Blogs from Chiang Mai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 343

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Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 29th 2005

Yesterday was very interesting. In the early evening I went to a wat where they had a gathering called "Monk Chat." Farangs(foreigners) have a chance to talk to monks in an informal manner. It is good for the farang because it gives you a chance to meet and talk to the monks. The monks get to practice their English. It's a win-win for everyone. I learned many things about Buddhist monks. First, they are not necessarily monks for life. They are always free to leave the wat and many do leave after getting their education. Poor families often send their sons to the wat because the wat will provide their education, including their college education. The monks I met yesterday all were attending the university. Two were studying English and the other was studying psychology. The ... read more

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 28th 2005

The six had a massive christmas night (i will post the photos later). We decided that we'd go back to that nice greek restaurant down the road and make their opening night one to remember. We decided at 6 in the evening that togas would be the go for the night. I went running around to try and find some old sheets, but we ended up having to buy material from a tailor. With rousing applause from every passer by we saw, we felt like absolute greek gods once we'd finished the lap of honour to the restaurant (we had to go through the night markets as well). The greek food was fantastic and there were plenty of rounds of drinks. It was a good change from the rice and noodles that we'd normally been eating ... read more
Gooood Morning Thailand!
Elephant Riding
The next big thing

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 28th 2005

Yesterday I took a local bus to Lumphun, a town about 6k south of Chiang Mai. There are two very famous wats there that i visited. Also went to a great vegetarian restaurant for lunch. This was one of the best meals I had in Thailand. I received 4 vegetarian dishes with rice and soup, all for 30 baht, or $0.75. The restaurant was written up in the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand. There was no name on the restaurant, and it was just called Thai Vegetarian Restaurant in the guide. I met two men from Singapore who were searching for the same restaurant, one a Brit. They were survivors the last years' tsunami. They were in Krabi when the tsunami hit. The one year anniversary was commemorated on Dec. 26th. There were many stories in ... read more
Famous Wat in Lumphum
Famous Buddha in Lumphun
Reclining Buddha in Lumphun

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 27th 2005

After returning from Siem Reap, Cambodia, Alexis and I stayed overnight in Bangkok (where the only thing we did was sleep as our return flight was an early evening flight) and order room service! This was the first time in my life I had ordered room service, and it was so much fun, and so cheap! If you're going to order room service, Thailand is the place to do it! We're talking cheeseburgers and fries, cokes, and a banana split (we shared...we didn't want to be too overindulgent!). Although it was not very Thai in nature, it was still "Thai" food right?! Overall, a great first experience with room service. We flew to Chiang Mai the next morning, which is located in the north of Thailand (flight count: 5). If you're ever in Thailand, I highly ... read more
Jungle of Chiang Mai
On Our Elephant
Tribal Village

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 27th 2005

I didn't write a blog entry yesterday because I went on an all day tour to the golden triangle area. Left at 7am and didn't return until 8:30 pm. This is the area north of Chiang Mai about 3.5 hours by tour van where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet. I went on a longboat tour on the Meekong River and we saw a gambling casino on the Myanmar shore and went to a small tourist village in Laos. I also saw the hill tribe peoples, in particular the Karen people. The Karen women have these brass rings around their neck to lengthen them. The longer the neck the more beautiful they are considered. I have a pic included. On Christmas Day I went on tour of a wat on the top of a mountain here. These ... read more
Another Buddha on Chiang Mai Mountain
Baby bear in Laos
Karen woman and me

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 26th 2005

On the morning of the 26th (mind you, morning as in 4:30 AM) I realized that my Bangkok escapades the night before were not the wisest. The flight that Jeff, Jason and I took from Bangkok to Chiang Mai coudl have possibly been the worst flight of my life. To begin with, the flight was late. To get to the plan we had to get on a bus and drive to it. We literally drove in a whole circle and ended up 50 yards from the original terminal...for some reason we drove an addtional 10 minutes what could have taken less than a minute. Then on the airplane the intercom was loud and scratchy and gave you that feeling of when nails scraped on a blackboard. All this plus a little drunk/hungover....makes you think about things ... read more
Elephant Camp
Elephant surprise!
Coconut Juice

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 25th 2005

Again, apologies for the lateness of this blog.....time travel back to Dec. 25th..... Since I couldn't be with my family this Christmas day, I wanted to plan something completely abnormal to avoid any homesickness. This is my first Christmas away from home. A trek in the jungle sounded perfect to me! Bright and early Christmas morning Tony our Thai tourguide (tongue-twister?) arrived at our hotel with the pick-up truck. Our trekking group included 2 tour-guides, 2 people from Denmark, 2 from Australia, 1 from England and 1 from France. We rode in the back of the truck for about an hour, taking us out of Chaing Mai and into the country-side. Our first stop was the elephant farm. Riding the elephants was an awesome experience! It turned out to be much more challenging than I expected! ... read more
Christmas morning at the hotel
the elephant camp grounds
Iona and I at the elephant camp

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 25th 2005

The night markets in Chiang Mai were pretty much the same as we'd already seen - you get tired of seeing the same old stuff over and over (especially when it's cheaper somewhere else). Will probably hold off doing any more shopping until we hit bangkok again, otherwise my backpack will explode. We split into teams of 2, me being with milney (diesel) who did have a compass on his watch in case we got lost. I picked up a couple of presents and a new metrosexual watch (to match my other metrosexual watch back at home). This one has a baby blue strap!! Milney and I stopped off for dinner in some place which may or may not have served rat disguised as meat. We ordered the same thing so at least the next day ... read more
Zorba the greek
Arno relaxin in his new robe
Day market near our hotel

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 25th 2005

Chiang Mia has been quite a pleasant surprise so far. First of all, my hotel room is the best I have had in Thailand so far. It is a 4 star for certain as my travel agent told me. Nice sofa in the room, choice of bathrobe colors, a comfortable king sized bed, and it includes a great outdoor breakfast buffet. There is a swimming pool that I will have to check out later today. Chiang Mai is a bit cooler since we are in the mountains, but not too bad. I bought a nice polartec type sweater for $5. I will also be looking for a pair of jeans since I will need some casual long pants for the evening. The city is very nice. My hotel is near the old city wall with a ... read more
Chiang Mai Orchid hotel room
Band performing at the shopping mall last night

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai December 24th 2005

We woke up and smashed a nice breakfast at that Bamboo place with bacon, eggs, toast, sausage etc. We then thought it would be a great idea to rent motorbikes for the day and go check out some of the temples in the mountains. For only about $6 AUD we got a bike and insurance (most likely will need this puppy) and we set off, having little idea of how to drive the bikes or where we were going. It's funny that they show you where the accelerator is but not the road rules. We soon worked it out after running 3 red lights - THERE ARE NO RULES. I was pretty much scared the whole time while we were driving in the city but i soon got used to it. We took a couple of ... read more
Waterfall
Temple Stop-off
Carving A Statue?




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