Chang Mai

Yesterday was our first real busy/tourist day of the trip. We woke up early and headed down towards the canal to take a long boat up towards a few temples and the grand palace. We ended up taking a canal tour on the longboat which would bring us by a floating market(ended up being two old women selling trinkets on a tiny little boat), a snake farm, fish farm, and then drop us off at the palace. Once we got dropped off we got lost, which at this point was not uncommon, and ended up running into the tourist police. He put us in a tuktuk and basically planned the rest of the day for us with the tuktuk driver. From noon til 4 pm the tuktuk driver took us around to different temples, a travel agent, a tailor shop, and finally the grand palace. The palace and temples were incredible to say the least. I posted a pic above from one of the temples with some monks in the middle of a prayer.

-Alex

So today we woke up early and headed to the airport to fly to Chang Mai. The plane was a little tight for both of us. I having a more "athletic/husky" build could not put the tray all the way down because my stomach was in the way. And Alex had to lean forward and push his butt back in order to fit his knees in. We got to our hotel/hostel B.M.P. and checked into a room size oven complete with two beds. We were soon off on our first adventure to get up close to some tigers and cubs. It was a great experience and made for some once in a life time photos. Just before we left we decided to try and get our feet exfoliated by fish. It is very hard to describe the feeling but it was a lot like pins and needles. In a few hours we are heading to a Thai boxing match where we are sitting ringside. Tomorrow we are off on our trek, pictures to follow.
-Matt