After several nights in Chiang Mai, I decided to make my way to the night Bazaar. The bazaar runs for a length. I've never seen anything quite like it. Some amazing crafts, artwork and all manner of things for sale. Happened to run into an Aussie fellow named Dillan who I had briefly met in Bangkok several days earlier. He mentioned a place called Pai which is located several hours north of Chiang Mai. I decided to make my way there the next morning.

The trip was not bad and as we travelled upwards into the mountains, the weather became cooler. Jungle was all around us.

Arrived in Pai and spent a few minutes walking around the town (all it takes to explore this little place). Stopped in a hookah bar and smoked shisha (=flavored tobacco) from hookahs. Shared a good sized fish and chip set with Dillan.

The next afternoon made our way even further from civilization to a place called Sa Pong, and from the "town's" center (about 2 or 3 buildings) went to a guest house called Cave Lodge. Great spot in the middle of the jungle, right next to a river. In this area are about 100 caves. All a slight bit difficult to find. I had no problem exploring the caves myself, but finding them was the difficult part so we hired a guide who brought us to two different caves. Through fields, down moss covered paths and across rivers.

The first cave we explored was still alive and forming. The structures inside are amazing and I took pictures of the more interesting ones. The second cave was great too but this one was "dead" and the structures had stopped forming long ago.

After the trekking was done, the group sat across from the tiny market, ate soup, and drank sesame green tea from little bamboo cups.

That evening I rode a bamboo raft on a little river through one of the larger caves. At the far end of the cave, as happens every evening, hundreds of thousands of birds called "swifts" dot the sky as they fly into the cave. I took a short video I will post soon. Swifts have become cave adapted and actually use sonar, but at a lower frequency than bats. As the straggler swifts go flying in, out start the early riser bats. Bigger and slower than the swifts, and flying lower (to avoid collision with the swifts?), the bats at first exited 1 and 2 at a time, but then started to gain in numbers. At this point it had become too dark to see much more, so began the walk back through the forest as the raftsmen had finished for the night.

The next day I decided to make my way back to Chiang Mai as there was a group of people headed that way.

Have been in Chiang Mai for 4 days, and up until now I have been quite ill... presumably from the meal I had eaten after the trek. Was a bit worried it may have been something more serious, but after slowly regaining my normal temperature and strength and a good 13 hour sleep last night I feel almost back to 100%.

Visited the zoo here in Chiang Mai yesterday with a friend. Interesting place, but not the way these animals should be living. One orangutan was all alone. It looked as if he easily could of escaped the tiny moat and wall....but made no attempt.