Chaing Mai

The wifi connections here are pretty weak so I'm not having much luck downloading most photos. So unfortunately I can't shard one of the awesome pics were getting. I did however want to share the experience while on the train up to the Chaing Mai province.

As we continued to move through the country the poverty level is really striking . It is present pretty much through out the whole country, at least what we've seen, and the sanitary conditions are really what you would expect in a developing country.   Yet the people seem for the most part very content. As we travelinorth up to Chaing Mai and the countryside is truly beautiful.  It's pretty interesting as we traveled north thru the countryside, small impoverished villages are scattered throughout.  One of the other things that is so apparent everywhere we have been is the huge population of ferrel dogs. They are everywhere, it really is very sad as many of the seem to have some kind of injury.   One other thing that seems to be fairly consistent is the smell of smoke and/or diesel in the air.

Anyway, now we are in Chaing Mai and a whole different experience awaits. Last night we headed to the night market after cleaning up from handling tigers (a bit nerve racking I must say but now we can say we pet tigers).  The night market was clearly the best market we have found. Everything from trinkets to high quality furnishings. There were a few places were live music was being performed and it filled the air with a pleasant vibe. After we spent a couple hours walking the market we found a hula bar/Indian restaraunt. We sat in an Indian dining pod shared multiple amazing dishes and then say relaxed and smoked a huka pipe. Great evening. Today we are off to explore Chaing Mai before heading for Phuket. All I can say is so far this is an amazing trip!