Saschas World

I did a Thai Cooking Class today at the Chiang Mai Thai Cooking School run by Sompon Nabnian who is a bit of a local Celebrity Cook having even done some Thai Cooking Series for TV (shown on “UK Food”).

We prepared the following dishes:

Thai Hot And Sour Prawn Soup (Tom Yam Kung)
(bother didn’t photograph this)


Green Curry With Chicken (Gaeng Kheo Wan Gai)



Thai Style Fish Cakes (Tord Man Plaa)



Thai Fried Noodles (Phad Thai)



Thai Minced Chicken Salad



Water Chestnuts With Sugar Syrup And Coconut Milk (Tab Tim Grob)

Watch out for the recipies to appear soon in the Recipies Blog Section 😉

After the 3-Day Trekking I was keen to get out again and see more but I didn;’t want to go on a tour again partly because I had specific destinations in my mind which seemed easy enough to reach by motorbike. So I packed my small rucksack, put the rest in storage at my guesthouse, hired a motorbike and drove off for an undertermined number of days (I figured 2-3 days maybe). Talking of motorbike, according to the rental place the bike classifies as a motorbike rather than scooter because I have to change gears manually by foot pedal plus it also has a foot pedal for the rear brake but to me it very much looked like a Scooter.. mind you it drives easier than the Scooter that I had before and feels safer due to the foot brake; 125cc engine (if one can call this an engine;-))

The Tour:
Up to Chiang Dao, then down again and on to the big loop to the left into Mae Sa Valley, down and up again to Chiang Mai…

Day 1: Chiang Dao Cave

The first day I drove up north to Chiang Dao which has a Cave that is popular with the local Tours so I figured I drive up there and see what it’s all about.

In short the cave was pretty disappointing compared to some other caves I have seen (come to think of it I guess the one near Grenoble in France was probably the best). There were two parts to it, one unlit section which required a Guide with Cerosine Lamp (at cost of course;-) and the other was a lit part of the cave which housed some sleeping Buddha statue.

I went into the unlit part first with a guide. No kidding my electric torch would not have managed to lit those caves and I thought the woman at the entrance just wanted my money… (100 Baht; 1.50 GBP) 😉
I turned my torch on briefly when I wanted to see a different corner of the cave than what my Guide was illuminating and frankly I saw NUTHIN! Pitch Black! So I decided to fully rely on my Guides Cerosine Lamp.

It was pleasantly warm outside (as opposed to hot) but the cave was hot, stuffy and very humid (as caves are). In addition I had to crawl through tiny openings to get to other parts of the cave. The openings were so small I had to seriously crouch let alone taking off my daypack and pushing it through first…

The crawling, crouching, sliding around the wet, muddy cave floor was not exacly what I expected but hey, it could have been worth it 😉 OK it wasn’t that bad, there were some nice Stone Formations which I even tried to photograph. Some impressive figures resembling trees, Elephants, Chickens. Some pictures Also here at the bottom. Still I have seen much more impressive and bigger caves than this one and considering the hype that the Chiang Mai Tour Operators make about this cave it’s far from being spectacular. Oh and then there were the hand sized SPIDERS inside the cave which added to the experience 🙂

Anway at the end of the unlit cave tour I was sent off to the other part by myself, well lit paths etc…
The statue of the sleeping Buddhe was equally disappointing ( about half mansized). Just behind the statue was an unlit area which was not closed off and some people ventured a few meters into the dark using torches. I decided to try out my headlamp again and could more or less make out the area. The air was so humid the it was like standing in a thick mist. I could see the water droplets in the air move when I breathed out.. Then three monks came along (not joking) and walked into the dark with a little torch and I followed them a little bit until I decided they knew where they were going and I didn’t and I was far enough inside the dark cave, accompanied only by three monks and a pittyful LED headlamp, the battery status of which I was not sure of ;-D So I turned back and eventually left the cave…

Walk after the Cave…
Feeling slightly disappointed by the Cave experience I decided to walk around the area abit and explore, maybe going up the hill/mountain where that cave was… I first walked around the area around the Cave Entrance which has some interesting Sculptures and also some nice Spirit House that was sitting on a squint podest nearby. I also succeeded in finding a path up the hill and as I walked up I noticed a nearby monk watching me as I walked up and a few others gathering fallen leaves around the area (there must have been a monestry nearby though it was not obvious to me).

A few meters after I walked up the hill I came across a blue sign with thai words written on it. It looked like a tablet rather than a sign and I wondered if I was on one of those trails that the monks take, reciting their buddhist wisdom along the way.. I found more of the blue tablets along the way so I convinced myself that my assumption must have been right.. (no proof of course’;-)

The climb was steep, mossies around bothering me a little but I had good old faithful Mr. DEET to keep me company and the mossies away. I wondered if I would reach the top of the hill and get a good view. It felt like I was walking for quite a while but seemingly not so because my pictures tell me otherwise.
After abour 30 minutes steep climb in humid hot weather I reached an “interesting” dead end.
The path stopped yet there was a rock wall and cave entrance above me with the added benefit of some wooden ladder type path that lead to the cave. I went up (1) and had a quick look inside but decided not to actually go inside.. I kinda thought me walking in a “remote” area of the mountain and into a possibly abandoned cave might not be such a good idea 😉 So enjoyed the view up there and then went back down the hill, saw some nicely lit fungae on tree trunk which I took a picture off but the sun moved quickly or I was too slow to really catch the perfect moment for the picture.. as usual;-) Anyway once I reached the bottom had some nice late lunch of fried chicken with garlic and mint leaves plus steamed rice at one of the local food stalls before I got back on my bike and drove to my main destination, the Mae Sa Valley where the Queen Sirikit (The current Quuen of Thailand) Botanical Garden is located.

Mae Sa Valley

I had to drive a considerable distance back towards Chiang Mai to get tothe junction which leads to Mae Sa Valley and I reached it late afternoon. My first priority was to find some place to stay for the night so I passed some of the sightseeing placed that I was interested in in order to find accomodation first. I was hopig to stay the night near the Botanical Gardens since I wanted to get there early the next day. I checked prices at a few places but they seemed expensive so kept on driving. (BTW it gets dark here around 6pm). Amongst others I also drove up the hill opposite the Botanical Garden to a place called Botanic Resort, a 1st Class Resort it claimed on the sign.. Didn’t expect to stay there but just for the fun and see how much they charge.. (It was only about 2500 Baht, 5 times as much as my place in Chiang Mai) Short after I found a nice place a bit up the road from the Gardens, Mae Sa Valley Resort. They charge 850 Baht (which I thought was still expensive until the next day when I learned of more prices in the area.. it’s expensive in Mae Sa!)

The Resort looked rather nice, huge grounds with nice plants, trees and a little river going through.
The bungalows looked rather neat too with bamboo roof (reed roof type). The bungalow was clean, very comfy bed and good sized room. The only thing, it sort of reminded me of Bavarian or maybe Black Forest places due to the decoration inside the bungalow with Red/Blue/White checked cutrains, bedding and dark wood.. Unusual..

