Blogs from Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 2

It was early in the afternoon when I finished the zip lining and my adrenaline rush was calming down. The bus rolled along the winding mountain roads of North Chiang Mai and dropped me in front of the lodge nestled in lush green trees of the tropic. Not a soul around. I slung my back pack from the shoulder and slowly walked inside the lodge. Soon I crossed the gate; I found the office room of the lodge. A lady was busy working on her paperwork. “Sawasdee Krab”, I said mildly. She looked up and returned my gesture “Sawasdee Kaa”. I love the way Thai ladies end their sentence with “kaa”….a melody dripping from the sky. My friends Alex and Oppy who operate a travel service in Chiang Mai, fixed me up the lodge. “You will ... read more

On our original plan we weren’t sure whether we would go to Chang Mai. The easy route would be to go to Bangkok and either fly or train. It was due north and we needed to head south towards Singapore. Two things forced our hand one was if we flew into Thailand we got a 30 days’ visa as opposed to a 15 days one, the other was that Alison wanted to see some elephants. There wasn’t a direct flight so we took two Air Asia flights, the first a short hop to Bangkok then an hour north to Chang Mai. This city is known for three things temples, elephants and cuisine. We were going to experience all three during the next 3 days. On coming out of the airport the first thing we noticed was ... read more

We had arrived in Chiang Mai by train around 7-30am, a trip of about 13 hours and 20 minutes. The train was very comfortable – air conditioned and with quite good service and I had slept rather well throughout the night in my upper bunk. I just love train travel. The food on board was also good. You could order dinner and breakfast from a set menu and Ted’s and mine was TBT170 (about AUD$8-50) each, which was good value, as there were 4 small courses for the money. We didn’t worry about breakfast and thought that we would wait until we got to the hotel. It seemed we had brought the rain with us from Bangkok, as it was still raining quite heavily when we arrived at the station. We had only to wait a ... read more

Happy Saturday, Followers! And a happy Saturday to those of us who have finally finished the dreaded Week 3 of the CELTA course. They've quite literally cranked up the heat on us at school - so a day of rest and relaxation away from that center was a welcome, welcome thing indeed. Yesterday, I declared my plans to do something wildly different with this weekend to my class. Tired of bars and street markets, I was bound and determined to find something uniquely Chiang Mai-ish to do. My original hope was to visit the tigers at the Tiger Kingdom. That idea fell through when the cost to get there plus the cost to hang out in said tigers' cages plus the poor timing all worked together to crash that party. Maybe next time, tigers. There would ... read more

Az Uj ev itt Chiang Mai ban altalaban egy hatalmas utcai buli, tuzijatekkal, visszaszamlalassal, himnusszal es elo zenevel mindenhol. Lampionok kerulnek meggyujtasra es feleregetesre, az oev bujat, bajat szelnek eresztve, vagy az ujevre kivant szep es jo remenyeben. Sokszor voltunk mar utcai bulin, ezert iden a guesthouseban beszelgettunk, Andrea, Carla Claudio es jomagam, majd megkukkantottuk, hgoy mi folyik a wat-okban (templomokban). Chiang Mai nepe mar keso delutantol keszulodik, es a watok kertjeben tomott sorokban elhelyezett muanyag szekeken este elkezdodott az ima. Egy emelevenyen 3 szerzetes ult,k vezettek az imat, a hangjukat hangosito rendszer vitte szerte szet az ulopavilonok fele. Zsolozsma szeru, monoton, eros energiat ereztem, ahogy elfoglaltuk a helyunket a szekeken mi is. Akulon erre az alkalomra nyomtatott imafuzetek sajnos csak thaiul voltak, farangul nem, ezert figyel... read more