Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Cliffhanging in Chang Mai

Day 44: Chang Mai, Thailand
I think Chang Mai takes the cake as far as adventure sports goes.
To be perfectly honest, there's not a hell of alot to do in the city, it's all really a jumping off point for all the activities that take place around the mountains and forests outside of the town. You have your pick of rock climbing where you can go out for the day or for a whole week, hiking through the jungle and up cliff faces where you find them, white water rafting (currently at level 3), jungle trekking to meet native tribes in the jungle or a combination of all of teh above. Of course all the ATV biking and zip lining sort of stuff that they have any where there is mud and forest, as well as the paintball and zorb ball options.
As with all my recent trips, time is short and I have Chang Mai firmly marked as a place I need to come back and spend more time at, I did manage a few days rock climbing though which was the main objective of this short journey which I only decided on at short notice after leaving Bali, but such is life when you try and take in a whole continent in 80 days.
Did I mention that Chang Mai is incredibly cheap?
I got a 2 day climbing trip for 1500 baht (MYR150/AUS50) which was unbelievable after how much Bali and Philippines cost for any sort of trip, the room I am staying in is just 400baht (MYR40/AUS13) per night and is in a relly nice, quiet part of town. There's a massive big common area with all sorts of hammocks and lounges and a rooftop chill out area with a great view of the local streets, they also organise tours and trips from there which makes it quite easy to while away the hours in comfort between activities. Theres a tiger park just outside of town where you can have your picture taken with a full grown tiger but from what I have heard the thing is so out of it's head on tranquilisers that I don't think I'll bother to go after all.
A bit sore today after the climbing, there was a bit of rain about so we went to this cavern about an hour out of town. The thing about rockclimbing is that it requires alot of forearm and calf strength, which take a while to build up. Managed a few good climbs, out of them all there was only one I couldn't get to the top of, then we stopped in at a little Lanna restaurant outside of the town. I always try to get the guides to have a drink whenever possible, it's become a bit of a game with me and a few other travellers that I've met to see how pissed we can get them because they always try to keep up with us drink for drink, dangerous when you are drinking with English or Australian travellers. Met a really cool girl from Japan who is celebrating her honeymoon alone because her husband won't take the time off from work and is spending a month in Thailand, travelling between cities and I'm embarrased to say actually completed the last climb I couldn't. I love the Japanese and there sense of adventure, they are always up for whatever is going down. In Perth when I was in my early twenties me and a few friends who worked at the same pub used to share a house and we had a spare room that we rented out to save on the bills, we went through alot of housemates because they couldn't live in such a crazy environment. Eventually we had a few Japanese guys come through and stay who didn't mind the noise, constant stream of visitors and weird hours that were kept in the house.
And that's why I love Japanese people.
Sayonara.

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