A Place to Retire

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Chang Mai is infinitely more chilled than Bangkok in every aspect, although its a city it retains the culture of a small town in many ways and hasn't yet been completely jaded by an influx of tourists, however things are changing and it could well be merely a matter of time before its added as another stop on the Thai tourist highway. at the moment the balance is acceptable so if your planning to pay a visit then do it soon, i dont think it will ever get to the same state as Kho San rd but anymore development will only be a downward spiral.

after a pleasant 14 hour sleeper train, where i met Jane Albhe and Erica we checked in and immediately went exploring only to be stopped in our tracks by a mini monsoon and as luck would have it the nearest place to run into to get some food was called The Local, and English pub! so we ate and pressed on in what was now only drizzle and saw a few of the temples that were listed in one of the girls lonely planet before stumbling across some kind of festival at one of the larger ones. we went in to find no foreigners and an extremely vibrant Thai Festival held to mark the start of the rainy season (even their rainy season is not as bad as England) with lots of people partaking in fairground style attractions coupled with Buddhist traditions such as sticking gold leaf on statues of Buddha and dropping coins in various metal jars in the temple and an offering to receive 'merit'. we ended up being spotted by a camera crew and spoke for some Thai tv channel about what we thought of the festival (i'd love to see the subtitles) and sampled some nice and some not so nice street food before leaving.
Jane knew of some guy who lived in Chang Mai so we went to meet him as he knew of some nice places to eat but ended up being with some guy that was a complete wrongen and wasn't really much better himself so i made a move as soon as i could and went to meet Vanessa and Diego for some drinks. suddenly outside appeared an elephant (bear in mind Chang Mai is a city) and some guy was charging to feed it, after the initial surrealism of the scenario wore off i questioned if the elephant was happy about its new career path and felt sorry for it, this was however after i took a picture with it......
the next day we checked out of our 3quid a night place with a pool and full of ornate wood carvings to a 1.50 a night place that was a bit tattier but had a free pool table as oppose to a pool, but it was good enough and it was cheap, it was also where i booked my trekking so it made sense. after visiting another temple and getting stuck in a restaurant for a couple hours while there was a mini monsoon me and the girls headed out for the evening to the night bazaar where a million and one street stalls sold various goods all with a huge mark up for the tourists and me and Jane went for some street food which almost made her pass out from the heat. after that we went to a little place by the river that had live music and 3 of us ordered a bottle of rum which was soon gone and off we went to 'Spicy' a dodgy tourist club full of hookers and people in the toilets who give u a shoulder rub while u pee and try to charge u 300b for the privilege. i had been pre warned and gave the 'masseurs' a touch me and i'll break your fingers look and went in the cubicle after i had consumed a few more buckets. i dont remember leaving the club or rolling down the steps outside 711 at 6am but all in all it was a good night even if i cant remember it all.
the next day we had planned to get mopeds and see some sights and despite waking up still feeling half cut i decided to proceed with the plan. we hired some very cool retro looking mopeds and set off for one of the temples that was holding a talk about meditation, when we finally found it the monk that was doing the talk had the charisma of cardboard and there was an American guy with a huge spiritual ego that made the most part of our stay pretty uninteresting, although it was right next to a lake which was quite nice. that night was spent chillin in the guest house chattin with some of the guys there as i was in no condition to go out drinkin again despite Umaang trying to convince me otherwise.
in the morning we set of on our bikes to the largest temple in Chang Mai (Doi Sutep) up on the top of a mountain. we drove about 20k around the mountain until we reached the entrance where there was a further 300 odd steps to reach the actual temple, but once inside there was an amazin viewpoint from where you could see the whole of Chang Mai and the Jungle in the distance. in the center was a giant gold stupa surrounded by different statues of Buddha which was very nice and just some of the best Buddhist architecture i've seen so far. that night was meant to be an early one for me as i had trekking the next day but after a couple drinks with the girls and i also met up with Vanessa and Diego for the last time we headed to Rooftop bar, which was literally on a rooftop and played some cool reggae and Drum and Bass a bit later, and ended up staying up until 4am. my only saving grace was that i didnt really drink very much so after 3 hours sleep we set off (me Umaang and Magdalena) for our 3 hour uphill trek through the jungle in the rain. knowing that there was no way i would make the journey without some help a downed two very strong ice coffees before we set off that seemed to sustain me for the whole journey. thinking that i would be last after only having 3 hours sleep, to my surprise i found myself more often than not at the front of the bunch trying my best too motivate Umaang who was really having a hard time with it. we finally made it to a little Hill Tribe village at the top of the mountain 1000m above sea level which had some stunnin views of the surrounding jungle clad hills and we ate some very nice red curry before sampling some of the tribes ........ tobacco! we spent the rest of the night laughing like children and tried to get some sleep for another day of trekking, however the mats we slept on wern't the most comfortable and Umaang snored like a wild boar with a throat infection! the one good thing was it meant that i was awake at sunrise and what a spectacle it was. the valleys beneath us were full of fog and the sun came up over the hill in the distance (the photos dont really do it justice but u get the picture) and after a few photos we tried again to get a couple more precious hours sleep before the trekking started. after breakfast we set off on a course that turned out to be one that is rarely walked by tourists, the path was slippery clay, a foot wide and on an angle that sloped towards a 30m drop with boulders at the bottom! we managed to survive the ordeal and stopped off at 3 different waterfalls on the way that we swam in, the guides who were used to the trail basically skipped through wearing sandals and were pretty unsympathetic to our fears but we survived which is the main thing. day 3 after another night of broken sleep in a open fronted hut overlooking the river, the fire flies were a sight to see but the other bugs that had free reign in our shack were not so welcome, the first activity was elephant trekking. it turned out to be more of an elephant ride that a trek but it was still an experience especially when the guide said i could sit on the elephants head which then lent over a 30ft ledge to eat sum shrubs leaving me to grab the cage so as to not fall to my death. i also wasnt warned about the bugs that live on the elephant and feasted on my calves to the point where there were more bites than normal skin. the 'white water rafting' after was pretty tame and a bit disappointing but the bamboo rafting was cool and me and ummang got to stand and steer it with massive bamboo canes.
after the taxi back we had a shower ate and headed to Rooftop for a couple of drinks before heading back and finishing the 'tobacco' we had left over. i was meant to be spending the next day doing yoga but after the trekking i was feeling the burn and decided to put it off for a day. i spent the best part of the day at Brick Rd chattin to John the owner about Buddhism and Thai culture and how it is now just like the church in England where people just go because they think it is the right thing to do as oppose to actually learning and living by the teachings. what was supposed to be an early night took a strange twist when i met an Ozzie girl who hadn't been out in Chang Mai yet and decided one drink in rooftop was a good idea. of course one drink ended up being a bucket which led to another and Kelly (Ozzie girl) ended up rather drunk with me looking after here till around 4am. so once again yoga was out of the question and i booked my bus to Pai for the next day. once again i spent the day at Brick Rd Cafe recovering and still eating English food to try and ease my dodgy stomach i picked up from the Hill Tribes. after visiting the internet shop that eve to speak for the first time in 2 months to some people back home on Skype (Skype is the nuts) i went home with a smile and got a good nights sleep for my bus to Pai.

that was Chang Mai For now anyway, i'm going back after Pai for a couple days to go to Yoga, so until then there is nothing more to say but Much Love and i'll spk again soon

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Photos

bare back elephant riding
why use the seat when you can ride like men of old!

girls at festival
the little monks from the temple were too shy for a photo and these girls stepped up like take one of us

Huge bell at Doi Sutep Temple
the only bell in the world with legs