Chiang Mai

The bustrip to Chiang Mai took some seven hours. We had enough space enjoying the fan throwing fresh air to us, reading, writing diary, and like always sleeping. We arrived in Chiang Mai and the first foot out the bus door, thousands of tuk tuk driver (like taxis) tried to convince us to go with them to town. We did not like the first guesthouse we went to and so, the next day, we checked into another one, slightly more expensive but recommanded by our English couple we met. It was worth it! Chiang Mai is a rather big city so it took us a while until we felt like home again. The first night we just went to a roof-top bar which was in the roof on the fourth floor overlooking the old city walls of Chiang Mai. The bar had no windows but was open and decorated completely in a Raggae-Style. Those of you who know me well can imagine how much I liked that bar...for all others: a heck of a lot!!! The day after our arrival we slept in a while because the vodka from that bar gave us quite a hang over :) We decided at 3p.m. to yet get out and go to the royal summer residence and Doi Suthep, which turned out to be the most astonishing wat we have been to. The palace was unfortunately closed by the time we got there but Doi Suthep, which means "Mountain of the good God" was amazing, 300 steps led aus up the hill to that golden temple with tons of different Buddhas. The temple was on a mountain, so we also could enjoy a nice view over Chiang Mai and its aiport *g* After we left we had dinner with a Thai girl we spent the day with. The good thing about it was, that she could speak English and finally we were able to learn more about the Thais and their culture. The next day we had to get up early and made our way to Doi Inthanon, which is the highest mountain of Thailand. The first couple of hours we took a local bus and then we had again to hitchhike to get to the summet, lying in a national park. The family who took us was really nice and showed also some waterfalls to us, amazing!!! The sad thing was that it rained and also it had only 15 degrees making us shiver a little. Luckily we had our raincoats because once again we had to sit in the back of a pick-up. Even though the sight was really foggy we enjoyed our time there. From there we travelled to Pai, a paradise for backpacker up in the mountains of Thailand...