Back from Chiang Mai...

I just got back from Chiang mai last Monday evening with Eileen. My skin is now several shades darker (due to our state of unpreparedness) but I had a lot of fun in that activity-packed weekend.

Friday night - Reysiel, Eileen, Vicky (with Thomas, Tangkad and a drunk Ralph) went to Code. It was ladies' night, which meant we could drink all the gin sprite we want. Which unfortunately meant all of us became a teeny bit tipsy which contributed to our lively dancing. After Code, Len and the others wanted to go to Mountainbike, but Reysiel and I decided to go to Zantika despite our drunken selves. In Zantika, Reysiel exhibited a spirited rush of willpower, powered her way to the front of the stage, then to backstage to meet our favorite Eminem singer. I swear, I just felt dizzy and disoriented and a bit tipsy. I felt like Reysiel and I were groupies that night. hehe. But it was fun. Second time Reysiel and I went to Zantika (just the two of us). I swear Reys, the third time, we are going to pick up some hot men. hahaha.Then we had to go back home so I can pack for Chiang mai and she can pack for her beach trip. Then we got to watch one episode of OTH season 2 before I decided to go back to my room and wake up my sleeping and obviously drunk chiangmai partner.

So off we went to the airport with Len sleeping in the taxi most of the way. :)When we got to Chiangmai, we decided to sign up for a trekking tour (take note: no breakfast yet, no sleep at all, and a lot of alcohol in our bloodstream).

So our van picked us up and we joined our group (four english, one american, one canadian, one german). We went on a trek up to a hill tribe first and I was surprised and horrified to learn that we were expected to go up a mountain peak on foot! We even had to cross this rickety hanging bridge which looked like it was going to self destruct any second (i even asked our guide if that bridge had ever fallen before and without missing a beat, he answered, 'Yes, once before'. Not entirely reassurring).

After the trek, (and several horrifying life defining moments later), we were on our elephant ride tour. It was really cool, save for some moments when I thought that our elephant would tumble down the cliff. It was too bad that the trainers used hooks which they stuck into the elephant's ear when the latter became out of hand. It made us wince and grimace everytime the trainers did that. :( But on the bright side, while going up and down the hills, the elephants in turn peed and dropped huge pieces of feces all over the place. Very interesting concept of fertilizing the soil).

The group then had lunch at this 'village' which roughly translated to an unfinished housing structure in the middle of nowhere. But the food was really good. (or maybe we were just too hungry after the gruelling activities). Then we went to have some bamboo rafting. This was really cool. We get to sit on a raft made up of 6 bamboo pieces strung together with two people on either end pushing and pulling the raft over rocks in shallow water. I found it unexpectedly fun and a really long trip too. Eileen slipped several times and fell on the water when we were trying to push the raft (at times, we were too heavy for the raft to actually pull through certain areas with us on it).

The next few days, we visited Thailand’s highest peak, the Royal Winter Palace (where the strawberries where yummy and we found a Martha Stewart house there) and beautiful waterfalls.

It is great that this country’s infrastructure is good for tourists in terms of travel etc. Made me wish the Philippines were this ready and prepared to welcome tourists. Our roads for one are barely passable. :(

We failed to find Little Zantika though. Maybe next time I visit Chiang Mai then. Something which I will definitely do in the not so distant future...