Can I get a wat wat?

Greetings from Chiang Mai! We have made it to the northern capital of Thailand, and it's been a nice break from the constant beating of the sun. To many, Chiang Mai is considered the gateway to the "real" Thailand. However, I think some people go away disappointed when they see how busy and polluted Chiang Mai is today. I guess the conveniences that tourists look for, like wifi and a/c, come at a price.

We didn't have much expectations before coming here. And so far, it's worked out fairly well. It's a pretty relaxed city where it's hard to go a few steps without seeing a wat, aka temple. Things are way cheaper here than the south, which is good for our budget since we are slightly over budget at this point. There are also tons of tourist agencies around which offer all kinds of day or multi-day trips to the outskirts of the city. There's everything from mountain trekking, to rafting, to cooking classes.

Kevin and I opted for a three-day trekking tour with the whole shebang! It included mountain trekking, visiting hill tribe villages, elephant riding, white water rafting, bamboo rafting, and staying at a hill tribe village for a night. In the end though, we came back a day early and were kind of disappointed with the tour. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great either. The tour felt quite rushed, since we were given a time limit for every place we went, and the tribe visit wasn't very authentic since it was more like a souvenir stop then a chance for us to see them living their daily lives. But seeing the elephants was very neat we were able to experience a lot of different things in a short amount time. It also lowered our bar of acceptable accommodation, since you can't get much simpler than sleeping in a bamboo hut with 10 other people, with bedding that hasn't been washed since God knows how long. Not sure if that's a plus though.

We're off to Laos tomorrow. It's gonna take a long 3 days to get there via slow boat. I think the entire boat trip will take 15 hours, with a break in between. Yes, sloooooooow boat indeed. That's alright though, just means more time to blog!