Shopping and Trekking in Chiang Mai...

Well, the end is here. After four weeks of adventuring, we are back in Bangkok for our final day before boarding the plane to Oz this evening.
We ended up having a busy and enjoyable five days in Chiang Mai. Even though our first impressions weren't that great, it really is a charming town/city with so much to offer to travellers. I believe the last time I wrote we had just attended our cooking class on Saturday and were heading to the market for a day of shopping.
Chiang Mai really is HEAVEN for shoppers. To my delight (and Craig's disgust), we actually managed to shop for EIGHT hours on Sunday- that is how big the Sunday market was! Hours and hours of strolling through the market looking at beautiful handicrafts, clothes, souvenirs, foods etc. We did stop half way through and treat ourselves to an amazing half an hour foot massage! We managed to pretty much complete our Christmas shopping- & we thought we were escaping Chrissy shopping by coming away, nope, we have shopped and shopped and shopped for our loved ones and got some great gifts. I bought a couple of dresses and trinkets, Craig bought some funny tee-shirts. It was an exhausting but fun day, we literally fell into bed when we got home and fell asleep instantly to the sound of the crickets and waterfall outside our room.

The next morning (Monday) we were up bright and early for yet another tour. We were not overly enthusiastic about it as this was the tour we felt as though we had been ripped off for, and we were a little 'toured' out by now but we are so glad we went. We saw some amazing sights in Chiang Mai. It started off with a bus ride that took about 45 minutes, with only one small detour (South East Asia is famous for detouring to little touristy places on the way!) and that was to an orchid farm which was really quite beautiful. We arrived in Mae Son where we drove along this dirt track with the most amazing hills and mountain scenery next to us, and lots and lots of elephants strolling along the river and the mountains. It was a great sight. They looked very happy in the beautiful surroundings.
We arrived at our elephant camp and were quickly sold some banana's to feed to the elephants. We were in a group of ten which was a great size, a Dutch family of 6, an Australian mother and daughter and us two. We were quickly herded up onto a platform where we were designated an elephant to ride. Ours was a beautiful large greedy guts that stuck its trunk up to us every minute for a banana. I am not sure whether or not I enjoyed elephant riding. It was quite a rocky ride and we were holding on for dear life the whole time. A lot of the road was against a cliff and even though I knew what a sturdy animal the elephant was, I was worried we would fall down! However, our elephant took good care of us (must have been all those banana's!) and we got some lovely photo's and had quite an enjoyable ride. Our bus picked us up at the end after about an hour of riding through some amazing jungle and mountain scenery.
From there we had lunch in a little hut. We were a bit shocked when our driver bought out these little banana leaf packages- we had no idea what would be in them! But when we opened them they were full of cold pad thai which hit the spot quite nicely, and the banana leaf packages were very eco-friendly which fit in with the theme of the day.
After lunch our tour guide handed us a bamboo stick and loaded up with water, we began our trek. We had thought that with a family of 6 with young children that the 'trek' would actually be a little stroll, but they were not lying when they said trek! It was very fun, especially now that Craig and I are so fit from all our walking, we did not struggle at all on the one hour climb. We went up the mountain, climbed rocks, went over rivers, across bridges. We saw huge spiderwebs, amazing jungle scenery and at the end we were greeted with a magnificant waterfall. We immediately stripped down to our bathers and jumped in, where we could shower under the strong water. It was a really awesome experience, being so high up in the mountains, surrounded by some of the hill tribes in little bamboo huts, swimming in this waterfall.
The trek down was a little harder than the trek up as we were on slippery surfaces and slippery rocks- the bamboo sticks definately stopped me falling the mud quite a few times! I was wearing my volley's for the walk and I was so glad to put my thongs back on after we finished trekking- my feet are not used to proper shoes and I had pretty bad blisters from it. I will have to ease my way back into normal footwear.
