Born to be Wild....

One would think arriving in Chang Mai after 14 hours in a noisy, dirty train with little sleep would be the worst part of your day, but we were misstaken. We quickly settled into the hostel and walked to town. On the way, we saw motorcycles for rent. What a great idea, renting a motorcycle in a foreign country when you have never driven a motorcycle and will be driving on the other side of the road. After one loop in the parking lot we were on our way. The first hour was great, we stopped for lunch, visited a Wat (Buddest temple), then decided to go up a mountain with switchbacks to see another Wat. The scenery is great, the wind blowing on us, great views of the city all is well under Nate popped a wheelie going around asteep uphill curve. Kristy has the rash decision to jumped off into the road to avoid the raveen or falling backwards off the bike! Luckily, Nate stopped the bike from falling with his left thigh (That's going to leave a mark) and the bike was unharmed. Kristy ended up with some road rash on her knee and elbow (just a flesh wound) and Nate has a nice bruise on his thigh. A sweet Thai man saw Kristy walking to find a restroom at the Wat and offered his assistance. The only English spoken was motorcycle but he cleaned and bandaged her wounds free of charge! The Wat was very nice with a great view overlooking Chang Mai. The boyscout he is Nate was prepared with a well stocked 1st aid kit and has been able to practice his wound care even on vacation.

Yesterday we had a day trip. It began with some trekking (4 km) up a mountain to a native village. The trek was more interesting than the village. We then went for an elephant ride, but were unable to enjoy it as much as anticipated after recently seeing the elephants in their natural habitat. The highlight of the day was a bamboo raft down a river. Nate was asked to be a driver which meant standig on the 10 bamboo poles ties together with some rubber and guide with a with the long, skinny bamboo pole.

This morning was the first day that Nate and Kristy have been separated on this trip. Nate awoke at 5:15 to attend his first Muay Thai boxing training session. After a hike in the jungle, jumping rope, learning the basics, hitting the bag and practicing combinations and defenses with the trainer, Nate realized he would not soon be entering the ring. It was a great but very exhausting. Kristy had a full day Thai cooking class. Which began with a trip to the local food market to learn and buy ingredients, followed by demostration and hands-on instruction wihc lead to her making nad eating six typical Thai dishes.

The most difficult decisions the last two days has been where to eat dinner and what type of massage to get! Nate has had 3 massaged in the last 3 days and Kristy has enjoyed 2 treatments. The 1 hr massages cost about $6. Gotta love this country, even if the Baht (thai currency) has just hit it's all time high against the US dollar (36.49 to 1 USD). We have both enjoyed the food tremendously and look forward to more in Southeast Asia.