Off to Chiang Mai!

We did not give Anne much time to relax before heading to our next destination! We had an early flight booked up to northern Thailand to Chiang Mai. We decided to save 15 hours of our precious time together and take a flight versus a bus!  We were greeted with a smile at our hotel and were excited about the adventures ahead of us!  Over a delicious Thai lunch we tried to plan our next couple days in CM.  We had grabbed a handful of the hundreds of brochures they had for all the many activities you could participate in.  That afternoon we drove motorbikes up a mountain to the beautiful Doi Suthep temple. 

The next day we took off on our first booked adventure: The flight of the gibbon canopy trip! This entailed us putting on a bunch of gear and attaching these clip things on us to these big, long cables and zip line from tree to tree in the canopy of a glorious mountain forest! Most of us were brave…some of us (we won’t mention any names!), were a little bit scared and nervous about trusting this cable high above the ground!  Screams and all it was a glorious, exhilarating time! We had about 30 zip lines total. The longest one was 800meters long.  After that I was not scared or screaming anymore and it was quite the time! The view was amazing around you and you felt like you were flying! This also entailed doing a couple of abseils…in which you have to trust this 90 pound Thai man with all your weight! All too soon though it was over!

 After a great lunch we got a chance to trek to a waterfall. 

It is a very common site in SE Asia to see small babies being  held while on a motorbike!

  On the hour ride back to the city, we decided that enough was enough and we needed to omit the word “awesome” from our vocabulary! We felt that we were more intelligent beings and could find better words to describe things that were “awesome!” We decided that we would keep track and the first person to say it five times had to do something for the others. I was well in the lead (with Anne and Lance both at 5, me at 0!).  Then, I started talking more….and quickly fell into last place!

The next day we decided to relax and sit by the pool, read and do this great book of brain puzzles (thanks to Keith and Sharon for lending it to Anne!).  We found our way to the best street food and kept going back! The following day we were on another outing….this time, we weren’t flying in the sky, but instead trekking up a mountain. We were given the option to do an easier trek or a harder one. Being we are all very “tough” we decided we could handle the tough one! What we didn’t know, was that this trek was over 2 hours long and uphill the WHOLE TIME!  Unfortunately, my lack of exercise or any physical activity for a few months did not help me! I brought up the rear the whole time.  Fortunately, we were with some really in shape people…...so they made me look worse! They would stop for breaks…..but by the time I got to the “break” spot, they were ready to take off again. Lance, like the good husband he is, was constantly trying to be encouraging! I think I can truthfully say I have never done anything so physically hard in my whole life! I truly thought that I was not going to make it to the top because my legs were going to give out!  But, the stubbornness in me won out, thankfully! I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  We made it to the top of the mountain and the views were glorious! After snapping a quick picture showing the work we did with the sweat we were all sporting, I collapsed on the ground!

I was still doing okay here (this was early on!)

 

A very lovely squatter toilet where we stopped for lunch!

   The pain was not going to end anytime soon though, because we were only half done with our package we purchased! After a quick lunch, we had to get on mountain bikes and bike 26km downhill on roads that we never paved or resembled anything close to smooth and flat. I almost gave up and wanted to ride in the truck with the guys that were following us!  That was the longest 26km of my life! That was not “biking” that was going downhill and holding your breaks constantly, trying to dodge the hundreds of pot holes in front of you.  I was absolutely miserable!

 But yet again, my stubbornness won out and I finally made it to the bottom where we sat in beautiful little grass huts on the lake and were fed a delicious meal!  I was happy to be alive and so glad that day was over!   I was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to walk the next day, so I thought I would try to ease the pain by getting a massage that night.  I was very pleased with the results the next morning!

We all agreed that taking it easy that day was the best idea we have ever had! It was New Year’s Eve and we wanted to be able to make it to midnight!  We relaxed by the pool again, took a nap and decided we were ready to get some food! I was very excited for this night because the whole year I spent in Thailand 2 years ago, I never got to experience the sky being filled with lanterns for a festivity.   We bought a few of our own and lit them off into the sky. When it was close to midnight, Anne decided we needed to ring in the New Year like everyone else, and send off lanterns! There were literally thousands and thousands of lanterns that lit up the sky.  It was one of the most amazing things I have experienced! Unfortunately my non fancy/expensive camera could not catch this magic!