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October was a good month; went go-karting, saw a baseball game and dressed up for halloween.  My parents came at the end of October, and spending time with them in Taiwan was excellent.  Then along came November, and it was off to Thailand I went…

Me and Simon planned to meet each other in ChiangMai.  We arrived on a friday, and were picked up from the airport headed to a nice, fancy hotel Chiang Mai is nice - the night market is probably the main highlight, where you can wander around and buy whatever you like.  We also wandered through the old town seeing many beautiful temples.

We went as part of a small group of 6 and hiked through the jungle, seeing a beautiful waterfall and swimming in it along the way.  The hike wasn’t crazy difficult, but it was gorgeous, and hot, and it was amazingly nice to be out of the city.  We stayed in a small village of Karen people, and that was lovely, sleeping in a small wooden hut raised above the floor.  The second day we hiked again, and then stopped for lunch at an elephant camp.  They werent expecting us so the camp was deserted, and we managed to cook our lunch by Simon resurrecting their fire from the night before.  Finally the elephants returned and they carried us majestically to the next village, where we swam in a river and slept.  The third day we went bamboo rafting - they are literally bamboo poles tied together which we sit on, and the boys are given the task of punting us down the river.  It was wonderfully relaxing at least for me!

After returning to ChiangMai we spent a day ziplining through the trees in gibbon style (I think like Go Ape), and then we headed North to a place called Pai.  Pai is lovely, a small village in the mountains, it was much more enjoyable and relaxing than Chiang Mai.  We stayed in a tiny little wooden chalet right next to the river, and wandered around the town stopping at cute little shops, cafes and restaurants.  Our days in Pai were mainly spent completely chilling out, or getting on an awesome orange hired scooter each and exploring the local area.  A highlight was the hot springs, which we ended up visiting twice.  Completely natural, we sat in a river and fully relaxed, whilst other tourists further down boiled eggs in the water.  Each to their own…

Finally, after a week and two days, we left Thailand and each returned home.  Only a few weeks left in Taiwan for me now……