Chaing Mai - Part 1

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Having had our buffet breakfast (which consisted of noodles, rice and hot dog sausages, among other things), we got a lift to the train station so that we could catch the 10-hour train north to Chaing Mai.

Due to the length of the journey we had to travel on an express, air-conditioned train (costing us £20 each!) rather than the usual cheap train (that had been costing us 20p per trip) we had been using before. Though we were paying a lot more, the train was probably worse. For the 10 hour journey we had to sit in fairly cramped seats and put up with a bloke not too far behind us constantly making a disgusting sniffing noise and spitting into a bag, which apparently isn’t rude to do over here. I also had a chair in which if I leant too far backwards or sat down too hard on, it would force the tray of the seat behind me open. I’m pretty sure on one occasion the bloke behind me had a drink in his had and when I opened the tray, I hit it over him (thought only slightly)..

Still, we arrived in Chaing Mai and headed off to our hostel, which was probably the best place we have stayed in so far. Incredibly clean, was right in the centre of the city, had very friendly staff (though one lady working there was scarily enthusiastic) and it had wireless internet, which meant we could do things such as update the blog!

Whilst at the hotel we made contact with Pao, an ex-student of my Dad’s who lives in Thailand. He not only very kindly offered to drive us up to Chang Dao (a small place north of Chaing Mai and our next destination), but also offered us use of his apartment Chiang Mai. Not wanting to be rude we accepted and after a couple of days in the hostel we moved in. The apartment certainly isn’t the sort of thing that one would associate with backpacking; Lovely and spacious, clean and (although there is a lack of nice chairs to sit in) very comfortable.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing here though. I managed to electrocute myself 4 or 5 times on the oven (yes, I know, you’d thought I’d have leant to not use it after one - though it was nothing too bad, just enough to make me drop what ever was in my hand). Also in the last few days we’ve seemed to break the air conditioning and dishwasher for a while, though I think we’ve fixed them now..

Anyway, as Pao can’t meet us in Chaing Mai until the 28th, we’ve had quite a lot of time here. On the whole we’ve taken it easy a bit more, something that simple to do when you have your own apartment, however we’ve also done the following:

Go to the hospital
Whilst in Lopburi Helen managed to get 3 bites on her forehead, which then subsequently swelled up. A couple of days later the swelling had moved to around her eyes, and then later to her cheeks. Helen’s parents suggested that the cause of the swelling (as well as the reason it was moving) could be due to it being a parasite. Upon hearing that there could be something living in her face Helen went from being pretty blasé about the whole thing (though there was understandably a fair bit of complaining) to being very, very keen to go to the local hospital.

So, off we went. All in all our trip there was pretty uneventful, everyone was incredibly efficient, spoke good English, were very friendly and it only cost us £12 (I was fearful with it being a private hospital it’d set us back a fortune!). Having spoken to the doctor he agreed that it was just a bad reaction to the bite and gave her some cream to put on it. In fact, come the next day, the swelling had almost gone completely.

Night Market
One of the main tourist attractions in Chiang Mai is the night market. As the name would suggest this is a market. At night. Though it’s incredibly touristy, we actually picked up a couple of decent things. Helen bought a skirt, a bag, a bookmark ( I say Helen, she used our joint money) and we got a very nice picture (see attached) and a lamp in the shape of a frog that’s holding umbrella, which we’re going to have to send home. Real authentic, cultural stuff I’m sure you’ll agree..

Tiger Kingdom
Having heard good things we decided to use one day to go to a place called “tiger kingdom”, in which you can go face to face with Tigers (literally, you go in the caged area with them). Though I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing (given that a work college of mine had been telling me for many months that during my trip to Asia I would get eaten by a tiger/lion), I decided it was ok to go. The day didn’t start well. Very few of the local tuk tuk drivers speak good English, meaning that after I said “Tiger Kingdom” and “You, know, big cat” to them, I had little choice but to show the destination I wanted to go to though mime. Meaning that I, as a grown man, had to make a tiger noise and put my fingers up as if they were claws, to another grown man (much to the Helen’s hilarity - she was just standing well back). The first driver couldn’t understand what I wanted (and clearly thought I must have been either drunk or crazy), but the second driver understood me fine, made the same motions back and we were away!

