Christmas in Chiang Mai !!

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Day 109 (Mon 24^thDec) Chiang Mai



Woke up with a bit of a hangover as one generally does. There were 4 of my roommates having a chat so got involved and we all headed out for a walk around. The others all arrived yesterday the same as me and were staying for the same amount of time so was good to meet people who were going to be about for more than a day. Often people are leaving as you’re arriving or vice versa so having the chance to have the same people about for a few days seemed good. We headed to a little cafe to grab some lunch and as we were all still tired from the previous day, me due to hangover and them due to travelling we had a team nap and agreed to meet later on.

We met downstairs in the hostel, which is huge but they only seem to use 1 or 2 of the 8 floors from what I’ve noticed. In the evening we went for a few drinks to see Christmas day in. Louise had bought a few Christmas hats from the market so they were compulsory for all involved. We ended up in a roof top bar which only being 3 floors up and with a roof wasn’t really a roof top bar. It was however a nice place with a good vibe. We met a couple other British girls and a few friends of friends joined us so we had around 8 people or so together for the night out which was great. We all went from drinking beer to Gin Fizz’s, which I think was gin, lime and lemonade, strangely nice. After seeing in Christmas Day and being thrown out at 1am, as they are very strict in a lot of places here, we went to McDonalds for some food, as you do on Christmas. 10 chicken nuggets later we walked back to the hostel to get some sleep.



Day 110 (Tues 25^th Dec) Chiang Mai



We all woke up a little hazy, me I think more so than everyone else. Maybe I’m the lightweight of the group. Sam and David (from Melbourne) already had lunch plans in a fancy hotel, so that left me, Louise and Josh (English). We all joined for breakfast anyways and went to an English bar called the Olde Bell.

They had a Christmas lunch serving going on later in the day so after walking a few streets after breakfast decided that was the place to go and get some turkey. While it was expensive, not to home standards but here it was a decent feed with plenty of turkey, a little spare on the roasties and mash though. We were there for around 2 hours or so then headed back to the hostel to meet the rest of the group.

We were joined by Amy (Atlanta) and sat in the hostel common area where they were putting on some food. Having just eaten you’d think we’d steer clear but we all tucked into a Christmas meal thai style, lots of noodles, rice, chicken etc. It was really good and nice of the hostel to put this on for free. We were all having a good chat and the company was a great way to spend Christmas. The one main thing about Christmas is you’re normally with family and lots of people so it was sort of similar in a way, we had our own little Chiang Mai family.

After this we headed out to the bar after I organised my cookery course for Boxing day. We went a couple blocks to an area littered with bars and ladyboys. We played quite a bit of pool while sinking some Chang. Personally I really enjoyed the bars around here, the ladyboy being far less annoying than girls working outside a go go bar for example. We ended up playing pool with them most the night, which they are very good at. The bar shut around 1am and we headed back home.



Day 111 (Wed 26^th Dec) Chiang Mai



Myself, Amy and a new member to the group, Jeremy (New York) were picked up around 8:30am which generally is way too early for my liking. We headed round town picking up the other guests and then off to the city kitchen. From here we picked the menu’s we wanted to cook, being a stir fry, appetizer, soup, curry paste, curry and desert. Once the menu’s were picked, our teacher (Gay) took us to the nearby market where she explained thai food and how to work your way round a thai market. Not generally my thing but it was quite interesting. From here we had a 20-30 min ride to the Farm where we were cooking. It looked like a set of masterchef or something like that. Loads of cooking stations in like a U shape which was really cool.

Firstly we made the stir fry of which I went for Pah Thai, something I’ve eaten a few times and enjoyed so made sense. This went quite well and I’d say mine was the nicest I’ve eaten as opposed to the street food I normally have. After this we the appetizers, here I chose spring rolls. I was never too keen on spring rolls at home but here they seem far nicer. This time though as I was only 1 of 2 people in the group to choose spring rolls I had to cook with everyone watching. It did however go quite well and everyone thought the spring rolls were tasty, another tick. The first couple of dishes we cooked and then ate. For the last few though we made all at one. We prepared a curry paste, prepared the ingredients for the soup and deserts.

I went to a tom sab soup, with chicken. Then I had a thai green curry as its the hottest and a fried banana to end it all.

I may have gone slightly overboard on my chilli intake as well as the curry powder I put in the soup. Enjoy our teacher coughed on testing mine. It was very spicy indeed and my lips took the best part of half an hour to cool down afterwards. It was however very tasty and although it took a while I did empty my plate and bowl. The banana I wasn’t quite so keen on so managed to offer it around and get it eaten by the rest of the team.

