Day Twenty Three

After a long day zip trekking, we made it back to hotel to get ready for dinner. This was our first dinner at Kantoke Palace, that's where we met Minnie our Chiangmai tour guide. She had given us our week plan with her starting next day. Dinner was not bad I said that because I expected real Thai cuisine, not so much northern Thai food that mostly catered to tourist. Shows were pretty good, they had different dances & talents show that preprogrammed for tourist. The best show was watching Ian up on the stage dancing with the dancer. Ian didn't want to go up but I was not going to let him rejected the girl who was asking him for a dance. Anyway Ian did good job on his first Thai dance, I was quite proud of him. Next day we got picked up & headed to Hmong village to see how they live, what was there before the government stepping in to help them out. Now it's a tourist town full of colorful crafts along houses & street. After that we went to see Wat which I don't remember all the Wat name. It's very pretty Wat built on the hill, 200stairs up & the look out to city was quite pretty from up there. 

Day Twenty Four

That was the real beginning of Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai Trip, we got picked up early by Minnie & her driver. We started out with visiting orchid & butterfly farm. There were so much information on how to grow orchid from beginning to the end. I need to pull up the web to get info in here but i can always get it out anytime so i won't bother to list the step. I was amazed by how orchid grow without soil. See the photos, I personally have not successfully keep one alive for very long time. The butterfly farm was not in season, so not enough of them to us a show. I bought pretty pink orchid earing for souvenir, love it. Off to Elephants show, they gave us a wonderful entertainment from the banana feeding to bathing, lumbers collecting to painting. Who said elephant is a big animal & not very smart, well they proved to me that day that they are very smart animal. I always want to ride one & we did it there, we had pretty young one who has a mind of its own. He was pretty calm but like to stop enjoying his feast along the trail & in the river. We ended there with lunch by the river, it's very well organized show, thumbs up for the organizer there. Next stop is Hmong villages, the plan was to see three different villages, first two are free & last one we had to pay admissions fee 500 baht each. Minnie suggested that we should bring sweet for Hmong kids, so we stopped at the market on the way & that's where her mom works. She sells ready to eat food like T & T market food court for people who has no time or too lazy to cook. I remembered back when I was younger mom would bring ready to eat food home when she was late from market & I remembered that I really like them because it was different from how my mom cooked it. Hmong kids were so sweet, as soon as we arrived & brought out the sweet they were running from all corners. They would call each other out so they all can get some. You can see in photos Ian was smiling from ear to ear enjoying giving them sweet. In all Ian had more fun giving than kids receiving them. What a wonderful memories to think back & remember each kids reaction , some were pretty shy, some scare & some pretty happy to see you. Off to long neck village where we paid admission to see them, they don't really live in that area. It's more tourist display, the girls were dress up in their custom such as rings on their neck & their ankles & colorful clothes. I really feel sorry for these ladies even though it's their tradition & choices they've made but how can you be comfortable & happy having all these rings on your tiny body all your life. They started to wear them very little & they don't take them off they just keep adding up to 20 rings max on their necks. I had the opportunity to try the rings on my neck, it's hot & very heavy. Minnie was telling us that the new generation are not wearing them anymore due to new life style that they are exploring other side of the world, have to get job in the city where people are totally dressing differently. Heading to Chiang Rai by speed boat that's not very speedy along the river, this river border Thailand & Burma which run into mekong river that border Laos & Thailand. This is where the golden triangle is formed, between these three countries. It was a long day by the time we checked in the Hotel in Chiang Rai, pretty big & fancy hotel. Of course the night didn't ended there, we ventured to night market for foods & entertainment. Again lots of the same stuffs that so cheap that we didn't think it's worth buying. We got foods from different vendors & watch a ladies boy doing their Cabernet show. By 10pm I was so poop, all I wanted was to sleep. Ran into Minnie & her friend while waiting for hotel taxi to pick us up. She was quite please to see us out enjoying the local hangout of course mainly catering to tourist. She was mentioning it normally busier in high season than when we were there. 

The End

So we have done all our traveling, we had the greatest time full of experiances that will last a lifetime. We will come back from time to time to read what we have done and to reflect on the trip. Please enjoy the posts as we enjoyed writing them and putting them on the web for you during our travles. Thanks for following.

Ian & Phaydy