I will be back.

Before the trip up.
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Wow, I like Chiang Mai... a lot.  This town is so laid back and friendly its easy to see why there are so many expats living here with their Thai girlfriends/wives.  There is a massive open air night market every Sunday, as well as several other markets open every night.  If shopping isn't your thing there is no shortage of adrenaline-fueled activities either.  I had to sacrifice Laos for Chiang Mai due to time constraints and I don't regret it at all.  In the two weeks I had here I went Bungy jumping, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, caving, dune buggies thru the jungle, took massage lessons, cooking lessons, and some minor bouldering at the climbing gym.  I've also realized that I am getting out of shape, and need to keep up the exercise once I return.

It really is best not to look down. Just look out at the horizon and keep breathing. I tried my best not to think about what I was about to do.
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First the Bungy jump.  Its from a tower that rises 50m over a pond, and the whole operation is licensed and registered.  There were 5-6 of us that were picked up in the morning and driven out to the site where we caught our first glimpse of the tower.  After being weighed we were taken up one at a time on the platform that moves up and down the tower and given our instructions.  Myself being a veteran of all of one jump decided to go off the edge backwards for maximum effect.  If you've ever ALMOST fallen off the bed in your sleep only to wake up in mid-tip then you know that panicked feeling, which is just what bungy jumping is like only that feeling stays a LOT longer.  After the plunge and some minor bobbing up and down the crew lowered the platform and brought us each safely back to terra firma, albeit with flushed faces and racing pulses.

3...2...1...
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The whitewater rafting was also a blast, I had joined a group or volunteers and was the only odd man out.  But since they were a large group of 20 something girls I figured I would just have to make due.  The water was med-high and according to our guides that was perfect: not to big to be dangerous and not too high to erase the features which made it fun.  This was the second time I've gone rafting on this trip and every time the guides always say that the rapids are class III and IV respectively.  Having gone on the Kicking Horse River in BC during spring runoff, I can safely say that the guides are exaggerating.  There was a few spots where the rapids touched on a four rating but they were short and very few in between.  The Kicking Horse river is still the number one for me...so far.

BUNGEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Mountain biking was the first thing I booked when I showed up in Chiang Mai, and after visiting the shop and talking to the owner/ guide it was arranged that he would take me and some others from a large group on a new trail that was still being broken in.  Amazing!  There was only four of us and the trail was pretty much all tech downhill; lots of slick roots, mud, and some pretty steep sections made for an amazing ride and great workout.  The humidity was somewhere over 150% in the jungle and we were sweating buckets but the trail was so much fun it was worth the effort.  We even stopped at a small coffee plantation where we had some fresh roasted coffee that was blacker than Satan's hooves.  Some real go-juice.  Halfway down the trail we stopped at a waterfall to cool off and get a drink, then back on the trail.  We only hit one little snag in the form of a flat tire but it was fixed in no time and we were back on the road.

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The caving was probably one of the biggest highlights for me as I've never done anything like it before and so had no idea what to expect.  I had heard about it from Warrick and Annie, an English couple who I met on the biking trip.  I actually moved my date for the rafting back a day so I could go.  After an evening of setting up our gear and harnesses and the owner/guide checking us out for how experienced we were on ropes and how comfortable we were with hanging by a thread we were ready for the big day.

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A huge bonus for us was that it was only the fifth time the guide had gone into this cave and so it wasn't going to be a simple tour where we all hold hands and take pictures.  There was still some exploring to be done and we made a good effort of it.  Even going so far as to skip lunch so we could have more time underground.  The entrance to the cave is a giant hole in a mountain that we had to hike/climb to, then the guides set up all the anchors and ropes for us which took the better part of an hour, due to Josh's OCD when it comes to knots and ropes.  Suffice to say we felt we were in pretty good hands.  The drop in was an invigorating 40m rappel into the inky blackness, all I could see below was what my headlamp touched upon.  Once we were all present and accounted for it was off into the dark.  And I mean DARK.  We turned our lamps off at one point and I experienced a level of blackness that was entirely new to me.  You can't see squat.  There is positively no light, and you can't see the nose on the end of your face.  It was so dark that I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or closed.

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The ultimate goal of caving is to find a cave that had an entrance and an exit which are separate.  We looked, crawled through mud, climbed into tiny holes, scrambled up rockslides, and waded across lakes.  We saw bats, rock formations that were still "alive" or growing with the dripping water, we saw crystal formations that spread across the floor that were quite possibly hundreds or thousand of years old, it was truly amazing to see as much as we did, plus that we were part a select few to have gotten as far as we did added to the whole experience.

It wasn't all adrenaline filled fun, I did learn a few things too.  I signed up for a two day Thai massage course as well as a two day Thai cooking class.  Both were fantastic, with the cooking course we got to make 6 dishes a day and then eat them!  The massage course was in the nicest lady's house outside of town, her name was Timmy and she was a card.  The course was really just an excuse for everybody to trade massages all day, eat lunch, nap, and more massage.  Fantastic.  It was there that I met Aimee, my teacher who would later become a very good friend of mine.  Plus we sort of dated for a bit, which made the whole traveling alone thing easier ;)  For anyone who is interested in learning Thai massage it is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be.  Especially foot massage and pressure points.  I can't remember all 26 points and what they correspond to, all I know that in the right hands a Thai massage is invigorating and relaxing at the same time.

All in all I was very sad to be leaving Chiang Mai, especially since I didn't get any trekking in, or get to some of the other villages like Chiang Rai or Pai.  But there's always next time.