First off, sorry for the delay in getting round to this post, just been too busy. Secondly a quick aside regarding my last post. I spent five hours searching in about 20 (literally) different shops for the sunglasses I wanted but was unable to find them. No doubt you can buy them somewhere in Bangkok, since you can buy everything from ping pong porn shows to girders to albino hedgehogs, but could I find them? Nope. And as anyone who knows me will realise for me to spend five hours shopping is unheard of. Perhaps that's the answer, lack of shopping experience. Still, I'd rather things stayed that way so I've ordered a nice cheap pair of the old interwibble.
Anyhoo, Chiang Mai. I headed back to the hostel to book the trek for the next day. Took a while to arrange because it was the daft one that I was dealing with again. I'd already said the day before that I wanted to go on a trek. Then the first thing I said this time was that I wanted to pay for the trek which departed the next morning. Despite having "trek" in this sentence, and having paid the very same girl for my entire stay at the hostel the day before, as soon as she heard the word pay she thought I meant pay for the hostel. Again. Fast forward an hour and I'd just about got it sorted. I paid 10 baht too much but I wasn't up for spending another hour trying to explain that in order to save myself 14p and it was already too late for me to get to the zoo or national museum as I'd been hoping. So instead I went out on the bike and went to Wawee (wahwahweewah!) Coffee before heading to the night market. Had some nice strawberry juice and a vegetable omelette with rice which was very tasty. Then I headed back to get an early night ready for the trek the next day. I got up early the next morning, grabbed a shower and some breakfast and then went for a ride around the city on the bike. Most invigorating. Then I was picked up for the trek. I had deliberately booked the trek through the hostel, despite suspecting that there were cheaper places that did better tours, in order to meet some other people staying at the hostel. As it happens there was no one else going from there but I did meet some really nice people.
We headed out of Chiang Mai and after about an hour started the trek in earnest with elephant riding. Here're the photos of the day.
I use the term "trek" loosely here because although there was about 5kms of walking most of the travelling was done via air conditioned minibus. But the elephant riding was excellent. I joined my new friend Bill, an interesting and friendly Canadian chap, on what turned out to be the most troublesome elephant. At approximate 10 second intervals it tried to stop to eat pretty much anything within reach. We set off third and by half way through the trek were second-to-last. Not that it's about speed and I for one found it entertaining. I'll be able to post more photos in the future because a really nice couple, Jerry and Belle, took a few photos of Bill and I, although they're travelling until May so it may take a while. The sensation of riding on an elephant is one of lumbering combined with being on a boat. Periodically the elephant, who's name I've unfortunately forgotten, had a probe around with its trunk looking for any food we might have brought with us. Despite getting muddy elephant spit on my trousers I didn't mind and in fact thought it was funny, but presumably lots of people don't like it because the mahout didn't tolerate it too well. In fact he quickly started punching the elephant in the trunk each time it began probing. Now there's a sentence I never expected to write... Evidently he was unable to hurt the elephant particularly because it wasn't long before it was trying again.
After the ride I fed the elephants some bananas I'd bought from a, er, banana seller and got even more covered in muddy elephant spit. But got a couple of good close up photos and felt better that the hungry elephant had some reward. Then it was onto the first hill tribe village, the Mons. To be honest this was a little disappointing and within minutes I realised that you need to stay at least a couple of nights to get a feel for life there. The Mon tribe is nomadic, has no written language, no electricity and very few mod cons. We looked inside a house which used the same stone bucket devices for cooking food that we'd used when camping. The house was just one room, made of bamboo and reeds and had two doors. The only time they use the back door is to remove the corpse of anyone unfortunate enough to have snuffed it indoors. I didn't take a picture inside because I didn't think it was appropriate. No doubt a reasonable number of the many tourists who pass through there do but I decided not to all the same. The Mons speak a language other than Thai and we were told what "hello" and "thank you" are, but apart from saying thank you to the woman who's house it was when we left I didn't use either of them and so have forgotten them. Then we had a walk around a couple of stalls - mostly full of trinkets and carvings made by the villagers and had a quick go with a crossbow, which they apparently use for hunting.
Then we walked from the village through some jungle which was far from untouched (irrigation pipes everywhere, burnt clearings with banana trees left standing etc) to a waterfall. Having got quite hot on the walk over there, and knowing that I'd be getting wet rafting later, I decided to go for a swim. And very nice it was too, a little chilly and very strong currents but excellent all the same. Then we walked onwards, through rice paddies (on raised walkways - not ignorantly wading through the crop itself) and soya fields, to the next hill tribe village. Again a little disappointing really. The visits were both extremely touristy and superficial. We were told the Karen dialect words for "hello" and "thank you" again but the result was identical to the Mon one. And then Noi, the guide, had cause to ask a woman in the village a couple of questions and she spoke Thai anyway! The Karen tribe are more modernised. They have electricity, TVs, mopeds (and in fact I saw the current record for number of people on one moped - seven children. Yes seven on one, small, bike.) and are not nomadic. We were all heavily pestered by small children, mostly girls, trying to sell bracelets and other trinkets. We were shown an example of the clothing the young girls wear before they're married and saw some catapults made from animal horn.
