in and around chiang mai

cooking school was a lot of fun. Good group, a young Aussie couple, a girl from Bulgaria and a lady from Wales. Our instructor took us down to the market and explained the various fruits, veggies and hebs and we bought what we needed. Then back and cooked 5 or 6 dishes and ate. and ate. And ate. the pics will be posted on their website if interested (http://www.cookinthai.com/) sometime b4 feb 14 - we took the class on Jan 31.

next morning we left for a 3 day trek. Day 1 was drive, market stop, drive, then elephant ride (lots of fun) and about 4 hours of hiking to a small village. There were 12 of us (4 Dutch, 3 Koreans, 1 Brit, 2 French and us Canadians), stayed at our guide's house and had a great time. All the village children (about 30) came and sang songs, the stars were amazing and the food and beer was great. Sleeping was a little rough - 12 people in a room on a concrete floor with very thin mat. Lots of snoring, teeth grinding and the rooster started to crow at 2:30! And it was very cold.

next day we divided in 2 groups. The French couple, a Dutch couple and us hiked to a "waterfall camp" out in the mountains. It was beautiful, with a bath area where they had partially dammed the creek and a shower where they ran creek water through a bamboo shaft. Very cold but nice to get clean. Beds were a little more comfy here and we had more blankets and less people to make noise so was a little better for sleeping. Day 3 was another 3 hours of hiking, a stop at a waterfall for a swim (I was the only one to brave the water - very cold) and then a bamboo raft ride. Monique screamed a little bit and we got very wet!! We have some great photos though.

back to our hotel b4 5:00. Went out for a quick dinner and found a massive market area with all the roads closed. Not sure if this was the normal Sunday thing or some festival but there were a lot of people and kind of neat to wander. Aneeda stopped roadside for a much needed massage.

today will be a quiet day and tomorrow we are beach bound. Having a great time, hope everyone is doing well!

Randy & Monique