In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

So we arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday afternoon and once again our driver and tour guide picked us up from the airport. After checking in we went straight for lunch. Luckily our hotel is very central and is located in a touristy area close to many American restaurants and the night market. On our walk to lunch we noted that the people here are very pushy. Every two steps someone would say "Madam/Sir Tuk Tuk / Tuk Tuk?" I guess they have to work hard here. Chiang Mai is a much smaller city than Bangkok. The population here is about 1.5 Million and there seems to be a lot more poverty here. There are young begger women on the streets with little babies. Our hearts go out to them.

So of course after lunch we headed for a 1.5 hour massage at a spa called "Let's Relax" and we did exactly that! We got foot and hand reflexology and a back and shoulder massage. Ahhh it was great! Being on vacation in Thailand is such HARD work. HAHA! After our massage we headed back to the hotel and cooled off in the pool. That night we headed for dinner at a restaurant called Whole Earth where they had both Thai and Indian Cuisine. It had great ambiance (the restaurant was housed in a traditional thai home and the patio of the restaurant had misters) and the Thai food was good of course! Next we headed to the famous night market!

The night market was lots of fun. We bought a few small items and learned to tango or i mean bargain. We were trying to buy something from a vendor and she started at 2 items for 400 baht. Nads says "No No that's too much, how about 200?" Vendor replies "Haha no no 1 item for 200, how about 380?" I chime in "No No that's too much how about 250?" Vendor gives in "ok korp kun ka"

We didn't really come to Chiang Mai for the city - we more so came for the trekking!!

Today we headed off on our adventure at 8:30am. We started off by going to a butterfly sanctuary and an orchid farm. Needless to say i thoroughly enjoyed this as orchids are my favourite flower!

Next we headed for the elephant training camp. We watched an elephant show in which the elephants did everything from raising flags, carrying lumber, to painting pictures. Yes! That's right! These elephants can paint with their trunk! It was so amazing! We will post pictures when we get home!

Next we headed for a 90 minute elephant trek through the jungle. This was lots of fun. The elephants took us up to a hilltop tribe called "Lee So" These are tribe people that are from Burma and Tibet. We got to see the coconut huts that they lived in. What a simple life they live. Here they were trying to sell colorful handwoven items.

Then we headed for lunch overlooking the Mae Ping River and the beautiful jungle. Then we went bamboo rafting. This was so relaxing. Along the way we saw numerous elephants in the jungle. We even saw a snake in the water! I know! Scary!!

Tonight we are chilling in Chiang Mai and will likely head to the night market again.

Tomorrow we are off to Southern Thailand and we are both so excited for the lovely beaches!!

Will write more from Phuket!!