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Lazy day. It's our final day here in Chiang Mai. Tomorrow morning we fly to Ko Samui for some beach action.
After breakfast I checked my email and waiting for me was a message from Nong regarding the price to ship the paintings back to Paris. Yesterday she gave us an indication of the price to send four paintings back to Paris which was in the region of 70 Euros. However she had to confirm the actual price with TNT due to the fact that the paintings are very big but also very light. Apparently this fact may affect the price. Well it did affect the price greatly. The confirmed price for packing and sending the paintings was an eye watering 240 Euros! That put the brakes on that project for sure!
It was HOT in Chiang Mai today. Probably in excess of 33 degrees. In order not to exert ourselves too much we took a short walk around the town, did a little bit of shopping and then headed to the massage parlor.
Our plan (or at least my plan) was to ease myself into the ancient Thai tradition of painful massage and start with a simple oil massage. When asked what treatment I wanted I told the lady as such and Gisela trumped me and asked for a Traditional Thai massage (the one where they bend you in half and then drop you off a building) Not wanting to look weak I instantly changed my mind and immediately regretted it.
However my fears we unfounded. Although a little painful it wasn't as bad as it looks on the posters on the wall which demonstrate the various moves they do on you. Put simply they lay you on your back, with pressure massage every muscle in your back and head (including your ear lobes), spin you over and do the same on your front side, then she sits on you and twists your body 180 degrees. It was great! Afterwards Gisela and I agreed that it was like wearing someone else's muscles. Im not sure how it feel tomorrow morning though.
To recover we headed to the Hot Chilli restaurant for lunch. I had stir fried Morning Glory again (my latest favorite veggie which I leant today is in fact classified as a weed and is illegal to grow in the USA. In Europe and Asia is known as water spinach, water morning-glory, water convolvulus, Ong-Choy, Kang-kung, or swamp cabbage) with a fruit salad that comprised melon, apple, pineapple, tomatoes, onion & prawns all marinated in green chilli! It was probably the hottest dish id had in a long time. Gisela had chilli bean salad and stir fried veggies with chicken all washed down with a couple of beers.
Time to recover so we hit the pool for the final time like I said it was HOT HOT HOT today!
In Chiang Mai there is a street called Sunday Walking Street. Every Sunday there is a market along this street. Hundreds of stalls sell the usual Thai stuff to locals and tourists alike. Handicrafts, t shirts, paintings, shoes, children's toys etc. We took a walk along the 1km or so of Sunday Walking Street, a little shopping and a drink or two in the Writers Club & Wine bar followed by the The Garden (two great bands)
Back to the hotel, pack and get ready for the next stage of our Thai adventure Ko Samui.
Happy days!appy days!
Lah Gorn!
Jason & Gisela
Today's Addresses
Hot Chilli
Kad Klang Wiang,
Ratchadamnoen Rd.,
Muang,
Chiang Mai
Tel: +66 53 326 584
Health Massage
(just next door to the Hot Chilli)
The Writers Club & Wine Bar
The Garden
Sunday Walking Street
Chiang Mai
We didn't plan any major activities for today; there were a couple of missions we had to tie up first. Firstly we made our way back to the Old Chiang Mai Café to meet with a lady called Thitrat Unawatewanich a.k.a Nong. Nong is the marketing manager for Angel freight (Chiang Mai branch office) as well as proprietor of the noodle restaurant across the street from our hotel. She will manage the delivery of the paintings that we are looking to purchase from the Old Chiang Mai Café. If she gives us a good price the plan is to return to the café on Sunday, pay for the paintings and then leave them in the hands of Nong for delivery to Paris.
The second and final mission of the day was to arrange the hotel for our time in Ko Samui. We are flying south on Monday morning. We have organized a very nice hotel on the beach in Ko Samui for 4 days as we will probably move onto the one of the smaller islands off Ko Samui (www.kosamui.com/) for the remainder of our time in the south of Thailand prior to returning to Bangkok and then to Paris.
A quite afternoon sitting around the pool and then off to dinner. We heard of a vegetarian restaurant in Chiang Mai called A Taste from Heaven. We read about it in the Lonely Planet guide which is normally a reason NOT to visit. It was great! In fact I thought it was the best restaurant we had visited so far in Thailand, Gisela thought that ALL of the restaurants we have visited were great but she is always (well mostly) over positive. We started with fresh spring roll (not the fried ones), mushroom cakes with peanut sauce, chili fried Morning Glory (a vegetable similar to spinach) and something called Hot & Spicy which was basically a Thai veggie stir fry with rice washed down with a couple of Mojitos and Singha beers. Highly recommended! Some of the profits go to an Elephant rescue park as well.
On the way back to the hotel we spotted a bar on the top floor of one the buildings near the old city walls and decided to investigate. The bar was a very nice hippy spot with a DJ, low tables and rugs to sit on. They put up numerous signs do not steel this do not steel that no drugs (the cops come once in a while) etc. It was a very nice end to the day prior to returning to the hotel hot and tired.
Good night.
Jason & Gisela
Today's Addresses
Taste from Heaven
237 239 Th Tha Phae
Chiang Mai
THC Roof Top Bar & Restaurant
Exit the Pha Pae Gate,
Look right then Up.
You will see the colored lights on top of the building.
