Blogs from Chiang Mai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 360

I spent the day on another tour where again we stopped at a village on the way to the temple where there of course were many shops! This village in particular though was interesting in that it is one of the few villages that still grows opium (besides extremely rural villages) but they cannot sell it...also it is the first village I have seen with electricity and TV. It was relatively close to Chaing Mai so that may explain it. We were brought to one of the most visited temples around Chaing Mai, the Doi Suthep Temple and although the temple itself was beautiful I found it quite sad. To see hundreds of people literally bowing down and chanting infront of these various statues or "gods" was sad...there seemed to be a god for everything, one ... read more

Well I've arrived in Chaing Mai and already I like it better than Bangkok. Chaing Mai is in located in Northern Thailand and is a lot smaller than Bangkok (and the air is cleaner!). I took the overnight train here from Bangkok and was surprised with how nice it was, I was in second class so I had a fan and a bed which was great! I had some fun (or stress really) before even leaving Bangkok. I had handed my ticket to a steward (?) who showed me to my seat, unfortunately he had forgotten to give the ticket back so...when another man came around (looked like a transit officer) to collect the tickets I didn't have it! I tried to explain this to him but he didn't understand at all what I was saying...eventually ... read more

Well, after a good rest and some planning we were ready to have some real excitement in Chaing Mai. We got up early and went out to the crazy streets to find a ride to up to the jungle mountain temple Doi Sutep. We found a red truck which had a covered back and two benches going down the side of the back and were albe to rent it and a drive for the morning for a little under $4, what a deal. Oh yeah we did have to share the back with a few bags of garlic and other vegetables, but still $4 for all morning, I am pretty sure we are some of the best barters in the world or at least after our experiences in Bangkok we have become some of the best ... read more

NEW ADDITIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today we still had about half the day to actually look around the city itself before we had to head to the train station to go to Bangkok. Pretty much in Chiang Mai there are two important temples and a museum that one has to visit. But there are also really cute little temples and I like the house architecture there in general also. So it was nice to walk around. It is hot here but somehow it is a different heat than in the other places we have been. You are hot, but you dont feel like there is no way you can take another step. A much more pleasant hot. So we walked around and looked at the two important temples which were very nice and very different. One of them was ... read more

It's pretty warm here (Chang Mai) but the first couple of evenings in Bangkok were chilly which lowered me in gently! Think I've adjusted quite well! The last few days outdoors have improved my colour slightly... looking forward to some time on the beach! I'm kinda looking forward to occupying myself for a while, maybe a diving course etc. I can use Sally (James' sis) as a base and hopefully it won't be too long til I meet my lover again! For the past 3 days, Nat, I and 8 boys have been on a Trek in Chang Mai. Kat chose not to hike for hours in a vertical direction, but took her own lil trip to Nan. The trek was amazing, about 4hrs walking up steep mountain paths on the 1st day... elephant ride was ... read more