Chiang Mai something something
I’m in Chiang Mai now safe and beat up as per usual but the cuts and scrape will heal up per usual and leave a strange looking scar. It’s nice to finally get out of Bangkok. Chiang Mai, is a lot smaller and a lot more laid back with more cafes, bakerys and bookshops than you can shake a stick at. The city is broken up into the Old City and the New City. The Old City is surrounded by a moat, which is still there and also a wall which is only there in places. Everything outside this moat/wall area is the New City. How clever. I rented a bike today and toured around most of the city, pretty much spending most of my time getting lost. I realize that it’s a rather small city now that I spent so much time in places that I wasn’t trying to get to. At one point I thought I was in the South-east of the city but ended up in the north-east… Tiff where were you dam it?
I took an overnight train to Chiang Mai and I must say it was very cool, much better than the bus. The busses down here are broken into 2 types, the regular government run busses that the locals take and the VIP busses that all the foreigners take. I took a VIP bus down to Krabi and part of the way back from Krabi. The first half of the journey to BKK from Krabi I was on a government bus. The VIP busses are loaded to the rim and you feel like cattle they way you’re treated. They are a lot cheaper but the ride sucks big time. The government bus was much better, more roomy and much less foreign. Now for the train I was really impressed by it. It was about double the VIP bus but tt was so laid back, really comfortable and a little bit romantic plus to top it off you go through the country side and get to see the farms and rural areas. It was really interesting to see the people working in the fields all by hand still. I really enjoyed the trip and will probably take the train more often even though it’s more expensive. As I child I was really obsessed with trains, my family can vouch to that so on this trip there was a bit of childhood nostalgia that wrung through me. I also finished Dracula on the trip and picked up a copy of Life of Pi via Erin’s reccomendation. Dracula was pretty good but I never thought it was scary, probably because of where I was reading it. I was reminded at the end when they were near his castle and it was really cold of going winter camping with Scouts and my dad coming along with us and we freezing our asses off. Thanks dad.
I’m just so dam indecisive
Isn’t that a Kids on the Hall quote? I’ve decided to take my cooking classes after all now. I realized that I had no other reason to be here save for wanting to get out of BKK and that if I wasn’t going to take them now why come here at all? It’s for 5 days and looks to be full on plus if I didn’t take it now I run the risk of not taking it at all and I really don’t know what I would do for the next couple days. The only other really big thing to do here is go on the jungle treks but they’re so touristy and over the top that I’ve decided to pass until I get to Laos. The jungle trek buisness is pretty dam huge here and pretty cut throat. I’ve changed guest houses because the guy at the guest house kept hounding me about going ona trek and everytime I saw him he was asking me about it and showing me pamphlets so I hit the road andtook my buisness else where. There’s times here where I feel like I’m seen as a walking ATM.
There’s some nice looking temples here and such but I could really careless for Thai temples. They seem to be everywhere and to be blunt, the Thai culture, history and architecture has no interest to me. The Laos, Khmer (Cambodia) and Vietnamese cultures, history and architecture do strike a cord in me though and I think it might be because they’ve had much more of a turbulant history and growth where as Thailand led a bit of an isolationalist policy in the last 150 years. Plus then I don’t have to come back around this way and instead maybe go up to Beijing after Vietnam and go see Mao’s dead body and the great wall.
Laos sounds really cool and I’m a bit excited to get there. As for tomorrow I plan on biking around a bit more and working off the gut that I’ve started up. Seriously, I’m starting to get fat I can feel it. It’s sad to see 2 and a half months of hard ass work in the gym can all go down the drain for me in less than 4 weeks. Woe is me I suppose. Yes I am a bit of a glutton when it comes to food and I did miss 3 days in a row from working out which I think is a record dating back to either April or June but really, give a guy a break. I imagine enrolling in a 5 day cooking class isn’t going to help now is it?
On the subject of food, I have been trying everything new that I see. I tried bugs in BKK, grosshoppers to be exact. They were alright, nothing that I’d ever wake up in the middle of the night and crave. They had a real odd taste to them that I just couldn’t put my finger on as to what they were like…might have been the seasoning they used. A new favorite of mine that I’ve discovered here in Chiang Mai is fish cooked in banana leaves. Basically you take your fish fillet, put it on a banana leaf, throw some garlic,ginger, lime, shallots and a couple other herbs and spices, wrap it all up and put it on an open fire or BBQ and let it cook in the leaf. Because of the moisture in the leaf it basically steams the fish with all the spices that are in there. It’s dam good. I’ve seen banana leaves back in Sydney so I’m sure you could find them in Edmoton at like A&whatever Asian market in west ed. Way better than using tin foil. There’s also a huge variety of fruits everywhere, so many that I think I might have to start taking pictures of them and other cool things that I eat.
Troy Over and Out
Tags: Thailand
misfittroy
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