WELL after an energy-draining but overall enjoyable few days in bangkok we were very much looking forward to getting to chiang mai- our only real demand of the time we spent there being to go on an elephant. we are reasonably easy to please.
chiang mai itself is a really nice town but it's jam-packed with tourists, so much so that we had to queue to get a room in the only guesthouse in town that wasn't absolutely horrible! while we queued we took it in turns of sussing out neighbouring accommodation options but we both returned very underwhelmed and so were thrilled to be offered a very small room with a very small bed at the very lovely julie's guesthouse. we were so happy to have somewhere clean to sleep that we really weren't fussed about the closer-than-usual living arrangement.
on our middle day in chiang mai we booked ourselves in for a day of excitement (it was called something like 'hardcore adventure trek' which sounded pretty good) and loved almost every minute of the day, despite the slightly motley collection of people that was our tour group- us two, plus a really dorky middle-aged couple and a young gay chinese couple who spent every moment that they weren't talking each others' ears off singing chinese pop songs.
at least they were entertaining.
basically the day consisted of a trek on an elephant, which was really good fun (particularly the baby elephant that tagged along and behaved like a naughty small child, trampling bushes and spraying water around) and then a walk through the jungle to a waterfall, which was really beautiful... and then whitewater rafting! i was not entirely convinced about it but vivienne was really excited, but once we got going it was really good fun. none of the other people really spoke english and so we were kind of suss on what would happen if something went wrong but it didn't and we had a great time!
then we went to visit a 'hill-tribe village' which was clearly set up for the benefit of tourists (the only people looking remotely hill-tribey were three women selling bracelets), but our tour guide rode me up the hill on the back of a bike (vivienne had to walk) and asked me to be his girlfriend, which i politely declined but apparently i'd get a really good dowry in thailand because i'm blonde. so i guess it's nice to have a plan B.
i would write more about chiang mai but truth be told the middle day was the highlight and other than the night we went to a market and ate four different desserts each, there isn't much exciting to report.
so now i pass you to vivienne who is going to give us a witty and comprehensive account of our time in luang prabang, laos.
as usual we are using a very dodgy internet connection and so photos will be posted in a few days. hopefully.
much love to one and all
x iona (and vivienne, obviously)
