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Published: April 20th 2010
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Feb. 18 - Originally we didn't plan to go to Chiang Mai, but after a number of recommendations, we decided to fit it in. The easiest way to fit it in was at the end of the trip, not ideal, but we made it work. Unfortunately it meant losing a full day to travel. Ferry from Koh Phi Phi to Phuket, transfer to airport, flight to Bangkok, then to Chiang Mai.
Feb. 19 - Chiang Mai is about 700 km's north of Bangkok and is the biggest city in northern Thailand. Its located right by the country's biggest mountains and is where most tourists come to do jungle treks, elephant treks, and quite a bit of adventure travel. We were not taking in any of that, we came just to get a feel for the city as they say its the cultural capital of the country.
Chiang Mai was established in 1296 as the capital of Thailand and because of the constant threat from Burma, they built walls and a moat around the city. We were staying within the old city at a hotel called the Na Inn, by far, the best value for a hotel
all trip. For 450 baht ($15) per night we got a big room, tv with english channels, air conditioning, a full sized fridge and hot water. The woman who ran the place was also one of the friendliest people we met, and she helped us book our cooking school for the following day.
Chiang Mai has over 300 Buddhist temples, and some of the oldest in the country are located within the city centre. We spent the day walking around the old city, and wandered around a few of these temples. At one point in our walk we stopped to look at a map to figure out where we are, unfortunately this makes you look like a sitting duck for the touts. While we were looking at the mpa, a guy stopped and helped us figure out where we were, then he told us about this ceremony that was happening that night where some boys were becoming monks, and after a couple minutes starting telling us about how he came from Koh Phi Phi to Chiang Mai to buy cheap suits. Ding ding ding! It took a while, but we finally figured out he was just one of the many
local taylors trying to get us to his shop. Its unfortunate, but in Thailand you really have a hard time trusting any local that talks to you because they're often trying to sell you something.
That night we walked over to Tripadvisor's #1 ranked restaurant for dinner, Bon kitchen. A tiny little restaurant that is pretty basic, it had the spiciest food we had in all of Thailand, they didn't hold back for the tourists! After that, we of course hit the night market, where we picked up a number of souvenirs and then walked back to the hotel.
Feb. 20 - We had signed up for the "Smart Cook" cooking school through our hotel the day before; they picked us and another German guy, Daniel, up from our hotel at about 9am. Turns out we were the only 3 taking the school that day, so it worked out pretty nice. We went to the school and met our instructor, Oi, who was absolutely great, very energetic and great at what she does. The first thing we did was go to a local market, where we walked along and Oi pointed out all the different ingredients we
would be using in our cooking.
We headed back to the cooking school where we would cook a couple of dishes, sit down and eat, then go back and cook more, eat, you get the picture. In total we cooked 6 different dishes, and Melissa and I both chose different ones so we actually got to cook and try 12 different ones. My favorite had to be the panang curry dish, with the dessert of bananas in coconut milk a close second, while Melissa's was the banana spring rolls. Overall, it was a really fun day and I'd highly recommend it to anyone. We did it at the end of the trip, but it would actually be more useful at the beginning as you get a real feel for a number of Thai dishes. Example: a very common dish is a Tom Yum soup, which includes 4 main ingredients for flavouring - lemongrass, galanga (thai ginger), kaffir lime leaves and chilis. I had it a few days before the school, but didn't know that those ingredients are only for flavouring, and you're not supposed to eat them! No wonder I thought it was so bad.
After the school we were
pretty beat, so we hung out at the hotel and then went out for a light supper later that night.
Feb. 21 Today was our last day of holidays, and we had an 8pm flight out to Bangkok so we had another day to wander around Chiang Mai. We were unable to get a late checkout at the hotel, so we had a slow morning and took the time to repack our bags, as our stop in Bangkok was very short.
After grabbing lunch we had planned to go to another temple, but after some hassle with a tuk tuk driver, we lost our ambition and just walked around town for the afternoon. Melissa finally got up the nerve to get one of the "fish spas" that we had seen all over Cambodia and Thailand. Melissa says it was a very funny feeling, especially when they swam in between your toes... We hit a cafe for our last watermelon shake and watched the locals set up for the Sunday street market, which we later strolled through. After an early supper, we headed to the airport for our flight to Bangkok.
We landed at about 10pm and met
Foot massage
Gara rufa fish from Turkey our hotel pickup to take us to the hotel I had booked close to the airport, and then we were back at the airport at about 6am for our flight to Hong Kong.
After another ridiculously long travel day we arrived into the hype of the Olympics in Vancouver. Due to the reports of some Chinese people attempting to immigrate to Canada, they actually were doing passport checks as you were walking off the jetway. We hadn't seen any Olympic reports overseas other than the story of the luge accident, so it was a little shock to be right in the heart of it. After an unexpected stop through Regina (reminder that a non-stop flight does not mean direct), we arrived back into Winnipeg where Mom and Dad met us and took us back home and Melissa promptly took the phone to call everybody and share the engagement news.
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