It was getting dark by the time I moved into the bungalow and no point venturing out again. I had a shower t get rid of all the road dirt that I picked up riding my bike and then went for dinner at the resorts restaurant. There was not much else around on the main road so I decided to eat here.
Menu was quite ok and I had some Thai Omlett and a Spicy Curry dish (which of course was not as spicy as I hoped). By 8pm I was back in my room, read a bit in my guide book about the area and soon felt rather sleepy. By 9pm I was fast asleep I think (there was nothing else to do anyway but it did feel rather strange being in bed that early;-)

Day 2:

Next morning I made the fatal mistake of ordering americal breakfast. I should have know better as I did it a few times and it’s always the same: American Breakfast means one (two if you’re lucky) scrambled eggs and a thin slice (2cm wide) of fried streaky bacon plus one slice of toast and coffee or tea. The plate looks really sad and you know you will be starving after you have eeaten this pittyful breakfast! The next day I did the right thing and ordered Thai Breakfast (Rice Soup with Fish), a much better choice if you have a long day of walking in front of you and need some energy..

So pittyful American Breafast went down very quickly and afterwards I drove down to the Botanical Garden which was the main reason for driving to this Area.

Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden
This is the largest Botanical Garden in Thailand and it was created with much help from the British Royal Botanical Garden Association. As a matter of fact I felt like it could have been one of the British Botanical Gardens, especially the Glashouses since the design was ever so familiar to the looks of the british Botanical Gardens 🙂 If you know them you will see what I mean when you check the pictures I took 🙂

I was planning to take my motorbike inside because the guide book said it was necessary to get to the upper part of the Gardens (about 600 square meter I think but on a steep hill). Not so because the Guard (a very angry man; uncharacteristic for Thais to show such emotions) told me to leave, leave, leave and park outside! I was surprised because the sign outside even listed prices for cars to enter the Gardens but I did as told and parks the motorbike outside.

Later I learned that they would not admit motorbikes because of too many accidents inside the park..

After paying the entrance fee of 20 Baht (30p, 45 cents) I got a little map which looked similar to this and noticed that the Garden Walks were layed out mostly along a main circle road that lead up the hill to the Glasshouses and down again. They have a Arboretum Walk with Medicinal Plants and Herbs, Fern Garden, Climbers Walk, Orchid Nursery, Rock Garden, Waterfall and a few other things all layed out in the Jungle Forest surroundings of the park.

It was early (around 8am) and I decided to find the Arboretum Walk first but on the way stopped off at the little waterfall first. I took a few pictures of the waterfall and walked up the hill into the forest (I think it was the Arboretum Walk). It was mostly green forest, some birds were singing but it was impossibel to spot any of them. At some point the light nicely penetrated the forest and illuminated some colorfull leaves which I photographed. I walked to a plant nursery and along another forest walk but eventually felt like heading back and see the glasshouses.

The road to the glasshouses was rather steep (all thailand seems to be steep) and some form of transport would have been nice 😉
It was about 1.5km uphill in the bright sun (my photos tell me it was 10:30AM but it felt like mid day temperature wise). There was a hord of school kids going uphill as well all dressed in the same blue orange clothes. Why I did not take a picture of them I don’t know but lets blame it on exhaustion from walking uphill or fried brain die to the roasting sun while I was walking up there..

Eventuall I reached the top and spend some time walking around the Glasshouses. There were Aquatic Plants, Orchids and Ferns (which was a very meager display!) and some other plans houses that looked more like nurseries. The looked very familiar and had mostly known plant on display. I did not really see anything I had not seen before in Britain and when I entered the Arid Climate House with Cactuses on display I definitely felt like being in one of the Royal Botanical Gardens 🙂 The Tropical Plants House has a nice little Waterfall but no significantly interesting plants other than tall jungle type trees.

At lunch time I had finished with the glasshouses and due to lack of other food had some banana crisps and some logan juice for lunch. I thought the banana crisps would be sweet but not so, they were salty! More surprising they didn’t even taste like banana at all. They were just like regualr salty crisps, a bit tougher to the bite but definitely tasty.

I then only had to go downhill again and see the Orchid Nursery and Climbers Walk but didn’t feel like leaving yet so I decided to find another path into the forest which I noticed on a bigger map in the morning at the entrance. I asked the girl at the entrance if that was possible to walk and she said yes, so off I went past the “Staff Only” Barrier and further up the hill.

Mountain Walk at Botanic Gardens
It was hot and the road was steep bit I was in my element so to say and enjoyed walking up into the hills.
Initially I followed a descent road which, if I was on the right track as I had seen on the big map should lead me back to the botanical garden route eventually.

The area up here looked nice and there were a few nice views of the valley below too but difficult to photograph due to plenty of haze. Some simple Grass made a nice object for a photo but soon I discovered a footpath dug into the side of the road leading uphill away from the road and into the forest which I decided to explore. I walked through the forest for about half an hour. The path took me to the other side of the hill where I could see another valley though the forest was thick and gave no clear views of the valley below, just glimpses through the trees.. I found some trees that had wild orchids growing on them and took a few photos (though they were not flowering). It must have been the wrong time of the year for orchids since even the Orchid House did not have many flowering Orchids)

There were also some rather tall trees including one that had a kind of ladder attached to it that went all the way up. I cannot imagine why people would want to climb up those really tall trees but they clearly don’t suffer from vertigo/acrophobia (fear of height) . Eventually I turned back since I didn’t know where the path would end and went back onto the main road but it was a nice little side trip.

Back on the road I walked further up and eventually found another dirt track, this time broad anough for jeeps to drive on. It must have been the dirt track that would lead to Doi Suthep or so I though judging by map I looked at the Garden entrance. It looked like a nice walk up there and it was just after 2pm so I had plenty of time before the park would close at 5pm. I walked up..

The walk was rather pleasant, not too steep (though still uphill) and partly shaded rather than in the bright sun so easier to walk. Very nice vegetation and plenty of brids (to hear, not to see!). At some point I came across a little plateau which was accessible by a path covered in red leaves. I nice natural red carpet which I took a photo of… I continued further up the hill for another half hour. The forest changed now into pine forest and the air smelled fabulous of pine trees. Then I reached the end of the path that I was on but it joined into another dirt track. I could hear cow bells nearby and a man shouting (presumably at the cows he was leading back into his village). I followed the new dirt track for a while to see if I could make out a village nearby which would have been another Hilltribe Village no doubt and quite interesting. Sadly though I was running out of time as it was now after 3pm and I had a good few kilometers to walk back to the Botanical Garden before it closed.

