Dancing, Elephants, and Rafting

At last, we have survived Bangkok and made it north to the smaller, quieter town of Chiang Mai. After a sound sleep on the overnight train where the bedbugs no longer bite (yay), we awoke to a green, wet jungle scenery as our train chugged along to Chiang Mai. On arrival, we were picked up and taken to our hotel on the outskirts of town. We then spent the rest of the day exploring the city, visiting a few Wats (or temples), and going for a run around the city canals (where we stuck out just a "little" bit as we weaved around light poles, flower pots, and puddles). Chiang Mai is still very much a city atmosphere, but it is not as overwhelming as Bangkok.

That evening, we went to a dinner show complete with food, music, and dancing. On arrival, a kind woman greeted us with real flower necklaces and then a gentleman served us a delicious meal with an assortment of thai dishes. As we ate dinner, a number of performers entertained us with a variety of traditional dances and live music. Then the performers came out to the audience and asked a few of us on stage to try out a thai dance. I thought I had come to watch a performance... not be part of it, but as I sat there thinking "not me, not me, not me" I was asked to come up on stage and be the first to dance in front of hundreds of people (oh dear). Luckily, the stage soon filled with a number of other volunteers and I forgot about all the eyes stairing up at me... I ended up having a lot of fun and I now have a few new dance moves to add to my repertoire (which now consists of a few thai moves :). After the dancing, we all went to an outside venue for more performances by some of the local hilltribes. We viewed more dancers, a guy with flaming swords, and ornate costumes of all sorts.... a very pleasant evening indeed.

The next day, Mally and I set off on a day of "trekking" with our tour guide James, who had a vocabulary of english slang larger than the average native english speaker. The first part of our trek was an elephant walk through the jungle. Mally and I rode Punta, one of the biggest (woah we were high!) and friendliest (by my unpartial opinion) elephants of the lot. Punta is a very slow elephant because he likes to eat everything he can get his trunk on, but at the same time, he always likes to be in the lead - and if the other elephants had as much gas as Punta, I can see why! After our elephant trek, Mally and I thanked Punta with a bag of bananas, said hello to the two adorable baby elephants at the camp, and then set off down the road for some trekking of our own. Our trek consisted of a very short walk to a beautiful waterfall. James apologized for all the walking (perhaps 10 min) and gave us some time to unwind and enjoy the scenery of the waterfall - some brave souls even went swimming. Our next stop was a local hilltribe village where we learned a bit about the tribe, watched a woman weave scarves, and were harrassed by a number of small children holding out necklaces and repeating "twenty baaaaaht?, twenty baaaaaht?". By the end of our visit, this fell to "five baht?, five baht?".

After a local lunch, we ended our days journey with a bamboo rafting trip down a winding river in the jungle. Mally and I both took turns helping to push the raft along with a large bamboo pole. We were having quite a pleasant ride until we came to a small water fall. All the other rafts pulled to the bank and everyone got out to walk around the fall. Our guide decided we should stay in the raft and go over the fall... AhhhhH!. Our raft plunged over the fall and then the rear (where I happened to be sitting) got stuck... the rushing water poured over me and down my pants and I was one very wet bamboo rafter. The locals swimming in the water hole nearby got quite a kick out of the sopping wet tourists... our guide thought nothing of it... I actually enjoyed being cooled off a bit.

We returned home as tired tourists after the full day. But after relaxing a bit, dipping in the pool, and finding food, we were rejuvinated and ready to hit the night markets! The night markets are quite an experience... a street lined with stalls of people trying to sell you all sorts of goods... as soon as you stop to look at something, a vender will be giving you their sales pitch. They'll start out giving you a high price and then try to bargain with you... they'll tell you how nice their goods are... they'll tell you that you have to buy cuz you are their lucky customer... or repeat that they give "a good price for you". They have their techniques refined and are relentless with their tactics. I have decided that I am no good at bargaining - I am sure that I give in too easily, but I feel bad trying to bargain when the prices start so low in the first place. I guess I am not cut out for the night markets... besides, they are too late for a proper bedtime.