Hello
I am loving travelling. I am having a great time and can’t believe that my trip has only just started. I am writing to you from Chang Mai, Thailand, right now. Stuffed full after eating all day on a 1-day Thai cooking course. But I should really start from the beginning.

My journey started in Hong Kong (I am not including the 20+ hours of flying to get there :) I spent a few days travelling around HK enjoying the hustle and bustle of the city and the peace and quiet of the islands. I went to Lantau island and visited a small town called “Tai O” which was great to walk around. The smell of dried fish everywhere took a bit of getting used to, but it was a great day trip. I also spent a night on Macau Island. (It is similar to HK since it used to belong to Portugal and now it has been handed over to China). Macau is mostly known for gambling but there was a lot to see on the island such as fortresses, museums, and some really lovely temples. It was also great just hanging out in the park eating noodles. Ferries travel often between the islands, I was hoping for a better view of HK, but unfortunately the haze from the pollution just makes visibility horrible.

I also got up early a couple mornings to do “Tai Chi” in the nearby park with a group of seniors. They were very welcoming and I found it is a great way to wake up.

Then I flew to Bangkok. After spending a day sorting out visas for countries I want to visit I went to see the Grand Palace. It was absolutely amazing. There is this phenomenally large complex with a beautiful main temple and surrounding buildings. I went a bit crazy with my camera; I really have to cut back on the number of photos I am taking. The food in Thailand is so good, and so cheap. I have eaten some great curries, pad Thai and other dishes. I was worried it would be too spicy, but most places seem to understand “no spicy”. I also went to the National Museum in Bangkok; it was great to see some of the Thai artifacts to get a better understanding of this place. I also went to the “Jim Thompson” museum. He was an American Architect who lived in Thailand and collected a whole bunch of Thai art works and ancient objects. There are Wats (temples) all over Bangkok and I went to visit a few of them. The important thing to remember is to not point your feet towards Buddha. There were also some great markets in Bangkok and even I am going to have to carry everything I buy for six months, I still can’t help myself from buying a few things.

>From Bangkok I took an overnight train to Chiang Mai. The train was a “sleeper” car and was actually quite comfortable (but a bit loud). I met a group of 10 travelers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the US who were travelling together and I joined up with them. We found a great guest house to stay in (a hotel which is like a hostel), only 8$ Canadian per night with a hot shower. It was so refreshing to be out of the big cities and somewhere with clean air. We signed up for a three-day trek around the surrounding hill tribes. The next morning we set off on a tiny minibus for 1.5 hours to a remote village (the mini-bus was actually a pickup truck with seats in the covered back). After lunch in the village we hiked up the hills. It was exhausting and we were all panting for breath after 15 minutes. We had packed a small backpack each, but it was fairly heaving, especially with the water we were carrying. I had also brought my big camera and sketching materials too. We arrived the first night at a farmer’s house and were grateful for a cold shower which was just a hose hanging from the ceiling. Dinner was excellent, a curry with Chicken and veggies and potatoes served w ith rice. I sketched one of the smaller huts and enjoyed sitting on the porch and relaxing. Once it got dark there was no electricity and we played cards lit by lanterns while drinking some of the local whisky. The next morning after a breakfast of tea and toast with jam we set off again on another hike, this one was longer than the day before, but much easier since it was flatter. By lunchtime we had arrived at the elephants. Since it is bad luck to ride an elephant in the middle of the day we had to wait until later afternoon which was fine by us as we enjoyed another round of cards. Then the elephant ride started.

They put two of us on each elephant along with the driver. We passed through rivers and trees and a few villages, and the driver even let us sit on the elephant’s neck. Thankfully the guide had warned us to wear long pants because elephants are covered in course hair and would be very scratchy. We arrived near the village where we were staying and the elephants all lay down so that we could get off. This village was really neat and there were kids playing a game like volleyball, but they can only use their feet and heads, so the game is really more like hackysack. There were also locals weaving on small looms and pounding flour and feeding chickens and doing just everyday things. After another wonderful cold shower we were given a great dinner with a choice of a green curry or a red curry. I tried both, but preferred the milder green curry. Then the girls from the village came to show us their local dances and to sing some songs, of course they also wanted us to sing we managed the hokey-pokey and a conga line.The next morning I woke up hearing Buddhist monks from the nearby temple chanting. I enjoyed walking around the village, which was beautifully covered with a morning mist. We hiked a short way back to the main rode and took a mini-bus to the river where we started our rafting. They put us on bamboo rafts, the bamboo sank when you stepped on it, but overall the whole think floated quite well. We saw some more fields and huts and some of the guys on our trek had fun jumping from raft to raft. After the rafting we were a bit wet, and had a short break before heading back on the mini-bus to Chiang Mai. That evening I treated myself to a Thai massage. It is different than a Swedish massage since there is more twisting and stretching. It was lovely, especially since I was still sore from the elephant ride. That night I was happy to relax and head to bed early.

Now we come to today and as I said earlier I am so full from eating all day. The cooking course was great (those of you who know my cooking ability please stop laughing). We started off with a shopping trip to the local market. Then we went to a Thai house to cook the food. We used a mortar and pestle to create our own green curry paste which we used in a ‘Coconut Chicken Curry’ cooked over a lit burner. We also cooked: Pad Thai, sweet and sour chicken, bananas with syrup and coconut cream, spring rolls, and a hot and spicy soup. They let us take home the piles of food that we couldn’t eat, and the hotel said they would heat it up for us later.
Tomorrow I am taking a day trip with some people I met this afternoon to see: an orchid farm, a monkey farm, a snake farm, and some other nearby attractions.

Feel free to forward this email to anyone I may have missed. The next one will come out when I write it :)Hope you are all doing well, talk to you soon,Jen