Backdate: Chiang Mai trip Dec 2017 Day 6

10/12/17 Sun: We set off at 8am for our water rafting adventure at Mae Taeng river wit 8Adventures today. The pick-up came to us first, before touring around to pick up other passengers who were also heading to the camp with us.

Upon arrival, we left our bags in a locker, and clad in our Chiang Mai zipline adventure tee and shorts, we went onto a van which would bring us to the starting point of our 10km white water rafting thrill woots~ The package costed us 2000 baht each which was paid in cash at the camp, and I bought the photos for an extra 500 baht. 

Once we put on our life jackets and took our paddles, one instructor whom spoke pretty good English gave us instructions on how to paddle and listen to verbal cues from our boat captains. We stepped onto the wooden float, and he demonstrated to us what to do if we were to fall into the waters... basically lie face up and wave, and wait for help no matter the gush of the waters, as they have people stationed at some points by the side to keep a lookout for fallen comrades lol. 

There were about 8 of us, so we were split up into two rafts. Potato, me and one other guy and woman was with us. *They were both your typical-adventurous angmohs... cool!* Carrying the raft was already not an easy task as it's heavy, but we lugged it onto the starting point and off we go for a bumpy ride! *There were two other instructors on canoes, who would usually be in front of us and signal to us of fast streams and protruding rocks in the streams.*

There were numerous times we got stuck on a rock somehow, and our captain have to instruct us to either steer backward or forward to change the direction and get our raft moving down again. Quite a few drops here and there too, and some sudden ones as well, so I was holding on pretty tightly to the rope on my side of the raft throughout the whole journey for fear I'd fall out! 
And yes there was one time when I nearly fell out, as well as the angmoh guy in front of me. *Everytime we hear the command "fall in!", we'd sit in the raft together, but man it was not easy to sit back up because it's slippery la!*

At one point of time, the flow was not very strong, so we all went down for a dip in the river. I couldn't touch the floor and so I had a hard time getting back in, and Potato had to pull me in like I'm a死猪一样lol. Also, I remember one part where the instructors came splashing water at us, and then hopped in to do some "helicopter spin" in our raft... and SPLASH~ we all lost balance and fell into the waters lol~

It was a good 2+ hours of rafting. Headed back to our meeting point and took a quick shower, before we had the lunch they prepared for participants.

Hearty meal, and I loved the salad especially. Potato initially only wanted to order the coffee, but they gave him the whole set with toast and banana instead. Chatted a bit with the American lady in our raft on our transport back to our Airbnb as well. 

It's Sunday and there's a Sunday Night Market nearer to us than the Saturday Night Market in Chiang Mai, and so we went for another 4 hours of eating, shopping and walking. This night market felt even more confusing as there were many十字路口, so I had to rely on "Potato maps" keke.

Tried the fresh spring roll dim sum (40 baht) which was only so-so. Walked into a small Chiang Mai Crafts Fair to look at some displays as well. Ate spicy fishballs and enoki shrooms with bacon too.

We visited Wat Chediluang Worawihan in the evening, and I made some donations there. Beautiful temple.

Walked about and drank some Tiger herbal drink, saw lots of seafood before we settle down by the roadside to have my favourite tom yum goong again. The one we had this time was more sour-ish though.

Drank 20 baht Thai green tea which was made from scratch by an auntie... tasted really good.

There was an area selling medicines, and I saw some Diabetes medicine, and the old uncle could explain to us in English (and I thought I could always ask my Thai friend to translate the instructions on the label), so I bought it for mum. Basically, she has to take 3 capsules in the morning before food, and then 3 at night before sleep daily.

Thought the above was crab meat, but turned out it was only pork meat on top of crab shell. Walked along and saw some music performances by young children.

It was a pretty tiring day for us, and as we are going to Pai the next day, we went back earlier. Potato wanted to check out the pub next to our Airbnb, and so we went down to have a drink. That was where we knew Australian Denis and French Michel, who were playing snooker. Potato joined in their game, to re-live his days of playing snooker as a CCA in Poly haha. *My dear has great snooker skills hehe~*

Denis and Michel are all retirees if I haven't remembered wrongly, and they also met while they were travelling the world. *Denis resembles an older version of Hugh Jackman!* Both loved Chiang Mai a lot and so they do come back when they are free and would meet up at this bar. Denis was sharing with us how he lived in a house constructed by himself at Sunday Island. We would love to visit his someday but he's the kind always on the move, so I guess we have to inform him way beforehand if we were to plan to go there! 
*缘分很奇妙。无论身在何处，希望他们都健康快乐！*