Today is Thomas’ last day in Chiang Mai.  He has booked a late afternoon flight back to Bangkok to begin his trip back to Ireland and the working world 🙁

Fortunately, his flight out leaves late enough in the afternoon that we are able to squeeze in one more day trip and will then drop him off at the airport on our return to the city.  We have talked about seeing the elephants, and it turns out that Riam says she can get us up to Mae Tang and back in time for his flight. We have been to Mae Tang Elephant Park a couple of times and we quite enjoy the area, and the elephants in the jungle (vs a small space on the beach or a road in Bangkok), so the scenery combined with the company are the makings of a good day.

Thomas signs up for the full package, but we have done this all before so Mrs. Columbus and I opt for just the bamboo raft bit at the end. After Thomas finishes his ox cart and elephant ride we meet back up for the elephant show and lunch.  The place is very busy, much more than we have seen in previous years, and they have trained 2 more elephants to paint so now Suda has some competition!

After the show and lunch it is time for the bamboo raft trip down the river.  I really like the rafting because it is so peaceful and relaxing.  The drivers steer the raft and the current carries you along while you take in the scenery with only the jungle all around.  I wish I could float the raft all the way back to Chiang Mai, but sadly that is not possible due to rapids in a number of places between here and the city 🙁

Before long it is all over and Riam reminds us that we need to make our way back to the city in time for Thomas’ flight.  It is not far, but apparently the Prince of Thailand is in Chiang Mai today for a graduation ceremony at the university, and the traffic is expected to be quite bad as many of the main routes will be closed as he passes through.

We get to the airport in good time and have a few moments to say goodbye to our new friend.  It has been very enjoyable for us to travel together and we have learned a lot from him about Ireland and his travels, hobbies, etc. It has been one of the highlights of our trip so far to meet up with a fellow traveler that has so many common interests.  We have exchanged open invitations to visit each other in the future, so we look forward to perhaps one day being able to show him around Washington, or maybe discovering Ireland with the help of a local.

As is becoming habit, a late dinner with Tee and Ian finishes out the day, and we sit for a while after dinner visiting. The next thing we know it too late to get a massage, but it is just as well and an early night seems like a proper end to the day.

Thomas has booked himself into another day of mountain biking, so Mrs. Columbus and I are going to spend the day getting some other things taken care of.  We desperately need a massage 🙂 and we are also going to meet our friend Riam this morning to plan a few things for this week.

Thomas will be leaving Chiang Mai tomorrow but we are able to fit in a trip to the elephant park before he leaves.  Riam is going to pick us all up early and we will head off to Mae Tang for the morning. After our visit with Riam we stop for lunch (yes, at the usual spot) and then some pool time at the hotel before going out for a late afternoon massage.  Just after we sat down for our massage the skies opened up and the rain beat down, but it was quite peaceful to sit in our massage chairs and watch it come down.

The rain has stopped before the massage ends, and from there we walk over to Ginny Cafe to meet up with Tee, Ian and Thomas.  For Thomas’ last dinner in Chiang Mai we are all going out for Mu Kratha (Thai BBQ).  It is a fun experience to cook your own foods at the table over while socializing with your friends – sort of like we would do with fondue back home.

After a leisurely dinner, we decide that walk back will do us some good and we walk off alongside the moat that surrounds the old city.  As fate would have it our journey takes us past the Crazy German Bar that we were at a few nights ago, and we decide that Mrs. Columbus needs to meet the crazy german.   The intent is to just pop in for a quick beer and say hello, and that mostly goes according to plan, but at some point Kevin (the crazy german) pops out his supply of over-proof schnapps for everyone to have a shot.

Fortunately we only have the one shot (except for Thomas and I who somehow get tricked into finishing Mrs. Columbus’ for her), and Tee and Mrs. Columbus are there to keep things from going off the rails. We have a bit of a busy day tomorrow and we all decide that moving on and getting a good night’s sleep is the right thing to do.

It is Sunday here in Chiang Mai and that can mean only one thing – the Sunday night market.  Our plan for the day is mostly oriented around this, and we have nothing strenuous planned as one would not want to tire themselves out before a grand night of shopping!

Thomas is also a bit tired after his late night out, so it is another late start for everyone and some pool time in the morning while relaxing.

After lunch (or again late breakfast for some) we decide to hire one of the red songtheaws to take us up to Wat Pharthat Doi Suthep for the afternoon. It is the most famous temple in the Chiang Mai area with some great views of the area, so something we think Thomas should see, and of course an opportunity for us to get our yearly blessing from the monks there.  The temple is quite busy, more than we have seen in previous years here, and clearly tourism has picked up a bit – perhaps I need to stop telling people what a great place it is to visit!! 😉

At the end of the day it is back to the city and get ready for tonight’s main event – the Sunday night market. Mrs. Columbus looks forward to this every year and wandering through the blocks and blocks of vendors selling their mostly hand made crafts.  Just as traditional as our return to the market is my getting tired of it after about the first hour!

We have stopped for some street food, walked by a number of stalls, sat under a pagoda for a 15 minute rain storm, and I am about done for the night.  I like to see the market as it is quite a spectacle, and if I had things to buy I’m sure I could find them here, but the shopping is as we say a ‘pink job’ and I have had my fill for this trip.  Mrs. Columbus is happy to help Thomas navigate the chaos though to get the souvenirs that he needs so we part ways and I head towards home as they go deeper into the market.