Then we moved on for lunch. Had a simple but very tasty selection of dishes, including elephant curry which was a first for me. Yep, it was much like chicken but with a slightly different texture and very slightly different taste. Then it was onto the rafting. Which was excellent fun. The rafts were hastily constructed out of bamboo and had one or two flaws. Primarily that on a couple of occasions my foot slipped through the bamboo poles up to my knee which whilst not being painful in the event, would have been if we'd happened to go over one of the many rocks just beneath the surface. I should explain that the reason my foot was able to slip through was because I was standing at the back of the raft, gondola style, trying to give the impression that I was helping the real driver who stood at the front. Belle and Jerry joined me on the raft and spent most of the journey sat in the middle. Jerry did get up at one point and took control at the front which was good fun. I did fall in the water early on but quickly got the hang of it. It was still a bit hairy when we went down the (small and tame) white water sections but I managed to stay standing. Had a lot of fun on the way using the bamboo pole to have water fights with the drivers although their experience gave them a distinct advantage and they seemed to be able to splash gallons of water with a single stroke of the pole. Also saw loads of elephants bathing in the river along the way which was cool.
Afterwards we took a couple of group photos and then headed back to Chiang Mai. Definitely an experience I won't forget but disappointing that the hill tribe visits were so superficial. When we arrived at the hostel we had a photo taken of our minibus group (there were actually two - there was a nice Irish couple amongst other people in the other bus.) The two guys in the photo are Portuguese, Carlos and his friend who's name I've forgotten unfortunately. Largely, I think, because he couldn't speak any English so I wasn't able to talk to him at all.
After grabbing a shower at the hostel I headed out on the bike in to the southern suburbs of the city looking for the ruins of Wang Kumkam. Wang Kumkam is the ruins of a city that was built before Chiang Mai. People used to consider it to be the prototype for Chaing Mai although that's not generally believed to be the case now. Unfortunately the tourist information office was closed by this time so I couldn't get precise details of its location. After driving in the general direction given in the guide book I did manage to find the ruins of one of the temples which was interesting although not hugely impressive. Unfortunately I forgot the camera so no photos of that one. I didn't manage to find any of the ruins of the city before it got dark (or indeed before I left) but I'll do that next time I visit.
After the ruins I decided to treat myself to a fancy meal so I went to Huean Phen, a restaurant described in the Rough Guide as "the most authentic northern style restaurant in Chiang Mai." I knew the address but when I actually came to find the place I struggled and in fact I'd given up and was about to get back on the bike when I ended up chatting to a couple of locals, Poo and Wat (meaning crab and temple respectively.) They were really friendly and after a couple of minutes of chatting offered me a beer, so I ended up hanging around for a while, just talking and drinking. Unfortunately I still hadn't been back to collect the camera at this point so no photos of them either but they were really sound and very funny. Fortunately I decided to ask them where Huean Phen was, which as it turned, out was just a few metres down the road. Being set a fair way back from the street, and supposedly number 16 on that road but about 8 buildings down from number 12, I'd walked past it. Here's a picture of the sign, mostly for the benefit of my recollection.
The restaurant was nice and the service was generally good but I wasn't that keen on some of the food. I had a northern style curry with pork spare ribs and bamboo shoots which was OK but not brilliant, personally speaking. No doubt it was very authentic but the curry was little more than a mildly salty broth. The dessert on the other hand was superb - banana in a reduced coconut milk. Mmm, lovely. The service was good, my only complaint was that it said in the menu that the northern curry is eaten with rice, and everywhere I'd been before automatically included rice with the order, where appropriate. Here however they just delivered a bowl of curry and I had to collar a waiter and order the rice specifically. They were however extremely prompt in delivering it and perhaps I should've specified it originally. I still generously tipped them the standard tip of 38p.
Afterwards I went for another cruise around and stopped at the petrol station to fill the bike up ready for the next day and to buy some water. Then back to the hostel ready for my last day. I woke up early again, and after breakfast and a shower went off up Doi Suthep again. A number of times I ended up behind one of the many open-backed minibuses that shuttle workers up to Wat Doi Suthep and Bhubing Palace and had smiley faces waving at the farang on the motorbike behind. Although still good fun, as I said before, after I'd climbed about 3000ft it was too cold at this time in the morning, at least for just a t-shirt and shorts so I headed back down and went to Chiang Mai zoo. The photos of the zoo.
I also shot a couple of short videos of the giant pandas. Not brilliant quality but hopefully more successful than the moving plant one.
and
The zoo is actually massive - it took me over three hours to get round with most of that spent walking because it's so spread out. Cost me 110 baht to get in and then (cheekily I thought) another 100 baht to see the giant pandas, the star attraction. That's still very cheap of course and having never seen real live pandas before it was definitely worth it I reckon.
