Wats Up in Chiang Mai? (Ha!)

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Upon arriving in Chiang Mai, we had to find a guesthouse. Though after wandering in the sweltering heat and carrying heavy bags and having not a great nights sleep and being smelly and needing the toilet, we settled for the one we had been dropped off at for free about an hour before. It looked ok, and the woman was (and probably still is) very nice. Next, we needed transport - not happy with mean expensive tuk-tuk drivers, we decided bikes would be a better option. We looked around and found ourselves a good deal for 40 Baht per bike for a day, saving a whole 15p on the competition. 15p that pales in comparison to a set of fully functioning brakes, that, apparently, were not included on my bike.

Cycling is by far the best way to get around Chiang Mai. It's really flat, and incredibly cheap. Though after cycling past about a hundred Wats (temples) we started wondering where they make all the orange robes. We found one huge temple that was reasonably impressive, though I couldn't be bothered to cycle to the front so the picture of it has some perfectly out of place market stalls in the corner. Rest assured, it was impressive. Though not as much as Angkor Wat (see last year's blogs). Holly didn't mind when I told her this because she had borrowed some Irish guy's hat on the train that looks like a rainbow Angkor Wat ("No point in going there now"). We could have visited "Monk Chat" ("And it's free!"). Though fortunately for both of us, Holly had chosen to wear practical clothes for hot weather, i.e. not temple-friendly, so we didn't have to spend too long thinking of a more tenuous excuse. A couple of scares on the road (necessitating some 200m long emergency stops) tensed us a little, so decided to de-tense in the least stressful way possible.

After going for a massage (again, painful but relaxing and upper thigh touching maybe a little too upper), we went out for dinner and then visited a Muay Thai boxing ring. I also got a mosquito bite within a minute of stepping outside.

There was actually some boxing happening at the ring, which showed good planning on our part. I'm not sure what to think when watching it. Sure, I enjoy hearing the sound of foot/elbow/knee on face as much as the next guy, or maybe even the guy after that, but some of the people looked probably in their late teens, maybe even younger. Mind you, nothing really compares to the mixture of pain and hilarity from watching a boxer getting kneed in the groin spectacularly hard then, after collapsing in pain for a few minutes, hobbling around for the rest of the match (which he ended up winning).

After having a brief look at the night market, we wandered past an incredibly posh looking hotel with a huge chandelier in the lobby. Not just lying there, hanging from the ceiling. I would have got a picture but unfortunately we were ushered away by the well dressed porters as we probably wouldn't be attracting the right customers by bumming around in our 3/4 lengths, sandals, and unwashed hair. Before leaving, I did manage to glimpse a sign curiously illustrating a "no durians" instruction. Odd.

Wandering back to the hotel, I hear an odd "Holly! Holly!". "That's weird" I think, "I'm the only person who would be shouting that here, but I'm not". Turns out someone Holly met in Munich once last year is just in Thailand. Quite a coincidence, no? It gets better. After chatting to her friend for a while I found out that she is friends with my ex-girlfriend's brother, the only person I happen to know at her University. How funny.
(If anybody involved is reading this, give yourselves a good pat on the back.)

After having to check out at 10, which, still being a little drunk and an early 3am night and after having an annoying fan and a hard pillow give me the fourth bad night's sleep in a row, was exactly what I needed, we managed to book a trek for the following day. More on that later when I tell you what happened. The woman was very nice. She seemed very happy to find out Holly was my sister, and I'm not sure if she was joking when she mentioned how she was looking for a sugar daddy. Of course, I was flattered, but pointed her in the direction of the prostitute area as she might have more chance of finding one.

For lunch, we visited a horrible American style cafe, with horrible staff, greasy food, and a grumpy rude manager. Very authentic western. Fortunately it got better when we bumped into some Irish guys by the names of Ronan, Shane, Mikey, and two others that were unfortunately not Keith and Steven. They hadn't seemed to have realised this makes them a very comical 3/5ths of Boyzone. Asked for 3/5ths of an a capella medley to no avail. They made us a little pitiful of them but better about ourselves due to their complete lack of any kind of planning:
Paying at least 650B EACH for rooms, compared to out 330 between us.
No Vietnamese visa (see previous entry), "I bet they just say that, you can probably just get one on the border."
No concept of travelling to the largely inaccessible Laos (see future entry), "we're just going to jump on a bus tonight or something."
No Lonely Planet or guidebook of any kind amongst them (possible underlying cause of above).
No knowledge of 90's boy bands (see above).

Later, we did a cookery course with a guy by the name of Pot, which sounds less cool when you find out his full name is Bum Pot. Made various foods that were mostly too spicy and far too thin on the meat front (chicken curry with virtually no chicken). But learnt how to make some things I may actually do at home, and also about some interesting (-ly named) vegetables, such as Tao Fuk Yow. Highly recommended. In the market we visited beforehand, I tried a deep fried caterpillar. Tasted like a fishy chip. There was also a food hygiene certificate on the wall, right next to the cooked fish covered with flies and the huge Chiang Mai sausages being wiped by a man holding some plastic.

After bumping into someone called Sam earlier, we went to a recommended bar with live music. Pretty cool, lots of sort of reggae versions of western classics, such as:
Typical Oasis variety
I shot the sheriff
Cocaine
Jump around
Cotton of swing

Also bumped into a tour of people containing a couple more odd coincidences. Someone who I may have actually met in Bristol once, and another who lives round the corner from Holly in Sheffield. Lovely.

I was going to write about our trek here but this has turned out to be rather long. So I shall update you with that in due course. Until then, xiao!

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Photos

The Chiang Mai Moat
One view of the moat. I chose this one because in none of the others you get to see elephant behinds.

The Giant Wat
That gigantic Wat. They weren't even selling anything at that market, which is a little bit of a waste.

Bumpot's Bucket of Coconut Cream
This was actually quite nice, despite what the title suggests.

Some ingredients.
This looks much more appetising than it did when we bought it in the market.