SATURDAY 31 JULY 2010
After a leisurely breakfast I decided to go to Wat Phra That Doi Suthap. The great thing about Chiang Mai is that you can decide what you want to do at the last minute. I walked to Chiang Puak Gate to catch the bus. There were a couple of people waiting and the bus goes when there are 10 people and it costs 50 baht (£1) each way. In the end there were five of us so he charged us 130 baht return, and he would wait for us, to save waiting to fill the bus.
I know there are a lot of temples around Chiang Mai, all of which are stunningly beautiful, but Wat Phra That Doi Suthap was amazing! No wonder it is one of the north’s most sacred temples. The temple is at 1625 meters above sea level and the views of Chiang Mai are incredible. Part of the temple is being renovated at the moment, but that didn’t detract from its beauty. Even the scaffolding is in gold! I caught the bus back to Chiang Mai and a Frenchman also came with us. He had walked all the way from Chiang Mai – it had taken him four and a half hours!
I stopped in the Western end of Chiang Mai to look at some of the shops there and made my way back to Gap’s House for a siesta. I then visited the Saturday market, which was similar to the Sunday market – a hive of activity, colour and sounds.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
Friday, July 30, 2010
Eaten by fish
FRIDAY 30 JULY 2010
At breakfast I met an Italian lady called Leonora who lives in Rome and is travelling on her own. I wandered around the streets of old Chiang Mai and got lost again, so caught one of the red buses to Wat Phra Singh. To catch a red bus, you flag one down and say where you want to go. If he’s going in that direction, he’ll take you, if not he’ll say no. Mine seemed to go in the opposite direction, but still took me to the temple. The city’s most revered Buddha image is housed at Wat Phra Singh and the beautiful temples are in the Lanna style.
I thought I would test my bravery and try one of the ‘fish massages’ where small fish nibble at the dead skin. I didn’t think I would be able to stand it for very long as I am very ticklish on my feet, but after a couple of minutes it was quite a pleasant vibrating sensation and did 40 minutes.
I went back to Gap’s for a rest (getting lost again) before going to a Khantoke Dinner where there was traditional dancing – the Khantoke is the platter on which dishes are served. I was picked up from my hotel in an air conditioned car and taken to the Cultural Centre and was seated near a couple from Melbourne and another couple from Brisbane. After the meal there were several dances which were quite formal choreographed court dances. We were then taken to a large hut where there were several traditional dances performed by various hill tribes. Excellent value for 370 baht (about £7.50), including transport to and from the hotel.
Chiang Mai
I decided to have a lazy day today after the 3 day trek and had a leisurely breakfast, chatting to Selim and Kyriakos. Iza and Michal came down later – all four are leaving today.
I had a Thai massage and the lady commented that some of my muscles were ‘very hard’ from the trekking – I wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad!
There are temples all around Chiang Mai and I visited Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phan Tao which are not far from Gap’s House. Wat Chedi Luang is about 600 years old and is the tallest in Thailand. Various improvements were made over the centuries, including a niche used to enshrine the Emerald Buddha, but after heavy rain and an earthquake only half of the pagoda remained and it wasn’t restored until 1992.
I had intended going to Wat Phra Singh but after lunch was so tired I had to go back for a 2 hour siesta! Gap’s House do an excellent vegetarian buffet for 90 baht (about £2) so I stayed at the Guest House as it was raining quite heavy.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Elephant Riding and Bamboo Rafting
WEDNESDAY 28 JULY 2010
The bamboo floor was easier to sleep on than the wooden floor, but we were woken very early again by loud crowing cockerels and pigs squealing. We had scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast and went to see Chai’s wife weaving.
We set off in the rain, which didn’t last long, and went to yet another pool and waterfall where we went swimming. We walked to the elephant camp where we had lunch and then went for an elephant ride for about half an hour, followed by bamboo rafting down the river – very relaxing after all the walking we had done.
We were then taken back to Chiang Mai where we were all booked in at Gap’s House. It’s not possible to make reservations with Gap’s House and it is usually full, but they guarantee a room if you do a trek with them. Gap’s House has wooden bungalows set in a lovely shaded jungle garden with a very relaxed atmosphere. The rooms are large and furnished with old wooden furniture, and there is free Wi-Fi. Mozzie spray is essential as they like the trees and visitors!The price is very reasonable at 550 baht (about 11 pounds).
3 Day Trek - Day 2 - 15 Kilometres
TUESDAY 27 JULY 2010
It was very difficult to get to sleep on the hard wooden floor and then we were woken about 5 a.m. by the cockerels and barking dogs. Tea and coffee revived us, ready for our breakfast of boiled eggs and toast and Kyriakos’ mango. Somehow my bag seemed heavier today! We walked to a waterfall where we swam in a pool and had the best Jacuzzi ever! We then walked to Chai’s family’s paddy fields where we had lunch under the shelter. Lunch was fried rice wrapped in banana leaves which kept it quite warm. Chai and Michal went to collect small crabs and snails – supposedly for supper! Some people learning to train elephants passed by as we were having lunch.