From here we got back into the car and drove down to the river where we were going white water rafting. I was a bit nervous about this as I had heard some screams from people going past whilst on the elephants! We stripped back down to our bathers, put on a lifejacket and a helmet and ended up with a boat with the other two Australians (mother and daughter) who we had got quite friendly with. We were given some oars and first the Thai guy controlling the boat taught us how to go forwards, backwards, how to steady out the boat and the emergency position. We went over the first rapid and it was quite fun really, just a little bit of rocking and water. However, going over the next rapid, where the rocks we went over were about a metre high, things got a little scary! We actually got stuck on one rock and had to tip ourselves over onto a two metre drop. I was very scared and we got very wet! We then got stuck on another rock and started taking in water. We were there for about five minutes before the boat emptied out enough for us to get off... talk about near death experience! The poor Australian girl who was only nine was very scared!
After that I was the only one who got badly wet again, as he got us to row backwards and didn't tell us we were about to run into a rock at a very high speed. I was at the front of the boat and I got thrown backwards onto the laps of the others, and ended up in the bottom of the boat, very embarrassed and wet! I don't know how Craig managed to hang on!
After about twenty minutes we were pretty glad to be out of the boat (although it was great fun), and we transferred onto a bamboo raft that was a little gentler but just our luck, it sank anyway, and we were wet all over again.
Saturated from head to toe, we piled back into the bus and headed for our last stop, the 'Karen Long Neck' tribal village. You have probably seen them on documentaries and such before, they have the long coils of brass around their necks. It was quite a sight to see. The women are beautiful, but their necks are so long from wearing these coils all their lives that if they were to take them off their necks would break. It is a little frightening to see tiny girls wearing them knowing they can never take them off. We held one of the brass coils and they weigh about 3.5 kgs, imagine having that weight on your neck and shoulders all the time? We were saddened and intrigued at the same time. We bought a few trinkets and chatted to a few of the locals then headed home- our tour had gone from 8-6 and we were very exhausted. We skipped the walk into town that night and instead caught a tuk-tuk to dinner! We ate at a place called Lemongrass which we had seen had rave reviews on Trip Advisor and it was one of the best meals we had eaten in Chiang Mai- very enjoyable, and quite reasonably priced.
Yesterday was our last day in Chiang Mai, and what better way to spend it than winding down in a day spa? We went to this beautiful place called Fah Lanna where I had 3.5 hours of relaxation and pampering. Craig chose to have a traditional Thai massage which is probably more like a chiropractor- he was bent and twisted all over the place, and even worse, his masseause was a male! After an hour of that, he was happy to go to the pub and drink beer whilst I kept being pampered. I had a one hour relaxation oil massage in this beautiful candle lit room, it was just lovely. After that, in the same room, I had a facial where I actually fell asleep it was so nice. After that, pedicure and manicure. Bliss! All this (including Craig's) cost us about $50 which was quite reasonable considering the level of professionalism there, which we had found rare in massage places throughout our trip.
So now, after another sleeper train trip, we are back in Bangkok, about to head to Siam (the best shopping centre ever) to escape the heat and spend the last of our Baht.
This may well be my last blog unless something exciting happens today or on our flight home.

So on reflection, this really has been the trip of our lifetime. Craig and I have to keep trying to convince ourselves that we actually did see all of the places we did in a mere month. Eight flights, Eight hotels, Two sleeper train rides, Three boat rides... many, many amazing people. We have jumped off the roof of boats, walked through crazy cities, drank tea in the oldest house in Hanoi, eaten some of the best food we probably ever will, been in the jungle of the Mekong Delta, swam in waterfalls, cuddled tigers, ridden elephants, scuba-dived and relaxed on maybe the most beautiful island we may ever see. What a month!

If anyone is reading this and thinking, hmmm, maybe I should head off to Vietnam and Thailand one day- do it... do it now! These places are becoming more and more Westernized by the day and it is REALLY worth it to see the cultural and 'real' side of it before it is too late. We may just see you there, as I doubt we will be able to stay away for long.

Until my next holiday ;) x