Chaing Mai

We arrived to Chaing Mai - the main city of northern Thailand - after having a long (too long) 14 hours ride on a not-so-amazing-as-promised bus. We found ourselves a nice guesthouse and got ready for about a week here.

After two days doing mostly nothing other than reading and relaxing (and Gil was also recovered from a bad stomach virus) we went on a two-days walking trek to the village of the Hill Tribe people.. this was a great (although hard) experience! Our group is great and consists of an Israeli couple and few Brits, Irish, Dutch, Canadian and Chilian people. First we visited an orchids and butterflies farm, then a snake farm where we saw a crazy show with a crazy person playing with snakes (and a funny commentator telling us jokes in Hebrew). After lunch we climbed a super muddy mountain for few hours, and just when we thought it is never going to end we made it to the village. The place is so basic and it is wonderful. No electricity, in the middle of clouds, animals are all over the place, and three crazed muddy little kids are seeing us as their entertainment for the day; they played with us, jumped on us, made us dirty and had a lot of fun with us. We all slept in the same hut and had a very nice evening - we played poker and then some silly games and Thai riddles with no meaning..

The next day was going down the mountain (again.. mud. a lot of it!) The road is very slippert due to the endless rains that pours down here lately (it is the rainy season now..) after an hour and some people crashing into the mud, we made it to a nice waterfall. Then we had another elephants ride (Gil and I passed this one), and then we had a great white water rafting followed by a bamboo rafting. All together it was a great trek and the only problem is my sour muscles.. my legs are still killing me.

Other than trekking, we enjoyed Chaing Mai famous night market where we shopped a lot and drive some Thai market people crazy. We also had few massages (about 4-6$ for an hour!) and enjoyed the great night life here - we went dancing and drinking quite a lot. In our last day, Gil did a 50 meters bungy jump (we both had our first bungy jump here.)

Tonight we are heading to Laos in what seems to be a sort of a nightmare road trip on land and river.. wish us luck!

More photos on facebook:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=943&l=eec1c&id=298400055