Hi everyone!
We have spent a fabulous week in Northern Thailand. We left Bangkok a week ago and headed 1.5hrs north to the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya. From there we rented some push-bikes and rode the old city, checking out the mix of ancient remains scattered amongst their modern (or not so modern, depending where you come from) city. It was great to see, but after a very full day and super-sore bums we decided to skip Sukhothai, another ancient city a few more hours north, and instead we headed straight to Chiang Mai for something a little different.
Chiang Mai is awesome! It's still a big city, but it isn't as in-your-face as Bangkok and Phuket. Driving around is still INSANE, but either we've learnt to stomach it better or it's just not that bad! We have spent our 5-nights here staying at a super guesthouse called Julie Guesthouse. It's mega cheap, very chilled and close to everything. They arranged for us to do a 2 day/1 night trek into the mountains about 1.5hrs from here which was a highlight of the trip so far. We got to ride elephants (kinda inhumane, but interesting), trek uphill for hours and hours and hours (okay, 2.5hrs to be exact, but in that humidity it was torture) and then stay with a hill-tribe family. The scenery was amazing, the people friendly and we had a great night!! On the second day we trekked (downhill this time) and then did some white-water rafting and bamboo rafting to get back. FUN FUN.
Today, we have done a cooking school for the day. Everyone is invited to our Thai dinner party in Australia when we get back. We are experts of Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, Chicken Fried Rice, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Sweet & Sour and EVERY CURRY known to man (or ........ maybe 3).
Tomorrow we are leaving. We are booked to head north north north and away! We will be staying tomorrow night on the Thai border town of Chiang Kong before taking the 2 day/1 night highly recommended slow boat down the Mekong River from Huay Xiay to Luang Prabang (Laos) where we will stop for a few nights. We are both excited for the trip and happy to be leaving Thailand and all the tailors, massage parlours and tuk tuk's behind.
Hope all is well at home. Hugs and kisses all round.
Mark and Monica
Love Mum (Carla)