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Published: March 9th 2008
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Chiang Mai Zoo
Can you find the panda that's out of place? A few fun-filled days in Chiang Mai
*** I realized after the fact that some of the text got deleted when I published this....sorry if parts didn't make sense at first!****
We arrived in Chiang Mai late in the afternoon, and checked into our guesthouse, called Your House guest House. A bit of confusion in the tuk-tuk, I'm pretty sure the driver thought we wanted him to take us home with him, b/c every time he would ask us "Where you go?" , Ashley and I would both say, in exasperation,
YOUR HOUSE! Eventually he figured it out, and our guesthouse is right in the middle of the old city, in the center of all the action. Chiang Mai is the biggest city in Northern Thailand, and it's a pretty big city, lots of hotels, bars, markets, and everything else, but lacks the complete chaos, and wall to wall traffic and people of Bangkok, which is a good thing! There are a million people from the UK who have moved here, every 3rd bar/restaurant on the street is owned by an English dude, its kindof cool.
The first day Ash + I went to the
zoo, which was actually really large. We had to walk MILES around to get to all the animals! They have two giant pandas on loan from China, and tons of other animals. We spent almost 4 hours just wandering around the place, and looking at all the different animals...we even got to feed giraffes and a lepoard! After leaving the zoo we continued on to Doi Suthep, a large wat (Temple) at the top of a mountain that overlooks all of Chiang Mai. You have to climb up 300 steps to get to the temple, but after climbing 1200 at the temple in Krabi, this was a piece of cake. At this point in the trip, both of us are pretty "wat-ed out", so Ashley didn't even bother going inside the temple. I figured that since I had climbed all the steps I might as well. I was wearing a dress that showed my shoulders, so I got stopped by one of the attendants and had to borrow a scarf to cover up. Doi Suthep was pretty, but there were a MILLION tourists there, sooo many people.
Later that night, we decided to go to trivia night at an
Chiang Mai Zoo
Apparently Giraffes are totally crazy about green beans! Irish pub that was around the corner from our guesthouse. Going to trivia night at Connor O'Neills in Ann Arbor is a favorite weekly pastime of mine, so I was super psyched. Ashley + I were pretty confident going in, thinking that our competition would be braindead backpackers in it for the free beer. Once we got there, I realized I had been seriously mistaken. The entire pub was full of Brits, over 30, who looked like they all knew each other, and came every week. Needless to say, Team Go Blue did not do our hometown proud.
The next day we got up early for cooking school! There are about a million cooking schools in Chiang Mai, that do anything from half-day, to two week courses. We signed up for a full day course through Asia Scenic Cooking School. (Asiascenic.com) We liked them because they let you choose what you wanted to cook, as opposed to the other places, where they had a set menu. We started out by going to the local market, to buy veggies, and learn about the different spices that Thai's use in thier cooking. The rest of the day was spent chopping, and
Fatty Fat Panda
Resting his food Homer Simpson style on his belly, so funny! cooking! We each had our own little stove, totally Top Chef style, and made Spring Rolls, Pad Thai, Chicken with Cashews, Red Curry with Veggies, and Mango with Sticky Rice, which is a traditional Thai desert. We cooked and ate for nearly 7 hours strait, but it was the best day ever. Our teacher Oh was so hilarious, and was totally patient with all of us. Everything we cooked tasted pretty authentic, if I do say so myself! Clutching our overstuffed bellies, we went home to nap and then headed out to the massive night market. The night bazaar in Chiang Mai covers about 8 square blocks, and is just full of stall upon stall of everything under the sun. We walked around for nearly 3 hours and didn't even dent the area. Ash + I spent nearly an hour in a bag store, haggling with this hilarious Thai dude over my fake leSportsac bag, and her gucci bags. We both got a little out of control at the market, and had to stop on the way home to put all our bags down, and get 2$ foot massages for our aching feet!
The next day we hung out
in the morning, just wandering around the city, and in the afternoon I had signed up to take a Muay Thai boxing class. Muay Thai is the traditional thai boxing, they have matches in all the big cities that attract tons of tourists, and local Thai's as well. Muay Thai is pretty much like normal boxing, except for they are allowed to kick as well, so it's pretty much 2 people just beating the living daylights out of each other. At 4 pm, a motorbike zoomed up to my guesthouse, and the guy asked if I was Alissa, and when I said I was, he tossed me a helmet and motioned for me to climb on the bike. I was a little sketched out, but I didn't really have any other option so I hopped on and off we went. It was pretty crazy zooming in and out through the traffic but not as scary as I had imagined! When I signed up for the class, I figured I would be in a large, air-conditioned gym with other tourists wearing lyrcra and full-body nike apparel. Not the case. We pulled up to this open air boxing ring, with serious, hard-core
Doi Suthep
With my borrowed scarf to cover my indecent bare shoulders thai boxers going at it in the ring. Hmm....
Boon, the guy who picked me up says: "Ok, now you run."
Me: "Umm....Run where?"
Boon: "Need to warm up. Follow other trainers. Only a few miles."
Me: "umm....yeah....that's not going to work for me. I haven't run, or excercised in like 4 months. I'm pretty sure my limbs have atrophied at this point.
Boon: (Not understanding half of my excuses, finally gives up and gives me a jump rope). "Ok you jump rope. 20 minutes"
Me: "20 minutes strait????!"
Boon: "Just warm up!"
So after jumping rope for a bit and working up an absurd amount of sweat (I'm telling you- I am REALLY out of shape!) They matched me up with a trainer and started teaching me some punches. After awhile, they switched me to another trainer who taught me to do some kicks. I spent some time in the ring, doing my weak little high kicks, as the guys next to me are grunting and kicking the sh** out of each other. After about 20 minutes, I think the real trainers realized they had more important things to work on, and paired me up with the
Cooking School
Our class chopping away! 10 year old boy who was also training at this gym. 10 years old or not, this kid was a lean mean fighting machine, and seriously gave me a run for my money. After nearly 2 hours of punching, kicking, and working parts of my body that haven't been worked in a lonnnngg time, I was totally spent, and ready to go home. The people there were actually really nice, and I think a bit suprised by the fact that a random white girl decided to take a boxing class? As I sat in the back of the truck, waiting for a lift back to my guest house, Boon left me with some final words of encouragement.:"Guy from Singapore, he train here for over a month, and he never high-kick as good as you." Whether or not that was an absolute lie, I accepted his compliment and went home, for a huge meal and a shower.
That night was mine and Ashley's last night together, so we got all hussied up for a big night on the town. Once we hit the downtown streets we noticed that tons of bars were closed up, and there weren't that many people
Cooking School
Ash + I with our pots of "Chicken in coconut curry soup" out. After wandering for awhile, we saw a sign on a bar that said "No alchohol is allowed to be served when elections are going on, due to national law". Our plans were foiled again! We called it quits and went to bed early, which is like second nature now, I doubt I'll be able to stay awake past 10 pm once I get home.
The next day we left for Elephant Nature Park, where I have spent the most incredible week, and have another to go. But that will have to be a totally seperate entry. Get ready for adorable pics of baby elephants!!!!
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Paige
non-member comment
OMGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!
AHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAH!!!! Your boxing opponent just made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants. No joke. But yeah, he does look pretty tough. Althought I think you might have rounded up a bit on his age. Maybe he's more like 8? Either way, he is definitely LEAN.