Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Nov 25, 2004
1
7
169
Trip End
Jan 26, 2005
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Sunday, December 5, 2004
We decided to get a bus from Lampang to Chiang Mai! This day overlaps with some of the things mentioned previously mentioned for Lampang so we're still on the King's Birthday! We arrived in Chiang Mai late afternoon and found a corking little guesthouse close to all the action! If anyone is going to Chiang Mai on a budget, stay at the Somwang Guest House!!!! Top notch! They have a great Sunday market here so we wandered round wishing we had lots of room in our rucksacks to buy lots of things - soaking up the atmosphere and then went for a few illegal beers as no-one is supposed to serve alcohol on the Kings birthday!!! We felt really BAD...or I did anyway! :0) It was great seeing lots of lanterns being launched into the sky as well - I thought we were being invaded by aliens until Wung told me what all the little lights were
Butterfly - This ones for you Katrina!
! Bless!We visited one of the Wats located just outside of Chiang Mai called 'Doi Suthep' where its tradition to ring the bell when you get up there! The views over Chiang Mai were spectacular and we have now perfected the art of using the autotimer on the camera so we are now both starting to feature in the photos! Technology eh? Funny at first though as heads were regularly missed off and feet featured ALOT!
On our last day in Chiang Mai we decided to head to Thailands highest peak 'Doi Inthanon'. Being the now seasoned travellers that we are (????) we decided to make our own way there which proved to be yet another one of our little adventures! Once again we landed on our feet and managed to cadge a lift with a lovely Thai family who literally adopted us and took us all the way to the top! We stopped at some stunning waterfalls on the way up as well which was cool! The top is reknowned for being hidden by cloud cover but the most shocking thing for me was how cold it was (yes I know we were at the top of a mountain!) I literally couldn't speak I was so cold (Paul was loving it!) so I decided to console myslef with a latte and a brownie ...yes even at the top of Thailand's highest mountain!!! On the way back down, we left our friends at the one of the waterfalls on the way down and basically realised that you were pretty scuppered unless you'd paid the full on tourist rates to get up and down in a Songthaew (Paul's pet hate!) so we did the only thing we could do and started walking down....11 km to the next waterfall! As luck would have it yet again, after about 1km we bumped into a van full of local women and their market produce who kindly offered us a lift right down to the bottom where we could catch the bus back to Chiang Mai! Very amusing and this is where the true generosity of the locals comes out as they wouldn't charge us a penny! And for us it was ranked up there as one of our highlights so far!!! Great memories!
To Lynds, Ollie, Jo and Patrick - Jille Cooper 'Riders' has been purchased in Chiang Mai! RCB is a HORROR!