Fortunately I have a backup plan, and as I walk back towards the hotel I coincidentally have to walk by Ginny Cafe and Ian is around so I pop in for a visit and a beer.  This is where Mrs. Columbus, several packages in tow, finds me a couple hours later still chatting away with Ian and Tee, so I guess the night has been a success for everyone 🙂

After the hijinx of last night I needed a bit of extra sleep this morning, which thankfully worked out well because we did not have any real plans for the day.  Thomas had arranged to go mountain biking for the day so Mrs. Columbus and I walked around the city a bit and then stopped at Ginny Cafe for some lunch (or late breakfast in my case).  After lunch we walked back to the hotel for some time at the pool and a bit of catch up at work and so went the afternoon.

The night before we had agreed with Ian, Richard, and Landon to meet up and go to the Muay Thai boxing match this evening – there is a match every Saturday and usually at least one foreigner is featured in the final pairing.  I am not a huge boxing fan, but I have never seen a live Muay Thai fight so this seems like a good time to go.  Landon is training with a local gym and knows all the fighters so he is a great resource to ask questions to for those of us that seem like newbies. Mrs. Columbus is not at all interested in fights of any sort, and conveniently it is Saturday night so she has once again decided head off on her own and tackle the Saturday night market and let the boys head off to the boxing stadium.

A night of Thai Boxing consists of usually 7 or 8 matches, each match is up to 5 rounds, and each round is 3 minutes with a 2 minute break between rounds.  Some fights can be quite quick if there is a knockout, and in theory if every fight ended in a 1st round knockout, the whole thing could be over in about a hour, but we see a variety of different levels of matches with some ending in knockouts in various rounds, and some going all five rounds and ending with a judges decision.  Unlike American sports there is no TV contract to sell advertising for, so once a bout is complete the next one is already getting ready to go so the action is mostly non-stop.

There is a sort of ‘half-time’ show before the last two bouts where they get 4 boxers into the ring and blindfold them and then they go for 3 minutes of flailing around throwing punches at anything they come into contact with.  Even the referee gets caught up in the melee a few times, but it is mostly for show so no-one is taking any serious hits.

The final match features a guy from England vs a Thai fighter and after a fairly even first round, the Thai fighter starts to get the upper hand and it looks like the fight may be over quickly, but in the 3rd round the Thai guy has run out of his burst, and now the English guy comes out from behind and towards the end of the 3rd round scores a victory with a knockout.

Most of the fighters train a lot, and they are in very good physical condition (much like myself of course so I can relate) and overall the fight is quite a bit more entertaining to watch than I initially expected it to be.  I am really glad I went, and while I may not seek them out specifically, I am sure I will go to one again on a future visit.

The fight ends at around midnight and after a nightcap it is time to head home for the night.  Well except for Thomas who I think maybe feels challenged by my late night last night, and in a bit of one-upsmanship stays out with Richard until almost dawn the next morning!!

Mrs. Columbus and I have allocated a week or so here in Chiang Mai and are in no particular rush, but our new friend Thomas has a limited amount of time here and wants to see as much as he can before he goes back to Ireland so we decide to start out straight away with some activities.

After we check into our hotel it is right back out and onto the streets to walk down to Ginny Cafe for some dinner and to say hi to our local friends Tee and Ian. The food is fantastic as usual (Khao soy gai you sweet bowl of yumminess) and catching up with friends makes for a great evening.

For our first full day here we have decided to go for a zip line adventure.  We did this back in 2009 when we were here with the kids and it was a lot of fun.  It has become quite popular here in the north, and there are now about 7 or 8 different companies that offer zip line packages.  This gives us the opportunity to try somewhere different than last time and we end up selecting the Eagle Track zipline.

Our afternoon in the jungle is perfect – there is a bit of cloud in the sky, so it is not too hot, and the zipline provides for excellent entertainment. The track we are on has 35 platforms with a combination of different types of bridges and climbing, and 16 zips so we cover a lot of ground during the afternoon.

After a full afternoon on the mountain they drive us back to the city where we are meeting up again at the cafe for dinner and then a bit of a night out on the town.  Me, Ian and Thomas are meeting up with Richard (who we met last year) and Landon (who is a a friend of Ian and Richard) to go out to a few pubs and Mrs. Columbus is going to avoid the rooster party and go for a massage and an early night – probably the smart money bet, but what fun would that be!

For dinner I had to have the ‘Steve Special’ – penang curry served with garlic bread – it sounds like an odd paring, but it is a small piece of heaven, and the night is off to a good start!  After dinner and a few beers it is time to venture out into the city. Our first stop is a bar that has dozens and dozens of different beers from around the world – the menu is huge and selecting something is mostly a crap shoot, but that is part of the adventure I guess.

The next stop on the tour is down towards the night market and there is a side street (soi) with dozens of small bars one after another.  There is a Thai boxing ring in the central plaza and there are some ‘demonstration’ Muay Thai fights being put on for the tourists / bar patrons. Landon is studying Muay Thai and is pretty quick to point out that these fights are fairly staged to bring in the crowd and not nearly as intense as the real thing which leads to a plan to take in a real match another night at the Chiang Mai boxing stadium.

As midnight approaches Thomas decides to call it a night as he has booked a full day of mountain biking tomorrow, but the rest of us push on to what will be our last stop – the Crazy German Bar – owned in fact by a somewhat crazy german!  It is a great night, having a few drinks, visiting, people watching and just generally carrying on, but as it turns out 3am in Thailand is just as late as 3am everywhere else and I am glad that I have just an open day planed for tomorrow! I guess that even without the influence of the people back in the neighborhood I can still get into some mischief 😉