Hey again,

I know its only been a short hiatus since my last e-mail, but I'm a little backlogged so I need to catch up while I still can.

Anyway, right into it.

Last time we talked I was in Luang Prabang, Laos and swimming with an elephant.  Well, now that your jealousy has abated a bit we can move on, and I can make you all even more jealous then before....hahaha, suckers.

Ok, first off, after Luang Prabang I visited a city called Luang Namtha.  Its a quiet little town tucked into the very north of Laos.  Honestly, there isn't much to do there except explore the mountains and their version of a national park, called a National Protected Area.  I had been told that treks through the area were amazing and I was eager to take one in.  However, there was a pretty big problem.  Since I was all alone I was going to have to pay the entire ticket myself.  In more built up and touristy places this isn't a problem since most tours have several people all going at once, in fact its actually a great way to meet people on the road.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case there.  Every tour I saw was going to be just me or maybe 2 others.  The prices for the tours were outrageous.  Some went up into triple digits, even for more then one person.  I spent one day just looking around before realizing that it wasn't going to happen and I decided to leave.  

That was my last view of Laos.  It was a wonderful country, but it was time to move on; and Thailand awaited me.

I got my last view of the Mekong River as I crossed the border.  My first stop in Thailand was a city called Chiang Rai.  Its in the extreme North of Thailand and its almost a carbon copy of Luang Namtha, except that its a little bigger.  Unfortunately I ran into the same problem here.  Not enough people for tours, and the solo tours were way too expensive.  I skipped out of here after one day as well.

And that brought me to Chiang Mai.  Chiang Mai is considered a cultural hot spot for Thailand, and its very similar to Luang Prabang.  Its also a great place to arrange jungle tours out of.  I knew this was my last shot at doing the tours I wanted to do, so I went for it.  I was not disappointed.

The first tour I signed up for was an all inclusive tour through the surrounding area.  In the package was white water rafting (which was lots of fun), bamboo rafting (which was boring, but peaceful), trekking (which we didn't do), and waterfall swimming (which was also boring but at least it let us cool off).  However, the highlight was definitely elephant riding.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love elephants.  They're one of my favorite creatures on the entire planet.  If I could swing it, I'd have an elephant instead of a car.  Can you imagine rolling up to the drive thru on the back of a pachyderm?  It would be legendary!  lol

As it is, I've been dying to see some elephants and also to ride them.  This trip promised me that, so I jumped at it.

Her name is Munpaht, and she is a total darling.  

We had an odd number of people, so I got to ride all alone.  At first the mahout (elephant trainer) rode with me steering, but I got the feeling that Munpaht just went wherever she wanted.  On one of our stops the mahout gave me a bunch of bananas to feed her.  After they were gone she kept reaching her trunk back to me expecting more, I felt bad when I couldn't give her any.

Unfortunately it was a short ride, only about 1 hour long.  But I did get to drive her solo at the end.  Basically the mahout got off and led her around by voice commands.  While he was on the ground he took some awesome shots of me up there all alone.  I felt a bit like Hannibal crossing the Alps...Even if the Roman in me doesn't like that, hahahaha.

Anyway, that was the highlight of the day and after we got back I just crashed.  However, the next day in Chiang Mai was even better then the elephant riding.

Some very good friends of mine had recommended that I go zip-lining at some point on my trip.  I had never really thought of it before, but the more I looked, the more I wanted to do it.  Luckily I found a fairly cheap tour and I went.

I really can't describe how amazing it was, so I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

The countryside was amazing, the guides were a riot, and the lines were way, way up in the air.  Our highest line was nearly 60 meters (200 feet) off the ground.  I'm not scared of heights at all, but even I was a little nervous at first.  But as it went on, it got easier, and more and more fun.  I'm including a video in this update, I took it while I was zip-lining.  Enjoy.

Alright guys, that's the trip so far.  I'm in Bangkok right now, I'll update about it whenever I get the chance.  So far its been pretty laid back though, not much to report.  When I get moving I'll fill you all in.  

Until then, adios muchachos.