Chiang Mai and an end to Thailand

We have had an enjoyable, fairly relaxed week in Chiang Mai after arriving in on a night train from Ayutthaya. We stop off at the tourist information desk and get told our hotel is a 10 minute walk from the station so we dodge all the taxi drivers and Tuk Tuk touts and get moving. However, it is a little longer than 10 minutes and when we stop and ask someone if we are definitely heading in the right direction, a woman stops and asks if we need help. She calls the hotel to find its location and then gives us a lift there! Very friendly!!

Our hotel, C H Hotel, is comfortable. The room we have is a great size, there is an outdoor swimming pool, we get a great buffet breakfast included and it is right by the Night Bazaar where a market picks up in the evening. Its nice to be able to stop and relax!

What with all our purchases we made in Bangkok, our first port of call is the post office to pick up a box so we can send it all home. We get a huge box and a smaller one to go inside (for delicates) for a mere 97 baht! We bring the boxes back to the hotel and pack it ready to post the next day. We're pleased we don't have to carry it all around with us now!

Chiang Mai is full of temples and wats with over 300 scattered around the city. Considering the city is not that big....that's a lot of temples! We visit the oldest Wat in the city, Chiang Man. It is believed to have been established by the citys founder, Phaya Mengrai.

We go to Phra Singh - Chiang Mai's most visited temple. It owes its fame to the fact that it houses the citys most revered Buddha image, Phra Singh (Lion Buddha) and it has a fine collection of classic Lanna art and architecture. Here they try to charge you 20 baht entry but only to tourists - we went in the side entrance and waivered the fee. The temple is beautifully decorated with a large gold Buddha with monks sitting around it.

Next stop is the Wat, Phan Tao, made out of dark teak wood. It used to be a royal residence and is most unlike the other temples around the city so makes it a nice place to visit.

On Thursday 12th we spend our day on a Thai cooking course with BaanThai. 'Baan' stands for home, so BaanThai meaning Thai Home. The school was opened in 1999 in Miss Saews home where it still remains. Miss Saew loved cooking and wanted to share her passion for Thai cooking with people from around the world. Tragically, a few years later she was taken by cancer but the school has been kept going, in her honour, by her family.

We sit on the floor on cushions at a low-level table and get introduced to everyone. We are soon off to the local market to learn about local fruits, herbs and spices and to get all the ingredients for our day of cooking.

Once back to the house, we are given a selection of snacks to try; Dragon fruit, Pineapple, roasted apple, prawn crackers and sweet shelled peanuts.

We then get on with the cooking! Becky and I chose different dishes so we could learn the maximum number! Throughout the day we go in to seperate rooms to prepare our ingredients and learn how to put them all together to create our chosen dish. We then come back to our table and share them. So what did we make?? Fried Cashew with Chicken, Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, Fish Cakes, Tom Koa Soup - I do Chicken, Becky Seafood, Chiang Mai Noodle Curry, Green Curry, Mango with Sticky Rice and Banana fritters. We are absolutely stuffed by the end of the day!

We are given a ride back to our hotel with the rest of our group in the back of a pick-up. And we get drenched....not from rain but from buckets of water (some ice cold!), Hose pipes and water guns! It is the start of Songkran, Thailands New Year, and they celebrate with a water frenzy!

The official start to Songkran is actually on the 13th April and goes on for 3 days, this year for 5. It means that whenever you step out on to the street, you are guaranteed to get wet! We venture out on the 13th to see the pandemodium, leaving all our electronics in our room, and we get to see part of a parade on the main precinct. Various Buddhas and replicas of temples are paraded down the people lined streets in order for people to flick water at them. Its seen as good luck.

For those who do not totally understand what Songkran is - it is an occasion where images of the Buddha are 'bathed' and young Thais seek the blessing of their elders by pouring scented water over their hands (known as rod nahm dum hua). After that it is a water-throwing free-for-all. On every street corner there is someone waiting to chuck a bucket of water at a passing pedestrian or car! The custom was to pour water gently over other people but it has evolved into little more than a good excuse for an almighty water fight.

We spend the next couple of days avoiding the pandemonium and seek refuge in our hotel, relaxing by the pool.

Come Monday we are collected at 9am to start a 2 day trek. There are 13 of us in total - 8 French, 1 German, 2 English (us), 1 Spanish and 1 person from Taiwan. We are loaded in to the back of a pick up and go to our first stop - an Orchid and Butterfly farm. We spend 20 to 30 minutes here and get some nice piccies.

We go and visit a tribe of Longnecks. It is traditional to wear these gold neck rings. They start wearing them from the age of 5 and it seems only the women wear them. We did not see any men with them on. They wear them 24/7 so bathe, sleep and eat with them on.

The question was asked that if they were to take them off would the lady die as her neck muscles would not be able to hold their head up. Apparently not, although I'm uncertain as to the truth.

Next stop gives us the chance to go Elephant trekking. This was a great experience! We bought some bananas before getting on the elephant and we were soon off. Our nelly kept on bringing his trunk right over his head so we would give him bananas but when we ran out he didn't quite get the picture!