We then walked on the narrow paths between the paddy fields again and Michal did a very impressive 360 degree fall about a meter down. I was laughing so much I lost my balance and nearly fell in as well!
We walked through thicker jungle and saw termites, very large butterflies, and dragonflies and heard the cicadas that sound like chain saws again.
We stopped at another waterfall and pool where we managed to cool our aching feet and showered under the waterfall. Michal and Chai caught large tadpoles – another addition for supper!
It was another hour to the village with a stop en-route at a small resort where we ate star fruit and bananas from the trees, and shared some jack fruit with a man and his son.
Our overnight stop was where Chai lives with his wife and is a Karen tribe village. It was much larger than the previous one, with about 40 houses in it spreading up the hillside from the river and paddy fields. The roofs were made of corrugated iron, and the floor was made of bamboo poles with rush matting over the top – we were worried in case we fell through it! All the women in the village weave and sell their wares to visitors. The raw materials are bought in by the whole village and the whole village share in the profits. Chai’s son had gone with another group and had fallen when jumping in the waterfall, and had hurt his head and lip, both of which were swollen.
For dinner we had vegetable curry, green bean and tofu, and rice. Chai had also fried the crabs (which I declined) and cooked the tadpoles in chillies which was too hot for the others (again, I declined). We ate outside by candlelight but when it started to rain so we moved inside. After dinner we played cards with Chai, and passed the rum and he rolled some more cigarettes in banana leaves. There were even more fireflies here because we were near the river, and some even came into our hut.
3 Day Trek - Day 1 - 10 Kilometres
MONDAY 26 JULY 2010
After checking out of my hotel I was picked up by a truck and taken to ‘Gap House’ Guest House to collect the Polish couple, Iza and Michal, and Kyriakos and Selim, all of whom had done the cookery course with me. We picked up another Dutch couple on the way and drove to a market to buy supplies such as water and a torch, and then drove through the Thai countryside passing villages, paddy fields and cows, winding up through jungle covered mountains.
After about 3 hours we met another group and our guide, Chai, who took us to visit a waterfall which is one of the most spectacular I have seen. We drove for another hour and went to a Buddhist temple which is the second highest in the area and set in wonderful scenery. The cicadas were extremely loud and sounded like chain saws! It was Buddha day so there were a few visitors to see the monk.
We then trekked through the jungle up and down hills. Going down was painful on the toes, ankles and knees. Going up was just plain knackering! Chai’s 10 year old son came with us and he was like a puppy running around and covered about twice the distance we did – a future guide in the making! We had to walk between paddy fields on narrow verges, and I lost my balance and slipped in one of them. We came to a magical waterfall where we all took a vigorous shower and then walked to a remote Thai Hmong Tribal village where Chai’s family comes from. The huts were built on stilts with roofs made of banana leaves. Cows and pigs lived underneath the huts and were either tethered or roamed freely round the village, and chickens and baby chicks strutted around scratching at the earth. We had walked about 10 kilometres today at quite a fast pace.
We were shown to our hut which was like a long hut with two rooms, one with raised platforms on either side which was open at the front where Chai and his grandfather slept. The 9 of us slept in the other room on the wooden floor on blankets with mosquito nets. Chai and his brother and grandfather cooked our evening meal of green chicken curry, rice, and bamboo and cucumber. It gets dark about 7.30 and as there was no electricity in our hut we used torches and candlelight. Chai’s grandfather uses a head torch. Government projects have provided electricity to some of the huts by means of solar panels and water has been piped from water sources to provide communal water in the village. The toilet was a squat toilet with a pipe leading to a big drum. If you wanted to wash or shower, you had to connect the pipe at the kitchen end and any excess water ran into the drum, which was then used for the toilet.
It was Iza’s birthday so we all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in English and then there were solos in Welsh, Polish, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and Greek! We had brought some rum with us which was passed around, and Chai made cigarettes from a strong local tobacco and tamarind wrapped in banana leaves. Later we went out to see the full moon and saw fireflies (really, it was not the effect of the rum!)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
CHIANG MAI ZOO
SUNDAY 25 JULY 2010
I decided at breakfast to go to Chiang Mai Zoo as they have got a male, female and baby Panda there. I arranged with the hotel car to take me and pick me up. The entrance fee for the zoo and aquarium is 560 baht and it was extremely busy at is Buddha Day – most of the people there were Thai. The map was extremely confusing with very little English on it and most of the signs were in Thai only. Athough there was a bus and a Monorail it was difficult finding where the stops were. Some of the animals seemed to be in very small enclosures and although there was information regarding animal conservation, particularly of tortoises and turtles, Singapore Zoo and Melbourne Zoo are far superior, where the animals have plenty of space to roam around in. Some animals seemed to be kept as side shows. I eventually found where the Pandas were, and it was worth the extra 100 baht (2 pounds) to see them. Lin-Hui, the mother, was in an enclosure with the her one year old baby and although they were sleeping most of the time did manage to turn over for a stretch and a scratch. The father, Chuang-Chuang, in an enclosure on his own as adults like their own territory.
