Chiang Mai

We took a sleeper train to Chiang Mai. It wasnt exactly what we had expected. They were just a bunk bed with curtains. We managed okay.. as it was just for a sleep. We made the mistake in the morning however to have their breakfast. It was cold and old.. made probably early the day before. Its okay though, both mar and i aren't whiners and we ate it with no fuss. When we arrived, the train station was full of bussling people. There was about 30 people yelling at us, "Tuk tuk? Taxi? Come Come!".. we were so groggy and overwhelmed. A lady with a grin stretching from one ear to the other, squinty eyes and pushy laugh, grabbed us and asked where we are going. She told us that she will take us to the hotel.. we didnt bother fighting.
When we arrived at the hotel, we collapsed on the hotel room beds. Mar and i went outside to the very nice pool and suntanned beside the pool. We drank extremely strong Pina Coladas... there was more rum than coconut and we definitly couldnt finish them, especially in the heat. Our heads throbbed after the drink and we had to drink lots of water.
We went out that night to the Night Bazaar and it was amazing. Streets and Streets of Market.. a shoppers paradise. Marni and I bought a few things: gifts and sandals for me (as my other pair broke) and we ended up getting supper at...ehem subway haha. We decided to be terrible tourists and not eat thai that night.
We woke up on the Saturday and was driven an hour outside of Chiang Mai. We arrived at a village and the children swarmed the car. There must of been 10 to 15 children around each of us yelling, "10 baht hello hello! 10 baht, please".. It was heart breaking when you looked into their droopy sad eyes looking up at us. You couldnt help but buy at least one bracelette.
We trekked for three hours in the beautiful hills with farm land and bamboo forests.
Our tour guide would point at chicken and say, "Kentucky Fried Chicken" haha. The villagers were so resourceful. It felt like we went back into time about a hundred years. We barely had enough time to sit and rest at the village we were to sleep at when the children grabbed us to go swimming at a small water hole.
They made us tree crowns and these other crafty things using only twigs flowers and leaves. We watched them play in the water hole since we forgot our bathing suites (and would be inappropriate anyways) and we washed our dirty feet from our trek.
That night our tour guide spent hours showing us magic tricks and watched the vollagers dance around the fire.
We thought we were going to fall asleep quickly, but we didnt. Mar and I were very restless on the bamboo beds. ALl we heard that night were the roosters crowing. I think we have grown a new hatred towards roosters.
We woke up to hear the woman sitting outside of our sleeping hut... waiting for us to come out and buy their jewelery and woven scarves and blankets.
Mar and i again felt a guilt to buy items as they sat there.. even when we were eating breakfast.
Marni was worse.. she is really bad with having some restraint. Thinking she needed to buy from all of them haha.
We treked for about another half an hour and got to ride an elephant. The ride was slow but soothing as it rocked back and forth. They are amazing creatures.
We took a bamboo raft down the river and felt totally with nature. We were so at ease and heard nothing but the soft breeze and birds in the trees. The dynamic changed once we got lodged into a rock. Marni ended up jumping out to help but tripped and fell! haha
We had a lazy day that night and even ordered Room service so we didnt need to leave our room. The only english channel is "Zone Reality" which is like a TLC. For four hours straight we watched stories of animals saving humans. We started to get extremely annoyed by the same stupid cats saving people in fires. haha. But it was nice to relax none the less.
We are to jump on asleeper train once again to Bangkok. We arent looking forward to the train food.. ugh.
good bye for now!