Back to Thailand

Despite being sad to be leaving Laos we were excited to go back to Thailand and our first stop was Chiang Mai. We had a few options of how to get there from Luang Prabang a 3 day slow boat and bus; a 17 hour bus journey or a 1 hour flight. We chose the flight!

On our first full day in Chiang Mai we rented a scooter to ride up the mountain to a temple and royal palace. After a bit of a shaky start on the bike I soon got the hang of it and we were on our way, albeit a little slowly. It was an enjoyable ride up the mountain to the temple, the roads were quite steep and very windy but gave good views of Chaing Mai below.

Hells Angels newest recruit

The Doi Suthep temple wasn't anything special really, getting immune to all the temples now although there was a nice view of the city from one part of it.

Us at the temple

After the temple we rode further up to the Royal Palace, this is where the Thai Royal family visit in the summer. There are a few wooden cabins and a palace where they live but the main feature was the beautiful gardens. There was a vast array of all kinds of flowers, including an amazing rose garden. They were all kept in perfect condition and walking through them in the sun was an enjoyable way to spend our afternoon.

My great photography

Outside the log cabin

The next day we went on a cooking course called Thai Farm, one of the things we were looking forward to most about Chiang Mai and it didn't disappoint. The day started at 8am when we were picked up and taken to a local market where we met Tsurian our instructor for the day. We also learn about some of the ingredients we were using later in the day and then got a chance to explore the market ourselves.

We then went to the farm where the course was held, it was around 45 minutes outside the city in the countryside. Before we started cooking we got a tour of their extensive gardens where they grow a lot of the fresh ingredients we used, so we picked some of the stuff as we went along.

In the garden - The hat was compulsory (well according to Leanne)

Then we got down to the real business, in total we made 5 dishes. First up was the best Tom Yum soup we have ever tasted, I say mine was better and Leanne insists hers was.

Tom YUM soup

Next up was the curry course, I made Red whilst Leanne opted for Yellow. We started from scratch and made the paste which took a lot of griding in the pestle and mortar, good job we've got the big guns!

Ingredients for the paste...

...The finished product. 

We also made a Pad Thai, Chicken with Basil and Chilli, Chicken with Cashew nuts and for dessert Mango sticky rice and Coconut milk with Banana. I wasn't that fussed about the desserts (no chocolate) but Leanne loved her Mango sticky rice.  Leanne - It was creamy and sticky and warm and fresh and comforting all at the same time. Even though I was full I still ate every last bit of it, definitely better than any chocolate based dessert I've had!

Leanne's Pad Thai

We spent two more days in Chiang Mai but didn't really do much just explore the city. We hadn't really spent more than 3 days in any one place in a while so it was nice to have a base and relax. Moving all the time, having to pack every other night and finding new accommodation is quite tiring and gets to you after a while so its good to have a little break from it all to recharge. Not that we are complaining we are still enjoying every minute.

We decided to leave Chiang Mai and head straight to Bangkok, we arrived at 6am in the morning spent a day looking around the shopping malls and the night exploring the night markets and street food before leaving the next morning at 8am. It was another brief encounter with Bangkok but we felt we made the most of it.

From Bangkok we decided to visit Khao Yai national park, two hours away, we weren't really sure whether we were going to go until a few days before but it was a good last minute decision to make. In Chiang Mai we were tempted to visit some elephants but decided against it in the end as we didn't really want to see them in captivity doing tricks, being made to perform or carting tourist around. So this was our alternative and there was a small chance we would see some wild elephants.
We did a 1 and a half day tour of the park with Greenleaf tours, who were amazing and knew the park and it's animals inside out. The first half day we visit a natural spring and bat cave where we witnessed the nightly exodus of 2 million bats.

The natural spring

Spiraling bats

It was an impressive spectacle to watch all the bats fly out of the cave, the sound they made was quite eerie. As they were streaming out there were a handful of birds of prey circling above before swooping down to get the bats.

The next day started early, we spent a few hours driving through the park slowly in an open top pick up truck stopping to look at the wildlife. Our two guides were amazing and spotted so many animals and birds along the way that it seemed we spotted every other minute. Here are some of the things we saw;

A Flying Squirrel 

Bird

Bird 2

Leanne's best wildlife photo

We also saw countless other birds and wildlife including a Hornbill. Unfortunately it flew overhead and we didn't have time to take a photo but it was huge and made an unbelievable swooshing sound with its wings. We couldn't believe how loud it was.

We then stopped the truck and trekked through the jungle for a few hours seeing more incredible wildlife;

Scary spider

Even scarier millipede thing 

Fungus on one of the huge towering trees.

A poisonous scorpion our guide found on the floor

My favourite wildlife photo

During the trek we visited a waterfall that they used in the filming of 'The Beach'. Just before we got there though the heavens opened and we got absolutely drenched.

Sporting our fetching Leech socks

After the trek we got back in the truck and started on our way back out of the park on the way hoping to see an elephant. The guides told us that we were unlikely to see one as they were quite rare and after an hours drive we had pretty much given up hope. Then suddenly we saw a huge one up ahead, we were very excited. We slowly overtook it and then rode just in front of it for a few hundred meters. It was amazing to be so close to it but we couldn't stay near it for that long as it got a bit scared and tried to charge at the truck. Luckily our driver had fast reactions and kept us a safe distance for both us and the elephant. It was quite scary and impressive to hear it go 'arrruuuu' (we can't describe it better than that) and then start running.

Ambling along

The elephant was beautiful and it was the perfect end to a fantastic day, we still can't believe how much wildlife we got to see.

The next morning we got the bus back to Bangkok where we spent another 7 hours before getting a night bus/ferry to Koh Tao to start island hopping. We have just finished island hopping and are now in Malaysia so  we know we are a week or so behind but hopefully we will get back up to date in the next week.