On the way back the sun became less extreme, good for both walking and taking photographs 🙂 .
I shot a few more pictures on the way back, nothing spectacular but some nice enough ones of illuminated leaves, strangling trees and a spider nursery too which I almost walked into since it was hanging on a long head-high grass in the middle of the 🙂

Back on the paved road I had the choice of turning right to head back the way I came or turn left and continue the road in the hope that this road would eventually lead back to the Botanical Garden.
I tunred left and reached the Botanical Garden sooner than expected at around 4pm.

After a brief break on a nicely looked after lawn with a good view of the valley below I decided to try an finish the Garden Tour and see the Climber Sections and Orchid Nursery.
The Nursery was a little disappointing since not many Orchids were blossoming (I know, it’s a nursery!) but I did see a Tiger Orchid with its big Tigertail-like roots (not blossoming either though).

Soon I left the nursery took in the climber section and Rock Garden before leaving the Garden spot on at 5pm closing time.

A long Day of walking but very worth while. The Botanical Garden was a interesting but no comparison to British Botanical Gardens and I don’t mean the likes of Kew but even Edinburgh has almost more to offer (apart from the Jungle Forest of course;-) I think it mostly compares to Benmore Botanical Garden as far as the Forest experience goes…

After leaving the Garden I drove around a bit seeking Restaurants but nothing caught my eye so I just went back to the Resort and had dinner there and again an early but this time definitely well deserved restful night 🙂

More Day 2 Pictures

Day 3:
Day 3 was regional sightseeing. The stuff I intended to do the first day but could not because I arrived too late. Mae Sa Valley is quite famous for various things such as Orchid and Butterfly Farms, Elephant Camps, Snake Farms, Monkey Training Camps, Waterfalls and general Scenic Drives.

I was not interested in Elephants or Monkeys but I was keen to drive to some of the Waterfalls, see a Orchid and Butterfly Farm and maybe have a look at the Snake Farm where they harvest snake poison for producing antidote.

My first stop in the morning was Tod Mork Waterfall. It meant heading back to near the junction where I came from Chaing Dao and then off on a small road about 10km to reach the Waterfall. Tod Mork Waterfall is part of the Chaing Dao National Park so I had to pay an Entrance Fee of 200 baht which would also allow me to see Mae Sa Waterfall nearby. The Waterfall was a descent size and in a nice surrounding. I was the only person there apart from two workers who cleared the area of fallen leaves (sweeping fallen leaves off the ground around a Jungle Waterfall.. imagine…;-)
I took a bunch of pictures (which in the end were a little disappointing) and then continued up the road that lead me to this Waterfall to drive to a Hmong Village another 15km away. On the way I stopped at another Waterfall (Wung Harng Waterfall), it seems there are many in the area.
The drive to the Village was very Scenic through mountain area, winding roads up and down. I passed a few houses every now and then and eventually reached the Hmong Village or rather a industrialised area for agriculture which I did not find to exciting apart form some local people working on the fields which I passed whilst driving on my bike.

On the way I also passed some big lorry that got stuck in one of the bends up the hill and blocked the whole road (except for sneaky little motorbikes that could squeeze through 🙂 The truck was still there holding up all traffic when I was on the way back to Mae Sa Valley an hour or two later..

Next I stopped at a Snake Farm but continued my drive when I heard that entrance was 200 Baht and there was no “show” on meaning you could not see how they extract the snake poison. But mostly I didn’t feel like paying 200 Baht for this..

I drove to the Orchid Farm instead. A bus full of tourists had just arrived and I decided to not enter with them but wait a while and have lunch at a nearby Streetside Restaurant first.
They had pots showing the different thai curries you could have. I pointed at two (they are usually small bowls so you can easily have two helpings) and in true thai style got one dish which I did not order.. again the short-term memory of Thais… 😉 Never mind it tasted ok though I let the cooked blood cubes alone.. 🙂

Back to the Orchid Farm I was luckier this time as the group had finished exploring the farm and was now sitting in the restaurant nearby and the Orchid Farm had a nice selection of Orchids and spent about an hour there.

After the Orchid I wanted to go to the Butterfly farm but the place where I stopped did not have many Butterflies (much to my disappointment) so I moved on and drive towards Samoeng, the furthest point away from Chiang Mai.
From Samoeng I drove South through a very scenic mountain area with lots of winding roads following the hills and giving nice landscape views but haze made it difficult to take pictures as usual.. It was a shame because if the air had been clean you could have seen for many more miles. Still driving around and seeing the area was great.

I thought about staying another night in a resort along the road south which is known for its scenery. I did try a few resorts and realised just how expensive it can get in this area. Places started around 2000 baht, too much for my liking also because I was not sure what I would do in the area the next day (though there were a few signs for more hilltribe villages). Still by now I was close enough to Chiang Mai (about an hour away) to just decide to head back to Chiang May and stay in my guesthouse for 400 baht..

On the way to Chiang Mai I noticed a farmer working some fields and later stopped at a local Market which took place right next to the Highway. I had some sweet pancake type thingies made from rice flour, coconut milk and sprinkled spring onions on top. Yummy!

A bit more walking around and taking pictures at the market and I was finally off driving back to Chiang Mai. While it was easy to leave Chiang Mai and find my way around the places I drove to, driving back into Chiang Mai and finding the center was a little bit more tricky. It was busy traffic and I must have been driving around the city perimiter for quite a while since eventually I found myself entering the center from the opposite direction where I though I would be.. Never mind I got there evenually and was glad to be back.. my bum was sore after all the motorbike riding 😉

Went on a Day Trip to Doi Suthep, the nearest mountain to Chiang Mai, on the 27th of January.

Doi Suthep is the location is the location of Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, the Royal Palace and naturally also some Hilltribe Villages.

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep is one of the most important Temples in Thailand.
“According to this legend, a Buddha relic, which some say glowed, magically replicated just before it was about to be enshrined in the big chedi at Wat Suan Dok. The “cloned” relic was placed on the back of a sacred white elephant, which was allowed to roam where-ever it wanted. The elephant eventually climbed to the top of Suthep Mountain, trumpeted three times, turned around three times, knelt down and died. This was taken as a sign that this was the spot where the relic wanted to be, so King Ku Na built the original of the chedi on Doi Suthep at the end of 14th century” (From: Thailand for Visitors)

I left in the morning around 8am and drove up to Doi Suthep with my motorbike. The road was windy and steep at times and although it was nice and sunny the morning chill was still noticeable especially when driving on a motorbike in T-Shirt. Eventually I decided to put my windproof on since it got too cold which helped (the first time I had to use this in Thailand).

The trip up the hil to the Temple took about 40 minutes and I passed a lot of Monks in their Orange Robes on the way the hill. I reckon they came from the town agfter colecting their daily alms (food) from teh local markets. They usually hit the markets around 6am (they get up at 4am) and it must take them quite a while to walk up the hill again if it took me around 40 minutes to drive!

