Andrew Bulmer: Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is a really great town. After the insanity of Bangkok it was great to get to a small town of only one and a half million people. Checked out some really cool Buddhist temples and had some amusing conversations with some monks. Q: Does a dog have the Buddha nature? A: Woof!

Did a little hiking (or trekking as they call it here) west of the city. Saw some rice paddies and... more rice paddies. It was really beautiful in the hills and there were plenty of waterfalls to see. They told us we could have roasted pig for dinner for a little extra money, so we collected up the money from everyone in the group. When we got to the village the pig we were going to eat was still grazing in the field. So I was the lucky one who got to shoot the it. But it was an easy shot so it was no problem.

The next day it was pouring rain. It was like when Forrest Gump was in Vietnam, sometimes it was small rain, sometimes big rain, and there was sideways rain amd sometimes it seemed liked the rain came from the ground. Me and a few others got separated from the group, but it didn't seem like a big deal to me since we were still on a path. But there were some pretty nervous trekkers out in the jungle that day. But it really was no problem, we just backtracked and it wasn't long before we found the guide and were back on our way.

When we got back to camp we played a Thai drinking game called Kong Kong Ching Pong. The first person says Kong and points to the second person who says Kong and points to the third person who says Ching and then the next person says Pong and points to the last person who has to say nothing while the two people on each side gives out some kind of cheer. But its a little different from our drinking games. If you screw up, you don't just take a drink, the ther people in the group rub ashes from an old pot on your face. By the end of the game all our faces were black.

The guides invited us all out to The Big Fight in Chiang Mai. Thai boxing is pretty brutal. There were ten fights and about half of them ended in knockouts. It was really fun betting on the fights. I just looked at both of the fighters picked whichever looked the meanest, and then wandered around the floor looking for people to bet with. I ended up losing 200 Baht, which is about five dollars. I really should have won money, though. There was this one guy from France that was fighting that night. And I knew there was no damn way a frenchman was going to win. I bet 100 Baht against him, but I should have bet more because he got his ass kicked.

Chiang Mai is a really great city, Hopefully I'll be back again soon.