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Published: August 24th 2009
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roses, pagoda and offerings in front of a major mall in Bangkok Flying back into Bangkok from Myanmar we decided to take it easy in Thailand. The rest of the time spent in Thailand was mostly relaxing, eating and sleeping. In Bangkok the large Siam Mall was pretty much our second home. We went to the mall almost everyday and spent our time at a cozy internet cafe or we went to a really nice movie theatre in the mall. We also ate at the mall's cafeteria quite often. The cafeteria was not the typical food court back in Canada but this one in Siam Mall was massive. The lay out concept resembles street vendors out on the street but its indoors. I guess the vendors in the mall looks cleaner then outside but sanitary standards are similarly laid out with out cover. The food was really good and our favourite was the Chiang Mai sausage (spicy pork sausage with basil...YUM!).
From Bangkok we took the bus to a sleepy town Lopburi and the day after we continued our journey North on the train to Phitsanulok. Phitsanulok was a small town with probably the best food market we've found. The market was full of fresh fruit, and more variety of fresh dishes
then we've scene. It was was really delicious. In the evening when we were surfing the net at our hotel lobby. Two girls were waiting for their overnight train to Chiang Mai and mentioned Phitsanulok was a dead town with nothing to do. Later, Geoff and I went for a walk around town to relax before bed, thinking there is probably not much around when we found the river nearby and blaring music. We were curious what was going on and suddenly we walked by a strip of bars full of locals partying the night away. This made the night more interesting. We decided to join the fun and sat down for a drink and locals came over to chat. Most of them were pretty tipsy and one local even bought us roses. You never know where a wander takes you.
The next day we hopped on the train again to Lampang. Geoff who had his head out the window too much wasn't feeling well after from inhaling too much diesel fumes so we rested at the hotel. That night we had a decent meal of Pad Thai Koung (Shrimp with fried noodles).
The next day we headed
out to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre. We watched elephants bath and an show introducing the skills of the elephants. The show ended with elephants painting which were for sell later. Most of our time was spent admiring the elephant babies however. It was a nice half day adventure at the centre. In the afternoon we waited on the highway to catch a bus to Chiang Mai. We caught a bus relatively painlessly just had to wait 30 minutes.
Chiang Mai was not exactly what I had in mind but it did have a large variety of tasty restaurants and great massages. I imagined the town in the jungle and less chaotic. The town was actually very big, busy and I couldn't see the jungle again until I went out of town. The food was amazing though. Our favourite was SP Chicken Restaurant that served juicy BBQ ribs. We also went to a decent Mexican restaurant which was quite delicious as well. You might think its hilarious having Mexican in Thailand but we are desperate for variety and the expat scene has created some good opportunities for this. One evening we decided to go for a massage our guest
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serious pressure house manager introduced us to a reasonably priced place. The massage company even had free transport and apparently it was 24hours. When we arrived the massage parlor was pretty much like a hotel. Two stories high with small rooms and massages were done behind closed doors. The only word I could think of to describe this massage place was, 'strange!'
After a couple of days we planned to head out of Chiang Mai but we spent a few hours contemplating if we wanted to head to Pai (west) or Chiang Rai (east towards Loas). We finally came to our decision when we arrived at the bus station, 30 minutes before getting on the bus (this pretty much happens every time when we can't decide). Well we decided to head to Pai. Pai is a very sleepy town with a real made-for-tourism kind of feel but it has beautiful surroundings with lush green jungle. The small town is surprisingly full of guest houses, ATM machines, restaurants, coffee shops and small shops selling crafts and t-shirts. One thing that caught our eyes and attention was that many locals in Pai love to do aerobics. During the evening many ladies out on
a field or parking lot with an instructor pumped muscles to the beat of techno and Thai songs. In one evening stroll we spotted three different classes consisting of 20-30 students per class spread out around town. Looks like fun! It is not very often we see locals exercising, which we can understand since its often so hot, who would want to. We find the heat really hard on the body and usually makes us very lazy and tired.
We briefly researched our options about elephant trekking. At the end we went with a company in Pai called 'Thom.' The trek was more like a ride around farm land and locals' back yards. It was still interesting though, since it was our first time. Riding a massive elephant with extremely coarse hair was very neat but scary as well. If I was asked if 'I would do it again', probably not or if 'I recommend it', not so much. The highlight of the elephant ride was swimming with the elephant and being splashed by the massive cheeky animal. However, seeing the friendly and smart giants tied to a shack was sad. I guess if the elephants are in good
hands it is better than the elephants being poisoned by farmers which we read about in the paper. In my opinion it was hard to judge which company provided proper care but when the mahout (elephant ''driver'' and trainer) hit the giant on the forehead with full force when she wasn't cooperating, made my stomach turn.
After a few days in Pai we decided to head to Chiang Rai and make it across the border to Laos. We read some fellow blogs that mentioned the hassle of trying to go directly to Chiang Rai so we backtracked two hours or so to Chiang Mai. We were a little disappointed since we thought we could take the direct road. I guess planning once in awhile wouldn't hurt but getting to places is part of the fun of travelling. We still enjoyed the scenery along the way to Chiangrai which was a lot more rustic and less developed then the previous roads. It was some of the more beautiful scenery we saw in Thailand.
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