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Published: August 28th 2006
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So the rest of our time in Chiang Mai was a bit of a nothing really. We spent most of the days wandering the streets in the boiling hot sun, finding this much hyped city to be a little on the overated side. We looked at the treks to the hill tribes and rafting and stuff, but we decided that we had seen villages and hill tribes for real when we drove through the villages in Laos and visited an Hmong village. The only difference would have been they would be wearing traditional clothes and it would have been mega touristy.
We also looked at Andy going on a fishing trip whilst I went to Thai classical dance classes, but that was the day Andy was taken ill.
He thinks he ate something dodgy as his curry smelt bad but he still ate it. Anyway he spent the day on the toilet and being sick. I nursed him well, despite standing across the other side of the room with my fingers in my ears whilst he was sick, but then nursed him well! By the end of that day I was feeling quite ruff too, but never got as bad
Poorly Andy
Yes I was and I want some sympathy too!!!! as Andy.
A couple of days later when we were both feeling on top form we hired a motorbike to go out for a little spin. We went to a nice lake where Andy fished and I read under the shade of a little floating wooden hut, it was lovely, really quiet with tree lined hills in the surrounds.
After an hour or two, Andy failed to catch anything, we headed off to find the Doi suthep hill, which you can see from the city, with its temple at the top.
When we eventually found it it took a long time to climb the 9km up to the top, where of course there was a Wat.
The views from the top of the hill were really impressive and the Wat was, well, very gold. After a walk around we drove back and arrived just as it was getting dark having had a really good day.
A couple of times we walked the very, very long way to the airport plaza (Yes shopping centre!!!) where we went to the cinema. First time we saw 'The Lakehouse' which was actually rather good and the last time we went on the day
we were waiting to catch our over night bus back to Bangkok, saw 'Snakes on a Plane' and yes it does exactly what it says on the packet. That was pretty rubbish.
Like we said earlier we found Chang Mai to be overated, it is a big contrast to Bangkok, much less busy, quieter but not much of anything to do in town. If there is then we missed it!!
6pm came on the Saturday and it was time to get on the bus for the over night journey to Bangkok. We set off at 7pm and was due to be there for 6.30am the following day. We got settled watched the english film and then tried to get some sleep.
Surprisingly we did get a little sleep, but not a lot after our 1am stop.
Later when we woke up we thought we were just making a stop, but to our amazement we were in Bangkok! But it was only 4.30am! We and many others were surprised and really disorientated. Never mind off we got and sat on the pavement still in a daze.
We had decided that that day we would go to the island of
Koh Samet for our last bit of sun and sand. The buses didn't start running until 5.30am so we hung about for a while. We had also wanted to talk to the chemist to ask about the malaria situation on Koh Samet, as we had heard it was not so good and we didn't want to be taken any more tablets.
However we sat outside the chemist until 9am and it did not open, apparently it opened at 5pm. We looked at some info on the net and asked a couple of travel agents who assured us that it was a malarial area, but not anymore.
So at 9am we set off to the Eastern bus terminal via the ferry and then the sky train to get the bus to Ban Phe. We eventually got to Ban Phe at 3pm and onto a fishing boat for the short trip to the island.
Once on the island it was a long, and hard, walk to the area we wanted to stay. I (Melissa) found us lovely affordable accomodation at Tu Tu Bungalows, complete with fridge and cable tv.
We got settled in and then straight into the lovely clear sea.
This
island really does look beautiful, the sand is white and the sea is blue and clear.
That night (fully covered from mozzies), we had some dinner and went back to chill in our room as we were quite shattered from a long day.
We must be getting used to this travelling lark as we didn't fall out once during this day, which is really good considering how mush we walked with our heavy bags, how many journeys we made and how little sleep we had. Must be good eh? Only taken us 11 and a half months!
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