Monks collecting alms

Staircase to the view

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang

I left LP on Friday evening by bus. I took an overnight bus and in the morning I arrived at the river border to Thailand. Some quick stamps, a ticket across the river and before I new it, I was in Thailand. I waited at a small restaurant for the better part of two hours before my mini bus connection left the border town for Chiang Mai. It was a quick and easy 6 hour ride and I arrived in Chiang Mai before sunset.

I’ve been in Chiang Mai for 4 days. It has been fun, but I miss the quite streets of Luang Prabang. I’ve been bad about bringing my camera with me, as most days have been quite spur of the moment, hop into a random tuk-tuk and I’m off on an adventure with zero notice.

The first day I just explored the city, visited it’s many temples (of which, I honestly can’t remember any of the names) and checked out the Sunday market in the evening. The following morning, after I woke up and ate breakfast the woman running the hostel asked what my plans for the day were. I had nothing planned and she offered a full day 7 course Thai cooking course. Unfortunately, I left my camera, but I ate well to say the least. I ate so much food, it was all delicious and after all was said and done I had met some really cool people as well. That evening I ventured off to the night bazaar and roamed throughout the many side alleys and browsed all the vendors had to offer.

Temple in Chiang Mai

More temples

The next day I was feeling quite lethargic and ended up reading for the majority of the day.  And the following day I went to Tiger Kingdom, where you are able to go into the cages with tigers. The younger ones were much more playful than the more mature ones, and I have to say I was thankful for that. I was quite intimidated being that close to them; they are massive animals and it’s pretty clear that I would be torn to shreds if push came to shove. It was a really cool experience and gives you a whole new respect for the power that these animals have.

One of the big guys

Two of the tigers we got to pet

With a smaller one

There was a huge tiger in the cage next to us that stood up

Playing

And so today I catch a flight to Bangkok, where I’ll be for a little over a full day before I spend way to much time flying back to Seattle. It’s been a fun trip, but I’m exciting to be heading back home.