But the airport was fine, so after a short wait we boarded our connecting flight to Chiang Mai, where we would spend our last five nights before heading home.
A cab ride from the airport had us at the Vieng Mantra Hotel, in the Old Town, in about 20 minutes and after settling in we went in search of lunch. We found it just around the corner in a little cafe serving up cheap and beautifully fresh organic Thai food. Add to the food a great big fresh fruit juice - I think I had beetroot, carrot, ginger and a couple of other things - and we were ready for anything. And that turned out to be the RWC semi-final between the Wallabies and All Blacks. We found a bar with a big flat screen, got a beer, and watched the preliminaries in great anticipation. Would this be the day the Wallabies finally buried the Eden Park hoodoo? Not bloody likely. As we all know, what followed was 80 excrutiating minutes watching the Kiwis outplay us in every facet of the game. Bother! Ah, well, it's only a game.... Isn't it?
Next day was cooking day. Susie and I had booked in for a one day Thai Cooking Course, and were picked up from our hotel at around 8:30. We stopped for a walk around a large fresh food market, where our effervescent instructor Embi showed us lots of exotic fruits and herbs commonly used in Thai cooking. After buying some extra ingredients needed for the day's cooking, we set off again for our "kitchen".
What followed was a fun day. We all cooked 4 different dishes - between us Susie and I did Spring Rolls, Chicken Green Curry, Pad Thai, Tom Yam with Shrimps, Thai Vegetable Soup, Chicken with Basil Leaves, Mango in Sticky Rice, and Bananas in Coconut Milk. After the cooking, we of course got to eat our creations, so were quite full by the end of the day! We all came away with a great little recipe book, as well, so we'll be keen to show off a couple of Thai dishes once we get back into our home.
That evening we arranged a side-by-side full body massage at a place just across the street from our hotel. The two young ladies who worked us over were happy and friendly, and their soft voices as they talked quietly in Thai to each other had me completely relaxed, even as I was being given some heavy treatment. Susie was so pleased she immediately said she wanted a foot and calf massage, as well. I thought, yeah, what the hell, and sat down beside her. A half hour later we both floated out of the place.
You can't go to Thailand without riding an elephant, can you? So the following day we did, along with a little bamboo rafting, and some walking through small mountain villages, all done in continuous rain!
It wasn't cold - just wet, so we climbed aboard our steed and set off into the steaming jungle. That is after buying a couple of bags of bananas for our transport. He wasn't backward in asking to be fed, either, regularly arching his trunk back over his head to us, waiting for another one to be handed to him.
After the elephant ride, we climbed aboard flimsy looking bamboo rafts and set off for a brief but exciting ride down a brown, rain swollen river. They gave us all a PFD, we climbed on four to a raft along with our young raft Captain, and off we went for a fun filled half hour, dodging rocks and trees.
Next we went for a bit of a trek through a couple of the local, and very poor, mountain villages. Naturally we were shown the locals creating beautiful hand woven wraps and other things, and bought. We were supposed to walk up to a waterfall, crossing a river to get there, but the bridge had been washed away, and Susie balked at crossing the makeshift one - a few bamboo poles lashed together. A fall into the swollen river would have been distinctly hazardous, so I think there were a few who secretly applauded Suzie's decision. We backtracked to our minibus and headed back to town.
That evening the reception staff at our hotel asked us if we would like to have our last two nights at their sister hotel, about a half hour out of town on the Ping River. They said it was a beautiful and quiet place - ideal to rest up and recharge our batteries before our trip home to Sydney. That sounded like a good idea to us, so the next day we climbed into their hotel van and were whisked to the Lanna Mantra Hotel.
It was indeed beautiful, quiet, and relaxing. Our room was big and beautifully furnished with a balcony which looked across the grounds to the pool and river beyond. So, apart from an easy bicycle excursion into the local village, we just hung out by the pool, wandered in the gardens, ate, drank, had another massage and relaxed.
And then, all of a sudden, we were on a Thai International 747 on our way to Sydney. Susie's son Evan and his gorgeous daughter Daisy met us at KS Airport, and we were HOME. Well, not home in the strict sense of the word, as our house is still occupied by the tenants until late January, but home on the good ol' Northern Beaches.
We had a couple of nights with Ev and Jade, and then moved to a great little studio flat 30 secs walk from the ocean in Manly. Until we can get back into the house, we'll be sharing ourselves around with family and friends.
Since getting back to our home turf, we've been getting out and walking, paddling, sailing and riding, and re-acquainting ourselves with what we've been away from for 9 months. Looking around us, we know...
there are many, many spectacular and exciting places in the world, but there's no place we would rather live than right here on the northern beaches of Sydney.
