Saturday, November 1 10:02 pm Thailand / 8:04 am US
We arrived in Chiang Mai 2 hours delayed. We don't know how that happened since we were only 20 minutes delayed in Bangkok. And we were wrong: the train ride was supposed to 12 hours long but, with the delay, took 14 hours! That's the entire duration for our flight from home to Bangkok! Crazy! Apparently, this is a common occurrence too! And we though BART sucked!
Our guide is now Phong ("Pong") and he's just as nice as Nok but speaks a million times faster! Our driver, Samyuet, is pretty funny too... he's already joked that he's for McCain (apparently, Thailand is for Obama) and he jokingly asked if the mints we offered him was poison (how would we get back to our hotel if we killed him?). We were correct about Chiang Mai - it's a bit cooler (~75 degrees) and it's less crowded. In fact, it reminds us of Hawaii! Our hotel room also is much nicer since it's cheaper out here, yet we see more tourists.
Thanks to Nok and our train delay, today is a relaxing day. We first went to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara, which overlooks the entire city. In fact, it is so high up that they built an elevator that ascends to the top of the Wat (but at a 45-degree angle - reminded me of the elevator in Willy Wonka's factory.... the original version of the movie) for foreigners as Thai people walk up the 400 steps. No wonder they're so skinny! Once we got inside the rain poured! We had to take off our shoes out of respect for the Buddha and luckily we took off our socks too because we were walking in ~1 inch of water on marble flooring. Fall hazard! But the murals and the view of the city below was worth it.
We then had the obligatory factory tours... ha ha, too bad for any workers who got us because we never bought anything. In fact, I really wanted to purchase a teakwood carving and haggled it down from $90 USD to $50 USD. But, on second thought, I thought it was too pricey after the guy okay'd it. So I asked Phong if the price was high and he said yes (secretively, of course). I then broke a cardinal rule of haggling: I walked away from the final agreed-upon price. Oh boy was the guy mad - he snatched off his glasses & didn't say bye to us. Ooopsy, my bad! But I sure was glad that I didn't buy it especially since we found a similar one at the night market for ony $15 USD!
Our final stop was the night safari. I thought it was going to be outdoors in the wild, but it turned out to be at an amusement park-type place (like Animal Kingdom but no rides). It was fun but the best part was that Ryan and I got to hold baby tiger cubs and take a picture with them! It was scary for me because mine kept screaming & squirming and I got worried that it was going to claw me. Yeah, me and cats - not a good combo. But, after 3 tries, we got our picture & it looks pretty cool! =D I never thought I'd actually get to touch much less hold a cub! But that poor cub is probably traumatized by me!
Tomorrow: off to Lisu Tribe hillside village. No electricity = no Internet = no log until the next day if the hotel as access in Thaton!