I reached the Temple around 8:40am, later than I had planned (I didn’t manage to get up early enough;-). It was just about early enough to miss the crowds though the place was far from empty when I got there. The Temple itself split into two parts, an outer area with a potentially nice view over Chiang Mai and an older inner area which housed the Chedi and a few small other buildings around it. There is a Monestry up there too and a Buddhist Center which are on the perimiter of the Temple.

The View from the Temple over Chiang Mai below was supposed to be excellent on a clear day but sadly it was not a clear day at all as you can see in one of the pictures of Doi Suthep. Still it was an interesting visit with a few nice sights. Once I had seen enough of the Temple I had a quick Coffee and Waffle which was available in the outer Temple Area and then left the Temple to drive further up the Hill to the Royal Palace and a Village.

I passed the Royal Palace without stopping since I was keen to see the Hmong Village further up.
I knew beforehand that it was going to be a very touristy place since it is advertised everywhere and probably the most accessible Hmong Village from Chiang Mai.

Sure enough Doi Pui Village was exactly that. A bery busy area of shops squeezed into a modernised Village. Plenty of Clothes and Accesories Stalls, a few food stalls.
I walked past them and a little it uphill which lead me into a little Garden Area around a Waterfall which was clearly design for tourists (entrance 10Baht, 15p). There was not much else to see so I went in and looked around a bit. Nice, but nothing too special and a terribly pathetic waterfall 😀 See the pictures..
There was also an old Woman asking for change who reminded me of a famous postcard.. you will proably know what i mean..

I kept walking uphill after the Garden into an older part of the village and eventually reached some interesting steps further up the mountain. For lack of better opportunities I decided to walk up. After a few minutes of walking up the oldish looking cement stairs I decided that steep stairs like this which a long! (never ending) and going into the Hills must mean another Monestry at the end. I was right 🙂 I reached to top after a good while and found an open area with green grass, two or three building (one of which looking rather uncharacteristic for Thai Buildings and more like Bavarian Forest House maybe?) and an open-air Buddha Temple.

Doi Pui Village Pics are here..

After a quick lunch of a Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry in a cheap Eatery where I had a little chat with some locals whom I joined on their table I went back on my motorbike and decided to drive a bit further up the mountain to another (hopefully less-touristy) village which according to the sign was about 7km away.

The drive went through a Forest Road which was Asphlat in a more or less acceptable state 😉
After about 15 mins I reached the end of the road and another sign which seemed to indicate 700m to the village. I was ready to jump off the bike and walk to the Hmong Village thinking it was nearby but Luckily two Forest Worker passed and after checking with them they told me it was still 5km away.. ok so back on my bike.. The only problem was the asphalt road had stopped here and I was now driving on a dirt track. Initially it was not too bad though mostly downhill
but soon the road worsened and I found myself on a track that barely resemebled a road anymore with deep gaps requireing to drive slalom all the time and it would be fairer to call the road a rock track rather than dirt track considering the milltions of large and small stone on the road.

I was confident that it was the right road though and I could see car tracks and even make out prefered motorbike tracks and there had been no junction anywhere since the last sign so I continued in slowmotion down the track hoping my breaks would not give up or a stone puncture a tyre..

It was fun going down that track with my little Scooter but at some point I wondered if I would ever be able to drive back up this road again 🙂

After an 30-40 minutes of carefully driving down that road I reached some civilisation again. I was not yet at the village but a little Farm it seemed which did had a sign offering Fresh Coffee! Excellent 🙂
It was an open air type “cafe” in hill-tribe village style with two old people sitting under the roof offering coffee and even some food too.

I had a cup but had to make do with coffee whitener and regretted not drinking the coffee black in the end..

A few minutes later back on the bike and another 15 mins maybe I had reached a village. I say “a” village because I am not sure if it was the vilage that was sign posted since just before this village was another sign that mentioned another name.

Never mind I walked around the village for a while. Typical hill-tribe houses though only a few on stilts. I fail to remember if the Hmong village I saw before had Stilt-Houses or not. I know for sure that Lahu and Karen Tribes have Stilt-Houses but Hmong escapes my memory at the moment.

Either way I only saw a few people but most of the wore traditional, tribe specific clothes. Some were weaving wool but did not want to be photographed. An old couple neither who played with a baby boy but I came across a family working outside their house who were quite friendly when I approached them and seemed equally interested in me as I was in them. Pictures.

About an hour later I decided to try that road back up the hill and much to myu surprise it was much easier driving uphill than downhill despite the very poor state of the road. I reckon it took me about half the time to drive back on that awful road and it took me to drive down to the village and luckily my motorbike survived the whole trip 🙂

Doi Inthanon Trip Photos are now available over at my flickr space.

Alternative Views:
Detail View

List View

I have also updated the Doi Inthanon blog with a few links to relevant pictures.

I’m back from my 3-day Trekking Tour to Doi Chiang Dao National Park in the North-West of Thailand (near Chiang Mai)

It was absolutely fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed hiking through the jungle* but staying with some of the Hilltribes was definitely the highlight of the trip.

*: The guides like to call the forests up here in Northern Thailand “Jungle” and althought it seems a bit silly to me to call it Jungle I will stick with their terminology..

The map below is almost right. Before the trek we had the visit to the Long-Neck Tribe.

Here’s the details of the last three days:

Day 1:

Got picked up from Hotel on Thursday (19/01/06) around 9am. Stopped at Panda Tours Headoffice first to meet the other people of the group and to sort out some paperwork. Every trekking tour needs to register with the tourist police for safety reasons… My group consists of 11 people including myself. A group of four people from Guernsey? (one of them originally from Finland) who travelled through India for a few months, two younger guys from England that were on RTW but westwards and four Hungarian guys on a short vacation who did not speak much english.

Initally we drove about 1.5 hours north-west of Chiang Mai to visit a Long-Neck Hilltribe Village.
I was not too keen on this part of the trip but it was part of the tour.. When we arrived the village felt like a typical tourist place, similar to the villages I have seen during my trip to Doi Inthanon if not more so.
Maybe because the Long-Neck Women looked so strange to me that I didn’t feel like this could be very realistic. I decided to take pictures although it didn’t feel right especially when I saw some little kids with the rings around their necks. Longneck tribes start adding rings to girls necks at the age of 4 years and add one more ring about every other year until they are 25 years old. After that the rings remain.

NB: After the tour I spoke to some thai people about those Longneck people and that I didn’t think it was a good experience since I felt those people are being exloited. I was told that the village we saw was indeed a tourist village but that there a still several genuine Longneck villages in northern thailand that have been pretty much untouched by tourism and that people still hold on to their traditions of the neck rings. In the tourist villages the girls/women do wear neck rings out of tradition but take advantage of the tourists interest in their tradtions to earn money.
OK if this is the case but the feeling remains that the little girls get the neck rings because of the tourism, not because of traditions..

On a lighter note I did see the first cute baby here 😉

(All Long-Neck Hill Tribe Pictures)

So I’m not sure about the long-neck part of the trip but the rest was pretty good..

