What a glorious change from Bangkok!

Playing my music or trying at least
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What a relief to hop on a bus and go north. Northern Thailand was absolutely beautiful. It is the rural life of Thailand that I was in search for! Mountains and mountains of green! Rice fields, coconut trees, wild bananas, papaya, and farmers! Ahh so cool.

We kicked off our stay in Chiang Mai with a three day trek through the jungle. We went through Active Thailand which is an awesome organization, whose purpose is to get you off the beaten tourist track. Now we had read about the dangers of going on treks. People are often robbed in the middle of the jungle and women are even kidnapped. So we went anyway. The first day we went to the elephant farm. The only tourist part of the adventure. But hey we got to ride elephants so why not! We galavanted on the elephants for about an hour through the jungle. It was nice, really bumpy though.  Then we drove about an hour away to begin our escapade. UP HILL HIKING! Shoot 'buns of steel' has nothing on this kind of workout. Our guide, Saap, was awesome. He was having us eat and smell everything from berries, seeds, leaves, and even chilis (my mouth was scorching for a good 15 minutes). It reminded me a lot of my dad. Always having me try all this random stuff from the farm. I could almost hear him say "try this..you never know when you're going to have to live off the land." Haha.

That is what Thailand should be about...finding the true people and experiencing their way of life.

Don't mind us...just petting Dumbo
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Well we were the only tourists, along with a dad and his son from New York. They said it was very very rare to have Americans on the tour, let alone four. Well we were it. Just the four of us and two guides who were brothers. I was thankful that they were there because the dad, Doug, watched over us like a paternal figure. They probably thought we were crazy for doing this alone.

On the first night we stayed with the people of the Chan hill tribe village. Rach and I stayed up and played music. Saap and a few of the locals shared their moonshine and elephant beer with us. I'm pretty sure our guide was more than tipsy when he started to tell us about how common being robbed and kidnapped was. We went to bed with our eyes as wide as owls. From 12-3 am i didn't sleep because i was certain that we were going to get abducted in the night. At that point i was thinking that going on the trek was as bad a decision as taking a last minute night train through Slovakia. Oh well. The next day was massive hiking. We stayed with the La Hu village. I gave in and took a bucket ice bath bc i was head to toe in dirt. Brrr. Great people. Great food. All in all we didn't get robbed, kidnapped, or injured. Check Check and Check. Plus we got to raft down the river at the very end! One of the most incredible experiences.  That is what Thailand should be about. Finding the true people and experiencing their way of life. Eat on the floor, take cold showers, go without electricity, hike up and down, and smile.  Saap was even nice enough to take us to a place where they turn elephant dung into paper. Very cool.

Those are some big beans!
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The city of Chiang Mai is great. The shopping and bartering at the night bizaar is brilliant. I bought a whole new wardrobe and dinner for less than $40. I'm talking 3 capris, 4 shirts, 1 dress, and some various gifts! Thats what i'm talking about. The people are great and best of all...the Tuk Tuk drivers won't screw you over! Chonkai (cheers in Thai) to Chiang Mai!

A side note about the city. It has over 300 amazing Buddhist temples. The day market is great. The city, like Bangkok, really comes to life at night. We also took the liberty of getting a $4 one hour Thai massage that was INCREDIBLE. If i lived here i'd get a massage everyday. They really know how to work the muscles. Nice way to remember the city!