Chiang Mai
Trip Start
Jun 29, 2008
1
20
40
Trip End
May 15, 2009
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Monday, August 11, 2008
It feels quite quiet to walk about and safe which is always a plus, its hard to think it as a city when you're in the old part. There are a lot of old western men here which makes it feel fairly sleazy espcially when you head toward the night market as there are loads of girlie bars full of young pretty thai girls and lots of men...not really a welcoming sight for two girls and especially for one as Regina went back to BKK the following night. I hate to think what Pattaya and Phuket are like!!
We just spent the first day wandering around and finding our bearings. As Regina was going back so sson we decided we should go and see something whilst we were here so we decided upon an important Wat which is up on the hillside, in her Lonely Planet but not mine!! We asked at reception how to get there and he wanted to charge us 600 bht (10 quid) for a provate taxi and told us we couldn't do it any cheaper!! Rip off!! So we went to see if we could find one of the pick up truck (buses sort of) that we thought might take us. They wanted 100 each but we got them down to 70 so we were happy. It stopped right outside the temple!! It was really busy with lots of Thai going to see it, I think it's a pretty import Wat for them and a lot of them had the day off as it was the Thai Queen's birthday. We had to go up 300 steps to get to it and as we went up the mist from the clouds came down, which was a nice relief as it meant it was nice and cool. It was a pretty cool place with quite a lot to see and really hight up. It was a shame that the cloud was so low as you should be able to see the whole of Chiang Mai from up there.
Rengina headed back to BKK as she had a flight to Mumbai to catch on the Thursday, Trouble was her travel agent had told her that as she was only in India for 2 days one night she didn't need a visa.....WRONG...so poor thing was in a real pickle. She was only using Mumbai to get to Cairo. Originally she was going to spend three weeks there but decided just to do a stop over instead. It turns out that with the help of Qantas she is now flying to Cairo via London on Sunday night so in the end she could have stayed longer here in Chiang Mai with me....bummer for me..so she is now enjoying the delights of Bangkok.
After she left I took a stroll around to find a new GH to stay in and I happened to read an article in a local CM magazinr about a little chocolate shop and cafe which had two rooms, a double room and a four room dorm room. It sounded kinda nice so I went and had a look and by chance for 350 bht (not quite 6 quid) I could have it, aircon, TV and hot water. The catch was I could only have it for two days. It was such a sweet place anf the staff were really nice too oh well. It just meant another hunt for a GH later on in the week.
I booked up to do a cooking class the next day. We got to learn to cook about 7 dishes, spring rolls, chicken and coconut soup, Pad Thai, chicken and cashew nuts, Curry paste, Panang Curry, sweet and sour chicken, and my favourite of the day spicy papaya salad. There were 10 of us in the class, 4 english, 1 french and 5 americans (all the same family, the son had been in CM for 2 years as a missionary, Jev Wit, we think!!). The food was pretty easy to cook, surprisingly so and tasted delicious. We were all stuffed by the end of the day. We four brits then went for a drink, Linda (swim teacher from London), Ash (headhunter from London) and his girlfriend Yeter (TA from London). Ash and Yetter are away for 3 weeks and were heading down south for some sun and sea the next day and Linda who is as mad a bag of snakes is away for 4 weeks.
Linda and I went in search of a temple which apparently has a dead monk in it and he's kept there for 100 days. Apparently he was head monk around these parts. We went to three different temples before we found him. I couldn't go in as my shoulders and knees were exposed but she went in to take a look at him. It turns out that it is a wax work of him and looks pretty life like. I'm going to go back whrn I am more appropriately dressed. There are quite a few temples on this ground including a 'university' for monk and a very old temple which you can't go into. It is raised on top of steps with a small moat around it and the top walls are adourned with elephant head sculptures only some remain.
We went to see some boxing (if you can call it that). The ring is surrounded by girlie bars, really sleazy ones, with girls hitching their skirts up to try and draw in the punters. Its all neon and girls, very intimidating. i wouldn't have gone there on my own. The boxing was completely cheographed complete with sound affects..if it wasn't so sad I would have laughed. On our way back to the GH we saw Ash and Yeter in a bar, the Chiang Mai Saloon, it's made to look like a western saloon and is even owned by a Texan. The food is pretty good and it was busy with just normal 'falangs' no old man and thai girls.
I helped Linda to decide what she was going to do with her last remaining 12 days. Originally she was going to go to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. No way she could do that in 12 days and fly out of Singapore!! So she decided to fly to Hanoi and spend a week going down the coast of Vietnam, then a couple of days seeing Angkor Wat before flying to KL and bus it to Singapore. She is going to be knackered by the time she is finshed though as it is still a lot to do in 12 days.
Met up with Linda the next day for lunch and found out she still hadn't booked getting back to Bangkok so she could catch her flight to Hanoi the next afternoon. We tried at a Travel Agents to book the bus but she tried two and they were full. She decided to go to the train station to see if she could get the train, no all full. Then she went to the public bus station again the same thing, all full, she finally found a very old rickerty bus that was going which had a space. I hope she got there safe and sound!! I went and had a massage to reward myself for all the walking I had done over the last couple of days and then find a bar to watch the first match of the season.
I found a bar, the half moon, just down from my GH which was showing the matches and also had a good menu of british fair, meat pies, bangers and mash etc. I fancied a bit of home. I got talking to a Thai lady, Teeape (god knows how you spell her name), she is married to an American Japanese guy who is 68 and she is 42 (not sure I believe her as she looks younger than me!!). She has many western friends who visit her in Chiang Mai, she was a very interesting lady. She introduced me to her thai friends who work at the bar, not sure in what capacity though!! However, they were really cool girls, even if they do have older western men friends. I also met a french guy, Greg (who has a thai gf surpreise surprise!!), we talked for ages too. I think it could be to do with the 4 large changs and 2 strong bows I consumed. I got in at 3am from a really cool fun night. I was supposed to check out the next day at 11.30am as I was going to go back on the 6pm bus to Bangkok. Well I just wanted to sleep in and stay in the cool and nurse my hangover so I changed the bus and stayed an extra night.
It was a very lazy day, hangovers, do that to you. I had a bit of lunch very late and then had a bit of a wander and found McDonald's, great hangover food (McD chicken sandwich and fries) all for 1.50GBP...bargain and nice and cool in the aircon. I'll probably go there again today as they have a nice coffee shop with cake!! On a sunday night they block off a street for the "walking market' which is the typically asian market with loads of clothes, bags etc for sale along with the food stalls. I got some veggie spring rolls for 30p and a chocolate pancake for 16p...cheap dinner!! I finally headed back to the Half Moon to watch the united game. No large Changs for me tonight!! The game was disappointing so I headed back once it finshed, needed to pack my bag once again ready for the trip tomorrow night to Bangkok. Amother 12hrs on an uncomfortable bus to look forward to.
