Chiang mai
The weekend of December 8 & 9 was a long weekend –
Monday the 10th was constitution day. This holiday celebrates the
adoption of the Thai constitution, thereby creating a constitutional monarchy.
We had the day off school, so Karima and I decided to head up north to Chiang
Mai.
On Friday evening, I met Karima and we headed to the Mo Chit
Bus Terminal. It was insanely busy – a lot of people travelling to the long
weekend. We had purchased our tickets a few days prior, and many buses to
Chiang Mai were already sold out. But we were able to get tickets on a 2nd
class bus: air-conditioning but no bathroom. Anyway, we arrived at the bus
station with about 1.5 hours to spare. We had dinner at the bus station:
mistake. Most of the food at the food court looked questionable, so we had
chicken soup... It wasn’t great. We also fought our way through the 7-11 to buy
snacks. The ride to Chiang Mai is 10 hours, so we wanted to be prepared.
Our bus left around 9:00pm. I was pleasantly surprised by
the bus – even though it was 2nd class, it was still more
comfortable than any greyhound back home. The seats reclined quite far (we were
almost horizontal), we had lots of leg room, and we were provided with
blankets. I had prepared to sleep like a champion (I normally don’t sleep well
on buses and I didn’t want to be a zombie the next day). I brought my neck
pillow, ear plugs and my eye cover. With all that, I was actually able to sleep
quite well on the bus! I was quite happy about that!
We arrived in Chiang Mai around 7:00am, and met up with a
couple of Karima’s friends who were staying with us, Moses and Jeff. Jeff is
ALSO from Ottawa – it’s crazy how many people I’ve met from Ottawa here!
Anyway, we took a sawng-tao taxi to our guesthouse. In the morning, we wandered
around the old city. The old city is known for its multitude of temples. We
walked through 3 or 4 I believe, and they were all very neat. One had ruins
that were 700 years old, I believe. Chiang Mai is a very beautiful city, and
the weather is lovely. It’s a fair amount cooler/less humid than Bangkok, and
the air is much fresher.
In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Chiang Mai zoo.
When we arrived, we noticed there were signs in English and Thai for the
admission price: the sign in English listed a higher price. After a bit of
arguing, we were able to enter for the “Thai” price. One really annoying thing
about Thailand is that foreigners usually have to pay more than Thai people for
various admissions: zoos, temples, national parks... It’s especially annoying
when we live here and make a Thai salary. But, once we get our work permits,
we’ve been told that if we show it, we should be able to get the Thai price.
Anyway, the zoo was a lot of fun – I haven’t been to a zoo in ages. There were
all the usual animals, elephants, giraffes, lions, flamingos, and whatnot. They
had an otter enclosure, which I loved. They also had a neat bird habitat thing
– kind of like the bio-dome in Montreal. Twas good times.
In the evening, we went to a restaurant that served Northern
Thai cuisine – I had a tasty pork curry. We also stopped for Banana rote – very
necessary! We met up with some people from OEG and headed to the night bazaar,
where you can do lots of shopping. We met up with more people, and enjoyed some
beers. After that, we went to meet a bunch of OEG people at a karaoke bar in
the old city, called Elvis Loco. It was a lot of fun – I sang a couple songs
from Grease, as well as Bohemian Rhapsody. Karima and I also shared one of
those buckets of alcohol you can buy – good times! After much drinking, we all
headed over to the main bar area, and went dancing in a bar called Zoey in
Yellow. There was quite the crowd of orientation B people. Good times were had!
The next day, we decided to take a sawng-tao up Doi Sutep, a
mountain that overlooks the city. On top of the mountain is Wat Phra Doi Sutep,
another one of Thailand’s important temples. We were dropped off in the “town”,
and took a few minutes to recover from the steep, windy road up the mountain.
To get the temple, you have to walk up a massive staircase with these really
neat snake guardians. \there are also vendors all along the way – we bought
coconut ice cream. The boys bought ice cream sandwiches – literally ice cream
in a bun. The temple was gorgeous – very ornate and beautifully decorated.
There are also rows and rows of bells you can ring when you send off a prayer.
There were some kids dressed up in traditional hill tribe garb, which was cute
and neat. The view from the temple was spectacular – you could see the entire
city and surrounding area.
Unsuspecting Thai Man
After we had had our fill, we went back to the market for
lunch, and then took a sawng tao back down the mountain. Our sawng tao was
full, and I was seated at the very end. I was only a little worried about
falling out! We talked a bit to the Thai ladies on the truck, they were very
friendly! Once we arrived back in the city, we decided to explore the Sunday
Walking Market at the Thae Phae Gate. Would could find just about anything
there – clothes, jewelry, art, decorations, and whatnot. I didn’t see anything
I really wanted, and I didn’t want to spend more money, so I didn’t buy
anything. In the evening, we had dinner in the food section of the market. We
then ran into some OEG people with a couple of British guys from their hostel.
We had drinks at the Bamboo house, and were entertained by our hilarious
waitress, who said things like Obama was her ex-husband. I wasn’t feeling that
great buy this time, I had a stomach ache. After, we went to a reggae bar with
love music, and danced for a bit. Jeff also wasn’t feeling well/had come down
with a bad cold, so we didn’t stay out too late.
Monday I woke up feeling pretty lousy. I hadn’t slept well,
due to a fever. I was not looking forward to taking the bus, but I took some
drugs and hoped for the best. My bus left about 9:00am – it look me a while to
find a taxi that wasn’t charging a stupid amount to take me to the bus station.
I hopped on the bus, and fell asleep pretty quickly. At one point, I was drifting
off and had one of those twitches/spasms you get sometimes while falling
asleep. Unfortunately, it caused me to smack the person sitting beside me with
the back of my hand. I felt bad, but he just laughed (I think he realised what
had happened, haha). I was fortunately able to sleep for a big chunk of it, and
zoned out, listening to music. We arrived at the Bus Terminal around 8:00pm,
and after picking a random direction to walk in, found the bus to take me back
to Phra Pradaeng. Hooray! I was happy to see Chiang Mai, and hope to go back
again when i do more travelling up north!
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