Chiang Mai, Thailand

The northern city of Chiang Mai is super cool.  We had a long journey to get here from Surin National Marine Park in the Andaman Sea (more on that later).  First, we took a speedboat back to the mainland.  Then a truckride to the bus station in Kuraburi.  Quickly thereafter we boarded a bus to Chumphon, where we had a quick dinner before getting on a night train bound, for Bangkok (BKK).  Luckily the train was late, so instead of arriving in BKK at the ridiculous hour of 6, we arrived a few hours later.  Dropped our stuff off at a hostel, ate a few meal, saw a movie, "Love and Other Drugs" (Pete Loved it!), bought another train ticket for that night (ugh, Kira is not the biggest fan of the sleeper trains-Pete Loves them).  Then we just needed to get back to Khao San Rd. where our backpacks were, eat again at the incredible restaurant of Ethos (across from May Kaidees!) and get over the the train station for our 2nd night in a row on a train--this one bound for Chiang Mai.  We would've had the perfect amount of time to leisurely enjoy our meal, etc. but we wound up with a total joke of a cab driver.  Oh My Goodness.  I looked on a map and saw that we only needed to go between 5-6 kilometers.  OK, yes, the traffic in BKK can be insane but after about a half hour of driving around, i was beginning to wonder what was going on.  then i saw that we were at the train station and consequently in a very long and slow line of cars.  the train station was definitely not on the way to Khao San Rd.  He made a phone call, probably asking for directions because a few minutes later, he reached into the glovebox and pulled out a GPS!!!  So we got to hear the GPS lady giving directions in Thai.  Are you kidding me??!! It's not like we asked him to take us to a remote village near the Cambodian border.  When most drivers pick up farangs (Westerners), they assume they will be going to Khao San.  Since our driver did not speak English, i tried to ask in Thai questions like, "why are we here?" "Where are you taking us?" "How much longer?" which was not helpful because he would answer in Thai and i did not understand.  after another 10 minutes, we saw that we had been driving around for 12 km and were not much closer to our destination! We ordered the driver to let us out, wherever we were and we didn't pay him the full amount.  We couldn't even express our annoyance because he didn't understand and Thais don't like confrontation.  Well, neither do Pete and I. Maybe we could be Thai.  Maybe we actually blend in so well, that the driver thought we were Thai and that's why he picked us up.  ha ha.
SOOOO, we made it to Chiang Mai and quickly checked into a nice and cheap hotel ($8.00/night), mostly just so we could have a place to put our stuff for the day.  Later that day, we found a cute boutique-ish hotel and decided that the next day, we would upgrade to a $20/night room with AC, TV and refridgerator! We have done lots of hanging out and eating good food in this city.  Pete went mountain biking for a day while Kira went to a yoga class.  I wanted to take a vegetarian Thai cooking class, but it didn't work out.  The most amazing thing we did while in CM, was definitely going to the Elephant Nature Park, about 60 km north.  It was kind of expensive for one day, but the money was worth it, as it all goes to running the park.  An amazing Thai woman, Lek, started the sanctuary some years ago and has rescued 35 elephants from abusive situations.  There are thousands of elephants in Thailand today that are abused in various ways: logging (which is illegal but still happens), street begging, giving tourists rides.  When Lek hears about an elephant that is being forced to work but is unhealthy or disabled, she does  everything she can to buy it and bring it to her park.  One of the elephants there was hit by a car when it was forced into the city to beg on the streets with its owner.  Another was tortured by its owner, resulting in a disabled leg.  They both walk with labored limps.  Watching this followed by a documentary we watched during our stay there, brought tears to my eyes.  In the film, we saw how elephants are "broken" when they are very young and then they are trainable.  It is disgusting and unbelievable to me how people can be so cruel.  So, if any of you ever visit a place where elephant rides are offered, ask first how the animal was trained before you financially support those people! Aside from the sad part, the day we spent at the park was incredible! We got to feed, pet and help wash some of the elephants, including a 1.5 yr old baby!!! Feeding them was amazing because we were right by their beautiful, giant heads and could see right into their eyes.  They are such wonderful animals.
       After spending nearly a week here, we were going to head over to the town of Pai and then towards the Burmese border, but when we found out that we can't do a visa run at that particular border (to extend our visa, which runs out in a few days), we have decided to head towards Laos instead.  Maybe when we are back in BKK in  April getting our India visa, we will make it to Pai and beyond.  We'll see.  We are excited for a new country.  We'll get to be millionaires again! (8700 Laotian kips to one dollar).