Chiang Mai - yes please.

We arrived in Chiang Mai about mid-day on Saturday and immediately felt that we were going to like it more than Bangkok. We checked in and immediately headed down to the city center in a tuk tuk (little motorized scooter that carries passengers). We had lunch at a local Thai place - two appetizers, two main courses and two accidently enormous beers for 250 baht (about $7.50). Jay said "I love Chiang Mai" on at least three separate occassions during lunch. We next walked around to find Jay a tailor and found one we liked. He was measured for two dress shirts and a tweed sport coat. We then walked around for a while and explored some of the wats in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai and its surrounding areas is only a fraction of the size of Bangkok but has the same # of wats. Saturday night we went to the night market where we did some bargaining and got lots of fun presents :) Jay wanted to find someone who would sell him something for 1 baht. "1 baht? 1 baht? No? Ok - 2 baht?" Didn't happen. Mind you that is the equivalent of Jay taking off with their merchandise for free...

Day two in Chiang Mai we ventured north of the walled city. First thing in the morning we went on an elephant ride (see photo!) and got to feed our elephant little bananas and pieces of bamboo. There were about 10 female elephants that were used for riding at the camp we were at with three baby elephants in tow. One of the babies stepped on my foot while we were taking a picture and I couldn't believe how much it weighed...

Next we headed out to a Karen village to meet some people and then went trekking through some rice paddies and then to a waterfall in the woods. It was beautiful. We had lunch at a "restaurant" literally on the side of the road and it was delicious - curry, sweet and sour, rice, fresh pinapple for dessert.

The afternoon was a bamboo raft ride down the river. The "raft" was 8 pieces of bamboo held together with a sort of rubber band fashioned out of old tires. There was a 12 year old boy who steered us with a long stick that he used to push along the bottom of the river.

We headed back to Chiang Mai (about an hour's drive) and went into the Sunday night market late last night. We got our first Thai massages which were ridiculous. It was 60 baht ($1.80) for 30 minute foot massage. Amazing! I want to move to Chiang Mai....

This afternoon we leave for Cambodia. Should be amazing....more to come soon!

Love us xo

PS - Today is our 2nd anniversary!