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We left Bangkok on the morning of the 24th, and went to the Mochit Bus Terminal where we bought a ticket for a VIP bus - when we asked whether they had big seats the woman said yes. However, the bus was a standard VIP rather than a super VIP (we later realised on arrival to Chiang Mai that the '999' buses were the posh buses). So we had a feeling that we had paid more than we should have done.
Anyway, the journey took around 10 hours. The bus included its own attendant who served us free drinks and the ticket also included a free meal at the service station. However I would have swapped all of this for air con that actually worked!!!! It was so hot!!! It's funny what expectations do for actual experience - as we were expecting air con, we felt this was a really bad journey although everything was fine apart from this! Whereas we found the journey from Khao Lak in a local bus with no air con fine - it's all to do with the mind!
We got into a taxi (we were trying to tell the guy that we
wanted the meter on to be told that "we are not like Bangkok"..whoops!) and made our way to Bow Chiang Mai Guesthouse, where Jay and Eva were staying - very nice rooms with air con. It was also good to see Jay and Eva again, familiar faces.....
Next morning we decided to get mopeds, it really is a cheap way to get around. But first we went to the Libra Guesthouse to enquire about treks to see the hilltribes. We decided to book ourselves on the two day tour.
First stop Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Rising 1676 meters above the city of Chiang Mai, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, is one of the most important religious destination in Chiang Mai. Originally built in the year 1386 by King Keuna the Great, the story behind its construction of tells of a white elephant (which only a king can own) ascending the mountains with one-half of a sacred buddha relic. This temple was built where the white elephant made its final resting place and was named after hermit Suthep Reusi, who had lived there 1,300 years ago. It is widely said that if you did not visit Wat Phra
That Doi Suthep, then you had not visited Chiang Mai. The roads up to the Wat were winding but there was hardly any traffic...surprising considering this is the second city after Bangkok. Once there, we had to climb up 300 steps or so to get to the temple....why do they make us work hard in this heat! Although impressive, there is a lot more to Chiang Mai methinks......
We then went to the Arts and Culture Centre and Museum...we only had half an hour before closing time so we whizzed past all the exhibits..to the point where I have to admit I can't remember what it was about!
We then went to another temple, the Chiang Man. Located within the walls of the old city, near the Chang Puak gate, Chiang Man is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai. It was supposedly built by the founder of the city 700 years ago, King Mengrai. It's a small temple, and not on the main tourist trail, but it was important for quite some time. There are two images housed in the wiharn to the right of the main ubosot. The wiharn itself appears to have been constructed around a
sort of traditional Northern-style prang which houses the images. One image is a marble bas-relief Buddha supposed to have come from Sri Lanka 2,000 years ago. The second image is a crystal Buddha from Lopburi, and is thought to be about 1,800 years old.
We then went back to the Libra Guesthouse for a meeting about the trek - we all decided to have an early night although James had a Thai massage!
Our transport for the next two days was a songthaew type truck with 10 of us in the back. We had a 4 hour journey to the first hilltribe village, with a stop at a waterfall along the way. Not the most comfortable of journeys as the roads became more like dirt roads with huge potholes so a nice bumpy, jerky ride..not! After having lunch at this village we set off for an hour and a half trek to the next community village, where we were to go elephant trekking. And this was hard work! The guide calmly told us that it had been 42C the day before and then set off at a cracking pace!!! Seriously, this was enough! After asking questions about the
welfare of the elephants, we decided to proceed with the trek....we sat on a very uncomfortable strapped chair....James and I happened to get on the lead elephant who decided to move off before all the others were ready!
Although an experience, we were happy to get off two hours later! I still have a bruise on my back to this day!
We stayed at the Lahu village, in bamboo hut accommodation - basic but adequate. In the evening, we were entertained with camp songs which was good fun.
Next day was bamboo rafting. I have to admit I was a little nervous about this as the rafts really did not look that sturdy. The men were assigned "oarsmen" whilst the women just had to stand on the raft. ..After experiencing a few very mini rapids, I found that this was actually okay..nothing compared to white water sledging in New Zealand..I'll never forget that!
After the bamboo rafting we were supposed to do more trekking but the guide decided to take us to a butterfly farm instead, possibly because some of us were not feeling too good. Although it was good, I am not sure it was
worth the money we spent..around 25 pounds a person.
We came back to Chiang Mai and decided to stay at the Libra Guesthouse - now this is the best place we have stayed at in Thailand..it has aircon and TV and costs less than 6 pounds a night.....and the people are very nice too and speak good English. We also have ESPN which meant that we could watch all the football!
We didn't do much the next day, we were all recovering after the trek...that evening Jay and Eva left to go back to Bangkok where they were due to fly out to Nepal......we will keep in contact and may see them in South America. When we spend all day with other people, you get to know them a lot quicker than normal so although we had only spent around 3 weeks together, it felt a lot longer.
Chiang Mai is a brilliant city to relax and take it easy. The city itself has real character, the old town being surrounded by a moat and walls. We both really like it here. Sunday, we went to the Sunday evening walking street market, where they close off sections
My god....
he's had his hair cut! For less than a pound in Bangkok. of the road to set up stalls. Yesterday was spent walking around the Old Town and visiting all the temples....I think I heard somewhere that there are around 300 temples in this area!! And of course, we had to go and watch Thai boxing matches.........there were about 8 fights in all, ranging from 13 year olds (I think although they looked so much younger) to adults........quite aggressive although there seemed to be a lot of hugging whilst trying to knee each other going on! It is much cheaper to do it here than Bangkok but at Bangkok, it would be in a proper stadium - here they had closed off a section of the street with bars and each row of chairs was allocated to one of the bars so if you sat there you could only get drinks from that bar.
We got up early today to go to the Chinese Consulate to sort out our China visa to find out that the Consulate is closed for a week due to a national holiday..typical! So hopefully we can sort this out when we get back to Bangkok, which should be in the next few days......
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