Second Best Investment Ever & Worst Investment Ever

Second Best Investment Ever:

We spent 10 days in North Thailand and made the best decision of our lives: we went to a private oil massage class in Chiang Mai. We arrived in basically somebody's living room, where 3 mats were set on the floor. Then, the teacher told us to get naked (well, in our underwear). And then we spent 4 hours rubbing each other with some oil, while the teacher explained to us how to do it. It was a lot of fun, and very very weird.  
We will not be providing free massages when we get back. In fact, we will not be providing any massages, but thank you for your interest.

This is the only picture you are getting...

If you are wondering what our First Best Investment is, we would like to refer you to the blog post entitled "You're All Busted" and would like you to know that you are busted. Again.

We also had some other adventures in the area: we hiked up to the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep temple overlooking Chiang Mai, did a very fun cooking class in Pai, picnicked in Mae Sariang.

Walk up to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai

Classic Thon-Chips moment

We play hide and seek sometimes. But we don't go outside because we are lazy

Jeremy going to the market. Really rocking that market basket if you ask me. 

Pounding curry is second nature to us now

Jeremy making a curry, supervised by our great teacher 

Alina making some Laap, the best dish ever

Semi-professional spring roll roller

We attempted to eat all of what we cooked, but were unsuccessful....

...so the next day we had a feast with our leftovers in Mae Hong Son

Views on Mae Hong Son

Mae Hong Son lake

biking around in Mae Sariang

Lounging, our favourite

Worst Investment Ever:

On the other hand, we had a not-so-fun trekking experience. We set off on a 2-day trek near Mae Sariang, with our guide and one other girl. Things were going well up until noonon the second day. The trek was actually really fun, taking us through some sublimissime scenery, and to a very rural homestay. But then, things went south... 
Here are the before pictures if you will

Our guide, the serial killer

Breakfast time

We went to another bat cave, and it was fun and dark and scary

"I don't like this.  I don't like this at all," thought Alina, upon being tricked into going into yet another batcave.
This hesitation was well-founded since the previous bat visit resulted in a bat poop in the eye situation.

-"Alina! Do not move!", Jeremy exclaimed
-"What? What What? What's wrong???", wondered Alina
-"Nothing, I mean, it's all right, just be careful not to touch the wall above you with your head or your back, because there are 2 little bats right above you.", explained Jeremy
-"Oh. OK, no big deal", replied Alina, before eating danger for breakfast

Sublimissime views from our homestay

This is what rural looks like...

Jeremy went hunting  

And then we ate the wild bears that Jeremy hunted

The other girl in our group was doing a 3 day trek, so our guide left us with his uncle to go the remainder of the way, on a path going along a little river. We were not super happy about this, especially given the fact that the uncle did not speak a word of English, but because the rest of the trek had gone well and because we did not have much of a choice, we let it fly. Big mistake.

Jeremy's last meal before the event

Now, from this point on, we do not have any pictures of the trek. However, we have designed some educational aids that should help you understand what happened...

The path was following a shallow river bed. However, it turned out that, because it was the end of rainy season, the shallow river was not so shallow. 

The path was completely flooded, so the uncle decided to improvise a path cutting through the mountain (aka "The Deadly Shortcut")

This vertical view cutting across the mountain should help you better understand the amplitude of our little problem

We eventually survived this deadly path, but only because we had brought some snacks with us. 

Jeremy and Alina,
We Like Lounging Better Than Danger