Chiangmai, Gibbons, Massages and Food

Chiang mai is fantastic. We had had a lot of reports that it's a nice place but I was honestly not expecting much. Very wrong.

Well, our first accommodation was a bit strange. With 5 rooms in a bed and breakfast including shared bathrooms, our older English male neighbours with their young thai girlfriends seemed to be more interested in the bed than the breakfast part. Uncomfortable. So we found a new place with a pool, spectacular rooms and service for 550 baht,,,a very good deal.

So what has been so great you ask. For all of you who have been to Bangkok and were impressed by what they had to offer, but were distracted by the size, the smell and the stress of it, you would love it here. The days have flown by in whirls of food, thai massages, pool, markets (night bazaar is big but over priced and full of a lot of rubbish but there are others), beer, walking and tourist activities.

Our first thing was the "flight of the gibbons". For the uninitiated the flight of the gibbons is a series of cables high in trees through the rain forest along which you fly from tree to tree. The 6:30 start was not to our liking but definitely worth it. Between the 7 people in our group I'm quite sure we took enough photos to fill the internet so I'm sure Anne will have some up soon. Unfortunately, my camera decided to have a rest day leaving me with zippo.

The kings birthday came and went. Another night full of fireworks and lanterns shooting off into the nights sky. The royal family is revered here like nothing i've ever seen. I've been told that you can land in jail by uttering any slur on the royals so none of that for me. Yay, I said and celebrated with my little thai friends.

Further reason to celebrate has been the exit of the prime minister and his party after the stand off that lead to the occupation of Bangkok's airports. Qantas starting flying from there again yesterday so we think it should be fine. Most Thais we met seemed not to be too fazed by the situation. Apparently every prime minister in the last 40 years has been ousted before the end of his term so not a big surprise. I just hope that things get back in order. This place really relies on its tourism industry.

Today we did cooking course. To any fan of Thai food (ie Mitch) this is an absolute must. I was surprised at how quick and simple the actual cooking is. The only difficult part is getting together the 20349503 rare thai ingredients that you need, in the right proportions, cut the right way and hey presto. Even bottomless pete couldn't finish all the food we came up with. Sooooooo good.

So tomorrow we leave for Bangkok on an overnight sleeper train to check into our 5 star hotel there. Last minute shopping Tuesday then Wednesday night is time to fly. The time has absolutely flown by and I'm very jealous of all the people we are meeting whose trips don't finish until next year.

Mango shakes, pancakes, panang curries, phad thai, thai massage, energy drinks, fruit in general. It is all soooo good.