Thailand, part I

And right back at ya! We're in Thailand and already had a busy week. Met up with Reto in Bangkok and went up to lovely Chiang Mai, a laid-back city in the mountainous North.
It was quite a lot cooler up there, which was a nice change. Like everyone else, we did one of the famous trekking tours, which was, of course, tres touristy but fun nonetheless.
Apart from walking a LOT through woods and hills, we also rode elephants, showered under waterfalls and took a bamboo raft down a river. Hanging out with Reto again was great and we spent New Year's Eve together as well. We had a yummy dinner at the gekko cafe, which included our first tom yum goong and a plate of roasted frogs! Mmmm...they were juicy and crispy at the same time. You can see one of their feet in the slide show. After quite a lot more than one beer, we decided to walk around town for a bit when we stumbled upon a great custom here. Hundreds of people lit sky lanterns, which filled with hot air and then suddenly took off! The entire night sky was filled with hundreds of beautiful paper lanterns. Of course, Reto bought one too, so we all let it go into the air together.

The next day, our trek started and luckily, we weren't as hungover as some of the other group members. Even though it was a fairly big group, we had a great ol' time with lovely people, gorgeous waterfalls and views and more beer ;)

This morning, we arrived back in BKK and will head down south tomorrow for some serious dolce far niente, sunbathing and coconut-sucking. Stay tuned!