Chiang Mai

We are happy to repot that the overnight train was MUCH better than the bus!  We spent the extra money on air-conditionning because the last time I was in Thailand I didn't and the fans didn't work and it was horrible, but at the beginning of the trip they were really pumping the cold air out and we were freezing!  As the Scottish woman across from us put it, it was "positively glacial."  Sometime in the middle of the night though they turned it off (I guess enough people complained) and I woke up sweating in my sweather, socks and scarf!  But we got a pretty decent night's sleep.  We found a place to stay relatively easily and had a pretty uneventful rest of the day!  We kind of wandered around, took a snooze on our very hard bed, had a cold drink, I went to one of the many markets.  It is HOT here, and seems to get hotter by the day, so we can't go far without stopping for a rest and a cold drink.  I was very happy to find that Chiang Mai is the charming city that I remember, and that my favorite sticky rice restaurant is still around, serving the same amazing dessert that is was 5 years ago.  It may become a morning ritural.

The past 2 days we have spent touring around the surrounding countryside on a motorbike (that we rented for $5 per day!).  It's so delightfully cool up in the mountains around the city and such a nice reprieve from the heat.  The first day we found ourselves at this tiny Hmong (hilltribe) village, complete with children playing soccer, local handicrafts, stray dogs and the ever present little store selling potato chips and warm cans of beer (no power).  We stopped for a coffee at some sort of research station funded by the University of Chiang Mai where they grow thier own coffee...we were served very strong coffee by a very cheerful woman in a lovely bamboo hut overlooking the valley below.  Today we did this 100km loop through the mountains and saw some beautiful countryside.  We have been putting off elephant riding because it is such an overpriced tourist trap (and exploits the poor things) but I think secretly we both wanted some kind of elephant encounter, so when we drove by an elephant camp we pulled over to check it out.  It wasn't really advertised or anything, we just saw some tourists heading out on a ride, but just down the road we found a young kid in a hammock with two mother and baby elephants.  The one little baby came right up to us and was so sweet and friendly :>)  So we got our elephant fix without feeling too guilty!  Tomorrow is the weekend which is great for open air markets in Chiang Mai so we are definitely going to hang around for that, and we will probably spend the day walking around the old city taking in the sights since we haven't done any of that stuff yet.  Next week is the Thai new year and Chiang Mai puts on a big celebration for it, so there is a lot of prep work going on at the moment!  We are still deciding whether we want to stay for it or not.  We would like to see it, but we also want to make sure we have enough time in Laos.

Well, we are off to the night market for supper...so it's bye for now!

Hanna and Dan

Here are some pics!  Nerdy motorcycle get-up:

Local store at the Hmong village

Coffee break

Baby elephant encounter!!!