Chiang Mai

Holy crap I'm tired.

I was just on my way to the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai, but then it started raining so I ducked into an Internet cafe instead to wait out the rain. It's since occurred to me that the rain may only get harder, in which case I probably should have just walked all the way to the Night Bazaar and ducked under the tents. Now I'll have to walk the rest of the way in the pouring rain.

Anyway after getting the overnight train from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai last night, today I rode an elephant, went hiking, went whitewater rafting and rode a bamboo raft. There are all kinds of treks like that you can do from Chiang Mai, so I decided to do that instead of just rock climbing. The elephant I rode was named Kanoi... or maybe it was Hanoi... I don't remember. Anyway she's 10 years old and much smaller than all the other elephants. I think the guy said elephants don't reach full-grown til they're 20, but that didn't seem right to me... maybe there was a miscommunication with the whole language thing.

So Kanoi/Hanoi seemed happy enough. She stopped a lot along the trail to eat bamboo and they seemed to treat her well enough. The Thai have a deep respect for elephants, but since automobiles became so mainstream they've had less use for the elephants, which means a lot of them don't live very good lives. There's an elephant hospital up here in Chiang Mai where they take really good care of them, but I won't have time to visit.

The hiking and whitewater rafting weren't exactly expert-level, but that's probably best since I was having some trouble with the easy hiking trail we took anyway (my gimp knee and ankle causes me to fall... a lot). The rafting guide sort of pissed me off because he kept implying that women were weaker and couldn't row as hard as men. I wanted to thwack him in the head with my oar ("Ooops! I'm just a helpless little girl! I just don't know what I'm doing!") but then I thought he might fall into the rocks and the three of us left in the raft would be left to our own devices. And the two others on the raft were men who seemed generally amused by Clueless Sexist Guide, so they might have taken his side.

I think the rain stopped. I wonder if that'll last. It's rainy season here -- especially in the north -- so downpours start and stop out of nowhere.

So tomorrow I'm going to wander around Chiang Mai to visit some temples, and then maybe get a Thai massage at the women's prison where they save all the money the prisoners make and then give it to them when they get out (don't worry -- they don't put you alone in a room with the violent criminals... I don't think).

Then I'm taking an overnight train back to Bangkok and a few different buses and a ferry to Ko Samet, which is my last stop here. I can't believe it's almost over...

OK, on to the Night Bazaar...