The elephant park was nice enough. They had 10 or so of the beasts mooching around, some taking cover from the sun beneath the trees. Today we were to take a quick ride on an elephant, feed them some bananas and generally hanging around looking at the big beasts for an hour or so. After purchasing a bunch of some of the most expensive bananas in the history of Thai bananas we were taken to our trusty steed. Gisela and I hopped on board on off we went. This is just about the point where we (and especially Gisela) objected. In order to get the animal moving the pilot hit the poor creature over the head with a metal hook! It didn't sound very nice when he did it and I suppose it didn't feel too nice for the poor elephant. Gisela complained to the pilot and almost instructed him to turn around. However she didn't. Quite frankly we didn't have much choice, the path we took was small and the elephant was, clearly, very big. Once we got mobile the pilot didn't really bother the elephant except to shout at it once or twice. I think partially due to Gisela's protestations.
Besides, riding on the back of an elephant isn't that much fun anyway. I wouldn't recommend it. Firstly it's uncomfortable and secondly you don't really see anything more than if you just walked the route by foot, and thirdly you can't really see the elephant anyway (believe it or not)
We then fed the elephants with a few bananas which they seemed to enjoy and the driver collected us to join the rest of the team at the start of the white water rafting course.
Upon arrival we were given a tutorial of how to control the raft. In order to do this one of the instructors decided to use the opportunity to practice his English and deliver these very important, safety tips. His English was OK but I could barely understand him; the French and the Belgium folks looked particularly confused, I don't think they understood a word the instructor said. I was really hoping NOT to be put in the same boat as those guys!
A dinner of rice, omelette and triple boiled veggies followed (not the best lunch I've had in Thailand!) and we headed to our vessels. Myself and Gisela were very fortunate to be put in a boat with two, very happy and very positive sisters from Ireland. I was relieved and really quite pleased I think we had a good crew for the trip and the captain of our raft was excellent!
The course was 10km long split into 5 rapids and periods of just floating or swimming. The rapids were B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T, the captain knew exactly what he was doing and our crew rowed like professionals. It's a shame there were only 5 rapids, I could have easily done another 5! At the end it was oar high-fives all around. Everyone seems to enjoy the trip (except of course the Belgium students 'c'est normal' according to Gisela maybe the water was too wet for them? )
Back to the mini bus and the 90 minute trip back to our hotel in Chiang Mai. All-in-all a most excellent day!
Walking through the hotel to our room I felt that one of my legs was lower than the other. Upon closer inspection, I found that the sole of my left shoe was missing! My 2 euro Bangkok shoe purchase had eventually lost its will to live.
I lost my sole in the front seat of a Thai mini bus.
Jason & Gisela (happy to have pizza for dinner tonight)
Asia Scenic Thai cooking school
31 Ratchadamnern Soi 5,
Muang district,
Chiang Mai
Tel +66 84 6400 988
www.asiascenic.com
gayray@asiascenic.comBaan Lanna Spa & Massage
89/1-2 Ratchpakeenai Road
Phrasing Muang
Chiang Mai
Tel +66 83 864 2098
It's a good job we didn't take the local train. After 16 hours on the Chiang Mai express we have arrived.
Apparently last night when everyone was sleeping the train encountered a mechanical problem of some sort. The result of this problem was a delay of around 3 hours in our arrival time. We should have arrived at Chiang Mai at 8.30am but instead we arrived at around 11.30am. This in itself was no major problem as we are hardly in a rush and in fact was probably a useful delay as we probably would not have been able to check in to the hotel so early anyway. Besides it gave us even more opportunities to look at little villages in the jungle, the scrawny cocks, skinny cows, three legged dogs and one eyed farmers.
When we did arrive we said our goodbyes to Jules and Giovanni and wed left the two new friends to fend for themselves.
As with most Asian countries when you arrive at any train station you get mobbed by taxi drivers offering their services, this is probably one of the trickiest parts of the journey. We quickly identified the most trustworthy looking driver (who happened to be a one eyed taxi driver) and exited the station for our hotel.
We are staying in a hotel called Bodhi Seren. This place lives up to its name! It's very quiet, the staff are very friendly. Everything about the hotel is serene. The people of Chiang Mai are supposed to be some of the most peaceful and friendly in Thailand. You hardly ever get hassled here by Tuk Tuk drivers and the like and if you and you turn down their services the driver smiles back at you like he's just won the Euro Millions.
Chiang Mai is the Buddhist temple capital of Thailand. After a quick lunch Gisela headed back to the hotel pool whilst I investigated some of the local Buddhist action. There are only so much Buddha's I can take so once I was templed out I headed back to the pool to join Gisela.
Every night in Chiang Mai there is a 'night market'. The night market is huge and mostly consists of Thai handicrafts, clothing and most of all fake tee shirts, bags, watches etc. anything with a logo on can be found at this market and if it has a logo on It's fake. As my 1 euro flip flops that I purchased in Bangkok are at the end of life stage already I brought a brand new pair of Birkenstock shoes for the bargain price of 4 Euros. I hope they manage to last the remainder of the trip but at this price I can renew them every day!
Back to the hotel via Tuk Tuk for dinner at the 'Hot Chili'; steamed fish in banana leaf for me and Patai noodles for Gisela.
Another day in the bag!
Jason & Gisela
The flight wasn't the worst long haul (11 hours) journey that I've ever
taken but it certainly wasn't the best. Despite Gisela's attempts to get
upgraded we still only managed to get two seats together on the plane
which somehow counted as a luxury but all in all we arrived in Bangkok
in once piece and, it must be said, a little grumpy and jet lagged.
Today's address
Navalai River Resort
45/1 Phra Athit Road
Nakorn
Bangkok
10200
