... 'oh, my buddha'

tomorrow i am going to head north to laos. i am really excited to see something new after a perfect week here in chiang mai. tomorrow morning it is time to say good-bye to mim and the other travellers staying at spicy house.

a short review of my week here in north thailand:

• tuesday: a hard day of rock-climbing at crazy horse buttress and afterwards a lovely dinner (a mixture of bbq and fondue) at spicy house with mim and some thai people

• wednesday: another day of rock-climbing - a little bit frustrating due to the lack of my strength-endurance of my forearms - followed by the amazing 'yi peng loy krathong' festival

• thursday: a relaxing day and a little bit of sightseeing in chiang mai

• friday: hard work for non-early-birds, because we got up early to wat doi suthep to listen to the morning prayers of the monks and to see sunrise over chiang mai ... afterwards just relaxing and getting ready for the trip tomorrow

thai bbq


yi peng loy krathong


temple in chiang mai


monks at wat doi suthep

see you,
christopher

... after having a lot of fun.

i just came back to spicy house after two amazing days in the nature. getting ready yesterday morning was a little bit hard after the consumption of one or two drinks the night before, but we all made it on time. the first stop was at a small butterfly and orchid farm (we had no clue that it was included as well and wished it would not have been - it was just a waste of time), followed by the elephant ride, which was great fun. after a hard hike uphills we arrived at the village, where we had dinner and stayed overnight - a lovely place on top of the mountain with no electricity.

today we had to walk all the way down again and were shown how to make cups and shotguns out of bamboo. the rest of the day was just wet - first of all we stopped at a waterfall for a waterfall-massage and afterwards we did white water rafting (was good fun) and bamboo rafting (was relaxing and a little bit boring).

now i am just looking forward to a lovely dinner and a day of climbing at crazy horse tomorrow.

see ya,
christopher

... spicy hou', chiang mai.

after leaving singapore i spent a night and a day in crazy bangkok. i tried to enjoy kao san road and the area around the king's palace, but it's hard if you are hassled all the time (tuk-tuk, taxi, ...). the nightmare par excellence is to see old, european bastards running around with young thai girls! it's even more embarrassing, if you hear them talk english and identify them as austrians or germans.

at night i took the bus to chiang mai to return to the spicy hou'. the trip was a nightmare as well. on the one hand due to the little space in the bus and on the other hand because of the driver taking a short cut over a drop on a dirt road causing a small damage on the bus, which took 3 hours to repair (1.30-3.30 a.m.). on the bus i got to know some people from nz and england, who are staying as well at the spicy hou', and perhaps i am going to join them on a trekking tour for the next two days - we'll see.

see ya,
christopher