Then I headed back into town to go to some temples. First was Wat Phra Sing, then Wat Duang Dee. The photos describe them better than I ever could, but before I get onto those I'll just describe the gem of a place I found for lunch. It was just inside the SW corner of the old city, a small Chinese place, pictured (just) here:
Had a very tasty, large lunch (chicken egg-noodle curry) and a large beer for 100 baht. Bargain. I spent about half an hour checking places out and this one was stuffed with locals - I was the only farang in fact - and shortly after I arrived people were being turned away because there was no space left. Clearly a good sign and the food reflected that too. Then I went for one last cruise around the city, checking out the sites and visiting Wat Chedi Luang, which is on a par with Wat Doi Suthep in my opinion. The Chedi itself is quite awesome and imposing. It must have been absolutely amazing before it was ruined. It used to be 44m wide and 86m tall, but is not just under half that size after an earthquake in 1545. I also bumped into Carlos and his friend from the trek while I was walking around which was nice. One odd thing which happened as I was walking around there was a branch from a tree fell on to a pickup truck parked underneath it. Here is a slide show of the Wats including the photo of the tree on the truck.
It was a close call - very near this tree is a massive gum tree which, according to legend, would cause a a great catastrophe if it ever fell. I also shot a short video in Wat Phra Sing...
I realised at this point that I'd not taken many photos of Chiang Mai itself so quickly snapped a few more:
The SW corner of the moat, showing a fountain and some of the rampart ruins. (Between the park and the Chinese place I had lunch in on my last day.) The view in the other direction:
I took these pictures just down the road from Wat Phra Sing.
and without the colourful bus:
And I can't remember where I took this one exactly, somewhere near Tha Pae gate I think.
After my leisurely cruise around town taking photos I headed back to WaWee coffee for a last white mocha blast before heading back to the hostel, where a photo of me looking like a cheese taster was taken. I've posted it anyway.
And then it was off to drop the bike off and get to the train station for my train at 4.30pm. And it was in the tuk tuk that I got my ticket out and realised I'd had the brain wrong of a one off man mental and that my train actually departed at 3.40pm. I carried on to the train station to see if I could get a later train but they were all fully booked and so, since I'd already checked out of the hostel I went to the bus station. No problem getting a bus. There were spaces galore. Only thing was I didn't realise the system here at first and bought a ticket from the first tour operator I saw. As I was handing the money over I realised that actually there were loads of operators each leaving a varying times and for varying prices but it was too late to shop around then. I could probably have caught an earlier bus and, as I was to find out, I could definitely have bought a cheaper ticket although whether that would've been on a modern, air conditioned bus I don't know.
On the plus side during the two hours I waited at the bus station I made various friends. First was a group of novice monks. Rebel monks would probably have been more accurate though - most of them were smoking and talking on mobile phones and most of our conversation (as often happens) was about football once they'd learned where I was from. One of them even had a St George's cross phone cover. They were a friendly bunch but I didn't ask for a photo because they left in a rush after realising their bus was about to depart. Then I made friends with this chap:
An absolutely lovely bloke called Kaen. Despite his relatively poor English (although relatively good compared to my Thai) we spent ages talking, about where he lived, where he was going, football, speaking Thai (I learned to say "I can hardly speak any Thai at all" in Thai which I like because of the irony of it being slightly more advanced than the phrase most people learn to say "I can speak Thai a little bit") amongst other things. He said that he would be fluent in English by the next time I come to Chiang Mai and since he can speak five other languages fluently already I believe him.
The bus ride was fairly uneventful. I got a cushty seat right at the front of the bus with loads of leg room and no one next to me. We got stopped by the police twice on the way to Bangkok. Police check points are fairly common but it was the first time I'd been in a vehicle that has actually been stopped and searched. The check was almost farcical. They just walked around and looked at people, didn't check any baggage or anything. But then it's a difficult position I suppose. Even the easy going people here wouldn't take too kindly to having their personal belongings searched. The police seemed particularly embarrassed to check my stuff and stayed quite clear of me in general. Other than that the bus ride was quite speedy (quicker than the train and cheaper, but apparently more dangerous than the train. They have quite a few accidents I'm told.) and we stopped for food which was included free with the bus tickets. Here there was a minor irritation for me and my fellow passengers when two annoying (actually arrogant would be more precise. The bus was about 40 minutes late departing so I decided to go to the toilet before we set off. I got off the bus just as these two guys were getting on and when I said "two minutes" to the bus driver they started trying to translate for me. Which would be just friendly rather than arrogant if it wasn't for the fact that they could speak even less Thai than I can and that the bus driver had understood what I was saying because he was showing me how long before the bus departed on his watch.) French guys decided to have two helpings each which kept everyone on the bus waiting for them while they finished. Rant over.
OK, that'll do for now. Another monster post and I need a break. I'll write a bit about the last few days in Bangkok soon. I'll also add anything I've forgotten about my visit to Chiang Mai.
Aloha!
