CHIANG MAI, THAILAND
To heck with these temples, let's taste some danger! Today we took a whitewater rafting trip with Chiang Mai Adventure Co., who picked us up from our hotel and drove us two hours northwest of town, on highways and dirt roads, until we reached the Mae Tang River. There we were teamed up with a nice man from Lincolnshire, England and his two teenage daughters, given some basic rafting instructions, and thrown into a raft with a puny little Thai river guide named Dang ("That's Dang, not Dung!"), for a ten-kilometer ride downriver.
This rafting trip was a little more...er, exciting than normal because of all the rain we've had here over the past few days. The river, which normally consists of Class 2 to 4 rapids, was running high and fast, and some of the Class 4 rapids were up to Class 5 (the highest level you can raft commercially). Which of course made it all the more fun. There were safety teams stationed at the more tricky rapids, but no one even fell out of the boat (one of the girls lost a paddle, though). It was good fun, and certainly a change for me to be rafting through lush jungle greenery instead of the mountains of North Carolina!
After returning from our rafting trip, Chris, Kyle and I had dinner at Miguel's Mexican Restaurant (you'd be surprised how hard it is to find a good Mexican restaurant in Chiang Mai), then walked to the city's famous Night Bazaar, where hundreds of vendor stalls line the streets, selling everything from hill tribe handicrafts and T-shirts to throwing stars and crossbows. Unfortunately, it was often difficult to determine which items were native and authentic, and which were mass-produced in a factory somewhere in China. And after awhile, the amount of merchandise on display and crowds of people were a little overwhelming, so we didn't stay there all that long.
To heck with these temples, let's taste some danger! Today we took a whitewater rafting trip with Chiang Mai Adventure Co., who picked us up from our hotel and drove us two hours northwest of town, on highways and dirt roads, until we reached the Mae Tang River. There we were teamed up with a nice man from Lincolnshire, England and his two teenage daughters, given some basic rafting instructions, and thrown into a raft with a puny little Thai river guide named Dang ("That's Dang, not Dung!"), for a ten-kilometer ride downriver.
This rafting trip was a little more...er, exciting than normal because of all the rain we've had here over the past few days. The river, which normally consists of Class 2 to 4 rapids, was running high and fast, and some of the Class 4 rapids were up to Class 5 (the highest level you can raft commercially). Which of course made it all the more fun. There were safety teams stationed at the more tricky rapids, but no one even fell out of the boat (one of the girls lost a paddle, though). It was good fun, and certainly a change for me to be rafting through lush jungle greenery instead of the mountains of North Carolina!
After returning from our rafting trip, Chris, Kyle and I had dinner at Miguel's Mexican Restaurant (you'd be surprised how hard it is to find a good Mexican restaurant in Chiang Mai), then walked to the city's famous Night Bazaar, where hundreds of vendor stalls line the streets, selling everything from hill tribe handicrafts and T-shirts to throwing stars and crossbows. Unfortunately, it was often difficult to determine which items were native and authentic, and which were mass-produced in a factory somewhere in China. And after awhile, the amount of merchandise on display and crowds of people were a little overwhelming, so we didn't stay there all that long.
posted by John Kuge at 11:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home