track our trek

after a week in bangkok adjusting to a slower pace and finding our way around the city, we decided to head north to chiang mai. it's a 13-hour train ride north to this old walled city, land of hill-tribe village handicraft markets and trekking tours. we took the recommendation of the folks at our bangkok guest house and stayed at pong o guest house, a guest house that was recently opened by friends of the owners of asha. just as asha is situated a little removed from the action, so pong o is about a 20 minute walk outside the walled city in chiang mai. as it turns out, we were the only guests there, except for robert, part owner of asha, and his girlfriend panida.

we spent the week being spoiled by nan, fluke and the staff at pong o, and relaxing...we got foot massages and thai massages, went on a tour to see waterfalls, a karen hill-tribe village, the royal project (more later...)and pagodas built for the king and queen on their 60th birthdays, took a all day thai cooking class, and shopped at night for souvenirs at the night market...we walked for hours on end through the stalls asking each night what special price vendors were giving & deciding what we'd like to come back for... pong o was great...the owners invited us to participate in a buddhist ceremony to bless the new business and pray for luck and prosperity...three monks came and performed the ceremony, chanting beautifully in an ancient language, saying prayers, and giving blessings for each of us with bracelets made of string. for the men, they wound the string several times round the right wrist and tied it off while saying a blessing. for the women, they made the bracelets free-hand and laid them in our left palm. (women are not permitted to touch buddhist monks here.) after the ceremony, the monks were served lunch, and the rest of us sat down to the feast after they had eaten.

after lunch, we went bamboo rafting on the mae wong river with nan and fluke! so cool! you sit(sometimes waist-deep) on these 30-foot long bamboo rafts that are tied together w/ bicycle tires and steer your way down the river. we laughed afterward (with relief) at how dangerous the whole thing could've been! no helmets and life jackets and waiver/emergency contact forms here...just hop on, hold on & have fun! someone threw daryll a bamboo pole  told him to steer! jokes! we passed a small herd of wild elephants eating and drinking from the river. one raft crashed into the bank too close to one & he shooed them away with his trunk! sorry, no pictures of the elephants...i didn't have the guts to take the camera out of the ziploc bag in my pocket for long, for fear i'd fall in the river with it!

our thai cooking class at baan thai cooking school (https://www.cookinthai.com) the next day was loads of fun...we enjoyed meeting matt & edwina from australia and darin from canada. we cooked 5 dishes and ate them all! it was delicious and easy to do...the hardest part was carving the vegetables into flowers and leaves for garnish!  hilarious...you could've rolled us out of there with a bulldozer afterwards, we were so stuffed!...and our knees were stiff because the entire class was spent sitting on the floor traditional style!  ouch!