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Published: February 1st 2007
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Errands and Animals in Chiang Mai
Morning Errands We booked our departing flight from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, Laos before we left Bangkok. Laos Airlines does not do internet booking so we had to actually call the airline and make a reservation. To make matters even more difficult, there were no e-tickets available so we had to physically pick up our tickets while we were here in Chiang Mai. This meant that today’s first task was tracking down the Laos Airlines office which was somewhere outside of the old town…couldn’t be at the airport like other airlines, these guys had to be different.
Our hostel called a tuk-tuk for us who knew the location we needed. We had shied away from this form of transportation in Bangkok because the tuk-tuk drivers are less than honest there and because the pollution on the roadway is enough to kill an ox. Here, on the other hand, tuk-tuks are the main way to travel. These part motorcycle -part car speed demons have enough room for three people. Two in the back and a driver in the front.
We were pleasantly surprised by the drive. It
was fast and efficient, cheaper than a taxi and our driver was very friendly. We arrived at the Laos Airlines office by 9:30 and had started the process of paying for the tickets and getting our actual printed, antiquated paper tickets. While there we went ahead and booked our flight from Luang Prabang to the Laotian capital Vientiane as well. The total flight cost came to around 200 dollars a person for both flights combined. Definitely worth it considering buses or boats take close to two days just to get from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang; these flights are all about an hour each.
With that done by 10:15am we could now head to a local mall to get me a cable for my camera. This too was remarably easy to accomplish and we were completely finished with all our essential work before 10:45am. We met a guy in front of the mall from Bangkok who suggested we check out the day market which was a few blocks up the road. Since we had no other plans we figured this was a great idea.
Day Market and Flower Festival Setup On our way to the
day market we stumbled across the setup for the part of the celebration for the King’s 60th year as king, the Flower Festival Parade. This festival of, you guessed it, flowers will start tomorrow with a parade through part of Chiang Mai. There were people setting up bleachers and a pavilion for the royal family. We will be in a cooking class tomorrow so won’t be able to see the parade but at least we got a chance to see some of the setup and the flowers.
A block or two later we came across the daily market which covers about three blocks of northern Chiang Mai right off the Ping river. The market is a cacophonous mélange of sights and sounds which can be almost overwhelming. Flowers, meats, food, fruit, gadgets, and more are sold here. We even saw a stand of fried bugs and worms that would unsettle anyone with a squeamish stomach.
We walked around the market for about 20 minutes and found a stand selling pomelo, one of our favorite new fruits. Pomelo is similar to a grapefruit only it is larger and sweeter. We bought a pack of already cut up fruit and
sat down by the river to have a snack. While eating we noticed that a small boy and his mother were sitting in a truck nearby. The boy was staring at us eat the pomelo and seemed to really want a piece, so; I jumped up and gave him a piece which got a huge smile from him and his mother. It's always fun to share!
When we were finished, we checked out more of the market. At one point we had to duck out of an area very quickly since Kel couldn’t handle the smell of the meat market. Urgh. Other than that it was a really enjoyable experience.
Chiang Mai Zoo With most of the day still ahead of us we decided to partake in one of our favorite attractions in any city, ZOOOO!! A tuk-tuk rushed us to the opposite side of town to the Zoo. Unlike some of the zoos in Europe, this one was cheap. Compared to entrance to the Lisbon Zoo, we spent roughly 1/10th of the cost.
The layout of the Chiang Mai Zoo is very confusing. The number of animals in the zoo compares with most
zoos we’ve been to but the size, space wise, of the zoo is huge. Thus walking around the zoo takes a ton of effort and sometimes doesn’t feel as interesting due to the giant space between each exhibit. Despite this one downside, we still had a great time.
We got a chance to see lions, eagles, bears, penguins, rhinoceros, hippopotami, giraffe and many others. Kel and I enjoyed the Panda exhibit but found it to be a little dull as the pandas sat the whole time and ate bamboo which is rather dull to watch. The koala bears (quick shout out to Alison A., we will see more in Australia but we did get to see a couple today) likewise were pretty dull because they slept the whole time we were there.
We had the most fun with the giraffes. The giraffe exhibit was wide open and allowed the giraffe to get up close and personal with the visitors. A lady was selling green beans to feed the giraffes which, of course, Kel was excited to do. It was really cool watching the huge necks come down close to Kel to gingerly take green beans from her. The
giraffes would wrap their tongues around the green beans and pull them from her hands. It was wild to watch, she loved it.
Before we left we got the chance to see an animal show of otters and parrots. The parrots had been trained to do all sorts of things. We laughed as two parrots participated in a bicycle race against each other. Sounds dumb, I’m sure, but it was quite funny to watch.
Relaxation Since then I have been catching up on pictures, blogs and the like while Kel has been upstairs watching TV and napping in our room. It is 7pm here and most of you are just waking up to start your day of work. Hope you all have a great day. We miss you all!
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Haines
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monkey or mikey t?
I sure thought that Orangutan was really a picture of you eating your pomelo!