The actual place was nice and pretty well run. Most of the tigers had plenty of room and seemed to be very comfortable with humans being around them. The deal here was that you have a choice of spending time with one of 4 tiger age groups. Babies (who are the most expensive), 3-4 month old tigers, 5-8 month old and adults. Having seen the size of the largest tigers and the price of the babies, we opted to spend 15 minutes with the 3-4 month old ones. Unfortunately, this was a bad choice. Whereas the adult tigers were very active and quite happy to play, the tigers we saw just wanted to sleep and were probably in the worst conditions of the lot (in a cage with no grass - though I suppose when tourist go home they get put elsewhere). All in all the experience wasn’t great. Having paid the money you wanted to spend time and play with them, however, on the other hand, you didn’t want to wake them up (that just seemed mean!). So all we really did was take some the pictures below and sit with the only one that seemed slightly active.

Thai Boxing
Finally, last night we went to see some Thai boxing (something that we felt we should do, what with being in Thailand and all). At the cost of £8 per ticket we were promised ring side seats. And, unlike when you book up to see a London show, ringside was what we got. Literally next to the judges..

The boxing area was located in a rather sleazy area with a lot of ladies that didn’t look too, well, lady like.. There was certainly a lot of make-up going on.. To begin with it was all rather distressing. We first had to endure about 30 minutes of terrible music (similar to if you asked a deaf and talentless man to play the bagpipes) being pumped out of the nearby speakers. Then the first fight must have been between two 10 year olds. Frankly, they were too young. In the later fights there was a lot of tactics and defence, however in this fight they just seemed to try and batter each other into submission whist their two families (who were watching ringside) cheered loudly on. In fact, the fight was stopped after one kid realised he could win by just kneeing the other kid in the head repeatedly.. Once we had endured this, the rest of the boxing was fine, and quite enjoyable to watch. There was even a French bloke in one fight (though the flyer had promised a British guy called “Billy”) who completely kicked the arse of an originally very smug Thai bloke. In fact I think it’s the first time I’ve wanted the French to win something. There was a strange ending to the evening as well though.. Once all the scheduled fights had finished and the judges had gone, two random people (though will all the boxing equipment on) got into the ring and started to go at each other, with a rather makeshift referee watching over it.. After it had finished they both got out and walked around asking for tips from the crowd. Basically this was nothing official at all - again, a slightly worrying, seeing as the people who could provide medical attention had anyone got hurt (which looked very likely) had also left. All in all it was something I’m glad that we did, but probably not an experience I’ll repeat anytime too soon.

That’s probably enough to be getting on with for now (if only I could have written essays this fast!). We’ve also been to a few more temples and a park, but nothing too interesting.

Finally, we have a cooking course tomorrow which Helen will be updating you on soon.

All the best,

David and Helen.

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Comments

[Nick Hamblin]

Hello from Keynsham
Hi guys - good to see you're have such a good and varied time already after just two weeks! It makes my week in Madeira seem quite weak by comparison - though it was nice and relaxing, and the apartment was pretty swanky. Unfortunately things haven't been great since I've gotten back, as I've come down with a particularly bad bout of tonsillitis, which has kept me at home for a week now - I'm seeing my doctor again tomorrow and he may even suggest going to hospital for treatment. In better news, I've completed the purchase of the bungalow! I'll post pictures when I can, but like I've said, I haven't really had the chance to go round there to do stuff yet. Hopefully it won't be long after Christmas when I get to move in, though I am now officially poor. I will genuinely have evenings when I need to decide whether to close the blinds to keep the heat in, or leave them open to let the light from streetlights in... I'll keep in touch - keep up the excellent blog both of you, it's nice so keep up with how you're doing.