A few last pictures from Chiang Mai

Here is another picture of Jo-Jo during bath time, and then a picture of Annie's feet in a 'fish spa'. We've seen lots of these fish spas (though many fewer than massage parlors) where you pay to have small fish nibble the dead skin off of your feet, and decided we had to try it. $3 for 20 minutes, and although it didn't seem to be very therapeutic, the sensation was strange enough to be worth the money.

For our last day in Chiang Mai, I went on a fishing trip for the morning to catch mekong catfish, one of the native species in the Thailand rivers and lakes. I fished with a Thai guide and we used flavored fermented bread packed into balls around the hook for bait. These were much larger fish than I've caught before, and made my arms sore the next day. We used 40 lb test line, and the 5 fish I caught ranged from 12 pounds to 53 pounds. This is a picture of the biggest one, which took 15 minutes to reel in. For the first 5 minutes there wasn't much hope of pulling it in so I had to let it start to get tired. You can see the belt we wore to make the reeling easier. They are good fighters and do a lot of twisting and changing directions when they are hooked.

That night we did a 4 hour Thai cooking class in the city where we had a guide that took us around a local garden and market, and then we cooked curry, a noodle dish, a stir fry dish and soup. Lots of food and fun, and plenty of water to cool down the spice.

Now we are down in the southern province of Krabi at a hotel near the beach, with a 4-island swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing tour scheduled for tomorrow. It is around 10 degrees cooler here (which means upper 80s), and more humid. The pool at the hotel and the access to the ocean should help to keep us cool.