Chiang Mai
Well, we had a great 3 nights in Chiang Mai- once we finally got there!!
After our adventure on the sleeper train from Bangkok, which eventually arrived more than 5 hours late, we arrived in Chiang Mai.
Once we got off the train, it was still peeing with rain, we then had to get a taxi to our hotel. Not easy! There are very few taxis in Chiang Mai. Most of them are the converted pickup trucks or Tuk-Tuks, and there was no way we could fit into a Tuk Tuk with all our bags, so we waited in line for our turn for a pick-up taxi. And waited. And waited. And waited. Almost an hour later we were still waiting, so I headed, in the pouring rain, up to the main road, to flag one down. 5 minutes later and a lot wetter, I eventually got one. When I jumped in the back, I was a bit surprised to see someone in there already!! A Thai soldier, probably on leave. Anyway, we drove back to the station and, Having shown the driver our hotel Booking form for the SIRILANNA hotel, we set off. 10 minutes later we pulled up at, what I thought was our hotel, until we got out. We were at the LANNA hotel. So, explained to the driver, again, that we were staying at the SIRILANNA hotel. Off we trundled again. 5 minutes later we stop at the DI LANNA hotel! Again, explain to the driver it is wrong hotel and this time I point out on the map on my phone where we are and where we should be!!! Off we trot again! We stop again 5 minutes later in completely the wrong direction and I am just about to say something when the soldier, who has been there the whole time, jumps out!! Eventually, some 30 minutes after we started, we eventually get to our hotel!! Bless the old timer, he was still smiling though, so I gave him a tip!!
The hotel itself was great. Right slap bang in the middle of the old city. It was only a small family run boutique hotel, but it was bloody great nonetheless! Again, we were upgraded to a bigger room. The room was lovely. All dark wood panelling and furniture. A huge 4- poster bed and a big bathroom with jacuzzi bath and a shower big enough for 5!! The whole hotel was decked out in lovely carved panels and pillars. The staff were really great and friendly too.
Because the train was so late arriving and it took us so long to get to the hotel, it was already 4 pm! So the day was a bit wasted really. We just unpacked, had a shower, got changed and had some food, as we were starving. Ju then got her nails done (most important thing!). By this time it was about 8pm, so we wondered off in search of the night Market. As it was still pissing down, we grabbed a brolly from the hotel and set off.
Now, whenever Ju has the brolly, I can never share it with her, as she either holds it too low for me to be able to see where we are going, or, she constantly keeps hitting me in the head with it!! So invariably walk a step or two ahead!!
This was funny because, on the way to the Market, we passed dozens of bars and Massage parlours, and everyone we passed, one of the girls would say "you want massaaaaggeee?!" or "welcome. You want drinky?!" , then, as soon as they say it, Ju would come into view behind me and they would be quiet then!! It was quite funny!!
Once we got to the Market, I was on the watch hunt again! We were not buying tonight, that was going to be the following night. One of the stalls we found, had a lot on display, and I asked if they had any more. He then led me to the back of a shop, opened what looked like a wall, and inside was a secret room with a couple of thousand watches in!!! I was in heaven!!! I found a few I wanted and told them we would be back the following night. We found another stall, with an even bigger secret room, and even more watches and got an even better price!! After a bit more bargain hunting we eventually made our way back to the hotel for a well earned sleep!
The following day, it was peeing down still, and we got up early to go and do our Thai Cookery class. We bundled into the back of a pick-up taxi with several other bods, and the first stop was a local Thai food Market, which sold all things food. Even 3 foot high bags of freshly made fried curly crisps!! Madness! Anyway, we were there to be shown the raw ingredients for the food we were going to cook. Lots of vegetables, herbs and spices, then it was off to class!
We were In a group of 10 and we got to pick what we cooked. I think we had 6 different things to Learn. If I remember, I did spring rolls, chicken and cashew nut, beef massamann, a spicy chicken salad, banana and coconut pudding and something else!! It was great fun! We chopped everything with a huge meat cleaver ( which I must buy when we get home) and cooked everything from scratch in big woks! Even better still, we got to eat everything we cooked! At one point, Nancy, our teacher, showed us which part of the chilli actually gave out the heat. Some of us tried it, only a small bit, the size of a grain of rice. No harm done! -WRONG!!! 30 seconds later my mouth was on fire and was for the next 10 minutes!! I am never doing that again!!! For the rest of the day I was known as "Hot Man"!!
We carried on cooking until about 3 and then, when we had finished, we were all given certificates and recipe books to take home with us.
It was still raining when we left, so we cooped ourselves up in our room until later in the evening when we raided the night market for a serious amount of watches!!!
The following day was another dull weather day, so we had a bit of a lie in and ended up going up the mountain to see the Duoi Supthep Temple which overlooks Chiang Mai. We got one of the pick-up taxis to get there and ended up feeling a queasy when we eventually made it to the top, because of the twists and turns in the road and the diesel fumes!! We were glad to get out!
The temple is small, as far as temples go, but it is bloody lovely, has loads of bells and Buddhas and a shitload of gold in the temple spire!! Once we finished up there we made our way back to our hotel and went for a bit of a pamper with massages and facial scrubs, ready to face the night Market one last time!! Again, we bought a few watches as well as some other bumpf and watched one round of staged Mui Thai boxing. Ju thought it was real until I told here to watch where all the kicks, knees and punches land- all on the gloves! We got a Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel and packed, as we were leaving at 5am to fly back to Bangkok, where we are now, in a hotel by the airport, looking forward to tomorrow and the most eagerly awaited part of our holiday- The Maldives!!!
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