Day 5 and 6: Want a play by play of the last two days? Read on!

After arriving yesterday, we went into town and found a hostel. After stopping by several places, we finally found a place that had a vacant room: Jay's Guesthouse. It was a single room and little cramped, but we only paid 130 baht total for the night (24,3kr/$3,95). Didn't mind sharing a bed for that extremely low price! We're staying in a double room tonight. For 120 baht (22,4kr/$3,65) more we get a slightly bigger bed. Still only one blanket though... 

When sleeping in these super cheap hostels, you cannot expect luxury. They're usually not that aesthetically nice, no hot water, shared bathrooms etc. There's one thing I could not live without when staying at these places: my sleeping bag liner! This is pretty much just a super thin sleeping bag made out of silk. It provides a cleaner, more hygienic environment than the sheets at the cheap hostel. I hope this puts some of my family members in California more at ease. 

We spent the rest of yesterday walking around Chiang Mai, and took a minibus up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. A nice temple perched on a hilltop 16km/10miles northwest of town. 

The temples are gorgeous, and they're really all over the place here in Thailand. I'm sure we'll stumble upon some more without even trying. Miss you, Mom:) 

On our way home from the temple, we stopped by a random mall we passed by. Just did a little window shopping... Oh, and met some celebrities. 

Today we woke up early and went on a full day tour. A guy from London, a couple from New York, and two German girls were also on the tour. Interesting people! First we visited elephants at the Chiang Siam Elephant Mahout Training School. We fed the elephants bananas, and learned how to make them go forward, backward, turn, and stop. We also got some elephant kisses. 

After spending some quality time with the elephants, we went "trekking". We were expecting a few hours in the jungle, but in reality, we walked for 15 minutes to a waterfall, then went back to the minibus. Next time we book a trip like this, we'll make sure to ask exactly how long we get to trek. We wanted more! 

Later we went to a hill tribe village. The guide was very interesting and had a lot to say. Unfortunately, Isabelle and I started to worry that we would contract Japanese encephalitis (the one vaccination we didn't get). After seeing all the pigs and chickens, we were anxious to get on the minibus again. "As long as you're not planning on going to a rural farm with pigs and chickens, you should be fine without the vaccine", said the lady at the vaccination office. Cross your fingers for us! 

Lastly, we went on a bamboo raft down a relatively calm river. It was a fun day!

I'm tired after an eventful day, and am noticing that I'm pretty much just summarizing all that we've done. Kind of a boring post, if you ask me. But now you all know what I have done since I last posted at least! I'll try to keep these summarization posts to a minimum.

Love, 

Suzy