The best time to visit Thailand should be from December to February when it is in the dry and warm season. On Jan. 4, we flew from Hong Kong to Bangkok and then connected to Thai Airway and boarded its domestic flight to Chiang Mai. Someone hired by the hotel picked us up from the airport. The hotel was right next to Chiang Mai's famous night market. After we settling down, we went to the night market. We decided to buy some Thai crafts there instead of in Bangkok. I have reserved a full day trip next day. We turned in early that night.

On Jan. 5, a van picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the jungle near Chiang Mai. The first activity was elephant ride. They put a chair on the back of elephant. At first, it was quite scary especially when the elephant was going downhill and crossing the river in the very beginning. I was so afraid to fall down and just held on tight to the chair. But after a while, we got used to the swings and started to enjoy the ride. Our elephant guide was just a 10 years old kid. He could not speak English. But after Joe tipped him 20Baht, he was so happy that he offered us to sit on the neck of the elephant and took lots of pictures for us.

Joe and I just took turn to sit on the neck of the elephant. It was such a fun ride. We took the elephant ride in the jungle for about an hour. Actually sitting at the hard chair or on the elephant neck was not quite confirmtable, but it was an adventure for sure.

After the elephant ride, we took a short hike in the jungle and got back to the car. The guide took us to a nearby farmhouse. Its hosts provided us home made Thai lunch. The cooking was no way near fancy compared to restaurant, but it was very delicious.

In the afternoon, we took a bamboo water rafting in a nearby river. There were usually five people in one raft. One local guide who steered in the front and the other four were tourists who took turn to help in the back. Another young couple from China were in the same raft with us. In stead of using paddles, we used a long bamboo stick to push the river bottom or rocks to keep the raft going down the river smoothly. After a while, Joe thought he had mastered the steering and went to steer in the front which was the most critical role for the safety of the whole raft. Since he didn?t know the river at all, it was too late when he realized the raft was heading toward a big rock. 'Rocks' he yelled aloudy, and abandoned the raft. He of course didn't get hurt at all, but I was unprepared and fell down on the hard bamboo raft and hurt my knees. The big blues on my knees didn?t disappear until months later. The small accident just added some spicy in our rafting adventure. We had so much fun.

In the evening, we left Chiang Mai and flew to Bangkok. In Bangkok, we did all the tourist stuffs --- visited the Grand Palace, the Sleeping Budda and the Golden Budda. We heard a lot about the floating markets. But the one in Bangkok has already became very commercialized. We only saw one or two boats that were really doing business with locals.

We went around Bangkok mainly by “Tu Tu” (Three-wheeler) and Taxi. Traveling in “Tu Tu” in rush hour was really a scary adventure. But some of the drivers always tried to talk you into going to shopping and if they were not happy, they might just abandon you in the middle of nowhere. It was really bad for their image. We got cheated for a couple of times. Although eventually we didn’t lose much financially, it just wasted our time that was also bad enough.

The most interesting day while we were in Bangkok was the visit to the Elephant Zoo. We watched a very cute elephant show and crocodile show there, and took pictures with close contacts with tigers by holding their tails in hand. We also watched a great Thai culture show in a nearby culture center.

Another interesting show we watched was the Tiffiny show. The high quality show was comparable with those in Las Vegas. All the girls were in great figures, but actually they used to be boys but now transformed into girls. We couldn’t really tell until they lined up and said “Thank You” to audiences in the end, and then we were convinced they still had men’s voices. We really enjoyed the show.

The four and a half days in Thailand were short but fun. We really enjoyed the authentic Thai food and the exotic tropical fruit drinks. I heard its beaches and scuba diving were great too in southern Thailand. We hope we could come back and go to the beaches and do scuba diving next time.

In Jan. 9, we flew back home.