Sarah Patricia: Thailand Part 2

Out of all the places we went to in Thailand I think Chiang Mai was my favourite. It was so friendly, cheap and laid back, completely different to Bangkok and although we didn't know it yet, not so touristy as Phuket.

We were in Chiang Mai for approximately 4 nights/5 days although we had a jungle trek booked for two of those days which included an overnight stop.. but more on that later! Like in Bangkok we spent the first day just exploring and getting our bearings, we were so glad we did as well! While looking around we came across the best restaurant of our whole trip! It was called Lemongrass and just off a little alley near the Night Bazaar. The food was amazing, the people were soo nice and the food was unbelievably cheap, plus they had the best banana smoothie I have ever tried!

The Night Bazaar was our favourite place in Chiang Mai - it had all you can ask for really - bars to sit and watch the world go by, restaurants if you feel a little peckish and market stalls selling cheap trinkets and clothes to explore. We spent many nights here drinking cocktails and playing Connect 4 (I kicked his butt btw...)

Like Bangkok it was crazy hot in Chiang Mai! I cannot explain not only the heat but also the humidity. We spent our days wandering the city walls near the moat looking in little temples, occasionally cooling off in a bar for a nice cold beer. :) Chiang Mai isn't the largest of places, we walked the square around the center in probably about an hour or so but it is a really pretty place! Completely different to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok we experienced, and there were very few Westerners around.

The worst smelling thing I have ever... well... smelt!

....And all the hotels agreed!

There were lizards everywhere!

Probably one of our favourites moments of the whole holiday was the jungle trek. Before we left the UK we booked this and it probably cost around £20 each so we weren't expecting much, but oh boy we were in for a treat! We were picked up at around 9am and picked everyone else up (in total there was us two, another two English people, one German girl and two French men - as well as our tour guide!) First we headed to a market for toilet break and any other supplies then we headed to a waterfall. We expected a little gentle walk through the forest but instead we had a really hard trek uphill in 40 degree heat! I consider myself a pretty fit person and even I was struggling! We then went bamboo rafting which was pretty nice, although not the comfiest things to sit on!

Our guide showing us a tarantula!

Doesn't it look comfy?!

After bamboo rafting we ate lunch and walked for another two hours or so to our "hotel". We were basically sleeping in a hill tribe village, it was the weirdest thing ever. There was around 30 people who lived in 5 - 10 little wooden huts with no electricity, no running water and one toilet between them (which was a little hole in the ground...) They had tons of animals running everywhere including pigs, duck, dogs and a pink chicken!! We stayed here overnight, ate dinner, sat around a fire and got woken up at 3am the next morning by the Cockerel! The next day we had more walking(!!) to another waterfall where we sat around and chatted for a little while, went and had lunch and then rode elephants! This was my highlight of the whole holiday, although I don't know what I was expecting but our elephant was a little grumpy and not very comfy.

Whilst we were in Chiang Mai we were lucky enough to experience Songkran which is the Thai New Year and lasts around 3 days. I don't know how to explain just how crazy it was but the best way to describe it is hundreds of thousands of people line the streets and have a giant water fight. You cannot walk a few metres without someone throwing a bucket of water over you so with that, armed with our water pistols we joined in! The below video is not mine - it was the best one I could find on Youtube to show you all just how crazy it was, so credit must go to these.