A four hour drive through the winding moutain roads of Northern Thailand brought me to Chaing Mai, a city of about 500,000. Arriving late Monday afternoon, I had time for a quick check in, shower and turnaround to meet my guide Phone (told me to call him) and tour a bit of the town and night market.

Pork and cowboy hats at the Chang Puak Gate market.

Obligatory white water action shot I pirated from the tour company.

Hill tribe houses by a small stream along the hike.

We stopped first and visited Wat Chedi Luang in the old city. Built in the 14th century and once over 82 m high, its an impressive sight beespite the earthquake damage to the original structure. After a walk around the temple, and a quick chat with some of the young monks there, we headed just outside the walls of the Old City to the Chang Puak Gate night market to try some street food. The Chang Puak market is a few blocks long and littered with stalls and open air restaurants serving all manner of food. we stopped first at a pork and rice stall that had a particularly long queue. The dish was khao kha mo, and was delicious slow rosted pork leg and a bit of intestine over rice with some pickled cabbage and a great spicy broth. We grabbed that and headed to another open air resturant and grabbed a seat and ordered a bowl of gaeng jued. Clear broth with cabbage, beef, and glass noodles, it was a "lighter" thai dish, but didnt at all lack flavor. Both were great, spicy and super substantive. After that we tried a few baos and dumplings and finally a sweet coconut dessert soup which was a good finish to another fun and delicious meal in the night markets and open air restuarants of Thailand.

Tuesday was another adventure day which kicked off at 8 am with a long and windy drive into the mountains in a jeep/pick up truck style safari move. the first part of the trip was a white water raft down the Taeng River. Not the most thrilling white water I've ever done, but exciting and scenic nevertheless. After a short one hour ride we headed off deeper into the moutains for a quick lunch stop and to visit the hill tribes annd villages. After lunch my guide and I began our hike through 4 villages of the hill tribes, migrant people who have settled the hillsides and been supported for the most part by the Thai government who allows the use of the land. We hiked through fields and farms and jungles and visited in small villages for about 2 hours before starting the long ride home. It was a fun experience and a big workout but very eye opening to see the villages and the simple lives of the farm communities there.

After a solid nights sleep, it was up and off in the morning to the beach at Koh Samui, marking a departure in the itinerary from higher activity levels and strucutre as I round out the less than two weeks remaining in Asia with more beaches and pools.