Next had lunch nearby and then jumped on a pickup truck to drive up the mountain for half an hour or 40 minutes until we reached a local village. The pickup truck was really just that, an open space at the back where twelve of us tried to hold onto something while the truck drove steep dirt tracks uphill to the little village were we would start out hiking.. Not the most pleasant but quite funny since more than once some folks almost slipped of the back of the truck when we drove up steep slopes or the driver didn’t pay attention and drive into dips in the road that were flushed out by the last rain..

Eventually we reached the village. We did not look around the village except for walking through the local school (1,2) but just started walking.
It was just after lunch time and thus sunny and rather hot. I had a daypack will the gear for 3 days which felt way too heavy but it was probably just about 7kg? I guess ..

It was suggested to bring warm clothes for the night since it gets rather cold up in the hills and we would sleep in bamboo huts.. Aso clothes fo changing and sleeping in, Sandals (I wore my walking shoes), Socks Towel, Insect Spray, Suncream, Torch, Toilet Paper etc.. the usual stuff .. plus camera and a days worth of water (call it 2L).

I had to buy a small rucksack for this which cost surprisingly much money. Paid about 25 pounds for a descent one from North Face (or so it sais on the back;-) It’s a good rucksack with airmesh at the back that worked very well during my trip. Never felt too uncomfortable..

Anyway, where was I.. we started walking..

After about 5 minutes we had the first “unexpected” challenge of crossing a little river (ok lets call it a burn in true scottish fashion cos it was not much of a river really:-). Wearing my walking shoes I did not like the idea of getting wet feet that early on in the trip. The little tree that lay across the water which we were supposed to use to cross over did not look very convincing either and rather wet and slippery.
None of us was convinced about this and our guide (who swiftly and without problems walked over the tree trunk to the over side of the river) must have notice and came to the rescue by thowing us a stick to aid the balancing act. It helped most of us (including myself) but one quite didn’t manage and stepped into the water briefly… Two took the easy route through the water as shown here at our 2nd river crossing about 5 minutes later since they wore sandals…
Two river crossings and risk of gettig wet feet/shoes within a few minutes of walking.. This Trekking seemed not such a good idea over sudden 😉

Well we had a few more rivers but I was lucky enough to manage all of them without getting wet.

We walked mostly on Jungle Treks, some barely existing paths, others wider ones and well used. Ocasionally we hit some dirt tracks (roads) but mustly we walked through the Jungle.

Paths were steep to say the least 🙂 It was pretty tough going most of the time yet our Guide kept encouraging us with the words “Easy, Easy” and pointing forward meaning soon we would find some lesser steep paths to walk on. It mostly didn’t happen though or maybe the meaning of Easy differs depending on whether you are a Thai Guide or a silly Tourist who booked a Trekking Tour 😉

Strangely enough (and much to my own surprise) I really enjoyed myself every minute of it.
I actually think I was (for a change) the only person who was not moaning and groaning during this Trek.
Some said “Oh I didn’t expect this amount of walking….” and even the Hungarian Guys who looked like they came out for the “real thing” had some funny “I wish I hadn’t..” expressions on their faces every now and then 😀

It was like having a good workout at the gym except it was for a whole day rather than an hour, but it was fun 🙂 I must have been desperate for some excercise cos even though it was hard going, exhausting and every few minutes we had to have a mini-breaks to catch our breath, drink some water and let the rest of the group catch up I couldn’t get enough. Most of the time I kept the guide company chatting with him which meant I somehow managed to keep up with his pace (except when I took pictures which at some point got me in trouble along with two others cos we got separated from the group (here) – oops!).

So after some river crossings and walking through the jungle for an hour we stopped at a Jungle Waterfall. Some decided to go for a swim but it didn’t appeal to me having read about the nasty thingies in the water and all.. Pictures were tricky due to lighting so i could only shoot the Waterfall “>river area.

After a 30 minute break we continues walking. We passed a Tea Planation where some people harvested Tea and I decided to take photos in manual focus mode for some reason (flipped a switch by accident; *bother*)

We walked though a village which cause a few of us (including myself) to get separated from the group whilst taking time to take photographs and once our Guide came back for us we walked through some more Tea Plantations up a steep hill (as most of the time)
Photos

After this the scenery changed and we walked though some Bamboo Forests. Pretty amazing, intense green colors and the light payed nlicely with the green leafs to soak the jungle in various shades of green.
The pictures at the bottom of this page don’t really do it justice (I think I need to get used to selecting the right white balance in future)

Eventually all the uphill walking paid off and we reached some dirt track with some nice more open area views. pictures on top

Now (after about 4 hours of walking) we reached our destination for the day, a Black Lahu Hilltribe Village with Wooden Huts/Houses, open roaming Pigs & Chickens, open fires and interesting “bathrooms”, the pictures of which I lost *crap!*.
Basically they had a small bamboo with a squat toilet and a small water bucket plus bowl for flushing and a water tap at shoulder height as a shower, cold of course;-)

We slept in a wooden house on stilts (all houses are) on thin matresses, two blankets (glad top have my sleep sheet with me) and a moskito net. The only trouble was that the group gathering place and camp fire was right in front of this hut and the smoke went straight up into hut room. Apart from smoking my belongings not too much of a problem since the wood panels of the hut had enough gaps to let fresh air in/ smoke out so the room was not completely filled with smoke 😉

I also had a little wonder around the village at night and just as well because as soon as I stepped into the dark (armed with my torch) I noticed the most amazing night sky with loads of stars visible. (The silly proof is here)

Day 2:

Woke up after a mostly “comfortable” if cold night (my jumper and the blankets were necessary). I got woken up a few times during the early hours thanks to kind wakeup calls of the resident cocks underneith the hut and at last by the smell of fresh smoke entering the hut at around 7am thanks to the Hungarians who decided to get the camp fire going again 🙂

Got up had a very _quick_ cold ” shower and then joined the others after I had gatherd my things and repacked my bag. We had Toast, Boiled Egg and Instant Coffee or Tea, obviously catered for the tourists or else we would have had Thai Breakfast (Rice Soup).

Learned that two of the Guernsey folks had acquired big! blisters (Wet Sandals and loosely tied Army Style Boots being to blame) but the rest of the groups seemed fine.

After taking a few more pictures of the local pigs, villagers and village surroundings (bottom pics) we left the villlage and started our second day of trekking.

Our group split at this point into those on the two day trek and those on the three day trek. The Hungarians and myself did the 3 day trek. I was not too sure about this because they did not speak much english and kept to themselves but the trekking was enough fun to not worry about it too much and it did work out ok in the end. I also got on quite well with our guide which was great as talking to him it kept my mind off the streneous walking uphill.

