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Chiang Mai & the Dismal Dengue

Chiang Mai, Thailand


After passing through Bangkok for one night only, our final Thai destination was to be a short stopover in Chiang Mai, before our adventures began in Laos. Unfortunately, a rogue mosquito in Koh Phangan changed our plans considerably when it went beyond the normal pesky bite, and a 5 hour wait at the local hospital followed by a blood test confirmed that I had been infected with Dengue Fever.
I had started to feel pretty poorly during the long journey, but once in Chiang Mai the savage fever took hold and I was sick, weak as a 140 year old woman and confined to my bed for about a week. Meanwhile, inbetween making sure I had everything I needed, Sup had to entertain himself in the town with temple visits, admiring the intricate golden decorations and impressive structures, and a gallon of...you guessed it, Thai curry!


With a lot of pills, TLC and mini bananas, I finally dragged my frail little body out of bed and began the road to recovery – pizza and iced coffee were two of my cravings and they soon brought me back to life!

Sup had found that although the town had a lot of lovely places, it was not a lovely place in itself. The nightlife was seedy throughout and it was hard to escape this, even in seemingly ordinary restaurants. The gentle Thai vibe seemed to have been lost here and seeing a young guy parading a scared baby elephant around the busy town on a chain for money further added to the general dubious atmosphere we felt here.

One of the lovely places he had discovered, however, was the town park, so we hired a picnic mat and chilled by the park lake for the day in the sun, feeding the big Koi fish, thousands of which lunged to the surface as we sprinkled pellets for them to eat.

In the evening we indulged in a little entertainment in the form of Thai boxing – Muay Thai! It was a really fun night, starting with feisty 15 year old boxers with surprising potential, followed by 17 year olds with high spirits and impressive coordination, before the 18 year olds burst into the ring with the fire, determination and ass-kicking moves of future champs. During a break, a group of thai boxers were blindfolded and sent into the ring to cause mayhem with each other, which they certainly did...arms and legs were flailing everywhere, and at one point a boxer pounded the ref by mistake, which resulted in an almighty flying kick of retaliation that sent the boxer soaring across the length of the ring.

Then came the final fight of the night, and the one we had been waiting for – a tough looking Thai facing off against one hulking great beast of a man from England. We had watched him prepare throughout the night, being spurred on by his little Thai lady, smearing Tiger Balm all over his muscles and generally strutting like a true boxing champ. And that he was. Within a couple of rounds the brave Thai was pulverised into a heap on the floor and the crowd went wild.

The excitement of the Thai boxing had finally re-energised me and by our 9th day I was well enough to take on a challenge of a tour. We began with a visit to a beautiful orchid farm filled with an array of colourful flowers. Sup was keen to move on after about 2 minutes, one flower looking pretty much like the next to him! We continued our journey by minibus which brought us close to our next destination, and then a 15 minute trek (my favourite kind!) took us through luscious rolling green hills and rice fields to come face to trunk with 7 almighty elephants...



We spotted the biggest most impressive bull and lingered at the back so that we could ride on the star of the show, but we were about to find out that this was a flawed plan indeed. In short, our elephant was crazy! Worse even, a combination of crazy, rebellious, incredibly strong, and above all – hungry!
The ride consisted mainly of climbing for an hour through wet mud up a steep incline through forest and back down again. With me and Sup perched precariously on a wooden seat on his back and the 'Mahout', or elephant handler, sat snugly on the neck with one foot behind each ear to steer (!) we took just a few steps before our 'graceful' beast snorted about a gallon of liquid mud and shot a steady spray all over us in an effort to cool himself down. He then made it his sole mission to search, eat and destroy every bamboo tree in sight, snapping whole trees as easily as if they were flower stems and devouring everything in sight.

It was a hilarious experience, as were the tricks we were shown by another mahout and his elephant. Using her trunk as a lift, she hoisted her master up onto her almighty back, and then scooped his flip flop up from the ground and passed it up to him without even being asked!

There were times when our awesome ride became a little scary – the mud made the elephant slip occasionally and we had to duck from the heavy branches that came crashing towards us as he wrenched down the trees, all the while clinging on for dear life.

Incredibly, we escaped with all limbs intact and we waved goodbye to our crazy friend and headed out to a waterfall for lunch – some lovely flavoured chicken rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Sup had forgotten to bring his contact lens case, but he could swim around in the cool shallow water. I, however, had other ideas...my eye was on the rock slide! (that's me at the top of the slide in blue, with an audience at the bottom!)

After shooting down a vertical rock face at 100 miles an hour into a freezing waterfall pool, I was ready for more and we set off for a double rafting session. Our first rafting experience was in an inflatable dinghy on a rapid river – kind of a tame version of white water rafting that left us wanting more. After bouncing over a few gushing waves, we then transferred to a traditional bamboo raft for a lazy float down the river, with Sup as the captain. No waterproof camera = no photos unfortunately, but we were left with some fun memories.

We visited a local village on the way home and gained some insight into the simple life, meeting some of the residents and admiring their homemade crafts. Further on down the road we stopped by a huge swing made by the villagers and we both jumped on for some good old-fashioned fun!

The next day we finally moved on from Chiang Mai on an overnight bus crossing the border to the land of Laos. Thailand was officially done - the islands had introduced us to the stunning beauty of Asia, the town had suggested something darker lurking underneath, and we were about to enter the emerald realm of luscious Laos, an Asian backdrop of epic proportions...

permalink written by  SupandNic on October 2, 2010 from Chiang Mai, Thailand
from the travel blog: Sup and Nic's World Tour!
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