Chiang Mai and Pai(radise)

Sawat di kàààp!

It's been a time since i wrote my last post, but it's prove that the dutch saying 'no message is a good message' is absolutely right. Last time i wrote that i would fly to Chiang Mai, the capital of Northern Thailand. Chiang Mai is a really nice city. It felt similar to Bangkok, but less crowded, less dirty and much cheaper. Oh, and the amount of dutch travelers increases by 10 times here in the North. I like that there is so much to do in and around Chiang Mai. You can visit temples (still not sick of them), elephant sanctuaries, muay thai (thaiboxing) trainings or matches, peaceful parks, night markets with delicious food, lakes and so on and on. I've spent around 5 days in Chiang Mai and did a lot of the things above, accompanied by amazing people. After a month of travelling i'm still surprised how many kind people i meet everyday. This makes travelling so much fun. I feel like going to nice destinations is only 34% of the fun, the other 66% is filled with meeting and spending time with people, and eating the food. The food in Thailand is so good, i can't stop eating and trying new sorts of food. In the picture you see the Kao Soy soup. This delicious soup is just available in the North and fills you up pretty good.

I've spend the rest of my time in Pai, a more quiet city in a valley above Chiang mai. I was warned that i would probably stay there longer than expected, so i scheduled a whole week for it. And indeed, i stayed longer as expected since it's 9 days later now. My first days were at an party hostel called Circus. This hostel has a pool with a beautiful view and a bar that provided us from even more beautiful drinks ;). It was really nice to just hang around the pool, play pool, swim, play volleyball and to get some tan. But after 3 days i felt like i wanted to see more from Pai and get some more rest, so I switched hostels, rented a scooter and met people (more Duchies ofcourse) who wanted to see Pai as well. We went to waterfalls, hot springs, a canyon for sunset, viewpoints and more waterfalls. Pai is a beatiful place to ride around and there is so much to visit. We also went on a hike trough the jungle to a waterfall. The hike took 5 hours and was pretty adventurous: we had to walk trough rivers, climb over trees and climb down against rocks. This adventure and the beautiful rainforest made it a nice hike, and it served perfect as a teambuilding activity! The temperature was good as well. Pai lays in the mountains, so it becomes pretty cold in the shadow, mornings and evenings. I guess that i'm spoiled with Thailands heat since we were having breakfast wrapped into blankets at 22 degrees. During the day, when the sun is out, you notice nothing from this mountaincold, luckily.

At this moment i'm in the bus from Pai to Bangkok. I'll stay 2 more days in Bangkok before i fly to Myanmar, the country west from Thailand. I am so excited since i hear lots of amazing stories from people who've been to Myanmar. And i finally get to travel With Sterre, a friend I met in Kenya 5 years ago, who is also travelling trough south east Asia. 

I'll try to make a new post next week about Myanmar, but you might have to wait a little longer again... See ya!