The second week of my trip we all loaded into another tour bus and drove north for 9 hours to the second most popular city in Thailand, Chiang Mai. It was absolutely incredible, first driving up in small red trucks to a temple on the side of a mountain, and then driving even higher to a remote village with gardens to walk through and things for sale on the side of the pathways. Then we went to a place called the Royal Flora 2010 which was a Disneyland style park where we rode in little tram-car things around to different sections of the park that were dedicated to different countries. I actually still am not sure what the main idea was of this place, and we were all pretty exhausted at that point after the bus ride and being up since 6 am. Later that night we were driven to a place in the city for dinner, we entered into this wide open outdoor area carpeted in red and set up for dinner for three or four hundred people to all sit on the ground at place-settings. There was a dance area in the middle and a stage at the head of the ceremony area, and we all ate watched a traditional set of dances and performances.
The next day we loaded back into the busses and went to Maeteman Elephant Camp. We rode elephants over rivers and through the jungle and took an ox-cart back to the camp. Then we had a large buffet-style lunch which was delicious as usual. We split off into groups of 6 afterward to float down the river on rafts, and it was beautiful to see the small villages along the river and be in the mountains. Long boats would pull up to us selling coconuts and beers and other drinks. We went on a hike afterward along a river of nine waterfalls, I split off with some friends to hike all the way to the top, and we jumped in and climbed up as far as we could go on the rocks above the falls.
We ended the day taking tuk-tuks into the chiang mai nightlife, dancing at a reggae club and watching fire throwers into the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment