Day 12 - Thursday, February 24 - Chiang Mai

Woke up and had breakfast with Francis and Marie from the trek. Just had a simple meal at Libra. Hung around assessing my sore muscles and wondered if I should hire a driver for the day. Not really sure my legs are going to work.

They left for Laos and I headed to the main road to catch a mini-bus to the Temple on the Mountain. I had no idea it took so long to get there (I think over 30 minutes) so when I got there, I felt I needed to stay longer than my usual 6 minutes per temple. Walked around, took some photos, and left. Hopped in a "taxi" and headed down the mountain back to Chiang Mai.

"TAXI" is a loose term here. A Taxi is a red (has to be red) pick-up truck with bench seating in the back. If a "taxi" already has passengers, you can flag them down, ask the driver if he's going near your destination and you can hop in. You wont end up at your exact point of interest, but you'll be fairly close. Sometimes, you do end up in a completely different place you had intended, but that's part of the fun.

One of the guys in the taxi was heading to the Chiang Mai Zoo which was half way down the mountain. I hopped out also. Why not check out the caged animals of Chiang Mai. It was a prety nice zoo but the walking was intense. They had golf carts for rent, but I didn't think it would be so bad. I felt like I was back on the trek again.....big hills, and big climbs to see some of the parts of the zoo. It was so hot, that most of the animals were sleeping. No wonder admission is cheaper during the day and more expensive at twighlight. I think the animals wake up when it cools down.

I paid another 100 baht to see the new GIANT PANDA exhibit. It was inside this arctic feeling atmosphere with misters all over the place to fool the pandas into thinking they are back home. I only saw 2 giant SLEEPING pandas. I guess they don't wake up until later in the day also. Saw lions, tigers, bears, ostrich, giraffe, zebra, lots of exotic birds, emu, sloths, etc etc etc.

Was at the zoo for a few hours and flagged down another cab to head back to Chiang Mai.

I got back and headed to the river for a drink at The Brasserie. It was cooling down a bit, and the river was beautiful. Had a drink and walked around that part of town a bit, picking up some souvenirs along the way.

Tomorrow, I'm going to pack a little box and send it home so I'm not schlepping around excess baggage - I already have enough of that!

Got back to Libra for a plop on the bed for about an hour and headed out again. Back to the night market for some dinner and some nearby local bars with music.

Until now, today was just picking at street vendors carts and I was pretty hungry - not to mention THIRSTY. Not sure how one is to stay hydrated here without an IV drip. The second you drink a bottle of water, you sweat it out. Especially walking all day and carrying a day pack (althoug not heavy, certainly causes back sweat).

Had dinner at JERUSALEM FALAFEL - it was nice to eat something a little different for a change. It was pretty tasty. I popped in and out of a few bars. Walked through the night market on my way back to Libra and was annoyed at the constant tugging on my shirt and being asked if I needed a Tuk Tuk.

Today was mellow. Got back to Libra at about 1AM and slept.