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Published: January 1st 2008
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Chiang Mai is a mountanous area in the northern part of Thailand. It is known for its hill tribes and outdoor activities such as trekking, mountain biking, and white water rafting. The temperature is about 70 degrees during the day, which is much nicer than hot and humid Bangkok. We took a 1 hour flight from Bankok's awesome airport and landed in Chiang Mai. Our hostel is in the "old city" that is surrounded by an ancient city wall. The hostel owner is an Ausie woman that gave us directions to a night market that only happens twice each year. The city's artists work all week long and bring their work out at night for New Years to sell to locals and tourists. This was by far the largest market I have ever seen. The merchants grouped together tightly and spread their products out on blankets on the street. The market probably went on for more than a mile in each direction. We shopped all night and felt like we were spending so much money, but everything we bought was under 5 bucks.
Allison really wanted to try some street food, so she ate a bug (see picture). Ammo was
too much of a wuss to try one. They sell crickets, grasshopers, and fried worms on the street and people eat them like candy.
The markets are only broken up by temples, which the locals visit on holidays. Because it was New Years Eve, the monks were out in the temple grounds lighting candles and praying. Many of the monks shown in our pictures are children. The entire population of the city was lighting 4 foot lanterns that float up in the night sky and you can see them if you look close at the evening pictures we took. The whole sky was lit up with hundreds of lanterns for hours - it was so amazing! We had dinner at a cool Italian restaurant in the middle of a grassy square and still had time to kill before new years. We realized we were right next to a massage parlor, so we got a one hour massage for $4 until about 11:40 and I almost fell asleep during it. The clock came down to 12 and the place shook with fireworks blasts and more lanterns. We were exhausted so we went to sleep after that.
Today we tried
to rent a motor bike to go see some old temples but because of the holiday, everything was booked. We taxied to the base of the mountain and went to see a local waterfall that everyone swam at the bottom of. After we left, we were just walking home and stumbled onto a temple from the 1300's. It was amazing! It was a massive structure with 40 foot high Buddas at the top, surrounded by elephant statues, and the entire temple was surrounded by holy buildings that you could enter, barefoot though. It was devastated after an earthquake in the 1600's and hasn't been the same since. We participated in "monk chat", where the monks practice their English with the foreigners (farang). It was really fun!
After that, we went to some Thai restaurant and realized that it was five minutes to midnight on New Years Eve for everyone in the states, so we celebrated that one too with the Thai beer Singha (which disappointingly tasted like Budweiser). Right now we are obviously writing in an internet cafe and then we're headed to a night market. I can't really think of anything else to say except, Aaron is a
member of N.A.M.B.L.A. So, goodnight to everyone. Tomorrow we are going trekking into the mountains for two days and one night where we stay with the hill tribes, ride elephants, and bamboo raft back down!
The difference between backpacking through Europe and through Asia is that you get a message at the end of every day in Asia.
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mom
non-member comment
man stuff?
Hey hey Ammo---does manstuff in Tailand refer to blazing trails, scalling cliffs, building rope bridges for your lady-love to cross raging rivers safely.... or to bush tinkling??? I LOVE getting to read your adventures and see great photos---THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Love and celebrations coming your way--Mom