Bangkok to Chiang Mai

hey all! Sorry about all the spelling errors.. We aren't that illiterate... promise. I am typing off a tiny Tablet and thE keyboard Is flat so it guesses the word I want to use by where I slide my fingers and it's a little off sometimes and its really difficult to go back and change. Sorry! We are currently in the north of Thailand, in Chiang Mai. We stayed in Bangkok until the 26th. Bangkok was a lot of fun. We did some shopping on the big tourist road Khao San road. Tons of small stands selling everything you can imagine. We ate a ton of Pad Thai, which is Thailands most popular dish. You can get a huge plate for one dollar... Its crazy! We spent my birthday walking around the city which was Awesome. It wAs an eye opening experience to get away from the tourist area and observe the locals. We got a Tuk tuk to bring us back to our hotel as our feet weRe a bit soar from walking all day. The first tuk tuk driver asked if we could just go stop in a few Stores along the way and he would give us a cheaper deal. He gets commission if we go into those stores and buy stuff. We read in every book not to do thiS, they will Drive you around town all day trying tO get you to by stuff. Of course we didn't listen. We got on and he saiD if we go in two stores he will give us a deal on the ride and take us top see the big buddah statue. Sure enough we went to both stores and bought nothing. When we got out of the last one he was a bit annoyed Since we made no purchases but hey we are on a budget! He kept asking us to go "one more store.. Real quick... One more" we declined and he turned into an angry little man. We got in a little debate asking him to bring us back To Our guesthouse and he did not like that so he just pulled over and told us to get out. Indeed we did and began the trek back without a map which we had forgot... When we realized this wAs an unreachable goal we found a legit Tuk tuk driver and got a ride back. We never made it to the big buddah statue. For my Birthday mark got us foot massages whEn we got back which felt like a Million bucks After all the walking in flip flops... Best part... the massage cost three dollars each! Massages are part of every day life they are not a luxury like in America so It's very cheap. back massages are only four dollars! We will be getting a few of those before We leave. After the massages we got on a 12 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai. The bus ride felt incredibly long. We sat at a table and across from us was an older French couple. At the table next to us were foUr French People about our age. They were playing A card game which we realized was the popular drinking card game called presidents in the states so we played with them for a bit and taught the older couple to play. It was fuN except we were unable to talk to them due to the language barrier so it involved a lot of hand signals and acting.... Similar to charades. We arrived in Chiang MaI around 6:30 am. The bus just dropped us off on a random street so we began the journey like a bunch of fools about 30 people with giant backpacks on walking around the alleys. Eventually people Took their own directions and it was just mark and I looking for a hostel. To our good luck we could Not find a guest house with any openings. Just as we walked up to the 20th place a few people were checking out so they had one room open so we took it! That Day we rented a moped and drove around the city. We drove to a temple on Top of a mountain about a half an hour outside the city. The view at the top was amazing! We ran Into our French friends from the bus.. It was a good time. On our drive back we stopped at A park and Hiked a bit to see some waterfalls... You can seE in the pictures below the temple at the top and the waterfallS. that night we drove to a cute little restaurant which was an adventure in its self. outside they had a sign saying pad Thai and a low price So it seemed like a deal. When we got in the woman claimed they had No menu only what was listed on the sign which was about five things. After we finished placing our order I looked over in the corner and saw a menu... A little sketchy. When We got our food We realized it was the same sauce on both of ours, mine on noodles, his on rice even though we ordered completely different things... It was horrible. Mark Ate a little bit and I just kept picking it up on the fork and pretending to eat when the woman would look Over at us. She waS staring at us and then came over and started interrogating Mark on why he was not eating it. "you not like? What wrong with it? mountain men eat Much of this if they Had money. She eat Why not you. Bowl still full. Why you not eat?" She was becoming a bit upset and treating him like a child. The more mark came up with the excuse he was full the more she would interrogate him. at this point I'm Trying incredibly hard not to burst out laughing... Mark was getting frustrated and did not find this to be as funny. Just writing about it brings me to uncontrollable laughter. When we got the bill it was three times the price we expected to pay. I asked the woman about it and she pulled out the menu and showed me the price... Weird thought they didn't have a menu. I asked why there sign outside was so much lower and she said thats if you call an order ahead time....hmmm funny system. We bought the bullet paid and when the woman disappearEd into the kitchen we ran out of the place so she wouldn't yell at us about how much we didn't eat! The next day which is today, Saturday, we signed up to zip line in the jungle... sO great! it was so beautiful and a blast flying through The tree tops of the jungle. we got to do some together and repel down a huge tree. In total we got to zip line 19 times. And repel twice. After a few hours of zip lining we had an awesome lunch with the other 5 people in Our group. TheRe was a couple froM Canada and three people from the uk. Not many American travelers here, mostly EuropeAns, AustraliaNs, and Canadians. after lunch we took a hike to a huge waterfall and then rode back to The city center. Overall an awesome day yet again! tomorrow morning we leave for a two day trek in the national park outside the city. We will be doing lots of hiking, elephant riding, and bamboo rafting. We are staying the night in one of the Tribe villages. Mark will write about that in the near future.. Should be interesting. We are definitely going through some Colorado withdrawals. We miss riding, but most of all we miss all the peeps! So if you are reading this Know we are thinking about you and miss you guys! Hope you are getting lots of snow, can't complain though the warm weather feels great after spending the last few months standing in the cold. hope all is well! Sorry about the long post I like to write highlights So we can keep this as a littlE journal of our trip. Over and out.