doi suthep

today we went to the doi suthep temple..it's up the mountain and out of the city of chaing mai..it's very famous here..there are 300 stairs that you can climb to reach it (or not)...we didn't...the temple is in gold and has bells all around it that you ring for good luck...the people that come to worship buy insense and a lotus flower and then they walk around the temple 3 times, praying...afterwards we went to sankhampaeng..this is a street that they have different factories of the handmade items of this area..so we went to the umbrella factory..interesting to see how they make the paper to make the paper umbrellas...then we went to the celedon factory which is the green or blue pottery they sell here...very beautiful....so russ wasn't feeling well, so after that we came back to the hotel and later on he had a thai massage..they stretch you alot...i had a thai massage that was a regular massage..so, now we're all relaxed..tomorrow we fly to the south of thailand to phuket..

chaing mai

we had a pretty busy day today...we woke up early, had a lovely breakfast and met our tour guide for our tour to the elephant camp...we drove for about 40 minutes and got to the camp...the thai's used to use the elephants for alot of logging of teak and mahogany but, now they can't cut down as much...so they have these camps..we walked across the river on a swinging bamboo bridge..we first went and fed the elephants..a mama and her baby...so cute..the mom can eat 5 whole bananas at once..not peeled..or a big stick of sugar cane...the baby isn't quite 2 so he couldn't eat like that..you had to peel the banana for him and he was really uncoordinated picking them up...we then walked to watch the elephants have their baths in the river..they have 3 baths a day..to help protect them from a fly that can get into their skin...they were fun to watch in the river..they lay down and their trainer..called a mufta...scrubs him...then they suck up water in their trunk and squirt it all over themselves..we then saw a little show of how they can pull logs, push, pick up logs with their trunks..then one painted a picture! amazing...we then went on an elephant ride..we rode in a howda..a chair on the back..it was pretty rolling and slow..we were behind an elephant who didn't want to move at all...we got to the hills and saw a hill tribe and where they lived..then rode back..along the way we saw this tree that looked furry..it was actually 1000's of daddy long leg type spiders..really gross! we went in the river on the elephant also..it was really a fun experience...we came home..went to the pool for a bit.then i dropped russ' camera and broke it (uh oh)...then tonight we went to the 'sunday market'...that's a different market from the 'night market' and the 'day market'..it was packed..and goes on and on and on...we only went down one really long street in about 3 hours.did i mention how hot it was today? i think i was drenched all day...pretty lovely....at 6 pm everyone stops and they pay respect to the king and sing the national anthem..i mean no one moves for about 10 minutes..amazing...we saw alot of fun stuff, weird stuff, weird foods, we saw missionaries and stopped and talked to them..that was fun...we stopped and had a foot massage for 1/2 hour...why don't our markets have massages? it was great..then we grabbed a tut tut ride back to meet our shuttle..these tut tut's are like they have in india, but, nicer and a bit bigger..so that was our adventure today...

thailand

last night we left the craziness of mumbai behind...but we first had a southern indian type dinner where you were supposed to just eat with your hands..one hand at that..it was very good...then we went to the airport for our redeye flight to bangkok...it wasn't a really long flight, so we didn't get alot of sleeping time..we added and 1 and 1/2..so we're about 10 hours ahead now...from bangkok we changed planes and flew to the north to chaing mai...it's very green here...alot of rice paddies..alot of water...our hotel is lovely..set among the rice paddies..tonight we're having a chef's dinner where he shows us how to cook things...well, more later..