Talking uphill we had reached about 1300m on the first day and were about to go up to about 1800m so overall the climb should not be too difficult I thought. Little did I know… 😉

The trek started off steeper than the day before and after a few minutes we were soaking wet (it was not raining!) My pictures don’t really show the steepness of the path (though I tried) but one of the hill opposite our path maybe gives an indication, the path we walked was steeper than the slope shown here

As we climbed higher through the very nice looking forest the views of the mountains got better though it was very difficult to photograph because of bright sunlight and lot of haze in the valley and distance. pics

After abour 2.5-3h we reached a nice open area where we had lunch. Ther were a few huts/houses which were used seasonally by hill tribes but most noticeable there were some nice blossoming trees..
We had strifry noodles wrapped in banana leaves that were handed out before we left the Black Lahu Village in the morning. pics

Thirty minutes later we were off again first walking downhill then uphill again higher than before.
The area didn’t classify as jungle anymore but rather mountain Forest, more open spaced trees with a lot of Pine Trees. Very nice and very nice pine forest air as well.
The views were amazing!

This was the highest point during our walk at about 1800m and we soon were walking downhill again and into more jungle’ish forest with lots of tight vegetation, bamboo and also banana trees.
The light created fabulous green colurs again and I just hoped some of the pictures (bottom half) would turn out ok, some kinda did but really only if you see the large versions of them..

There were lost of Wolf Spiders in the Forest. The pictures of the spider on that page
I like because this little fella did not like all the others of his kind hide as soon as I approached to take pictures but rather came out of his tunnel web in three jumpy runs as shown in the pics. (You have to zoom into the first pic to see her hiding in the back of the web; not that you care I guess 😉

We had quite a fast pace (faster than he managed usually with other groups the guide said) so we reached our second village, a Red Lahu Hilltribe Village, just after 3pm after about five and a half hours of walking.

I loved this village as it felt much more like living, breathing village. We got to meet and spend some time with some of the locals which was fabulous. Browse the pictures for yourself on pages 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for yourself, they are better than words anyway. I have to admit though the ones I love most are without a doubt those with babies in them, they are simply adorable 🙂

For those “soon to be mothers” (Linda): Don’t try this at home!

Day 3:
This one is shortest to describe and I only took few pictures because I could not use my camera for half of the time.

After another cold “shower” in a similar hill tribe bathroom hut though this time the shower consisted of a big barrel of water and a little bowl to scoop water and poor over your head we had our tourist breakfast. Afterwards one of the girls from the village brought some thai breakfast (steamed rice and stirfry green vegetables this time) for our guide. It was plenty of food and since I was talking to the guide at the time I got invited to join them (the girl and her baby ate some too)

Of course good opportunity to shoot a few more pictures of cute hilltribe baby eating rice soup (bottom part) etc..

We walked for about two hours after we left the village. Mostly downhill and then along a (proper) river which we would soon travel on by rubber boat (whitewater rafting) and bamboo raft afterwards.
Before we got to this however we had the peasure of an Elephant Ride (a rather slow experience) which wasn’t really anything to get excited about I have to say (others liked it though).
some pics

After changing into rafting suitable clothes (we would get wet) we left our luggage inc camera with the guide to meet him after the river tour and got into the rubber boat for our whitewater rafting which was quite good fun 🙂 I was sitting at the front right (or rear left at times since half the time we were going backwards since the currents had turned us around:-) We got soaking wet of course but it was worth it. I only wished the river had been a bit wilder” as some stretched were too calm and we could leasurely float down the river rather than having to fight the currents.

After about 45 minutes (shorter than expected) we got off the rubber boat and walked across the river to the other side to get n the bamboo raft. If one of us did not get wet enough during the whitewater rafting he defintely was now as we walked up to our hips in the water.(By the way the tour organiser said we would hardly get wet at all even during white water rafting (“A little” she said, ha ha 🙂

Bamboo Rafting was slow but pleasant as nice scenery. We stood on the raft rather than sitting down..
Another 40 minutes later or so we finished the river tour and stopped somewhere next to the river for lunch (Pad Thai Noodles and Fruit.)

I walked back to the river to take some photos after lunch and noticed some kids playing in the river with individual bamboo logs (one kid bamboo raft if you like) (upper part of this page). It was fun watching them as they had lot of fun themselves 🙂

Soon after we got into a Minivan and drove back to Chiang Mai. On the way we stopped at a Market in Mae Tang (I think) as the Hungarians asked if we could stop there. I took one or two interesting photos chilis and massaging woman, the rest is the usual stuff;-)

And that’s it really – 3 Day Organised Trekking in Northern Thailand.

Best Experience: Meeting the locals at the Red Lahu Village.

Heading off on a 3-Day Trekking Trip tomorrow.

I booked it with Panda Tours who have an office near Tha Pae Gate in Chiang Mai. I did the Doi Inthanon Trip with them and that was quite well organised so I hope the 3-Day Trekking will be ok too.

I will be heading north-west with a small group to some non-touristy areas of Chiang Dao National Park for a few days of hiking, Elephant Riding, Whitewater and Bamboo Rafting. We will stay overnight in Huts at local Hilltribe Villages (better ones than the ones I saw yesterday I hope;-) and most likely freeze our ass off at night since it gets rather cold up there at night (about 1500m).

More when I’m back…

Good Gear Bad Gear

How about summarising a few “findings” about my gear after the first month of travelling (well mostly staying in a place rather than actually travelling;-):

Things I love:

1) Single Most Important: Silk Sleeping Bag Liner.
I use it as a stand alone sleep sheet/bag, it is comfortable whether it is warm or a bit cooler and most importantly keeps potential bed bugs away due to the silk. Don’t think I really needed it yet but sometimes it better safe than sorry and it is reassuring to have it (call me picky not liking to sleep in strange beds:-)

2) Merrell Chameleon Ventilator Hiking Shoes & X-Static Socks
I will only put them to the proper test in the next few days when trekknig but I have worn them a lot and they are excellent. Even if it’s 30C outside it’s comfortable walking around in the sturdy walking shoes. The shoes would not work without my X-Static socks though which are fabulously thin and work very well with the shoes. X-Static keeps them from smelling and they dry after washing in a few hours!

3) X-Static Shirts
The X-Static T-Shirts are great apart from the fact that they are probably not all that durable (sadly) They are very pleasant to wear when it’s hot, do not get smelly or sticky or even damp like my regular T-Shirts. It’s rather humid and my cotton T-Shirts always feel slightly damp even if they have been hanging in the room for drying; I tend not to wear the cotton shirts at all now as they are uncomfortable and need to be washed after one day. Talking of drying the X-Static stuff dries in a few hours, my cotton T-Shirts take at least 2 days in the room to feel almost dry. The humidity makes drying difficult…
Sadly the X-Static T-Shirts from Rohan tend to pull threads for no apparent reason hence I don’t think they will last very long..

