Staying true to my traveling nature, I changed my mind about going south to the islands, no reason, just decided I would rather go north! So now i'm in Northern Thailand in a large city called Chiang Mai. It's so much more my speed and I couldn't be happier to be here ... although it's only been about an hour since i got here but it's already a world of difference from Bangkok. I spent the day wandering the streets of Bangkok yesterday, I think I literally spent about 8 hours walking up and down looking at all the things to buy and walking past every restaurant and not knowing what to eat. I survived on horrible coffee and the apples stashed in my bag and then was beyond happy to find a restaurant that had yogurt and granola! haha it's like they knew i was coming:) While eating my yogurt a guy sat down at the table next to mine and i heard him tell a local that he was a chef from canada ... therein lied my reason to strike up conversation! It's so easy to meet people and it's so much fun to hear their stories. Hopefully if all works out I will see him again and we can take some cooking classes together, which there are tons of in this city right now. After that I jumped in a cab to the train station to see if they had an overnight train to Chiang Mai, and again staying true to my traveling nature/good luck I arrived just in time to catch the next train. 14 hours thru central thailand and up to the north ... my personal opinion still stands that overnight trains are the way to go, you save on accomodation, you sleep (or try at least) and awake in a brand new place! I sat beside a couple British guys who were headed to the same place, but they are heading out on a mountain trek tomorrow ... i haven't decided yet what i want to do here, but the city itself seems like a lot of fun and my guest house is so wonderful! It's surrounded by The Bird of Paradise flowers and it has hot water and no bugs and even a tv with english movies ... all for 350baht - roughly $10 cnd (www.t-roomguesthouse.com). when we arrived at the train station i jumped in the truck which was there to take the British boys to their guesthouse - these trucks which are pick up trucks with 2 benches in the back and an open roof replace taxis here in chiang mai. I went to their guesthouse and the people showed me a room for 400baht which had a recently chewed in half mouse laying infront of the door, the room had dead mosquitos on the bed and piles of mouse shit everywhere .... no thanks! So i grabbed my bag and thanked myself for not having a plan because i was free to wander the streets and not be lost while looking for a place to stay, luckily i stumbled across this cute little guesthouse:)
The train ride up was a relaxing experience, the chairs fold down into beds and you have your own curtain and blankets and pillows, and after awhile you fail to notice the train guards with guns on their belts. The scenery this morning was unbelievable ... green as far as the eye can see, leaves the size of me, mountains and mist and millions of stray dogs roaming the tracks. I think an adventure into the jungle is a must ... just worried a little bit about the whole malaria issue. we'll see! One of the British guys told me about this Gibbon Jungle Trek in Laos where you take zip chords thru the tree tops of the jungle and stay in tree houses - i chose to ignore the stories about the spiders and focused on flying thru the jungle with the monkeys. so many wonderful adventures here!
Still not much to report, mostly just been traveling in planes and trains and con-artist taxis. but i think i will stay here for awhile and explore the north ... pictures soon to come.
