Chiang mai it seems that every bus journey ...

CHIANG MAI

Doi Suthep

It seems that every bus journey we do is worse than the last, and our trip up to Chiang Mai was no exception. We decided to get a bus from Khao San Rd, because that way we wouldn't have the hassle of getting to and from the train station. Big mistake!

First we waited one hour, inside the travel agents, to be picked up. Eventually a minibus pulled up outside. It was chokka... and the roof was piled high with backpacks. We squeezed in and were driven 10 minutes down the road. Here we all piled out and stood blocking the pavement with our packs until our "VIP Coach" arrived. After another hour the "VIP Coach" arrived. It was packed solid already and there was nothing "VIP" about it! The only seats we could find were upstairs, right at the back, in the corner, on top of the engine. We didn't have any legroom at all, nor any place to put our daypacks. So we had to ram our daypacks into the 4 inch gap between our seat and the seat in front, then put our feet on top.

To make matters worse, the couple in front of us reclined their seats... right onto our legs. Now, Tonya isn't exactly a big person, and doesn't exactly have long legs, but even she was pinned to her seat.

The bus pulled away and immediately we felt as if someone was aiming a hairdryer at us... set on hot. This hot air was coming from under our seats and was burning our legs. Several people complained to the driver and, after 2 hours, he pulled into a service station to investigate the problem. The solution was to spray a load of cold water all over the engine. Well, this fixed the problem... for all of 3 minutes, but after that the engine heated up again. It was so hot that a Ziplock bag in Tonya's daypack actually melted! We also now had another problem, oily water was cascading out of the roof all over us. We completed the 11 hour journey crouched on our seats. Bloody uncomfortable, but better than having our legs suffer first degree burns.

At 7am the bus pulled into a lay-by where we were informed that buses are not allowed into Chiang Mai city, and that we would be transferred on to minibuses for the remainder of the journey. The minibus promptly drove us to The Paradise Hotel... We had been SOLD on the highway to a hotel! Needless to say, we refused to stay there. This left us to walk the 6 miles into the city center with our packs.

Thank God for Gap's Guesthouse. This place is wonderful. It had been recommended to us by Mike and Lia (friends from Bermuda) who had stayed there 6 months ago. The accommodation is in individual teak cottages set in beautiful jungle-like gardens. The cottages are huge with a living area, a bedroom with mosquito net, effective air-conditioning and a decent "western" bathroom. Ed Gap also includes breakfast... eggs any style served on a banana leaf with toast, jam and tea /coffee.

One of our trip highlights has to be the day we spent at Gap's Thai Culinary Art School. (http://thai-culinary-art.infothai.com/index.html)

Now, those of you who know us, please scrape your bottom jaw off the floor... yes, Paul who "only cooks food which comes with the instructions printed on the packet" and Tonya who simply "hates cooking" successfully cooked Tom Yam soup, Pad Thai, Green curry with chicken and aubergines, Stir fried chicken with cashew nuts, Thai fish-cakes, Spring rolls, and Steamed pumpkin stuffed with coconut milk custard. We even learnt to make roses from tomato skins and lotus flowers from red onions. We had loads of fun thanks to Joe and Mary, our infinitely patient teachers. They took us around the local market and showed us all the fresh produce. Then they gave us a recipe book and demonstrated how to cook each of the dishes. We were then given "Delia Smith style" bowls with all of the ingredients chopped and measured, so all we had to do was chuck them in the wok and stir. Amazingly (or not so amazingly) most of us managed to screw up this apparently simple task. You could tell when you had cocked up because Joe would look into your wok and go "Eerrmmmm... Oooooouuu... Uuuuhhh?" He wouldn't tell you that you had screwed up, but somehow you just knew.

On several occasions walking around Chaing Mai we encountered friendly Thai men who wanted to know which country we were from. Every one of them had bought gems in Chiang Mai for $2,000 and worn the jewelry through customs, then sold them in London for $9,000. This tidy profit had "paid for their holiday". After telling us this story they would ask what jobs we had, presumably to suss out how much money we might wish to spend on gems. We wised up to their scam and told them that we both work for HMS Customs and Excise... that seemed to get rid of them!

There are two enterprising Tuk-tuk drivers in Chaing Mai... a refreshing sight after all those guys who only raise their heads to yell "Tuk-tuk" as you walk past. These two Tuk-tuk drivers come to Gap's Guesthouse every morning and help serve breakfast. They don't get paid for this work, but it gives them a chance to get to know the guests and offer their services. The best thing about these Tuk-tuk drivers is that they understand that tourists do not want to stop at every shop that gives the drivers a commission, and they respect this. We had heard some accounts of how badly the elephants are treated on some of the touristy elephant treks in this area, so instead of doing a trek we asked one Tuk-tuk driver to be our guide for the day and, for less than $10, he took us wherever we wanted to go.

First we went to the Maesa Elephant Camp. This place is working to save Thai Asian Elephants from the endangered list through a procreation program at the Maesa Elephant Nursery. We watched the Elephant at Work Show and had a ride on an elephant. We both started off sitting on the wooden "howdah" (seat/saddle) while our mahout (trainer) drove from the elephant's head. He tickled behind each ear with his feet to get the elephant to move left and right. It wasn't long before our mahout jumped off and instructed Paul to take his place. "Great", thought Tonya, "here I am stuck on top of a huge beast with a learner driver at the wheel!" Paul looked ready to fall off at any time - there was nothing for him to hold on to.

Next stop: an Orchid Farm with a Butterfly House. It was OK, but not as good as the Orchid House in Kew Gardens, London or the Butterfly House at Zion Park. Then again, it only cost 20 Baht (50 cents).

Last stop: The Monkey Training School. This started off well with a demonstration of the stages they go through to train monkeys to pick coconuts for the large coconut farming industry in Thailand. We watched monkeys pick coconuts, understand the number required, collect up all their coconuts, put them in a wheelbarrow, and unload it into a central pile. After this the show degenerated into a "monkey rides bicycle/monkey plays basketball" type of thing - pitiful.