I just spent three fun days in Chiang Mai and it was great! Chiang Mai was nothing like I expected it to be… This tourist Mecca of the north, it looks like the entire centre part of the town is geared solely towards tourists. Well I guess I’m a tourist so I should feel good there?

Well no, not exactly. Once there I realized that all these contrived package tours didn’t really appeal to me, and instead all I wanted to do was go ride a scooter out of town and go jump in some water… Which a nice German guy was able to make happen for me on my first day. The “grand canyon” of Thailand, just kidding, it’s an old quarry filled with water for people to jump in and swim around. Really fun though.

Feeling like I needed to try and be more of a tourist I headed straight into the action part of Chiang Mai to a more party location. I still didn’t end up doing a package tour though, but I did round up a crew of 9 people to go see some awesome waterfalls that you walk up! We had a great time and stayed together for the night, even picking up more people along the way.

Now I’m in Chiang Rai to do some quick templing then on to Laos on Saturday because my Visa expires!