4) Craghoppers Nosquito Convertible Trousers
Pockets Pockets Pockets Pockets and more Pockets 🙂 I can’;t stress enough how important it is to have many pockets (preferably with zips). Other than that they are
easily turned from long trousers to shorts by zip, the trousers are exellently lightweight, compactable (for packing) and don’t feel too warm when worn long on hot days.
(I wear them long quite often when I plan to go to some Temples which require “descent” attire such as not showing bare knees ) We shall see if they live up to the Nosquito claim of being Mosquito proof in the next few days during my trekking 🙂
Also quick drying…

Things I am not too fond of:

1) Mainly.. my backpack 🙂 Reasons..

a) Accessing my backpack. Can’t tell you how many gazillion times I have opened the little locks, unwrapped the cord, taken stuff out or put in and locked the pack again with the small lock that needs to be cleverly wrapped around the pull cords of the pack to prevent easy access to the contents. I never leave my backpack unlocked even if I have my own room that can be locked and I also don’t tend to keep it open during the night so there is A LOT of tedious unlocking and locking going on.. I can’t stand it 😉

b) Packing and Carrying my Backpack.
Basically my pack is techically overpacked. I don’t think I have too much stuff with me (though I could do with 5kg less if I’m honest) but the shape of the pack (narrow, tall.. slim in other words) makes it rather difficult to pack. It’s great when squeezing through narrow places of crowds of people because its not wider than my body but in my oppinion it’s more a 50L than 60L pack and maybe not that suitable for a multi-month around the world trip.
It’s a hassle to pack (it takes a long time because I need to pack it in a specific way) and not overly comfortable when wearing for a prolonged time at 20kg weight. Sofar it has not been a problem because I did not have to carry it that much but moving on that will change… The pack is a lightweight pack and thus the harness is thinner/less padded than normal packs which becomes a problem when carrying this weight for a lengthy time.

Also ..

2) My Teva Wraptor Sandals, the most comfortable sandals I have ever tried… are useless;-)
Whilst I did not have serious blisters I did have several hotspots that could have turned into blisters easily had I not watched out (and stopped wearing the sandals). Badly designed at
a) the back of the heel with special added padding which feels like very soft leather, the stitching causes friction on the heel and the millimeter of leather just above the stitching curls and causes additional friction.
b) the side of the heel which is too high, rubbing against the (what do you call it?) joint bone on the foot causing hotspots.
c) VERY POOR when wet. These Sandals simply dont dry! When wet you will definitely get blisters.
d) They do get smelly despite claims of being antibacterially treated and must be washed regularly. Considering that they dry very slowly I can forget about wearing them for at least 2 days after washing..

So overall they are useless, at least if there is any chance they get wet or need to be worn on a day-to-day basis.

I have been wearing my backup sandals (took them with me cos I was not sure about the Wraptors and for use in shower) which are also Teva but are simpler, neoprene type material for heels and have a plastic sole so no stench.. Still not perfect either because the straps are attached to hard plastic loops which tend to rub as well. Loosening the straps solves this mostly but that means they are no good for longer walks on rough terrain.

Talking about buying new gear in Thailand:

Sound great, shoud be cheap, plenty of choice.. I know.
No so! Yes there is plenty of cheap gear, rucksacks, backpacks, sandals and all the other stuff. But they are cheap not only as far as money is concerned, the quality and design of poor too and some things are even impossible to find such non-cotton shirts (the wicking type or even X-Static based stuff). Packs are generally of design from 5-10 years ago or at least the look like it. There are some proper sports shops that do stock the newer models but they cost almost the same as in Europe. So buying cheap in Thailand is difficult is you have specific requirements… but I keep looking and if I find something suitable I will change swap out some of my gear 🙂

Have been on on a Day trip to Doi Inthanon National Park in the south-west of Chiang Mai. Doi Inthanon is actually a mountain (Doi) and the highest one in Thailand at that. It reaches 2565m above sea level.

We were a group of 9 (around my age +/- 5 years I reckon), left in a Minibus around 9am and drove about an hour to the Park. Tye first stop was at the Wachiratan Watefall, a nice little waterfall at the foot of the Park.

The we drove up to maybe 1800m to visit an area that contanied two large pagodas (1,2) which were built only about 20 years ago to honour the 60th Birthday of the King and the 55th Birthday of the Queen of Thailand. The pagodas were vaguely interesting but the view was more impressive since one could overlook a very large area of Thailand (2).

Whilst walking around the small surrounding grounds I noticed some builders (both male and female by the way) digging a trench (for drainage I guess) but soon they stopped as it was lunch time. Two women decided to wash their hair with help of the lawn sprinkler system which was quite funny and some others unwrapped their thai lunch of rice and curry from little plastic bags (which are so popular at the street stalls in Thailand (see Chang ? Pier Market in Bangkok ). I asked if they did mind me taking a picture and the didnt…

After the pagodas we went all the way to the top (the highest point in Thailand of so the sign said) and walked around the forest for a short while. Interesting but nothing spectacular really.

One thing to note is that although we were at about 2600m above sea level and it was their cool season it was still warm enough to just wear a T-Shirt. This was unexpected because Tour Guides and Guide Books aloke claimed it was really! cold up there. I guess it’s relative and for a Thai person it might be freezing but for someone who is used to Scotland.. well, it felt like a nice Summers day;-)

The only exception was in the “Jungle” as the Guide liked to call it where temperatures suddenly dropped by a good 5-10 degrees I would say. I wore a vest but still shot sleeved.

Off the mountain we stopped for late lunch at a Hmong Hilltribe Village. Had some pretty good Thai Lunch (Plenty of food: Chicken Soup, Fried Fish, Veggy Stirfy, some Sweet&Sour dish, Spicy Thai Omlette, Rice and Pinapple and Watermelon for desert…

Two more stops after lunch: Visit of a Karen Hilltribe Village and another waterfall before heading back to Chiang Mai.

The Hilltribe Villages were pretty uneventfull, nice to seen “something” but the Hmong Village was not much more than a comercialised little settlement with the restaurant at the back and the Karren Villlage was pretty much empty apart from a handfull of people.

Overall I would say the trip was interesting if a bit dull due to the amount of driving and slight disappointment with the Hilltribe Villages. I would have loved to walk around the park for a few hours to be honest but there were no such trips offered in Chiang Mai. That is Trekking trips to Doi Inthanon National Park… There are other Trekking Trips to the northern part of Chiang Mai which I will sign up for. They include 2 or 3 day treks and should be more action packed than this tour 🙂

You can find all pictures of this trip here.

The map below shows the tour (from the tour organiser)

A reminder to fill this in…

Did a day walk around the city to explore the old town and the Wats (Temples) inside)..

