Chiang Mai and the Thai New Year!

Hey everyone

So, I left bangkok at 6pm and did not arrive into Chiang Mai until 8am the following day. Luckily i had 2 seats to myself on the overnight bus, but the air conditioning was at full blast and some random Thai film was blaring in my ear, so all in all it was not a very pleasant journey!

I went straight to my hotel and was pleased with the quality of the place..so far so good with teh travel agent i booked this leg of my trip with. I didn't do much that first day as I was completely exhausted, so I just took a wander into town where it became apparant that the Thai New Year water festival was already in full swing. After getting completley soaked (and i was unarmed so it was really unfair) i headed back to the hotel and just chilled by the pool for the rest of the day. That night I had been handed a free Kantoke dinner evening by the travel agent because i booked a lot with them, so at 7pm I was picked up and taken to this huge dinner thing. I have never been given so much food ever, but it was all really good, and once everyone had finished their meal, thai dancers came onto the stage and performed some traditional dances. Then we went outside and some performers did some fire dances which were really spectacular.

The next day I went to an all day cookery class which was really worthwhile. They picked me up at 9am and we got taken to the cookery school. This time I was safe in a car with the windows locked, so we did not get wet en route. The drive was so random...thousands and thousands of people had lined the canal that circles the city of Chiang Mai and all had water guns, big buckets of ice cold water, or mere water balloons. It is the most bizzare thing I have ever seen.

At the cooking class we made green curry paste, pad thai, green chicken curry, papaya salad, spring rolls, banana fritters, basi chicken and some more things i cant rememeber. Oh, and we ate everything we made, so I was completley stuffed by the time 5pm came and it was time to go home. I met some really nice people on the course and we all headed out to the Night Bazzar that evening for a little bit of shopping.

The following day I was starting my trekking through the jungle, and this was definately an experience. The people all going on the trek from my hotel didn't speak much english and I thought that I was in for a relaly boring 3 days, but we met up with another van load of poeple and they were all really nice people. On the first day of the trek we drove for 3 hours in an open top car (yup, thats right, we got drenched going through the streets of chiang mai, and teh villages surrounding!) to the elephant park, where we rode on elephants for about 1 hour. This was awesome and a great introduction to the trekking. After some lunch we drove to teh start of the trek and then the hard work began. On that first day we literally climed a mountain for 3 hours and I was completely ready to pass out by the time we got to camp. Once we had relaxed for a bit, our guide took us round the village that we were staying in and explained to us the life of the hill tribes which was really fascinating, and I will tell you all more about that wen i get home. It was early to bed because we were so exhausted. The following day was another full day of hiking up and down mountains (i can;t decide which is better..going uphill or downhill because my knees still hurt!). This day was pretty uneventful. The final day was te best...we only walked for about 2 and a half hours and then we went swimming in the most beautiful waterfall to freshen up. After that we drove to the bamboo rafting and we all got on huge bamboo rafts and got taken down the river for about an hour. This was so so strange because the water festival was still in full stride adn lining the river were thousands of people all throwing water at the poeple on the bamboo rafts. I think we were dry for the forst 30 seconds. All along the river they are having a party, drinking beer and eating chiken, and they were including us the whole way...random Thais were coming up- to our rafts with big glasses of beer and handing them out to us...it was so much fun! Its really hard to describe what it was like and unfortunately i do not have any pictures because my camera would have broken with all the water....its just teh biggest water fight and drinking festival ever known to man.

Once back safely in Chiang Mai we all had hot showers before meeting in teh town for a group dinner which was really nice. We stumbled upon a thai boxing match as well and a lady boy parade (ye, there are loads of lady boys here, its very strange and it is really hard to tell if they are real women or not!).

Yesterday i just had a chilled out day and i spent most of the day by the swimming pool having a well deserved rest from the trekking. I met some really cool people and we just did nothing all day which was luxurious. At night me and Luke took his moped into the town (probably the scariest ride of my entire life..thought we were going to crash and die because the traffic here is manic) and we got some thai massages for like 4 pounds. Bliss. We then met up with some more people from the pool and all went out for dinner and did a bit of shopping in the night bazzar. It was a good day.

Today I am starting a 3 day journey into Laos which I am really looking forward to. Hope everything at home is okay and please keep in touch.

Love Danielle xxxxx