Chiang Mai
Back at Kriang's after a few days up in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. Had an awesome time, met some really nice people, saw loads of stuff, got to grips with riding a motorbike in Thailand's second largest city and have plenty to write about and hundreds of photos. Here're some of the second day's.
... OK, shower, breakfast, guitar sesh and general fooling about finished. So a little bit about Chiang Mai.
Actually I'm going to start with my last night in Bangkok which I spent staying with Pook and Kriang at Pook's parent's flat. The flat is in a block called The Old Siam, in China Town. Here's a picture from the fourth floor balcony on an overcast day, one of about three so far.
And here's a picture I took in the park behind The Old Siam where I stopped for a bit before getting the train to Chiang Mai.
I caught the train at 7:30pm from Hualampong. Kriang and Pook turned up to see me off which was a nice surprise. Kriang's got a photo or two on his phone (actually there's a few now I think about it) of me on the train just before it left. I'll upload them at some point. I got an overnight train to cover the 350kms to Chiang Mai from Bangkok. It took just over 14 hours and was fairly standard stuff. The highlight for me was making a new friend, Kathrina, who was sat opposite and is really nice and beautiful, which helped compensate for the lack of view outside. I've not got any photos of her so you'll have to wait until she emails me the one she took of us on the first evening. More on that later. Since the train was overnight there wasn't much to see out of the window. It was quite comfortable but the bunk was a few inches too short for me so what with that and the noise I didn't sleep much. On the plus side it arrived dead on time so I got a tuk tuk over town from the station to my hostel.
The hostel was nice as were the staff although one of them was daft as a brush. At first I thought it was just the language barrier but I soon realised otherwise. Everyday, including as I was checking out, she asked me if I wanted to pay, and everyday I explained that I'd already paid. Since it was to her that I'd given the cash on my second day there really was no excuse and I couldn't fail to draw any other conclusion. Still, she couldn't have been nicer about it once I'd explained each time...
I had a double room with AC and a fan despite only paying for a room with a fan, and an en suite bathroom with two showers, one hot and one cold! So I didn't mind when I didn't get my deposit deducted, and also paid 10 baht too much. Besides, I couldn't be bothered to try and explain all that to the daft-as-a-brush girl, bless her.
I did take a couple of photos but they're such poor quality they're not worth posting. But here's two of the area near my hostel.
This is the Suan Prung gate, in the south west corner of the Old City. The Old City is the centre of Chiang Mai and still has remnants of the moat and fortifications which originally protected it. The gates are part of those fortifications. Here's a map of Chiang Mai if you're interested, my hostel was just off Timpanate Rd. And here's a picture of the moat near Suan Prung gate, complete with fountains which I suspect used to fire clouds of highly concentrated acid or napalm but are now purely aesthetic.
I spent the first morning just wondering around, trying to get my bearings. Bought a belt having discovered I'd left mine at Kriang's. 20 baht, about 30p. Bargain. It's one of those simple canvas type ones that clamp at the buckle. Only thing was that I had to remove the metal attachment at the end of the it because it wouldn't fit into the buckle otherwise, but that's 20 baht's worth of QA for you and I'm certainly not complaining. Also got one of a rickshaw so I could move round at a slower pace than in a tuk tuk and see a bit more of the city. The driver must have been at least 200 years old though and struggled to move my not inconsiderable weight so although I'm sure I paid farang rates I tipped him as well. On the subject of farang rates though that was a nice thing about Chiang Mai. People are generally even more chilled out, move at a slower pace (traffic notwithstanding) and aren't so bothered about making as much money as possible as they are in Bangkok so it was rarely necessary to haggle with tuk tuk drivers. Most of the time the initial offer was reasonable for the distance. I think I only haggled transport costs about 4 times while I was there.
I went back to the hostel early in the afternoon to try and get a couple of hours kip but despite being shattered after the train journey I couldn't sleep so I went on another walk about in the afternoon. This time I managed to get lost for several hours but it was actually really nice because I don't think I'd have seen the areas I did otherwise. The centre of Chiang Mai is actually really small, but there are sprawling suburbs which quickly get a rural feel to them without going to far out. Here's a picture I took which was actually less than 5 minutes walk from the Thapae gate on the east side of the city.
Unfortunately while I was walking around my Led Zeppelin soundtrack stopped suddenly and an investigation into the cause revealed that I'd not tightened the lid of my water bottle properly which had emptied itself into my bag. Everything was soaking including my phone, camera and Walkman so I removed their batteries and made my way to the river Ping. I took this picture from the other side but you get the idea.
Once I got there I laid everything out in the sun and chilled out for an hour while it all dried out. It was actually really nice just sitting by the river, watching the world go slowly by for a bit.
Then I made my way back to the hostel for a shower and to get changed before going to the Brasserie, which is right next to the river, where I met Kathrina for a couple of drinks and to swap stories. My tuk tuk driver over there was one of the more colourful characters I met in Chiang Mai. He took a couple of corners on two wheels, just showing off I think, and offered me a "massage" for 2000 baht. Got to the Brasserie intact though. I didn't think to take a photo unfortunately but it was very nice.
Righto, I'm off into town for a bit so I'll write more incredibly detailed and no doubt frequently boring accounts of my time in Chiang Mai later.
No comments:
Post a Comment