Arrived in Chiang Mai off the night train around midday (3 & 1/2 hours late). However despite being delayed the journey was actually very good & so much better than the train in India. Not so crowded & you get a little curtain that goes round you bed. At around 7 the stewards then organise all the beds to become chairs & you get breakfast. So civilised. Bizarrely, at the station, our lady from our guest house we booked was there to meet other people from the train, who never showed up & she seemed to not know who we are despite the fact we phoned ahead the day before. No problem we booked in for 2 nights (& ultimately end up staying 8 nights in total -reason one, Thomas had texted to say he would be in Chiang Mai for the flower festival on the 6th, so we decided to stay until after the weekend. Also we both planned to go to Pai mid week but Gill got a dodgy tummy (after looking after the elephants) so we thought it best she didn't go on a min bus for 4 hours!. We also needed to stay in town for 4 days in order to collect our visa for China from the Chinese Consulate
Chiang Mai is Thailand's 2nd city after Bangkok (& we hear it is totally different - so much more relaxed). We are staying close to the old walled city neat to the Tha Pae Gate right in the centre of town. Our regular spot for eating is the Anusarn market, next to the Night Market & close to the Ping River. The Chang beer is on special offer in the eating square & the 2 singers who play each night are really very good. On the first evening we went to Thai Boxing, which Gill loved, all those blokes punching & kicking each other - you should have heard her roar with the crowd - she was the loudest one there screaming for blood!
Day two we do a run to the border to renew our visa, by taking a tour up to the Thai / Burma border. En route we pass through Chiang Mai, we stop at Long Khun, the Mirrored temple and also at the Golden Triangle @ Chiang Saen, which is the place on the Mekon River where Thailand, Laos & Burma meet. Also famous for the opium smuggling. The tour also included the drive to Mae Sai where you can do a border crossing(provided you get out & back in 30 minutes) , which we did spending about 10 minutes in Burma in the immigration office before returning to Thailand & getting a new 15 day visa. Penalties for overstaying you visa are expensive by the day, as the Dutch family of four in front of us found out as the had to pay some huge sum in fines. On the return journey we stopped at the village of some hill tribe, which was very touristy, with loads of mini buses pulling up & then being hassled by the locals to buy local produce. In all the journey was 13 hours on the bus, but atleast we were legal Thai tourists again!
On day three here, Gill leaves to do her 2 days shovelling elephant poo & pay a fortune for the privilege (Gill's photos will have to wait as need to find somewhere with a Sony memory card reader as she forgot to bring her camera USB lead). I stay in Chiang Mai & organise the China visas (basically queue up for most of the day) & then day two I do a Thai cooking course with the Master chef. Lot of fun & get to make my favourite Thai dish, the seafood Tom Yam soup, which is nice & spicy. You also get to do the 'fire thing' in the wok. Looked great when all 15 of us did it at the same time, surprised the kitchen didn't burn down.
Gill returned from her elephants
Collected our visas for China on Friday, so now ready for that leg of the tour, as cover us for the 30 days we will need. As we have our Vietnam visa already, both Laos & Cambodia are obtained as you cross the border, so now more consulate queueing to be done.
Fiday, Saturday & Sunday we have the Flower Festival, so will post this separately as there will be lots of photos. Saw all the preparations going on & looks like there will be flowers everywhere, so looks promising. We also went out of town to visit the Wat Phrathet Doi Suthep (temple), which is high over the town. Great views going up but limited to a small balcony when you get there. Very busy in the temple & not great for photos as repair work being carried out. Friday evening we ate from the food stalls at the Flower Festival & Thursday & Saturday we ate at Fattys (Rough Guide recommendation) in the Anusarn Market. On Thursday we each had a Red Snapper cooked in a different way. I had steamed in a spicy lime sauce, Gill had fried, & Thomas had grilled - all were delicious. On Saturday evening I also went shopping in the market for wooden cultery which we will be posting, and so when all come to dins at Barnowl in the future, that's what you will be eating with.
Sunday. the last full day in Chiang Mai for all or us. Gill has gone to the museum, whilst Thomas & I are spending the morning updating blogs before revisiting the Flower Festival festivities. Tomorrow we depart for Laos (for around 2 weeks, then Vietnam for around 3 weeks & then Cambodia for around 2), so updates on the blog may become less frequent & pictures harder to upload. Thomas is heading back to Singapore for his journey onward to Australia.
Update on Thai boxing pictures on Gill's camera & Gill's elephant pics: have been unable to find a memory card reader which reads a Sony memory card (they appear pretty exclusive) & until we find someone with a Sony USB camera lead we are stuck in downloading her pictures! Sorry!
Update on my sandals: 3 more tubes of Super glue used this week to keep them on the road. Only 3 months to go. They do look a sorry sight when left outide temples with the other shoes.
Update on my luggage: starting to fill up my bag again as buying more local Asian clothes in the wonderful night market here, so everything has dragons on!
And what's the matter with CFC? - can't even beat Hull for goodness sake!
Communicate next, when we can from Laos. On a slow boat down the Mekong River Tuesday & Wednesday.
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