We ended the day by being given a thai cookery book which details everything we made on the menu and step by step guides on how to replicate it should one forget, which I will. I am now a master in the thai cookery so on return I shall cook for you all.

The evening was similar to the previous 2 nights. We went out for a some drinks as a large group, but due to the princess apparently being in town everything got shut down quite early which was a shame. We’d also been joined by another Aussie called Jonno. He didn’t quite fit into our group dynamic as he was a little mental and younger than most of us, still a little immature and that’s coming from me. He also didn’t like the ladyboy attention which was hilarious as we one by one told different girls to go chat to him.



Day 112 (Thurs 27^th Dec) Chiang Mai



This was to be the groups last day together and having 5 of us hanging out every day has been great. We’ve all got on really well and now and again we’ve had a few other additions whether it be for a day or 2, but we’d all been here 5 days now.

Sam and David had hired a bike so we didn’t see much of them during the day, so we just milled about in Chiang Mai. There is not a lot to see here but I took a few hours in the afternoon by myself to walk around and get a feel for the old city. There are many temples but I feel I’ve sort of exhausted that avenue a bit at the moment as they are all pretty similar. I’d rather have 10 minutes looking around a temple than just walking the streets though so can’t complain.

When then headed to the night Bazaar but in the day time so it didn’t really work so much. We also had a look around the street markets, trying to find country flags to sew into our backpacks. This was not a successful task as they were nowhere.

After a bit of a rest and chat in the hostel communal area we headed out to a gun simulator which is newly opened in town. There was the 4 of us for this, me, david, sam and josh. It was a great laugh and not too expensive considering. We had 6 magazines of 15 bullets, although it being a simulator no real bullets. The guns do however react very similar to real guns so they’ve done a good job. The first magazine was a practise and we decided to make it a competition after that. After 3 rounds and everyone winning one bar me I had to step the game up. I realised I hadn’t quite been using the sight as I was supposed to, so once I got this figured there was no stopping me. Went from mediocre under 100 scores to getting 127 and 130, just scrapping the overall win. A cumulative total game would have seen me probably finish last but I won over the rounds.

By this point my friend Megan had arrived in Chiang Mai so after she took an evening cookery course she joined us in heading out for some social beverages.

We headed back to the hostel to pick up anyone who wanted a drink and took one last trip down the ladyboy lane and played some pool, being hustled for money by them. A couple defeats and pride down the drain most the guys headed back to the hostel. I stayed out and went to an outdoor bar/club with a Geordie come Scottish lad called Jordan. I stayed out for a couple hours before heading back, knowing I had a bit of travelling to do the next day.



Day 113 (Fri 28^th Dec) Pai



Woke up feeling alright, got a little bit of breakfast from the 7/11 and me and Louise waited for the bus to come fetch us. By the time it got here though I deteriorated and was feeling very unwell and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t drink related as you all will be thinking.

We got in the back of a shocking jeepney and headed to a tour shop to change into a minivan. Luckily there were only 4 people in it so we sat at the back. I managed to last about 30 minutes before being sick. I had a 7/11 bag and went to town on filling it up. Once done it got chucked out the window. We stopped half way to Pai at a little restaurant where I fed the plants with stomach bile not making it to the toilet in time.

There was now nothing left in me so thought I’d improve but half an hour into moving on again I was at it again, although not a lot of substance to it this time. I managed to fall asleep after this and woke on arrival in Pai.

Louise and I then looked for somewhere to stay, this was not easy and the first time in any place I’ve been where the first place I’ve tried hasn’t been ok. After 30 mins or so walking around and no food in me I needed to sit down. Louise was good enough to go for a wander and sort us a river hut to stay in for the night which was very good of her and much appreciated. We had a little internet session and headed out 7pm to roam the 2 main streets Pai has. After no more than 5 minutes we bumped into Tammy and Jo, the 2 girls we met in the roof top bar on Christmas Eve. It’s amazing how often this happens here as everyone is travelling the same sort of route. We spent the night eating street food, I had slightly recovered by now and then sitting in a sort of reggae bar with a guy singing acoustically which was pretty good. Back to the hut for some sleep which was definitely needed by both of us. The road here is incredibly windy and apparently 762 turns from Chiang Mai to Pai. It would be a cyclists dream to descent that’s for sure



Next – Pai and New Year back in Chiang Mai

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