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We took a 12 hour overnight train to Chiang Mai, a city in Northern Thailand. After taking so many long bus journeys in South America the idea of getting on a train was a bit of a novelty. The overnight train was so comfortable and after sleeping in Bunkbeds for most the journey we were served a nice breakfast just in time for our arrival to Chiang Mai. Upon stepping off the train and into Chang Mai, it was noticeably much calmer and tamer than crazy Bangkok. We stayed in a guest house inside the walled city and spend the first two days chilling out. We've become quite the experts at the whole chilling out business and Chiang Mai is the perfect place to do it with loads of nice cafes and generally Thailands Second City exudes a fairly laid back aptmosphere. We got a few good books here as well, there are dozens of good book shops with a huge range of English books. The place is quite hot and clammy but the guest house had a pool so we spent a few afternoons lying around like toads in the pool trying to cool off.
One of the evenings
we visited a night Bazaar which was worth a look but we didnt really buy anything. On the way back from the Bazaar we encountered a number of young Thai girls who..well.... how do I put it ?? well ... They werent really girls at all. We kinda figured that Chiang Mai along with Bangkok has its own fair share of LadyBoys, some, it has to be said are a bit more believable than others. At night the place comes alive with plenty of girls and lady boys offering their services.
One of the main things we wanted to do from Chaing Mai was a trek to some hilltribes villages in Northen Thailand so we set off on a 3 day trek which promised to be a fairly action packed few days. Our guide was a really funny fella and we had the best of craic with him and the rest of the group all through the few days. Our guide was from one of the hilltribes we were visting and had a bag of crickets, coackroaches and grasshopers which he munched on just like it was a bag of pick and mix!
The first day we treked
for about 3 hours through a jungle . This was plesant if not spectacular and as Maire and myself had elected to wear sandals we were a constant attraction to Leeches. There were some screams ... from Maire of course , not me. We arrived at a really small village with just a few houses and a small stream. There was no electricity in the village and we really felt like we were off the beaten track. The nine of us on the trip slept in a bamboo shack , but it was comfortable enough and our Thai hosts were very hospitable and certainly wouldnt let us go hungry. It was like stepping back into old times watching our dinner being cooked over the fire and playing card games over candlelight whilst tasting some vile rice whiskey.
The cocks crow in the morning in Thailand thats for sure, sometimes there idea of morning and ours are slightly different (Middle of the night kind of thing). So we woke early and headed off on our second day of treking. It was nice and we got to interact with a few local groups who were planting rice in the paddie fields.
In the afternoon we travelled on elephant back for a few hours. The elephants were great to see. The one we were on was 20 years old and while we got to sit on the seat on his back, there was no seats for one of the other lads on our trip and he had to ride on the Elephants neck in front of us. He was a bit tender in certain places afterwards, I'll leave it to your imagination. We had a good laugh though. That night we stayed in another small village. We went for a swim in the river and just a few metres downstream from us were a herd of water buffalo. I suppose it was one of those "you wouldnt do this at home" kind of things. Anyway we were more interested in the Buffalo than they were in us. We also went up to the local village to play soccer with the local kids (and a good few adults as well) It was great fun. At night these villages are really silent (there are no cars, or roads really for that matter) but you can hear an orchestra of wildlife in the surrounding areas.
When we were eating our meals there were loads of fireflies cruizing around the campsite which created quite a spectacle.
So after treking for two days we travelled by bamboo raft for four hours down the river. It was standing up all the way and I was one of the ones selected to row so it was tiring as well. We managed not to fall in the water or capsize although our guide made sure everyone got soaked one way or the other. So we got back to Chiang Mai late that evening , sent our clothes to the laundry and headed for some comfort food thinking we earned it after our "3 hard days treking". Maire treated herself to a manicure for 3euro and a thai traditional massage for 5 euro. Oh the stress of it all :-)
On our second last day in Chiang Mai we did a Thai Cooking course. Maire had done her research and we did the course with the Chiang Mai Cooking School which was really excellent. The instructor and his assistants were brilliant and the school was so professional. We cooked 6 dishes with the last one being dessert. It was
so easy, heres how it worked. The instructor would bring us into the class and demonstrate the dish from start to finish and then we would sample his dishes and go back to our cooking station and recreat the same dish. Then, the best part: we ate the meal we just cooked. Yes, thats right five dinners and one dessert consummed in about 5 hours! Most of our meals turned out well. They provided such a range of fresh ingredients. Fish Sauce and Soy Sauce goes into every Thai meal. The ould fish sauce dosent smell a terror but it certainly adds flavour!. So we will be recreating these dishes when we come home so for a small fee my friends you too can enjoy "our" fantastic Thai recreations! No actually being a bit more honest, the instructors did give us a good bit of help and prepared our ingredients for us so it was fairly easy. The last dish we cooked was steamed banana cake which turned out nice. It was a really enjoyable day. And we have a cook book with all the menus from the courses the school offers so we can give it a try when
Pappya salad...
Eat your heart out..yum! we get back.
So we are now heading off up through Chiang Kong and onto Laos. Will take up about 2-3 day to get there, but sure, we're in no hurry.
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