Chiang Mai Day 2

Trying really hard to catch up here...  No guarantees though...

7/2/2011
Adventure Day!
We booked an "adventure tour" (for lack of a better term) for today.  We were thinking of doing some hiking/treking in the jungle, but most of the trips were multi-day trips and didn't involve all that much actual hiking.  So, we just did a multi-activity fun day. It all started with pickup at 8:45am at the hostel (after a breakfast of coffee and fruit, of course!).

We started by driving around the city to pick up all of the participants; 11 in all.  Plus the 2 guides, which meant we crammed 13 people in a 12-seater tour van/bus.  So, one of the smaller girls sat on the floor for the first part... :(  Anyway, our first stop was at a butterfy farm and orchid garden.  Wasn't as exciting as it could have been, but it was nice.  The orchids were huge!  And we got to wear little orchids on our shirts too.  How cute...

Us with our little orchid pins

Monster orchids

Then, after driving a good 45 minutes into the mountains (through some treacherous mud and kind-of roads), we made it to the whitewater rafting stop.  Now, the water was actually kind of brown (looked like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka's factory :)  ), but it was white in the rapids!  So, the name was correct. :)  The river we rafted on was the Mae Tang River and seemed to be a pretty popular river for tours, although we were the only ones rafting in our section of the river.  I used my nifty waterproof camera case so I could take pictures during the trip.  Unfortunately, I had to paddle during the exciting parts (either that or flip over, so I chose to paddle...) but got a few shots nonetheless.  We got soaked on our first section of rapids, and didn't every dry off.  In one part, our raft was pretty much underwater!  We all had to jump down to keep the raft from tipping as it came back up!  It was quite a lot of fun!

Yep, the brown water does turn white in rapids...

Us hanging on for dear life!

Ahhh!

The calm after the storm

Another shot of the clouds rolling over the hills

After all of that paddling, we were treated to a buffet lunch of Thai food: fresh pineapple, a variety of chicken dishes, a veggie dish, and pad thai.  And did I mention it was a buffet?  :)  Definitely ate my money's worth! :)

Plate 1

 After lunch, we went zip-lining!  Not sure if that is a verb, but it is now! :)  We strapped on harnesses and went zipping (pun fully intended) through the foliage on the nearby mountainside.  The adrenaline rush was only rivaled by the exquisite beauty of the natural landscape.  The clouds creeping over the surrounding ridges with the gurgling river beneath was quite a treat. :)

Bridget's ready to go! (especially since she's wearing my jacket... :)  )

Where does the cable go?

Weeeeee!

Dangling before the drop!

After zip-lining, we got rides on elephants.  The elephant we were on wasn't all that obedient, so the "guide" had to coerce him/her to stay on the "trail".  He wasn't all that mean to the elephant, but the elephant wasn't enjoying it.  So, I personally didn't really enjoy that activity.

2 of our friends riding their elephant

 The last activity of the day was bamboo-rafting.  Yep, we climbed on bamboo rafts and floated down another (rapids-less) section of the Mae Tang River.  It was a nice, peaceful way to end the activities. :)  And more oppotunity to enjoy the scenery.

This thing wouldn't survive rapids...

Us chillin' on the raft

We stopped at a waterfall on the way back too.  But the water was kind of cold and we had just started drying off from the bamboo rafting, so we didn't get in the water too much.  I got my feet wet and walked around a bit.  But it wasn't all that hot out, so we weren't dying of heat.  If it had been hotter, we probably would have gotten in.  Anyway, we did take two pictures. :)

More camera effects! :)

Waterfall (multi-layered too)

After we got back, we headed down to the Saturday night market with the same friends as the night before.  We got some good food on the way, as usual.  I got some really cheap rice soup and sweet-and-sour seafood.  Bridget got cashew chicken.  It wasn't all that interesting, so we didn't get any pics.  After dinner, we made it to the market and walked around for a good hour or so.  The market seemed to stretch on for at least a mile of the street.  Bridget got some stuff, so we didn't walk away empty-handed. :)  Once we got back, it was off to bed.  I hadn't been feeling too well (woke up with a headache and congestion), so we figured some sleep couldn't hurt. :)