Thailand - Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is a beautiful little town in the North of Thailand. It has been slightly overtaken by Tourism however still has the Thai feel about it…with the usual night market and a host of temples..

We had decided to see Chiang Mai with another couple who we met on the China tour with us – this turned out good for us as we enjoyed a few nice meals by the lake and in the old town and crazy night out..

Us, Ryan and Sinead

We booked 2 day tours, first to the National Park  - we saw the highest point in Thailand and  where we did a 3 hour trek around the forest and saw beautiful waterfalls and many many insects…  

Base of the stair way leading to the Buddhist temple 

Cute kids standing out side a temp dressed in traditional clothes.

Chiang Mai - view from back of temple on the mountain

Next day was folled by a day at Baanchang Elephant Park – this was a  great day! I (kavs) was quite particular to chose this elephant park. After speaking to a lot of people we chose this park as it seemed they looked after the elephants well and was more of a rescue centre then the usual 'elephant trekking' parks.

We got to spend time to get to know the elephants, feed them, bathe them and take a short trek with them…

Kavs feeding bananas

With the pressure of Kavs on the elephants back it had to take a poo and a wee and smiled with the relief!!! 

 Here us with our elephant Champu…

Thailand - Bangkok

Next stop Bangkok, Thailand! Firstly problem of the trip faced us – Nehal’s bag didn’t arrive!!So our first couple of hours went by speaking to people in the airport and filling out the relevant forms – unlike a usual holiday where you are more tight with your schedule we had no plans and after this felt like we should spend a few more nights in Bangkok waiting for the bag to arrive and spending some time just relaxing and unwinding from the craziness of China..

So the next couple of days went by in a blur relaxing, lapping up the nice food and enjoying plenty of massages.  We spent some time on Khao San Road, MBK Mall and got taken to the Indian area to get my threading done. Bag arrived a day later via Dehli!

Our first thai curry - Kohsan Road

Tuk tuk sir? best way to get around in Bangkok.

We had expected to get the overnight train to Chiang Mai, but due to the flooding the train line was still not fully operational and the tracks still bad – so we had to opt for an overnight VIP bus ride.

'VIP' bus 

Reclining seats with blanket and a slight foot rest... perfect if you at 5'0 and thai... for the rest of us its a tight squeeze! 

This went past some of the flooded areas on the outside of Bangkok, was really horrible to see, people still having to use boats to get around, businesses closed everywhere and groups of people around fires to keep warm.. L

The bus ride took a lot out of us – roads were abit crazy and the bus is quite squashed and hardly the VIP service sold to us. Though we later heard another bus actually broke down on the way and the people had to wait around for 3 hours while the locals tried to fix this – so think we were just happy we weren’t on that bus.

We Reached Chiang Mai in the early morning – early enough to see the monks doing their daily walk around town – and people handing out offerings and praying to them/receiving daily blessing. 

China... cont

Next stop Xi’an- and another 16 hour night train…

Xi’an was the former capital of China before it was moved to Beijing during the time of Genghis Khan’s rule.  Famous for the amazing find of the Terracota Warriors -  just crazy to see what was found by farmers while digging for water.. and the restoration of these pieces – one of our best days in China.

We then flew to Kavs most anticipated part of the trip – Chengdu – Home of the Pandas.  We spent time walking around the park – seeing how locals spent their day and learning how to play the Chinese game of Mahjong..

Then Panda research Centre – My (Kav) best day in China – they were soo amazingly cute and cheeky.. think the few picts will show it all..

Eat and Sleep!

Baby Panda venturing away from its friends

(nope - not going to let you take pictures today...)

We then travelled 6 hours to make our way up Emeishan Mountain – for our 2 night stay in a Buddhist monastery.  It was amazing to see how they live. the monastery living condition was very basic,  this had initially been hard to adapt to… however this was soon superseded by the spiritually enlightening surroundings.

We Hiked up the mountain, visting the crazy monkeys followed by time in the hot springs to ease the pain in our legs…Kav spent time sitting in a fish spa.. London you only get to put your feet in..China your whole body!

Next  3 days were spent on a cruise up the Yangtze River – we got the all in package! Drinks and Food- so this was a messy 3 days with only a few pictures as evidence that we ate, drank and saw the 3 Gorges!!!

No further comment on this part of the trip..

...During this boat trip Andy proposed to charolotte... she said yes!!!

Last Stop for China – Yangshuo! Most touristy town in China – Resembling nothing we had seen so far – People speaking English, Menus in English.. Backpackers and Mountain Climbers Haven…

How the town was Built in the middle of over 2000 mountains and there makes for beautiful scenery- we hired bikes and hit the countryside! Having lunch at a local farmers house – seeing  paddy fields, cotton plants and orange trees on every corner…

We again spent 12 hours travelling to last stop on our organised tour – Hong Kong!

Our time here was limited and much about meeting up with a few friends and coming back to a form of reality away from the madness of China… and eating a few Western delights such as pizza and enjoying some red wine..