Becky sat on its shoulders - rather her than me, especially when he took a slight detour in to the bush to find something to munch on!

What with it being another hot day, whenever the elephants came across water, they would spray it all over themselves.....and us! Was nice and cooling though.

In the afternoon we find ourselves being dropped off at the entrance of a jungle and we start our trekking. We walk through the forest, near grain fields and up a mountain side to the hill tribe at the top. As we reach the top the sun is beginning to set

We get shown our accommodation for the night....the house is made from bamboo and isn't as stable as I would like! We are all in one big room that has beds lined up either side

Dinner is prepared and we all sit on the floor around the food, helping ourselves. The French 'Papa' bought some crisps to nibble on and some whisky to drink that we all had later in the evening. It was a good night, especially with all the different languages floating about!

The next day it is Becky's birthday. After having scrambled eggs with toast we get ready to leave the village. A few of us only booked on to the 2 day trip so, after a group photo and Becky being sung Happy Birthday in two languages, we seperate from the group and head off with a different tour guide.

It is a hard mornings walk down a steep, slippery hill. I suppose if you go up, you must come down! What with the heat too....it was a lot of work. We stop at a waterfall for 20 minutes and cool down

We carry on walking until we get to the white water rafting area. We get hats and life jackets and board a raft. Myself and our new French friend are in the front - I have never done this before! Turns out to be good fun though! As we paddled down stream the locals splashed at us. So it was obligatory to splash right back!

Out the raft and on to a bamboo raft for 20 minutes. We end up at a restaurant that we stopped at before to have lunch. We then get taken from here back to Chiang Mai and get dropped at the hotel.

For Becky's birthday we go to a nice restaurant called Dukes. By the time we have finished our meals we are absolutely stuffed!! And slightly tipsy too!

The next day, Wednesday, we leave Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai. We are only here for the one night as a stopover to the border. It is an ok town but not a lot going on really.

And so that is Thailand done.....onwards to Laos!!

Thailands Capital Bangkok

Our train rolls in to Bangkok on the 4th April at 07:30, an hour late. Our nights journey was ok, it was a little difficult getting some kip as the curtains wouldn't block out the carriage lights.
We get a taxi straight to our Guest House in the Banglamphu area just down the road from Khoa San Road. We have 4 nights to explore Thailands capital city.

Bangkok is manic! There is traffic every which way you look, the air is smoggy and the streets are choked with people. Motorbikes weave through the traffic, using the pathways as cut throughs. You wouldn't believe it unless you see it.
On every street corner there is a Tuk Tuk waiting to take you anywhere in Bangkok, for the right price. You just need to be aware of the scammers; Taxi drivers who say their meters don't work, Tuk Tuk drivers offering a tour of the city for 10 Baht but stopping at every silk suit shop imaginable then driving off. Luckily we are aware of all these!

Khoa San Road is the main backpacker strip with a variety of bars, restaurants, guest houses and market stalls. At night the whole street comes to life and is full of neon lights. We venture down and hit the night markets bartering with the stall holders, trying to grab ourselves a bargain. Turns out our bartering skills are pretty good

We have found throughout Thailand that the best place to grab a bite to eat is from the street stalls. Its cheap, convenient but best of all, the tastiest. We had one meal in a restaurant and it tasted bland so we soon realised to keep to the stalls.

We explore Chinatown by foot without truelly realising the sheer size of Bangkok. It takes us most of the day to walk from Banglamphu to Chinatown and back but we get to see a few of the sites. We explore a few temples that range from the 12th Century through to modern day, we visit the chinatown markets and walk through the narrow streets crammed with stalls.

We go and visit 'Wat Traimit' aka The Golden Buddha. Wat Traimit is the temple that houses the 3m tall, 5.5 tonne, solid-gold Buddha. The figure was once covered in stucco but during efforts to move it in the 1960's, the figure fell, cracking stucco and revealing the gold. The temple itself is pretty magnificent too - being white with gold leafing around the coves and spires

We take a day tour and head to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. We buy a ticket for a boat to take us through the markets. There are many stalls selling souvenirs but also food, fruit and veg and clothes. All being sold in wooden row boats.
Going down the river in our long boat, we get pulled in by hooks that the stall holders have. You have to say "No" a hundred times before they start to give up. And then a hundred more!

There are so many boats, it gets jammed. It is the equivalent of the M25 during rush hour! All the tourists, like us, arrive in minibuses and unload into boats, clogging the whole place up!

As part of our tour we also visited the River Kwai's Death Railway Bridge. It was a small but strategic part of the Death Railway to Burma. Engineers estimated a 5 year construction time but the human labourers were forced to complete it in 16 months. Allied planes destroyed it in 1945 - the bomb damage is still apparent in the pylons.

We leave Bangkok on Monday 9th April, getting the 10:05 train to Ayutthaya. We have a 3rd class ticket for an hour and a half journey. The trip wasn't too bad!

We spend one night in Ayutthaya giving us a little time to explore the ancient city. The city used to be the capital until the Burmese invaded it and the King and family escaped further South and made Bangkok the new capital,

Now.......a night train to Chiang Mai!