Chiang Mai II

I'm sorry about the last post, but I was sitting in this Internetcafe and I was allowed to use Internet 15 min and the woman working there was really unfriendly and stared at me, so I was scared and tried to hurry.... :) but know I have a little bit more time so I can start to write some thoughts down... I hope I won't repeat myself...

First of all, Chiang Mai is a nice city, it is still busy and big (1.6 mio inhabitants), but compared to Bangkok, it is somehow manageable... The Loi Krathong Festival on monday was amazing... hundreds of thousands of people everywhere, even more food on the street than usual and all the lights- flying, floating, shooting in the air - very impressive, although I think it was also pretty dangerous, because kids were shooting fireworks (probably not only kids) in every imaginable direction... but I survived :)

as mentioned the next three days I went on a trek, which was actually fun, although I was thinking we would WALK more... we just did like 2 h the first day (uphill) 4h something the second and 2h again the third... I enjoyed it a lot, but the english boys were pretty much out of breath the whole time... it was fun :D I learnt a lot about english drinking "culture"... if Austria thought we had a drinking problem, look at England... they are insane...

The huts we slept in were ok, although you shouldn't think too much about the blankets or even sniff at them... not a good idea ;) but it was a good experience and I really like the jungle... we saw a lot of waterfalls and could do some rock jumping (highest about 6m) very cool...

the bamboo rafting was fun too, although you shouldn't bring anything that can get wet, so no pics here...

when we came back from the trip, we went out to a reggae bar, PingPong's friend bar... was fun, I didn't know that english boys like to dance so I had a great time, although I found myself a fan... I had to promise PingPong to go with him to dinner the next day before I could go home...  I had to leave early because I booked another walking trek for the next day...

This trip was more exhausting so I really liked it... but there were more moskitos, too and we "saw" (well I didn't I just ran) 2 snakes... when the guide saw the first one he really jumped... and said: so this one is deadly... (second experience like that... remember Botswana)... and I also saw a Tarantula... well only the leg but that's enough... the guide told us, they grill them and eat them apparently the help against asthma... 

Yesterday I went for a trip to Chiang Rai and the Long Neck village tribes... was very interesting but a lot of driving... I'll put some pics online (picasaweb.google.com/mariebrau)..

today I'm leaving by boat to Lao... so that will take me 2 days or something... 

Hope you're all doing great... many kisses