Chiang Mae, Thailand

I have spent the past few days in and around Chiang Mae, Thailand. It is an impressive little city in the northern region of this south Asian country. I met up with Klepper and Dustin here, and they introduced me to Adam, one of their friends from London. We had a really great time, hanging out and exploring the city. There are magnificent temples all over the city, and walking around soaking up the culture is rich.

Chiang Mai

Temple

Coconut shake!

The first night there, I slept! I really needed it after traveling for several straight days. The next day I really started having fun. Friday, we went out to see a Muay Thai Kick-boxing match. There were twelve fights in total, and about half of them featured international fighters, from the U.S., France, and Germany to name a few. Man, this was a great night, as only several of the fight went to a decision. We saw a lot of knockouts. This is a crazy sport, where all it takes is one clean kick to the head or knee to the sternum to drop the opponent. The atmosphere was great, but one really has to be present to appreciate it: the crowd was lively, with betting going on all over, and traditional music being played by a live, three piece group. There was a guy beating on a drum, some weird horn. and some other instruments I had never seen before.

Knockout Muay Thai Style!

Afterwards, we went out to some bars and a club. The night scene is crazy in Thailand. At all the bars it seems like there are either prostitutes or gold-diggin' Thai girls that are looking for your money. They come up and just throw themselves on you, so it is very bizarre by American standards. We spent the whole night just making jokes and clowning around, laughing the whole time about the situation.

Dustin and Klepper

The next day I finally convinced Klepper into renting a bike so we could go to the Doi Inthanon National Park, where the highest peak in Thailand is. This was a beautiful place, and very sacred. On the top of the mountain there is a little shrine for one of the kings, surrounded by little Elephant statues. The elephant is apparently a very special animal here, because you see the little elephant statues erected everywhere (actually, you also see elephants everywhere!). On the top of the mountain, I had to buy a new hoody because it was cold, and Jeremy and I toasted to a hot shot of tequila to get the body temperature up. From there we made our way back down the mountain, and stopped off at a few sights on the way back. There was two Buddhist temples close to the top, that were very impressive. The view was gorgeous, and the place had pretty flowers and plants everywhere, a true work of art.

Now we are in Pai (pronounced bye) where Klep and Dustin live. It is a funky little town in the north of Thailand, where there are more foreigners than locals. It is beautiful here, as we are surrounded by mountains. Yesterday we went hiking in the canyon along tall ridges overlooking sheer drop offs. Afterwards, we went out for a round of beers.

We are thinking about making our way down south to the islands this weekend. Probably going to stop off along the way where the biggest waterfall in Thailand is located, in the south of this province.