick up truck (we were literally picked-up) and we road for a couple of hours with our new friends Jeanette and Martin, a couple from E. Germany (he lives in Singapore). We first saw an elephant show which made me sad. The elephants didn't look very happy, though I must admit that I don't know what a happy elephant looks like. It just seems like if they had their druthers they wouldn't necessarily do the things they were made to do.

On to more important things...we arrived at the Chaing Dao (another Chiang - it means town) caves, and got on our bikes after lunch. We biked a bit on roads, visited a local market (including dead frogs) and got off road a bit. We rode about 35 km. We ended the day sort of in a hill tribe village. The hill tribe people here are not Thai people per se, so they speak different languages, and they definitely have a lower standard of living. We stayed in a bamboo hut over night. There were a few remarkable things about this experience.

1) It was Christmas eve, and the guides were SUPER cute about it. They brought us rum, soda, rice whiskey and chocolate cake (none of which they usually do).

2) We did this thing where we lit a lantern with a candle, and we all held it until it was hot enough to raise itself up in the air. We all let go, and it went flying off into nowhere (or Burma to fall down during the dry season and start a forest fire). It was really cool, and it ultimately looked like another one of the amazing millions of stars.

3) They bought and wrapped presents for each of us. After our FEAST of a meal (and a few drinks including the wine that Jeanette and Martin had brought...), we got to open Christmas presents. It was my first Christmas presents since high school, I think.

4) It was FREEZING. If you have been reading my blog since I moved to Singapore, you would know that I am just about NEVER cold. It was so cold (supporting picture to be uploaded soon).

After getting up, we had another feast of a meal and had one of the hardest but most amazing biking days of my life. We ended up biking about 65 km, and about half of it was SUPER hard off roading. I nearly died, but it was so rewarding, and it was SO gorgeous. We rode through bamboo forests, banana tree fields, country roads with amazing views of mountains, through streams, villages, and just about every other type of food and vegetable field you could think of. We had a couple of what my dad would call killer hills, and I must say that Jer and I did really well (obviously he did better, but for me, I rocked). We ate really good pad thai for lunch. We saw another cave with a buddah or two, and we rode on the truck for a bit to reach Tha Thon. Here we stayed in a hotel and I ate pork soup (I still think it's funny when I eat pork). It was freezing there too. Thank goodness for my winter hat.

The third day we ended up biking about 65 km also, but it was more on the road, and definitely less challenging (but still SO HARD FOR ME!!). My butt nearly fell off, but luckily it's still there. We saw some people harvesting rice, which was neat-o. They work so hard. It doesn't look like fun. We also went on a boat ride with our bikes. The driver zoomed us down the river, avoiding rocks and other obstructions by mere centimeters, but with no errors. It was pretty impressive. We also bought a few pomellos (sp?) right out of the field. They were 40 baht for 3 - that's about $1.30. Holy schnikes, right? We rode right up to our hotel in Chiang Rai. It was a totally fine hotel with loud parties next door. We ate good food again.

Today, our last day of biking, kicked my ass. At this point, my thighs were mildly responsive when I asked them to pedal, and my butt was still not interested in sitting on the seat. I definitely did the best I could. We biked about 40 km - up to a few pretty wats and an amazing waterfall (supporting picture to follow). We ate the best meal I have ever had for lunch. It included spicy papaya salad, sweet smashed bananas with honey, sticky rice, fried chicken, green chile paste, cabbage, bamboo shoot salad and a dessert made from cassava and coconut. It was outstanding.

We then rode in the back of the truck back to Chiang Mai. Jer was dad, and he was miserable the whole time, worried that we were going to tip over or get in an accident or something similar. It was beautiful and fine (but he still didn't enjoy one minute of it).

Once we got back to Chiang Mai, I actually decided to try out the Thai massage again (check out my Bangkok posting from July). Since my body is/was SOO sore, it felt amazing. She was laughing at me for how much I jumped when she leaned on my legs. It was $8.

Jer and I just ate a great dinner, and we're off to Bangkok tomorrow, and we finally get to meet up with Matt and Josh.