Hello (sa wat de kha) from Chiang Mai!
Currently sitting at a train station, waiting for my bus to whisk me away to the Mekong River at the border town of Chiang Kong, directly across from Laos. We traveled (via airplane) from the southern town of Phuket to Chiang Mai two days ago and spent the better part of yesterday just wandering the city. Checked out a few wat's (temples), bargained at the night market, got massages, and oh yeah...fed baby tigers! Touristy yes, but I could not pass up the opportunity to get up close and personal with those beautiful, smiling death machines. Notably, it's much cooler in the northern mountainous region of Thailand which makes for cleaner clothes and better sleeping.
The food in the north differs from that of the south. In the south, the diet revolves around seafood and consists of squid/shrimp currys that is face melting spicy. Up north, the curry is milder, the noodles thicker, and the focus is more on chicken and pork. A big part of my diet is 1) Thai iced coffee and 2) fresh fruit. Being in a tropical climate, the bananas and mangos grow everywhere. And the bananas are smaller and much sweeter.
Due to lack of time and poor road conditions, we have decided to cut out most of Laos (oh, but I will be back) and spend the rest of our time exploring this northern region. Trekking is huge in Chiang Mai, but we are going to a couple smaller towns where the tours are suppose to be less Disneyland-like. There are several hill village tribes (Karen tribe--girls with elongated necks) that make their money from allowing tour groups from Chiang Mai to take their pictures. Many of the tours cram too many hung-over tourists on buses and elephants to push as many people through as possible. Wanting to avoid this, we are headed to Chiang Rai and Laos to frolic through the less populated jungle.
