Bangkok and Chiang Mai

We've had an amazing time so far in Thailand. Prices aren't comparable to the uber cheap Cambodia, but you can still get a good meal for $2-3. We started our journey through Thailand in the Capitol city of Bangkok. We got to meet up with a friend named Lindsay who works as an English teacher in Bangkok. Unfortunately, we got here for the Election Day and no alcohol was served for our stay here. We managed to have a few though anyway. The backpacker street is full of bars, restaurants, tons of shopping and soo many people trying to sell you stupid trinkets. Who buys a lazer pointer these days? Whatever odd trinket you can think if, you're within a minute of someone coming up to you to sell it.

We left Bangkok and took a train to the north of Thailand to a city called Chiang Mai. Our train departed at 8:30am and was scheduled to arrive at 8:30pm. Not too horrible right? Since it was during the day, we were in seats, not beds and next to no sleep was had. We kept having to stop for an hour at a time to wait for trains to pass coming from the opposite direction. This happened several times. After going borderline coocoo from boredom, we arrived in Chiang Mai at 2:00am, 17.5 hours later. Only 5.5 hours delayed. By far thee worst travel day to date. Luckily Chiang Mai was worth the gruelling travel day.

We had an activity packed two days in Chiang Mai. Day one: we went to the Tiger Kingdom where we got to lay, pet and take pictures with different aged tigers. This was such an amazing experience! Laying beside an adult tiger is obviously slightly terrifying but it was such an amazing time. The tigers were raised to be tame, are well fed and dominated by the trainers. The trainers are in the cages with you and play around with the tigers like they are dogs (or big cats haha). The slightest movement of the tiger was enough to make my heart skip a beat! Dustin, Mark and I truly had a once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget!

After the tigers, we went to a monkey centre where we could take pictures, shake hands and feed monkeys. That was also so cool. Our buddy Sam the monkey was a dude. He even gave us each a smooch! Too cute!

Later that afternoon, we did a Thai cooking class. I must mention that I am OBSESSED with Thai food. It is by far my favourite Asian cuisine. Being in this country for two weeks is not enough time to fill my green curry cravings, so we all did a cooking class and learned how to make a few famous dishes! We got to keep a recipe book, so I'll be whippin' up curries, pad Thai and Tom yum soup back home in no time!

Our second day in Chiang Mai we did a jungle trek. Firstly, we rode elephants, then did a hike to a waterfall, and then finished the day off with some bamboo rafting. Think of tubing down a river, just with a bamboo raft. It was awesome!

What a great two days we had! We are now back in Bangkok, heading to the train station soon to board another train (sigh) to get to the south of Thailand. It's an overnight train, so at least we'll have a bunk bed and be able to sleep some of the time away. We are going to Koh Phi Phi island when we arrive. Mark and I went there last year for a week, but we wanted to go back to show Dustin a good time. It's super expensive there, so we are just staying two nights then heading to another beach. We're starting to get pastey, so we gotta hit the beach to get our tan back! :D