Travel Destination: Chiang Mai

The Land of the Elephants

If you're like me and love elephants and everything about them then you will fal in love with Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is known to be the capital of the North of Thailand. It is an absolutely wonderful place with such scenic beauty, fresh clean air and a sense of relaxation as soon walk through those airport gates.

I was staying at a resort an hour from the main city. The resort was embedded in between the slopes of the mountains. It was surrounded by nature and animals. There are many things to see in Chiang Mai like the night safari, the zoo, the temples and a must for all those shopaholics- the night market! A special treat if you happen to be there on a Sunday is the Sunday Markets which are set up along 'Walking Street', you can find some really nice jewellery and scarves and more at them!

Interesting facts

Since I am a vegetarian, I was shocked to see that they had a 'Veggie Map' for pure vegetarian restaraunts! Now that was something unique. The food was great!

They have really posh malls (who wouldve thought!). I used to buy alot of my snacks from Costco (I even found some nice basic tops from there). I actually found alot of the things at the mall a bit pricey, so if you want a bargain head too the night markets.

Tiger Kingdom. You get to walk into their pens and touch real tigers! I thought it was a great experience, except for the fact after I researched I found out that these tigers were drugged and that they are only bred for a 'tourist attraction', this broke my heart. Very sad to know things like this happen.

Outside the night safari there are deers just roaming freely! Was amazing because it really got you in touch with nature and its surroundings!

The Long Neck Ladies from Burma. Again I found out later that these were only here for a tourist attraction and they pretty much live off the money they get from visitors. They are not allowed to enter the city and therefore have set up their own little villiage in the hills.

Buddhist temples. There are a vast number of temples in Chiang Mai which are amazing! The feeling you get when you enter one of these sacred places is unbelievable. I felt like I could sit here for ages!

This was a really old temple, and the beauty was in its historic structure. It was definitely a site to see.

Hope you enjoyed leg 2 of the Travel Destinations!

Keep smiling :)

Travel Destinations: Egypt

The Land of the Pyramids

I thought I will share with all of you my favourite holiday destinations! So to begin this series of travel destinations, I'd like to start with EGYPT! One of my all time favourite places I have visited!

Travel Route

We started off at Cairo, the capital of Egypt and I have to say my first impressions were not that great. It was a bit dirty, and the climate was cold (I had packed for hot weather). Apparently, the day I landed was the 'one day of the year' when a sand storm hits! How  unlucky!

The next day we took a flight down to Luxor (you can see in the map), because we were about to embark on a cruise! Its a cruise which goes down the Nile to Aswan. Whilst stopping over to see monuments.

Then when we reached Aswan we did a 6hr trip to Abu Simbil (see photo below). We then took a flight back from Aswan to Cairo and completed our tour with after seeing the Pyramids.

Interesting Facts

I was really taken aback from the enormousity (if thats a word) from the pyramids. It was amazing, to think that people made this huge structure 5000 yrs ago without the current technology we have now. They used to use mud ramps to pull the heavy stones into place. The stones generally came from Aswan or Luxor, and were transported by the river, which used to run very close to the Pyramids.

Another interesting fact was that the Pyramids used to be covered in a layer of white limestone, so they used to shine in the sun. Unfortunately, later on people took it to make mosques, buildings etc.

Markets at Aswan!

Abu Simbil

Pyramids of Giza

Cruising down the Nile.