After Bangkok I was quite excited to come to Chiang Mai because it is supposed to be a rather nice place and quite different to Bangkok…

Arrival
I arrived on the 12th of Januray by plane after two and a half hours on the plane including a thirty minutes delay because some VIP person had to take off before our plane or so we were told by our French pilot. A French Pilot… not that it really worried me but the thought of a French Pilot flying a tiny two-prop plane between Bangkok and Chiang Mai for a Budget Airline seems a little unusual don’t you think? Apparently he said it was too cold for him in Europe (he came our and chatted with some of the passengers a bit during the flight). Anyway never mind, we got there safely 😉

So out of the Airport I went to the Taxi rank: “Don’t have Taxiii!” the woman said. No Taxi? It’s wasn’t that busy so I was a bit surprised. She suggested I get one of the Songthaes, some small pickup Trucks that have two benches mounted at the back and which operate as shared Taxis.

Songthaes were slowly trickling in at the arrival area and I went up to a few and mentioned my Guesthouse and the Area “Ta Pae Gate” which is the main Gate of the City. This first waved the hand and drove on (not his direction I guess), the second looked at me as if I asked him to take me to the moon so no luck there either but then a fancy new Songthae pulled over with a boy barely able to look over the steering wheel asking where I wanted to go. I told him, he did not seem to know where the place was but I had the name written down in Thai and also a phone number so he called the place and asked where it was. Kind of him to do so and after a few minutes he said “OK, 40 Baht” (60p, 90 cents) which sounded like a good deal so I agreed. Two other backpackers whom I spoke to earlier also joined and off we drive into Chiang Mai.

After 20 mins or so I got to my place, Roon Ruang Guest House near Ta Pae Gate, by then it was around 16:00. BTW I picked Roon Ruang from my Guide Book and was easily reserved by calling them from Bangkok. Much easier than doing a internet booking as it only took 5mins of my time, great!

Ah, lets sidetrack a bit into Accomodation;
I thought I would stay in Youth Hostels but as I pointed out a few times Hotels and Guest Houses are cheap enough and very similar to Youth Hostels plus it’s much easier to fnid descent guest houses than seeking out those hostels which are usually a bit out of the way. Chiang Mai is about half of the price of cheap bangkok accomodation and I can get an Aircon room with ensuite bathroom for about 400-500 Baht.That’s about 7 pounds or 10 euros. I looked at a few others and many look like descent, clean rooms. Fan only can be had for 300 Bath I think and of couirse there are also a lot of rundown yucky places but it’s easy enough to walk around the old town to find a place to stay.
So no Youth Hostel for me while I’m in SE Asia I reckon. (Cambodia and Vietnam will be the same as Thailand I think)

The City
Back to Chiang Mai… so I made it to the hotel late afternoon, dumped my bag and quickly changed to get out and walk around a bit. It was about 30C and sunny so Shorts, T-Shirt and Sandals. I had a map from my guide book and also one that I picked up for free from the Airport so I was ready to explore the area a bit. I decided to walk around without a particular destination in mind just roughly following the guide book map which conveniently had my guest house marked…

Chaing Mai is divided into and old part which is surrounded by Moat and a newer area outside of the Moat. The buisiest area is along the east gate of the moat and outside of that gate. This is where my Guest House is located, just a few meters outside of the Moat.

So I walked and suddenly I realised that Chaing Mai is TINY!
It’s so funny, compared to Bangkok this place is like a backyard!
I almost crossed the inner city in an hour or two walking leasurely, looking at shops and all. I can’t believe how small it is 😉 I reckon walking straight along one length of the square moat takes about 40 mins?

Walking is certainly one of the best ways to explore the city or at least I think so. You can get a bike if you feel like it or hire a Scooter but a) the traffic in town is best avoided and b) it’s much nicer to explore the city on foot. Someone once said the human brain is designed to experience surroundings at walking speed, not faster. I quite agree..

Eating
Right outside of my guest house are plenty of cafes and restaurants. I don’t seem to be able to escape that Starbucks either because it’s just a few meters down the road from where I stay. (I have not been though). So Breakfast is easily sorted by crossing the road and picking one of the Cafes.

There is a street stall a few meters up the road that sells Pad Thai Noodles in the evening, good if I feel peckish before heading home. It’s costs 20 Baht (30 p, 45 cents). Oh and a 7/11 (little supermarket chain that seems to be open 24 hours) is nearby too.

Of course there are quite a few street stalls selling street food but they are by no means as frequent as in Bangkok and one of the most obvious things I noticed is that there are not as many fruit sellers. I’m usually having a hard time finding my little bags of pinapple or water melons during the day that I have gotten used to in Koh Samui and Bangkok. (There are not many shops that sell fresh fruit, actually I have not seen a big supermarket in Chaing Mai yet.

Internet
The Internet Cafe that I’m using is also only 5 mins away just through Ta Pae Gate and turn left onto Moon Muang Road for a few meters. Internet Cafes are plenty and about half the price compared to Bangkok (30 baht an hour). Only problem is that most use ancient PCs with USB 1.1 rather than USB 2 which is VERY slow for copying pictures off my camera.
This Internet cafe that I am using is one of the few I found with more recent PCs which include USB2. Plus they are open until 2am so I don’t get thrown out at 10pm 😉

People
Things do indeed go much slower in Chiang Mai just as mentioend in the Guide Books. The people here really do seem to have a more relaxed attitude to things, or at least when you walk around the little side roads or go to the markets it’s much less hectic than in Bangkok (or Chaweng no Koh Samui for that matter)

Guide Book Maps
Of course there was the thing about getting lost (not really;-) but eventually I realised that the map in my guide book which was incorrect as in it has the guest house drawn on the map in the wrong place. So I was walking south when I thought I was walking north. Naturally that causes some confusion and only after finding some landmark I realised that my guest house is not where I thought it was.

Markets
The Landmark that corrected my navigation was the Anusarn Food Market. A big courtyard surrounded by various open air restaurants serving lots of Seafood but also the usual thai and chinese style foods.
I decided to have dinner there so grabbed one of the tables on the square near a restaurant after checking out the whole market. I had a big bowl of spciy soup noodles with roasted pork. It was just after sunset and started to get dark. As soon as most of the light was gone hundreds of birds stormed the nearby trees and made it perfectly clear that they were the real owners of that square. It was difficult to even talk to the waitress due to the noise of the birds. OK so I’m exagerating but they were very loud indeed 🙂 Sadly it was too dark to makeout anything more that darks blobs on the trees so not sure what kind of birds they were.

After I finished dinner I walked around a bit more. Anusarn Food Market is adjacent to the Night Market which are street stalls along both sides of one of the main roads (Chang Klan Road) outside of the East Moat that open at night selling all sorts of things; Clothes, Shoes, Bags, Watches, Jewelery, Silk, Arty things… Anything you can think of and lots more.

It is fun browsing those stalls especially at night because the lights in the stalls make the whole area look quite nice (but also very! difficult to photograph :-()

One of the most impressive things I saw were Artists doing photo-realistic pencil drawings . They use photos as templates (you can give them a photo of someone and they create a large pencil drawing that looks simply amazing).

Watch the flickr space for the pictures showing one of the artists at work…