After our trek in the jungle we decided to move to another guest house that was better situated in the heart of the action. After checking in, we met up with Jaime and Kam and went out for some old fashioned Italian food to celebrate the successful completion of our journey. The next day we took a one day cooking course to learn how to make traditional Thai food. We were picked up at 9am and, along with 4 other "wanna be chefs", drove out to a local food market where the instructors gave us an overview of the foods that are unique to Thailand. While the fruits and vegetables were interesting, we tried to stay as far away as possible from the raw meats that were surrounded by flies and spoiling in the intense heat. Afterwards we drove to a house in the country that was set up as a mini cooking school. The instructors were great. They showed us how to make 6 excellent dishes including Jen's favourite- spring rolls. At the end of the day, we each received a cook book, a pat on the back for a job well done, and were dropped off at our guest houses. That night we went to check out the famous night bazaar, which is apparently the best place in Thailand to buy cheap souvenirs. Unfortunately for Jen we only bought a few things. To make her feel better, Dan promised to bring her back tomorrow for a more serious shop.

On the Sunday (Oct 6) we slept in and then went to the tourist office to book a return bus back to Bangkok for the Tuesday night. At the tourist office they convinced us to hire a taxi for half a day and travel around Chiang Mai. The driver took us to the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, which is a temple 16km from town overlooking the city. The temple was impressive and the view was excellent. A monk at the temple gave us a blessing, which we were sure would help us in our shopping later on. Afterwards we went to see a waterfall at the base of the mountain, which was a family hangout for locals. While the waterfall was great, it was scary to watch the young Thai kids slide down the steep, jagged rocks like they were on a waterslide. Next we drove to the old city of Chiang Mai which was in the centre of the city and surrounded by a moat and a stone wall. We saw 2 more temples and decided that we had seen enough for the day. After a fish and chips meal at an Auzzie resturant, we walked the night bazaar again and luckily for Jen, bought a few more things.

The next day we were picked up early in the morning. We had booked a 1 day tour outside of Chiang Mai and we had a lot of driving to do. After a brief stop at some unimpressive hot springs we went to visit 2 more hill tribes. Dan was very interested to hear about the Akha tribe where the men stay at home and smoke while the women work the fields. It was interesting to see how they lived, although it was obvious that tourism had an effect on them (they charged $.40 to have their picture taken). Next we drove through the city of Chiang Rai and stopped to see an ancient temple which had been destroyed and partially restored.

In the early afternoon we hopped on a longtail boat and took a tour of the Mekong River. The boat took us to the Laos border and allowed us to enter (for a fee of course) in order to take a few pictures and buy a few postcards. The boat then took us to the Golden Triangle, which is the meeting point of the Thai, Laos and Burma borders. We then returned to shore, ate lunch and drove to the Burma border. The border has been closed for 3 months due to internal fighting in Burma and political arguments between the two countries. Clearly, this has had an enormous financial effect on the border cities, and almost all stores and restaurants were empty. We ended the day with a 4 hour drive back to Chiang Mai and dinner with Jaime and Kam.

They next day we checked out of our guest house and went to the post office to ship home some of the things that we had bought. We sent everything by boat, which we were told would take 3 months to arrive. We said a little prayer for its safe passage and then returned to our guest house. We then hired a driver who took us around to a few different home industries factories to see how umbrellas, wooden tables, thai silk and jewellery were made. The factories were interesting, but the sales clerks were extremely pushy and tried non stop to get us to buy something. We even stopped briefly at a persian rugstore where the salesman tried to sell us an area rug. We were not sure where on our backpack he thought a rug could fit. After a simple dinner (and the best chocolate cake of the trip) we hopped on the bus back to Bangkok. We had really enjoyed our trip to Chiang Mai and were sad to leave. The people were noticeably nicer than in Bangkok and the air was less smoggy. Chiang Mai is a must see city for all those who visit Thailand.