As we were descending on the airplane into Chiang Mai we noticed how hazy is was outside -- you could barely see the mountains and landscape.  I immediately thought of LA and the smog, and the problem Chaing Mai was experiencing wasn't too far off from that.  Apaprentely during this time of year (summer), the farmers utilize the slash and burn technique to clear out their land.  We also heard that one way people hunt animals is by smoking them out of the forest.  Whatever the cause, Chiang Mai was smoke ridden.  You could not only see it in the air, but could feel it on your eyes and skin, and definitely the smell of burning was strong.  Both Jason and I seriously considered getting masks to put over our mouths like many of the locals do, but thought since we were only there for 3 days we'd be fine.

That aside, we really enjoyed Chiang Mai.  There was much less of the chaos we experienced in Bangkok.  It was more of a ...controlled... chaos.  Don't get me wrong, this isn't some little village (it's 1/10th the size of Bangkok, which has 9 million people), but there was more of an authentic Thai feel. We felt things were much more accesible, the people were very friendly, and it was just easier to get around.  We also found better street food vendors here.

We stayed in the center of the city at D2 Hotel, which was in the heart of where the night bazarre was located.  Basically, this night market opens up at night (fancy that), and has every thing you could imagine you might want to buy or eat.  We spent partsof all 3 of our nights in Chiang Mai wandering through the market, eating much of the street food, looking at all the different things, and we even got a leg massage our last night there.  Really fun experience, and great friendly people all around.

Of course we couldn't go without the full Thai massage experience in Chiang Mai (figured we got to test them out in every town we're in), and were referred to Legends Spa.  Here we got a 2 hour Thai massage and hot stone treatment which was incredible.  These Thai people really know what they're doing when it comes to touch and massage, since again we were put into a state of utter bliss from the experience. Although again we may have paid a little more for the massage, it was definitely worth being in an incredibly beautiful atmosphere at Legends Spa ($100 US total for both of us). 

Our last full day in Chiang Mai we decided to do a day tour to some of the more remote and scenic areas.  We ventured out to an elephant camp, where we got the chance to ride on an elephant.  I won't say much about that, since the commentary in our video clip gives you a taste of it.  We also took a beautiful hike to Maewang Waterfall, where we got to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings. 

From here we went to a Karen Village, and learned about the people and their culture.  I even bought some bracelets from the children (less about the bracelets and all about supporting the people), who live in absolute poverty).  We had a delicious Thai lunch at another little local village.  Our last experience of the day was bamboo rafting down the river.  This was quite an experience.  Basically these hobbled together bamboo rafts carried us down the river, which Jason and I took turns steering in the back using long bamboo sticks to propell us. 

We definitely were quite sad to say good bye to Chiang Mai, as we really feel like we got to know Thai culture and people more here.  Although it's quite far and remote, I think we could both see coming back someday to visit this beautiful place.