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Published: February 26th 2009
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After the 16 or so hour journey to Bangkok, we kipped for a few hours and got ready for the overnight train to Chiang Mai. As it was Feb 19th, i'd be on the train as it turned to my birthday, but not to fear, i heard these trains get a little lively. We got on at 6pm & immediately ordered 2 large Singha beers and pre-ordered our brekkers for the morning.. By 8pm everyone else on the train had pulled down their beds and turned in for the night..... We soldiered on, few more large beers, but by 10 were told we had to pull the beds down and go to sleep, a request for more beer was turned down.... Stayed up long enough to wish myself a happy birthday, but without a few drinks it got boring, so i tried to sleep.
Arrived and found a swish hotel with big swimming pool & waterfall.... Central location too and set me back a staggering £3. Warmed up for my birthday night out with some pool lounging, the odd dip, and some posing under the waterfall in my infamous swim shorts...
Got some good Thai food and went out.
WINNER
After winning my bet to secure free beer on my birthday Found a cracking indie bar, first i've seen on my travels, played excellent music and had a good pool table, and very lively. Had a few there, then few other places, found a great blues pub, really authentic & well liked. Few more bars here & there, but the music was awful, so settled back into the indie bar around midnight. Stayed till 4ish, by which time i'd managed to guess the next song before it was played, 1 in a million shot, Roy was gutted, as he said he'd pick up the tab in the bar if i could do it, more so gutted when he was informed he was paying for 14 beers, not a bad midnight stint. Made our way to a late club, which was closed, but managed to find a camper van selling beer, so had one for the road, top birthday....
Took it easy the next day, did some temple seeing, went to the night market, which was excellent, as they all are, great food & great bargains..
Next day was the Liverpool v City game, so another good night was in order. Stodged up on a seafood pizza (allow myself western
food every once in a while, especially when the footballs on). Found a good bar with big screen and they were playing the Eagles & ACDC, so can't go wrong...Happy with a point, didn't play too well.... Happy we'd shared the points (Roy is a Liverpool fan for those that don't know) we went out for a few..
Next day we went to Chiang Mai Night Safari. Thaksin Shinawatra's idea, and it was top notch, if not a little odd. Its stunning. Not been open long, so everything is brand new, its very very swish, proper resort, and its HUGE! The 2 main safaris take place at night, but you can go during the day, which we did...... It was like the first Jurassic Park film. We turned up at this huge luxury resort safari park at 3pm... and were the only people there, apart from a few cleaners and ticket staff. We wandered in and had acres upon acres of guest areas, food courts, and safari tours to ourselves... We did the day safari which was great, monkeys, bears, hyenas, walk in bird places, pretty much every animal going... By about 7pm a few more people turned up,
and we did the night predator safari. Really good, driving through the wilderness in the pitch black, then they'd flick on some spotlights to reveal lions, tigers, hyenas, all sorts.... After that was the Savannah safari, same deal but with zebras, wilderbeast & rhinos and such, good place..
Day after i went to school. I'd enrolled on a jewelery course, and spent the day making my own silver ring from scratch....Had to design it, then weigh out my silver, heat it, bend it, solder it,engrave it, cut it, finish it, polish it etc... Non stop all day, but it was really cool. I designed 1 ring that splits into 2 and is worn together on the same finger, one is brushed silver, the other polished... Actually looks pretty good, and the fact i made it from a lump of silver is all the better.... Celebrated after school with a trip to the night market where i found another t shirt i had to buy, not a babyape one this time, but a Jordan one, and a few beers...
Caught the bus to Chiang Rai with the intention of a quiet night so we could get up early and
catch another bus to the Laos border and cross over. It started quiet, but i found a really good bar called teepee. Great music and great owner who would dress up as the artist singing, funny bloke. Also got chatting to a Thai who designed bags & jewelery, lot in common now i;m a jewelery designer. Think Roy left about 1ish and i stayed and chatted to the owner and Chi (designer). We left at 4ish to find more booze, managed it somehow, then i got hopelessly lost and rolled in at 5ish, to be up at 8.30am for the 'bone rattler', a very bumpy bus journey to the Laos border.
So now i'm safely in Laos with a new stamp in my passport.....
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Big Roy
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That bar in Chiang Mai
Campo. Sounds like you are continuing to have a great time, looks magic. I had a great night in Chiang Mai in the What Bar, with the mod circle as it symbol. I think that must be the same place that you were in when you were there? you are right it is a good pool table! Relaxing in India, obviously it is only two weeks and reading this is solidifying my plans for a big jaunt again. good luck in Laos and pass my regards on to our kid (first time I think I have ever seen him tanned, looks almost like a traveller!) cheers STeve