After a siesta, I went into the old town for the amazing Sunday street walking market which goes on from about 6 p.m. to midnight. There was stall after stall of all kinds of clothing, shoes, candles, silks, crafts, and food stalls.
Thai Cookery School
SATURDAY 24 JULY 2010
There are many cookery schools in Chiang Mai, and I chose to do a course with Gap cookery school, partly because I liked everything on the menu! I was picked up at my hotel and introduced to my fellow class mates – a German woman and her son, a couple from Poland, a couple from Israel, and two friends, one from Greece and one from Tunisia, most of whom are staying at the Gap Guest House.
Our teacher, Jo, took us to the local market where he showed us the kind of ingredients we would need for our cooking, then we went to the Cookery School where we learnt how to make green curry paste from scratch, green curry chicken, stir fried chicken with cashew nut, fish soufflé, thai fish cakes, spicy and sour lemongrass soup with shrimp, spring rolls with cucumber sauce, fried noodle thai style and sticky rice with mango.
We had a break when we ate what we had cooked. Mine was very tasty, but the soup was too spicy for me – my fault for waggling the chilli in it for too long!
Guess what ‘s for dinner when I get home?
Too tired to go out, I stayed in the hotel and chatted to an English man and his Thai wife who live in England. During the conversation he mentioned that he’d had problems sleeping on the sleeper from Bangkok and then they were disturbed a couple of nights previously be someone being locked out of their room and sounds of sawing as the hotel staff broke in! I owned up that it was me!
First Day in Chiang Mai
FRIDAY 23 JULY 2010
I woke up to the luxury of knowing I didn’t have to catch any buses, trains or planes and went for a wonder around Chiang Mai, looking for places to do my cooking course and trek, and other hotels. I caught a Tuk Tuk to the Riverside Restaurant for a drink, during which it poured. It had stopped raining by the time I was ready to leave and tried to walk back to my hotel. The maps are not very clear with many small Soi (lanes) missing and a lot of the signs just in Thai, the result of which was I got very lost and in the end got a lift with a Tuk Tuk.
In the evening, although I was still quite tired, despite a siesta, I dragged myself off to the bustling Night Market. I tried to find it myself by walking as it was not far from the hotel, but got very lost again and called another Tuk Tuk to the rescue. The Kalare Centre has many stalls and also a food court where you have to change money into coupons in order to buy your meal, even though you don’t know how much your meal is likely to cost! You can then change the coupons back for cash – a very bizarre system! My delicious meal of tempura prawns, chicken and rice, including a drink was 130 baht (about 3 pounds). Next door was a stage where there was a demonstration of Thai dancing.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Journey to Chiang Mai
WEDNESDAY 22 JULY 2010
I arrived in Bangkok about 3.30 p.m. with no problems – unusual for me as my recent travel plans have been affected by no train running from Swansea to Heathrow when I was going to Australia in February, being diverted to the Middle East for 5 days on my way back in April because of the volcanic ash cloud, and being diverted to Bristol instead of landing in Cardiff when I was returning from Turkey in May.
The airport bus took an hour and a half to make the usual half hour journey to Bangkok station because the traffic was almost at a standstill. I had intended taking the overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai in the North, but the travel agent who met the bus was told me there were no sleepers available for about 3 days. I didn’t fancy another 12 hours sleeping sitting up, so they found me a lovely Thai style hotel – the S.K. just opposite the station, ready to catch the 8.30 p.m. train the next day. I found somewhere close by to eat – fried rice, garlic chicken, prawns tempura and orange juice all for about 3 pounds!
The cost for the hotel and 12 hour train journey was 20.00 baht (about 40 pounds).
THURSDAY 23 JULY 2010
The train was very comfortable and was a great way to see the Thai countryside. We passed Thai shanty towns, paddy fields, cattle, egrets, paddy fields, cattle, egrets, temples every few miles, including a gold Buddha on the hillside, paddy fields, monkeys in Lopburi. The train stopped for quite a while in one station as the air-conditioning had stopped working in our carriage. They seemed to fix it but we stopped further up the track for about another hour. Most of us got out of our carriage as the heat in the carriage increased, into the cool of the humid 33 degrees outside temperature, where as luck would have it there was a café selling cold drinks.
As we had been delayed about 2 hours altogether, the meal supply seemed to have stopped. When a couple of us asked for refreshments we were told we would get a cup of tea later but no food, so when the train next stopped a few of us made a break for it to buy supplies, much to the dismay of the guards! However, later on we were served with an evening meal! The countryside became hillier north of Utaradit with lush green jungle, palm trees and more paddy fields.
The train finally arrived about 10 p.m. and I took a Tuk Tuk to my hotel – the Chiang Mai Chang Thai Hotel, feeling quite tired and looking forward to unpacking and a good sleep. However, when I left my room, the safety bar inside somehow operated itself which meant I could only open the door a couple of inches. The hotel staff and myself could not get in and the door on the balcony was locked. In the end they had to hacksaw the bar off – I finally got into my room about midnight!