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Published: January 4th 2006
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On Jan 2, we left Chiang Rai for Chiang Mai.
With our small lesson on the day we went from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai (with a 4 hour wait), we bought bus tickets in advance and secured the 9:45 am bus.
ChiangMai is the second biggest city in Thailand, after Bangkok. (The air is not as bad as I thought it would be.) Most backpackers stay inside the old city, surrounded by moats, or close to the Tha Phae Gate. During the New Years, there were a lot of travellers. Many Thais come to Chiang Mai to celebrate the new year. We were lucky to secure a guesthouse in advance.
Although ChiangMai is the second biggest city, there is only one local bus that travels to several locations. All other transportation is served by the tuk-tuks, songtaew, or samlor, or tricycles. I suppose the old city has many "soi"s (small lanes), it is difficult to establish a bus system. Anyway, we find some of the tuk-tuk drivers ask pretty unreasonable prices.
After we arrived in Chiang Mai, we were hoping to get a free ride offered by the guesthouse. Unfortunately their truck was off to give
other guests a ride and so we have to get our own tuk-tuk, which costs 60B for a 4 KM ride.
We were a little disappointed with our guesthouse, Banana guesthouse. It is run by Japanese, but definitely did not have the cleaniless displayed by most other Japanese. But we were too lazy to switch guesthouse, especially when the few that we inquired were full.
That same afternoon and evening, we went to visit the famous Chiang Mai markets and night bazaars. One of the markets was housed in a three storey building. From the upper floors, we can see many vendors, most of them selling dried food. It was a spectacular sight.
There were several night bazaars. One of them is like the "Ladies street" in Hong Kong. It took us a half hour to walk about 200 meters, as it is so crowded. It seems like they were selling the same things, silk sarongs, Teva sandals, T shirts, sunglasses, and bags, lots of bags made by hilltribe people.
After we had a not so delicious dinner at a food stall (and with a long wait), we found the food bazaar. We wished we found this food bazaar earlier. One vendor was selling mango on sticky rice, which I have not got a chance to try, for 20B. There were more insects sold here. This food bazaar is not as atmospheric as the one in ChiangRai.
At night, when we walked back to our guesthouse, we found that candles are lighted near the Tha Phae Gate and it is a beautiful sight
On Jan 3, we bought two new rollable backpacks, to see if they are more suitable for our travels. Later, we rented a motorbike to go to the Doi Suthep temple, and it is the equivalent of Wong Tai Sin temple in Hong Kong. All buddhist followers come to this temple.
As Chiang Mai is a big city, the motorbiking is not as easy as Pai or Mae Hong Son. There is more traffic to watch. Also, ChiangMai has many one way streets. Doi Suthep temple is about 15 km away from ChiangMai, and it is on a mountain, at 1500 meters, overlooking ChiangMai.
Our first stop is a waterfall. It is not a huge waterfall, but big enough to accommodate many families who go for picnics or a swim in the small waterfall pools. Many children were having a great time climbing the rocks and swimming. Our next stop is a viewpoint where we can see the whole of Chiang Mai. Then we reached the Doi Suthep temple. We climbed the 307 (or so) steps to the top of the temple.
Foreigners pay 30B admission. Inside the temple is a engraved gold plated pagoda (cheddi). I guess there is a lot of gold there. Many Thais (or buddhist followers) buy a lotus flower bud, incense and candles and walk around the cheddi. I believe it is a ritual to get blessed, especially it is the new year.
We return to ChiangMai before sunset. We found foodstalls not far from the guesthouse. Later we got a one hour Thai massage (100B), which is especially relaxing for Gary as he was a bit stressed out by the motorbiking.
Today, Jan 4, we had planned to take the motorbike to go to a nearby village where they made colourful umbrellas. When we looked at the map, we found an advertisement for a golf course that offered 9 holes for 150B green fee. So, we quickly changed our plans and decided to checkout the golf course.
As we have no exact directions, we rode northeast on highway 1001. We saw a sign that says "Golf Course" and thought we must be heading in the right direction. After following many signs, we came to a spectacular golf course. Many caddies (all pretty young females) are loading the equipment onto pull carts or power carts. We know we did not come to the right golf course. The caddies would have cost more than 150B.
http://www.maejogolfclub.com/GreenFee.php
It turned out the green fees are 1200B, plus we will need to rent equipment. Anyway, we would rather have our money better spent.
So, we called the cheaper golf course (Sansai Golf Club) and finally found our way there. It turned out to be owned by a Chinese older gentleman (Mr. Wong), who came from China to ChiangMai when he was 23 years old. Now he is 81 years old and spoke fluent Mandarin. He was very happy to see fellow Chinese.
We paid our green fees 170B each, equipment rental (one set of pretty old steel clubs 100B, to be used by both of us), used crappy golf balls (30B for a bag of 10, we bought 2 bags), a set of tees (15B) and off we went. We learned the green fees is for "all you can play". So, we played for 5 hours (33 holes). This is the first time we played golf since September, when we last played in Toronto. The golf course is not busy, and the weather is warm, and not sweltering hot. Our total came out to be 550B (about US$14) for both of us. Pretty good, especially we have not made plans to play golf in Thailand.
We came back to Chiang Mai, had dinner and went for another hour of Thai massage (100B).
We will leave for Bangkok on Jan 5.
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