Chiang Mai: Ohhh my Buddha!

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Ohhhh myyy Buddha!


What a welcome change to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok! From the moment we arrived we liked it in Chiang Mai so much more, with a much calmer atmosphere, cleaner streets, beautiful mountains surrounding the small town enclosed by a beautiful canal and some friendly, helpful, approachable people!


So much has happened in our short stay in Chiang Mai! We have:
- kissed a python
- stroked a cobra
- cuddled a tiger
- rode bare back on an elephant
- hiked through the jungle and mountains near Chiang Mai
- spent the night living like the hill tribe villagers
- swum in the Mae wang waterfall
- took a ride down a river on a bamboo raft
- had our first thai foot and back massages
- sampled a huge amount of different street foods including fresh coconut, barbecued banana, and sticky rice with mango...still no fried cockroaches yet!
- became Thai champion chefs in several basic thai recipes!


So first things first...


We got off the train at Chiang Mai to be greeted by a Thai man with a sign that read 'Morgan' .... To most this may not seem a big deal but for us who thought we were going to be getting off a long way from Bangkok with everything at the other end being false, I felt like giving him a big kiss! Lol!


Next we arrived at 'BMP Residence' and get this.... It had a pool, a cool little lively bar and restaurant, friendly helpful staff who welcomed us with a smile and a nice room... So to those people who wrote a negative review on Trip Advisor that nearly had Rach have a nervous breakdown.... You were talking a load of rubbish!


We were soon whisked off to the snake farm and tiger kingdom, as the train had arrived 5 hours behind schedule we were keen to maximise our day with something incredible... I'd say kissing a python and cuddling a tiger were well up there of not your everyday routine!



Next morning we were all equipped (well sort of... With the assumption that most of what we needed would be provided) to head off on our elephant trek... Of which we knew nothing about - LITERALLY!


After a whiz stop tour of a local market and another near death experience travelling in the back of a pick up truck up windy, tight mountain roads we arrived at the elephant camp! All we can say is WOW! There were loads of huge elephants and even some babies! Pretty soon we were sitting on an elephant, it was crazy!! I felt sorry for the poor thing as I can imagine Tom and Rach on either side ... It was pretty lopsided (Rach hopes).





Both of us were offered the opportunity to ride the elephant bare back on its neck, boy that really worked your core strength trying to stay upright!


We bought the elephant some bananas, greedy thing it was and kept swinging its trunk backwards wanting more and more! Rach was enjoying the bananas too, so it was one for Rach... One for the elephant! (The bananas are so tiny and sweet here they are yummy!)


A few elephant facts we learnt whilst being sprayed by the elephant as it took a dip in the river...
- weight: 2.5-3 tonnes
- eat 250 kilograms of grass per day
- drink 250 litres of water per day
- trunk can hold 5 litres of water in one squirt


We were fed out first thai cooked meal upon our visit to 'Mae Wang' Waterfall, delicious egg vegetable fried rice. After lunch we bathed in the waterfall, despite having just recovered from a knee operation Tom was itching at the bit to be in the middle of it all! Rach joined for all of two minutes and nearly lost her bikini with the force of the water! Both of us still managed photos worthy of the front page of vogue!




We trekked for about 3 hours, initially uphill where I think the same thought crossed everyone's minds of 'oh dear lord!' But thank goodness it soon flattened off and we enjoyed some spectacular scenery, finally stopping in a tribal village for our overnight stay!


The rural thai village was a real opportunity to see how the tribal people live. It was really small and during a walk around we observed the villagers going about their everyday activities such as chopping wood, drying and grinding rice. It was really interesting and eye opening to witness such a contrasting culture to our own.


We were fortunate to have the opportunity to experience real Thai food which our guide prepared from scratch and cooked over an open fire. We were presented with a feast of pumpkin and chicken curry, stir fry vegetable tofu and rice! Afterwards we sat by candlelight (as there was no electricity in the village) and spoke to our guide! He was relatively fluent in spoken English which was incredible considering he had no formal teaching, and had taught himself from communicating with tourists. He admitted when he first started guiding treks he could only say "yes", "no" and "ok".



Becoming thai cookery experts:


Chef Morgan and Chef Pearson will be ready for booking upon our return to the UK to cook you up a 3 course treat!


We had a great day on our cookery course and prepared from scratch an array of dishes between us:
Appetiser: spring roll and spicy thai soup
Stir fry: chicken with cashew nuts and chicken and holy basil
Noodle dish: pad thai noodles and pad se yeu noodles
Curry: Thai green curry and panang curry
Dessert: mango sticky rice and black sticky rice!




By the end of the day, Rach was ready to burst!! We were presented with a cookery book and a certificate awarding us a basic thai cookery "degree".


When we get home we hope to have many thai themed evenings where we hope we can recreate the array of sensational tastes we experienced here!

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