Chaing Mai - Mae Hung Son

This weekend again took us to Northern Thailand. We left after a morning of teaching and a quick box lunch on Friday and arrived in Chaing Mai. We spend the evening at the night safari which was amazing. We took a footpath around that allowed us to see several smaller animals in the park, and then took two Tram rides through different parts. Much like an African Safari, parts of the grounds resembled Rain forests, and we saw many different animals, both indigenous and foreign. Our second tour guide was a hoot. A great sense of humor and spoke Thai English with an Australian accent.

Today we took an extremely windy trail through the mountains. The drive was long, and arduous, but the views were absolutely breathtaking. Our tour ended in the town of Mae Hung Son. Where we toured a very large cave, climbing over stairs and rocks of various degrees of stability and riding bamboo rafts (Okay I thought I'd step right through them, but they're surprisingly stable). Our raft driver only stumbled once (bad images of him falling face down in the river went away as he recovered quickly while pulling the raft by hand and walking up stream). Following our cave tour we drove to the outskirts of town to see a hill tribe called the Long Neck Karen. The women of this tribe where long brass coils, most noticeably on the neck to push down the collar bones and make the neck look longer. For me, a humbling and memorable experience I will carry for a long time.