Chiang Mai

Day 3 in Bangkok:


Its our last day here (thank God). We woke up early this morning, having gone to bed before 1AM due to the lack of alcohol service last night, got dressed and headed to the local Internet cafe to figure out where we want to stay in Chiang Mai. It looks like Julie's, the guest house recommended to us by multiple friends, is fully booked so our plan is to show up and try to get a room. If this doesn't work out hopefully we won't have a problem finding something else. We are excited about the laid back atmosphere that Chiang Mai promises; it will be a nice change from the hustle of Bangkok. We headed out down Koasan, for our last time and were delighted and surprised to find a Starbucks. I got a mocha frappuccino and Katie and iced coffee. Yes, it seems like we're cheating ourselves of the true Thai experience, but 3 days without a good coffee is hard on the system. We spent the first part of the morning at what we thought was Chinatown, but turned out was Old Siam. We passed multiple street stalls filled with Indian jewellery and fabrics, trinkets and fresh cut fruit. I stopped to buy some mango which was still not ripe enough for my tastes and then we continued on our way, checking out some strip malls and finally making our way to the true Chinatown. That was an experience. If you think the Jean Talon market is busy on a sunny Saturday morning you are mistaken. The streets in Chinatown are lined with stalls on both sides leaving only 2 feet for people to walk through. This seems manageable, but when there are 6 lanes of human traffic going both ways it is almost impossible to move. Vendors sell everything from cameras and TV remotes to old toasters and shoes (not pairs, literally one shoe). After wandering in for about 10 minutes, we finally realized that we could not see a way out. Streets to the North, South, West, and the East (the way we came) had blue umbrella covered stalls lining them as far as we could see. Trying not to panic (if we were claustrophobic this literally would have been the end of us) we made out way down the street which seemed to have the least human traffic. We passed vendors selling Chinese soups cooked in a location that would not stand up to any food inspectors that I can think of, but regardless were packed with locals. We emerged after a few minutes of squeezing through shoppers and took a deep breath of anything-but-fresh air. Even though it was only lunch time, that was about all we could handle and we hopped in a tuk tuk and made our way back to the hotel. We spent the rest of a beautiful day relaxing by the pool and reading our books. A quick stop at a local place for dinner and then we'll make our way to the train station and head to chiang Mai. Its a 14 hour over night trip so we should be in Chiang Mai by tomorrow at 9:30AM.

 

Rambuttri road



Day 1 in Chiang Mai:
We arrived in Chiang Mai today after a 15 hour over night train ride. The train was exceptionally comfortable, all but the bathrooms (almost vomit inducing). We got to the train station and made our way outside, where at least 20 tuk tuk and cab drivers were waiting. We got in the closest one and asked our driver to take us to Julie's house. Luckily, there was a room left for us, for the cheap price of 300 THB per night. Once we got to the room, I soon realized why. Small, smelly, and damp and cooled only by a rotating fan, this place will be ours for the next few days. But hey, at least it has it's own washroom. After settling in and eating breakfast (fruit plate, espresso and a Thai omelet, all for the cheap price of 4$ CAN) we booked a cooking school for tonight, a two-day-one-night trek for the next two days and arranged for our visa to Vietnam. After all that hard work, we wandered around Chiang Mai for a few hours and then stopped into a local massage place for our first authentic Thai massage. I'm surprised I'm even able to write; I feel like I should be napping in one of those comfortable hammocks that are in the courtyard of our guest house.



Thai Cottage cooking school

Pad Thai in the making



Everyone hard at work making curry paste



Final Product

Green curry chicken

Tofu spring rolls

Day 2 in Chiang Mai:
We woke up early, feeling like death after our late night out, packed our things and waited in the lounge area for our bus to come. At 9:30 we got in the back of an open truck, squished in 11 people and drove for an hour and a half outside of the city. We spent the first part of the day riding elephants and checking out the view of the amazing mountain scenery. The elephant riding was definitely an experience, but not my favorite of our trekking tour. Our elephant riding adventures were followed by lunch, and then we started the climb. Everyone walked in silence taking in the scenery. It was hard to look up even for a second because you were sure to slip on a rock and fall to your death. After about 2 hours, which were probably the longest of my life (only because the following two hours hadn't occurred yet) we stopped at a small water fall to cool off, had a snack of fresh mangos and carried on our way. Then the steep part of the mountain started. It was a literal straight up climb. After about an hour and 45 minutes me and a few of the girls in our group just collapsed on the hill side not knowing how we could ever reach the top. My legs and arms were shaking from exhaustion and I'm sure my heart rate was 200 bpm. I didn't know whether or not I should cry, scream and yell until someone carried me down the hill or just suck it up and keep going. After looking at my watch and realizing it was going to get dark soon I knew that I had no choice, I had to keep going. We kept climbing, and every step was almost impossible. By the time we reached the small village where we were staying I felt like collapsing on the deck of the bamboo hut and staying there forever. Instead, I drank a bottle of water, showered and waited for the delicious dinner that our Thai guides were preparing. We had pumpkin and red curry, which was amazing, especially after such a long day. After eating we walked into the village and played with the local Thai children. They were adorable, dressed in their traditional clothing and were running around screaming and laughing. The ran up to me and yelled "up, up, up" so I picked up a little girl, and then all of the other kids jumped into the arms of the rest of our group. We ran around screaming, and worked up another sweat after our shower. The kids are learning a few phrases from tourists and they can say things like "picture" and "one more time" (once you swing them around and put them back down they demand this). They even took some of our cameras and took pictures of themselves (strange how a 3 year old Thai child who has never left the jungle or even seen electricity can work a digital camera better than my mom). Once it got dark we headed back to our hut and listened to our guides play guitar and sing Thai and American songs (even if they don't know all the words). We went to bed around 9:30 exhausted from the long day.

Chillin on an elephant

The beast we climbed

Probably the dirtiest I've ever been

Thai kids playing in the village

  Day 3 in Chiang Mai:
Our guides promised that today would be all down hill. Which was a miracle, because I think I would have become a citizen of the jungle if we had to take another step in an upwards direction. We walked down the mountain and stopped at a beautiful waterfall, took a quick swim and carried on. We walked along the river until we got to a rafting house. We were instructed how to raft and all climbed in, ready to do anything but walk. The ride was nice, all though we lost one of our group along the way and he had to get pulled back in by our rafting instructor. We finished rafting about 30 minutes later, climbed up the river bank barefoot where Pad Thai was waiting for us. After eating, all of us so exhausted we climbed back into the truck/cab/death mobile and rode back to Chiang Mai. What's on the agenda for tonight? Night market and we'll see where we go from there.

Breakfast with the group



Quick stop at a waterfall to cool off



Group shot with our tour guide "monkey boy"