Chiang Mai

Ok, so we are in Chiang Mai and have been here for almost a week now, we have had a great time - there is so much to do here but unfortunately it all costs money! we chose a few big things to do as this is the best place to do them but will save our trekking until Vietnam. Today we hope to catch a bus further up north to Chiang Rai and after a couple of days head to the Laos border. It was great to see Mallory and Paul here, such a lovely suprise and we had a nice couple of days with them. It's only about 5 weeks until we meet up with Mark in the south, seems like time is going quite quickly!

me and Liz on "Jungle flight" they take u high into the trees and you 'fly' from one tree to the next by zip wires...i have to admit i was pretty scared but it didnt last long as the guides were so funny..always joking and made it a grat day. they loosely wrapped a rope round liz's leg and told her to jump...haha...they said it so seriously and she didnt know what to do!!! they apparently dont understand what "pleeeeease go slow" means, especially on the abseiling where it was most horrifying, i dont like freefalling but it was the best way to make us scream! one girl on the trip was almost in tears and begging to go home so they took it easy on her but the rest of us were prime for all the jokes! We did this for Liz's birthday and i think it was one of the best things we've done so far :)

A lovely giraffe at the Chaing Mai zoo, we could walk right into the centre of their area and they came so close :) the zoo was huge and there was some sort of bus system but we were damned if we could figure it out! it seemed to drive past all the good bits and dump us next to nowhere..it involved a lot of walking and waiting for buses but the animals had a lot of room and seemed very well looked after.
Feeding an elephant :-o we thought it was just free to roam around to begin with and daren't go that way but realised his foot was attached and people could feed him. very strange sensation having an elephant hoover up bananas from your hand!


We paid extra to see the Pandas..definately worth it, they were so cute!
At Wat U Mong (hilarious name), the famous fasting monk..pretty gruesome monument!Us at Wat Phra Singh (maybe spelt wrong!!)
Me, Liz and our cousin Mallory (who we randomly managed to catch with Paul before they left Chaing Mai)
Just before we ate waaaaay too much to be healthy...it was all so good!
My very own tofu pad thai :)
Us pounding our ingredients for the curry pastes
Liz preparing her thai red curry pasteDigging into my grilled beef salad..mmm
Lizzy and Vannee (our chef) at the market buying the food for our course