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Published: December 17th 2010
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Chiang Mai
popsicles! 13 hours it took for the aircon train to travel from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and arriving at the station in Chiang Mai I met up with Connor and his friends who were on the same train but different car, met everyone, his cousin Dan, Kate, Matt, and Danielle, all American except for Danielle who is Canadian. They are all teachers in Korea, I havent spend time hanging out with Americans in groups so this will be a challenge for me. S.K. house has a booth at the station and prices are reasonable so we hopped on the free transfer to town, though the truck driver asked us for money we said no it's free!
At the S.K.House we waited for couple hours for people to check out before we can see the rooms, the place looks nice with a swimming pool, its quite busy, we were put on the building across the street, not bad the girls took the room with the ensuite toilet the boys were a floor above and have a common toilet. Dan, Connor and I found a good place to have late breakfast a soup restaurant that has excellent beef brisket and noodle soup combo,
very cheap and very tasty.
Connor and I decided to buy our bus ticket now for the way back to Bangkok but all the hostels and agencies only sell night bus tickets, we were told to go to the Arcade bus station and buy the ticket for day departure there, so we hired a tuk tuk and he waited for us while we sort out the best time to depart, tickets were not cheap, about 450 baht but we have no choice, then the tuk tuk driver took us to the"day market" but it was crap so we walked back to the hostel which took awhile cause we dont know where we are.
We chilled a bit then met up with the rest of the gang later for the Saturday market,we hired a jeepney and we got dropped off at the beginning of it, lots of trinkets to buy and food as well, us boys gorged in cheap and delicious sushi sold on the street. Took us maybe over an hour to get to the other end then we got off it and found a temple to inspect and browse about, we walked to the main road and
found a show going on in front of a mall so we watched women compete for some pageant, we saw parts of the talent competition and they were crap! We boys ended up going inside the mall and check out the 3d booth on the TV and dvd section. Hired another jeep back, we had some snacks then back to the hostel.
We decided to go to the Tiger Kingdom the next day, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us, it was about an hour trip, 2 new people joined us, also their friends from Korea, both Americans so now we are 8. We have to decide which tigers we want to see, there is a menu and package if you prefer, I opted to see just the babies and its 520 baht! the package to see the older Tigers as well is about 900 baht. We waited for our turn and when we had a go we have to wash our hands first then enter the cage/room where 2 babies were napping, we played with them for a bit, each of us having a photo taken with them, no flash you can use your own camera,
I had problems with the lighting and a pro photographer that works there helped me make adjustments, so I learned new things again on my Nikon D80.
The rest of the gang went to their adult tiger encounter, I waited for them outside and meantime I watched juvenile tigers play in a shallow pool, seems like they are having so much fun, these tigers are bred and raised here so they are tamer than normal. Then back to town, late that afternoon most of us went to a cooking class with Baan Thai, we got picked up and then we went to the veggie market to show us the condiments used for Thai cooking, last time I was here in Chiang Mai I did a 2 day cooking class, this one is better but a bit more expensive and we get to chose the menu we want to cook, 4 dishes, and we get a recipe book, food was good we just wished we could replicate it when we get home.
I met up with Connor back in our room and we went to the bar to watch some soccer on tv the rest went to the night
market. Next morning we went on a day trek, where we rode the elephants, bamboo raft, white water rafting, free buffet lunch and and orchid farm before then, at the very end we did a small hike to a waterfall, not so big but nice. Our favorite is the elephant ride, they love to eat and so we bought some green bananas to feed them. One of them is a mom and the baby kept following us, really cute!
Got drunk on our last night in Chiang Mai, Dan , Connor and I met up with Jaime and Troy and went to some bars, a guy from Alaska befriended us and gave us some info if we ever want to work there to save money for trips, then an elephant came! all the drunk people went out to pet and feed the huge elephant that showed up , the owner asks us to buy the food he has for it to make some bucks. Very late night out, we got back past 4am, and on the street we saw working girls with their clients and one looks like a transvestite, oh oh we hope the dude knows that!
Chiang Mai
Donald in the temple? The next day we headed out to Bangkok, 12:15pm bus from the station was not on time, it's a double decker we sat in front, tiny seats and we have to endure that for 9 hours, 3 miserable movies all in Thai,we got fed a little. There is toilet in the bus but is very small and you have to slouch to get in there and it floods the floor when you flush it! Arriving at the North bus station in BKK we got a taxi to take us to the airport where we will spend 7 hours waiting for our flight, we had dinner at the restaurant on the lowest level of this huge new airport, internet is not free, bummer, we struggled to find a place to lie down and sleep, and when we did its next to the check in counters so it was a difficult times trying to take a nap.
Got up around 5am and headed to the check in counter, the AirAsia counters are full of people so we decided to do the online check in, there are screens next to the counters but we did not know if we really saved time
as the queue is also long. We were able to get to use internet at the gates, free before flying out into Myanmar, we are both excited to go there, 3 days after the general elections.
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