We flew from Laos on a dodgy and jerky plane and eventually landed safely much to our joy. I have come to the conclusion that I feel much safer and comfortable on big jet propulsion planes and the smaller propeller planes are just not for me, I hate the fact that every bump and jolt of the plane feels so strong but I'm not sure I will have the luxury of choosing what we fly in when we do.
First impressions of Chiang Mai is that it was much bigger and busier than we both expected. We had a night booked at a guesthouse in the backpacker area north east of the old city. After one night we moved as we could get cleaner and nicer accomodation about 50m down the road for the same price. We have 4 nights, 3 full days here and we set about deciding what to do.
The first day we explored the city on foot, walking to all the main temples and sights in the old town. Everything was quite accessible and easily reached without the need for a tuk tuk. We also stumbled on a Boots and obviously izzi had a field day stocking up on various cosmetics and the sort since it had been three months since she had such a good opportunity. Other delights were also the hundreds of 7eleven's dotted on every corner. We made the most of it buying up pretty much every box of Kelloggs frosties for breakfast for a few days. We booked on and sorted out the itinerary for the next few days and settled down to life in Chiang Mai.
Day two we booked on a cooking course, Thai Farm Cooking School, leaving at 8:30am and not getting back till 4pm. They picked us up and we drove away from the city for about 45 minutes. The first stop was in a local market where our guide took the group around explaining Thai cooking and ingredients as well as answering many questions which was good. Once we had finished we headed for the farm where we all put on hats and aprons and prepared for a day of cooking. We started by walking round the garden tasting and pickng herbs and spices which will be used in the dishes we cook. In total we got to cook and try 5 dishes, a soup, curry, vegetable dish, noodles and dessert - we chose classics such as Pad Thai and red & green curry. At the beginning we made the paste you need to make the curries, unfortunately I got a bit in my eye and my eye began to cry, washing it in water helped but it stang most of the day. Our teacher was overly camp and hilarious, picking fun and dropping in jokes throughout the day. By the end of the day we had eaten so much we had to take some home in doggy bags which we ate later that night. At the end we all got a small cooking book with the recipes we cooked which was a nice touch to the end of the day.
Day three we had arranged to do a days elephant Manhout training at a place called Baan Chang Elephant Park. We read lots of things about places where elephants are mistreated and badly kept but this seemed like one of the good ones. The day was great fun, firstly feeding and getting to know your elephant and learning about the reasons for the park and some of the history of elephants in Thailand. We learnt basic commands to ride them but since we always had the elephants full time Manhout with us the elephants rarely needed any direction and followed him around and mostly did what he said. We felt the park was good but it still doesn't seem fare to keep such big and magnificent creatures in captivity. We were told all the elephants here were rescued from working the streets or from owners who could not look after them properly so it was the better of two evils, he also explained that they could not be released and lots of them had only ever know human company and simply would not survive in the wild. After lunch we went on a hour or two trekking with them, swapping driver half way so me and izzi could ride front. The best part of the day was washing and bathing them at the end. This obviously seemed the most enjoyable for the elephant and also for us, our elephant constantly squirting us with water and shit but still was great fun.
The next morning we woke and travelled to the bus station aiming to get a bus to Sukhothai, an ancient capital of Thailand.
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