Chiang Mai - back in Thailand

We flew up to the Northern part of Thailand to Chiang Mai.  We had only planned to stay two or three days, but thought since we had gone out of our way to get there we might as well spend a bit longer there.  In the end we had four really fun full on days.

Day one - visiting temples and then the local Sunday night market

Day two - cooking course with Siam Rice.  So much fun.  We got to make seven dishes each!! What was really cool was that for each course there were a variety of dishes to choose from so Nath and I made sure we choose different options.  Essentially we know how to make 14 Thai dishes from scratch - enough to open our own restaurant!

Day three - a day tour to an orchid & butterfly farm (very lame), an elephant trek (very cool), a short trek in the forest (thank goodness - in the heat I wouldn't have wanted to walk much longer!), white water rafting (could have been a bit more wild) and finally a stop at poo poo paper (paper made from recycled elephant poo!).  It was a really cool day, lots of activities to give variety so there was no chance of getting bored.

Day four - a trip to Tiger Kingdom.  Here we got to touch and have photos with tigers of all different ages.  We elected to have photos with the smallest cubs (about two months old) and the biggest tigers (about 18-20 months).  While it was very cool to be so close to the tigers it was a mixed experience as really they should be out in their natural habitat and not being prodded and poked by tourists.

At the end of today we caught a night train at 5pm from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.  The train arrived at 7:20am and by 8:05am we were on another train to Chumphon.  The idea being that the train was to arrive at 3pm and we would then hang around to get a night ferry at 11pm to Koh Tao and arrive at 5am.  The longer we were on the train (all eight hours) the more that plan really sucked.  Upon arrival in Chumphon we decided to book into a cheap hotel and opt for an early morning ferry leaving at 7am and arriving in Koh Tao at 10am - a much better plan!! This way we could shower, have dinner and an almost full nights sleep.