Advertisement
Published: February 6th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Hi all,
So we made it to Chiang Mai after a 15 hour train ride from the South to Bangkok then a flight to Chaing Mai from Bangkok. We booked into a well swanky hotel called Chaing Mai gate hotel, it has a hot shower and everything. v.impressive breakie. Dan eating like a Powell. We went on a Boat Cruise up the Mae Ping River and tried some traditional Northern Thai dish called Kao Soi (crispy noodles in a curry sauce with pork) yummy!!
We spent this evening (and many others) amongst the massive night bazzar, This is stall upon stall of generally the same kind of stuff ranging from fake Rolex watches to easily breakable jewellery- umm.. Molly broke one-much to her dismay! Ahh-this was very tragic and the old biddy behind the stall was trying to rip us off, while other travellers looked on, pitying our situation. Eventually we decided on 400 Baht for the breakage- about 6 pounds. Ripped off!! However, she did want over 20 quid so we did ok. (sort of)
We found the food Hall of the night bazzar which is a good mix of Asian Foods, ranging from Vietnamise spring rolls
to Japanese sushi. We pigged out and spent no more than about 1.50 each. Molly obsessed with the chicken satay! We also followed the Lonely Planets advice to a cool restaurant- Riverside Bar and Restaurant, where we had Steak and Chips-very Thai. Which we have since frequented. Also the Saturday and Sunday night market where we have sampled various foods for no more than 30p a plate.
Molly had her hair cut for 3.40 quid.
Took a trip to the '700 year Stadium' which held the Asian games a few years ago complete with massive pool, and diving platforms, however the higher platforms were closed much to Dans disgust. Yet we did have fun diving off the lower ones- which Molly was scared of. We had a swim in the Olympic size pool which when you've had a couple of weeks relaxing is really hard!
We then proceeded to walk all around the grounds trying to find a taxi and ended up waiting on the side of the road for our hotel to pick us up 2 hours later. We were in the middle of nowhere! When we were eventually picked up by the hotel driver, we were
Flower Parade
We woke up at 7am to watch the flower parade which is a very imprtant festival in Chaing Mai then taken back via a random honey factory which probably belonged to his daughter who tried to sell us honey. v.weird! We persisted no no no for 5 minutes- then went back to hotel with the driver being eggy. nice!
The highlight of our trip so far was our 2 day trek for 20 quid. Our day started on Monday by being picked up by our guides 'Rooney' and his brother 'Army'. After lunch at the bottom of the Hills we then proceeded to walk/climb for 3 hours up through the hills/jungle. The scenery was amazing. En Route we passed grazing cattle on some seriously steep Mountain sides. It soon became apparent that we had a pig of English man in our group, who was very unfit for a 50 year old and incosiderate to the rest of the group. Dan (the hero) ended up carrying his bag because he was slowing everyone down. However, when we got the top of the hill/mountain, the view was out of this world and we found ourselves in our 'Hill Tribe' village about 5pm. We had a bamboo dorm to sleep and a balcony that looked out onto the valley/hills we walked
Night Bazzar
You cant at all get the scale of this, but the night bazzar is HUGE!!! up.
After an evening of sitting around the fire, eating, guitar playing and singing/chatting we didnt sleep to well due to the English pig burping/farting and snoring!! When we eventually got up, the views were more outstanding than the night b4 and 'Rooneys' pancakes were equally good. We eventually set off after waiting for the pig for 15 minutes as usual. We walked to a waterfall and walked along the river for 2 hours. Health and Safety- n/a.
After Pad Thai for lunch, we rode an elephant- which was cool but Molly s**t herself as the path was very precarious, overlooking the long drop below.
Then, we went White Water Rafting which proved to be 'hairy'. Between the rapids we managed to jump in the water and bobbed along with the current, this was wicked!! Our guide was only 20 but gave us some thrills and spills, he was a good lad. This was followed by bamboo rafting which was tame in comparison but equally enjoyable.
So, this is our trip so far- we are heading to Loas tomorrow, so we will fill you all in in the next installment soon.
Take Care
Love Mols and Dan
xxxxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0442s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb