Pai in the sky

We spent a long, relaxing today in Chiang Mai yesterday. Even though it's the second largest city in Thailand, the contrast between Chiang Mai and Bangkok is stark. While Bangkok is a massive, concrete, pulsing city, Chiang Mai is calm and relaxed with a manageable size to move around in. In fact, Mike read that Bangkok has 40 times the number of people and area that Chiang Mai has. We spent yesterday visiting a few of the 300 temples the city has to offer, looking through the Contemporary Art Museum of Chiang Mai University, eating delicious vegetarian street food, getting a foot massage at the side of the road and strolling through the Sunday night market, buying snacks of mango salad and banana-waffles on the way.

Today we embarked on the four hour journey to Pai, a sleepy, bohemian town some 200KM away from Chiang Mai. It's a funky laid back town with hippies, restaurants and trekking agencies where many foreigners come and never leave! We're embarking on a three day trek tomorrow with Bamboo House Trekking and four 18-year old Australian girls. Should be interesting! They're taking us through ethnic hill tribe villages, jungle areas and mountains where we'll sleep in the minority villages themselves and camp in the wild. Will be out of touch for a few days but I'm sure we'll have tons to report upon our return!