Two New Years in One Year?! and Goodbye to Chiang Mai

Don't be fooled. That is not a lady.
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So, our days of Thai massages and banana pancakes are numbered. It is time to move on to our next destination, Laos. I don't know how both Thailand and Laos are referred to as Third World countries when we've heard Laos is much more "Third World" than Thailand. I guess we shall see.  All our bags (and plenty of toilet paper, as I am sure that will be very limited) are packed for the trip ahead of us.

We made friends with a couple from San Francisco, Ryan and Kelly, at the Elephant Nature Park. They actually have pretty much the exact same plan as us for the next month and a half (slow boat ride down the Mekong River into Laos, Laos to Vietnam, Vietnam to Cambodia), so we're catching the 5-hour bus ride up to Chiang Khong (very northern Thailand) in a few hours and traveling with them for a while. We're going to try to go to another conservation center called The Gibbon Experience before we take the slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, Laos. It's located right over the northern border of Laos, three hours away from Huay Xai,  We've heard nothing but amazing things about it. Apparently you sleep in treehouses 100 feet up and use zip lines to go everywhere you want to go, all while surrounded by protected gibbons. Sounds like our kind of place.

There is some serious masochism going on in massage parlors in Chiang Mai.

Masochism at it's finest
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We've been taking it pretty easy in Chiang Mai the past few days (though I can't say we've been sitting around watching Bob Barker - haha). We got some serious massages the other day. Kevin got his first massage from a lady boy. The guy/girl looked like this sweet little Thai girl, but when he spoke, his voice was deeper than Kevin's! I had a love/hate thing going with my massage. I layed down, getting all cozy on my little mattress, and the lady asks me "Soft, medium or strong?" "Oh, strong, definitely strong," I answer. She raises an eyebrow and looks at me doubtfully, "Stroooong?" I see the evil thoughts swirling through her head. Haha. One crack of the toe, I was barely able to squeak out, "Medium, medium." I have to say it was the most "delightfully excruciatingly painful" thing I have ever experienced. Each energy point she dug her fingers into left me begging for mercy. I was yelping and tearing the entire time, but when it was all said and done, I had never felt more relaxed in my life. There is some serious masochism going on in massage parlors in Chiang Mai.

The setting of our massages
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We celebrated the Chinese New Year (which is February 18) with Ryan and Kelly, checking out a place called Roof Top Bar, which is on a roof (you don't say) with really cool bamboo floors which you sit on with pillows, and dancing the night away at a night club. One thing I have to warn you about when in Thailand. Red Bull. Yes, you know the saying "Red Bull gives you wings," well, the Red Bull here is not exactly "up to code" by United States standards, so they won't release it there. Seriously, the Red Bull here is like drinking cough syrup and has to have AT LEAST 10 times the amount of taurine. This stuff is dangerous. Poor Kevin had to deal with me jumping all over him at the night club later. I don't know if you're allowed to get up on tables and dance (as the subject of feet and shoes are a little sensitive here - you need to take your shoes off before entering most places) but I was definitely hopping up there most of the night. At one point, I actually jumped from the ground onto Kevin's shoulders. Exactly how I did that we can't really figure out, as it defies all laws of gravity, but I made it up there in one jump. That Red Bull, I'll tell ya...

Coconut milk at our favorite local restaurant
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Well, Chiang Mai was a wonderful second stop to our trip, but it's time to keep on keeping on. I'm sure we'll be back before we go back to the states, if not for the wonderfully friendly Thai people, delicious food and Thai massages, to come back for some serious souvenir shopping. The quality here is unreal and we almost feel bad paying so little for things. I'm not sure how the situation is with internet cafes in Laos, but I'm sure it will be much more limited than here, so we'll try our best to update the blog whenever we can. I'm sure our next blog will be filled with some great stories and even more amazing photographs.

Chinese New Years Eve with the people that charge 5 baht to use the restroom
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I'm not sure how you spell "thank you" in Thai, but it sounds like "kum-pu-cawww," so "Kum-pu-cawww" Chiang Mai! I'm sure we'll be seeing you again.

Note to self: Don't drop your laundry off at 2 PM the day before your (planned) bus ride out of town. When they tell you it won't be ready until 10 PM the next day, there is no possible way you can defy the laws of time. (Why they transport your laundry an hour away to be cleaned is beyond me, but, hey, that's another story...) You will be up early, you will miss your bus, stand up new friends (Sorry guys! See you when we get there!) and you will end up in an internet cafe for the next few hours updating your blog rather than listening to your iPod enjoying the sights on the way up to northern Thailand. But, hey, you'll have clean clothes.