Chiang Mai, Part III

Saturday Ba-Ouwan, P-Kik, and P-Yoo all headed back to Phitsanulok, while I remained in Chiang Mai. I decided to spend part of the afternoon at the Night Safari. The Night Safari is similar to a zoo, but a little nicer. It is located on the grounds of Doi Suthep National Park. I enjoyed a beautiful walk around Swan Lake observing the many animals.

Next, my tuk tuk driver took me to Wat U Mong. This wat is very old and located in the forest. I really liked this wat because it is totally different from every other wat I have seen in Thailand (and that's a lot of wats folks). I also liked this wat because it was sort of creepy; located in the woods with moss growing over everything. At this wat I met Mary. She from France and is travelling all around S.E. Asia by herself!

While in the wat, Mary and I saw a sign pointing towards a zoo located in the wat. Mary told me that her friend had mentioned that there was a zoo in Wat U Mong, but it wasn't advertised to tourists. I confirmed this, as there was no mention of a zoo in my Lonely Planet. After wandering around the woods and not finding a zoo or any animals, we came across some deer. The deer were quite close to us with no fence or anything. I figured this was ok, being from Wisconsin I am used to seeing deer up close. We followed the professional looking signs written in English to the nature trail. Just around the corner we ran into some bull-like animals; again, no barrier between us and the vicious animals. We stopped to talk to some French boys who had also found the zoo. A few minutes later, one of the animals started walking towards us, and we started to walk away...then is started walking faster towards us and we started walking faster away. Before I knew it was last in line running away from this horned animal. It was a terrible experience. But we survived with no scratches. I know that this animal is probably vegetarian, but I read "The Hatchet." I remember how the boy in that story was beat up by a moose, who is also vegetarian. Anyway, I would not recommend that anyone follow the signs towards the "zoo" at Wat U Mong.

"The animal" :

Later that evening, Mary and I met for the Saturday night walking bazaar (which is not as good as the regular night bazaar). Then we thought we'd meet Mary's friend from Colorado, who was playing at "Guitar Man" Pub. But of course, not one tuk tuk driver had ever heard of this pub. Finally, we found a tuk tuk driver who knew what we were talking about, or so we thought. This tuk tuk driver took us on the craziest ride! He quickly took us to every bar in Chiang Mai with a man playing guitar, while his Thai music was blasting through his homemade speaker system. Amazingly we survived (again) and eventually he found the right bar!