Chiang Mai

My first day in Thailand I did spend in Chiang Mai, together with Wendy a girl from Holland, who was traveling alone through thailand as well. I did book a tour with intrepid and expected a large group, but in the end it was just us two for the next 6 days. Chiang Mai was exciting and very different from the western world. Packed with temples and in between temples markets. We took a Ritscha through the old city, which was kinda exciting, but then he took us to those random shops, where I did got my bag painted. Generally it was a nice time in Chiang Mai. It was busy, but still kinda okay and the markets were very nice.
We also met Cha our tour leader, who was from bangkok and took us around a bit. Of course I got tons of Thai food from Sticky Rice with Coconut and Mango up to Red Chilli, which is barely spicy. Mostly common is Pad Thai or fried Rice, as well as sticky rice with Taro or banana. Coconut and Pineapple are very common as well. I am a big fan of thai kitchen. Street food is of course something you should have tried, as well as going through the markets. The markets are quite stinky and chaotic.
Temples in Thailand are very amazing. There was one temple, where monks were sitting in glass cabins to meditate and pray for weeks and months. Religion is very big in Thailand you will barely see people with shoulder-less tops, which would be very unpolite to do in a temple or generally. I tried to practice a little bit thai, but I think I did failed after a while. It was interesting to see a culture that different from what we know here in germany. I also got a chance to practice my bargain abilities... I have to admit I am not talented in this as well.
However, we did stay at the Tapae Place and went to the night market as well. During that one day Chiang Mai we had time to prepare ourselves for the jungle.

Important (I did forgot a few of those):
• Poncho (very useful especially during raining season)
• comfortable Backpack (I do love my gregory jade...)
• Tiger Balm (helps against mosquito bites, headache, dizziness, muscle aim and so on)
• Torch aka flashlight (well... I did hurt myself a lot because i didn't had one...)
• Sarong (Traditional clothing, otherwise your clothes are going to get wet while showering, beside that, they dont dry anyway in this weather)
• flip-flops
• damn good shoes for trekking
• Mosquito repellant (you are going to get bitten anyway, but at least it doesn't get too bad)
• First Aid kit (you never know!)
• Toilet paper (i did run out after first day)
• medicament (against the already mentioned -durchfall-, and other stuff
• sleeping bag

In the evening I tried a Thai massage as well, because I had a broken rib since about 4 weeks and thought it might help. Apparently after that massage the pain almost disappeared. But as the doctor said it should have been gone by then, so I was relieved as the pain finally did stopped