Lazy blogger...

Ok - I've been REALLY lazy with my blogging - so here's a long one to make up for it! I think i'll split this in 2 parts....

Chiang Mai - gosh this seems like it was time ago when we were in Chiang Mai, but in fact it was last week! We decided to cut the Chiang Mai trip short as we had kinda had enough of trekking and seeing villages and cities. Orginally, we booked a 3 day course at an Elephant conservation centre - where you learn to be a Mahout (elephant trainer). Sounds like a strange thing to do, but I just find it fascinating how such giant creatures can be so obidient and tame! Unfortunately... we were told lat minute that the training course was booked up! So waste no further time, instead of waiting for the next available space we decided to make a trip to teh conservation for a 1 day tour instead.

Here, the elephants are trained to carry logs for building and constuctction work in the villages. We watched a show where elephants demonstrated this, they also learn how paint - and these pictures can be sold for up to $US 20,000!!! But its all in aid of preserving this excellent conservation. The place also houses two elephant hospitals where injured and neglected elephants are kept. It was so sad to see some of their injuries - quite a few had their feet blown off from land mines and 1 had his trunk chopped off from working in the forest... however, it was very reassuring to see that they were well-cared for at the conservation. They also had some REALLLLLY cute baby elephants that were playing with their mum, one was so active he tried to climb over the gate to play with me!! Funniest thing was when he got his leg stuck whilst trying (we have this on video!!).

Day after we went for a Thai cooking course... no, this does not mean i will be cooking Thai food for everyone as soon as I get back... you just don 't know how much back-breaking work goes into making a curry!!! So anyway, after this course, I could probably get by making a Thai fried rice, and fried bananas - the easy ones. The spring rolls with glass noodles were GORGEOUS! But again, takes a little time and lots of oil to make...however, i will attempt to make a proper curry ONE DAY!! In the meantime I'd stick to curry paste from a jar!

So after spending just 10 days in Chiang Mai we headed back to Bangkok - en route to Phuket. We spent 2 days in Bangkok shopping, and I finally found a dress to wear for Ewei's wedding! So now I've got one less thing to worry about!