Photo By Jessie: Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai.... Where do i begin. Well i suppose i shall mention the 15 hr train ride that we

took to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. It wasn't so terrible besides the bathrooms!! oh my.. i didn't know something this terrible existed. There is not toilet seat and just very nasty looking, they dont really believe in toilet paper i guess your suppose to hose yourself off here. We bought some toilet paper. On the train there is no bottom to the toilet it just goes right on to the tracks. At the very back of the train there is a restaurant and we sat with a few random people and one guy we met from Montreal Canada french speaking. He was one of the most interesting personalities i've ever met. His voice was a mix of Pumba and darth vadar! He has the lowest raspiest voice ever and was really crazy and talked A LOT!

We have really loved being here in Chiang Mai. Bangkok was nice to go to but this has been much much more fun. We walked around and looked at the old city the first day. We attempted to rent bikes and they were probably 30 years old but it was like a dollar for the whole day! So off we went down the street when all the sudden the fender on my back tire fell off and made my back tire lock up and i flipped sideways onto the road... allyson was behind me and a car hit my tire! i was very very close to being ran over in Chiang Mai.... So we decided to take the bikes back and walk. I was a bit shaky and got a little cut and some bruises on my leg.

The next day we went on a trek and it was wonderful! we met our first americans and they

were from CO. They were really great and so were the other two couples in our group. It was a couples retreat! Allyson and I have a much better friendship now:-)

We first stopped at a village and as soon as we got out of the car the most adorable kids came up trying to sell us some bracelets. They just held them out and said, "hello five baht?" I couldn't resist of course. A few times one just ran off after i gave my money:-) They were so young they hardly knew what they were doing. I was pretty much in heaven taking pictures of them! This is one of the main reasons i wanted to come to Thailand. Photograph the beautiful people

Next we went on a hike to a waterfall, it wasn't anything great but it was fun to go and get in the cold water.

Now it was time to ride the elephants! My dream was coming true! it was a lot of fun. I didn't get to ride on the neck like i had hoped but it was still a great time! The elephants are so darn adorable and i would really like to have one as a pet... i wonder if my dad will let me turn the horse coral into a elephant one? It was kinda a little scary riding the elephant.. all the horse back riding didn't help me on this! we were sitting on this chair thing and when we would go down hill i got so nervous that i would fall out and thats a much farther drop than a horse... also getting trampled would be the death of me i am sure. After that we went on a river raft tour. That was fun as well.

Today we went to a cooking class outside of town at a farm. It was very exciting and we are excited to cook some food for people when we get back! we made 5 courses. Pad Thai, Papaya salad, coconut soup, masamang curry, and mango sticky rice. It was all so yummy! we had a fun group and the cook lady Mam was so funny and nice!

We will be leaving tomorrow and flying down south to Phuket and we are not

sure where we will be staying but we do know we are going to Krabi to do some rock climbing!

Also spending some quality time in the sun!!

here are some pics of our time in Chiang Mai