Chiang Mai - A major update

4-5 May - Out and About

Arrive at Chaing Mai airport at 2pm from Bangkok on 4 May. We are collected by our "pick up" & we take a detour to BMP Tours (people who are arranging our Elephant Trek). Lady there helps organise our trek for us, her name is "Ping Pong" (I kid you not..) Ping Pong is very helpful she also tries to persuade us to go to one of the "lady-boy" (drag-queen) shows - a cabaret style show filled with glamourous lady-boys wearing feather boas...Tere and I politely decline.
We arrive at our "guesthouse" - Raming Lodge which turns out to be pretty damn flashy - sweet!
Hit the streets to check out Chaing Mai - much smaller than Bangkok some might say "quainter". Has a nice slower pace than the hecticness of Bangkok - easy going.
We walk down a side street and have lunch at this little restaurant food is supreme.
I have the most delicious red vege curry and Tere has pork sausage fried rice. Excellent food and so cheap!
We wander aimlessly through the streets situated near our hotel taking in the sights.

Chaing Mai is divided into the Old quarter which is surrounded by a moat and a New quarter - we are staying in the new.

Later that night we walk into town to check out Chaing Mai's infamous "Night Market" - the streets are lit with lanterns and absolutley lined with stalls selling clothing, DVD's, silk scarfs, food vendors - the atmosphere is fantastic and we squeeze through the other hundreds of tourists looking for a bargin. Each vendor eagerly trying to urge you to buy their goods. Every second person saying "You buy Sir, You buy Madam - I give you good price.." There seemed to be a fairly large population of Indian people there - most of them owned Tailoring shops - needless to say Tere was constantly hounded as they offered to make him a suit.
I purchased a skirt and attempted to haggle - I got it down to $320 baht from $350 baht - approx $13 NZ. All in the name of good fun - as long as you are friendly and good natured about it the locals respond well to you.

Next day we walk into town and come across a Wat - woman holding baskets filled with birds tells us releasing them brings you good luck, so we pay $100 baht each and release a bundle of birds into the air. Felt better letting them out of the tiny cage than anything.

We head back to the Night Market and to the "FoodMarket" which is an outdoor "food court" surrounded by trees with fairy lights.
I confess I have become rather fond of Pad Thai (Thailand's basic noodle dish) - Vege Pad Thai with chilli, fresh lime and crushed peanuts topped off with a Singha Beer is my idea of a good time. Really cheap meals & great atmosphere.

That night we decide to go to a bar to check out Chaing Mai's nightlife - catch tuk tuk to a bar on riverside called "The Brassiere" - 2 absolutely stunning Thai girls show us in to a table - we order cocktails. NB: They do not skimp on alcohol here & even a whiff makes you feel tiddly. There is live music - a woman playing acoustic guitar strums away playing Dido & Tracy Chapman covers..We sip our cocktails and look out over the moonlit river - this is the life!

6 May - Elephant Trek
After 1hr drive we arrive at trek. Our group consists of 5 people including a Brit called Toby and 2 irish girls called Anne and Collette.
We climb aboard our Elephants - it's bloody high as we are perched on our little seat - held in by a flimsy chain that links across us.
The elephants have a lovely gentle sway when they walk. Our elphants name is "Jing-Juk" at least that's how our "driver" pronounced it. I buy some banana's for Jing-Juk and immediately his trunk came up and we took turns to feed him. He had a few tanty's along the way - including blowing dirt out of his trunk at us cos he wanted more bananas. haha Trek took 30-40 mins up and over a hill and back down and it was bloody hot. They are amazingly resourceful creatures the way they can utilise their trunks and tails.
We have a photo taken ontop of Jing Juk then we jump in minivan and it's off to meet the "Karen" hilltribe.

The Karen people have lived in the hills for 200 years after been chased out of city - guide told us they orginally came from Burma.
The women wear colourful purple and pink outfits and once they are married they must wear a skirts. The men wear red.The women there are sitting quietly weaving beautiful coloured fabrics.
We were harrassed by the small village children hounding us to but one of their bead bracelets for $5 baht. They were so cute that couldn't resist and purchased two each. Back into the minivan and we're off to visit a waterfall.

We go in for a swim in the refreshing water which is such a relief after the intense heat. The current is very strong and it is impossible to try and swim toward the waterfall, we are there for about 30 mins, then it's off to lunch more like a feast - tofu soup, sweet and sour vege curry, spicy pork chilli currry and fresh cut pineapple.

Finally we head to the river for bamboo rafting. Tere and I are on one raft with a 10yr old local boy as our "Captain" at the front steering (he was pretty strong) - Tere takes charge at the back and I am the queen of the nile content to sit and float down the river. However I don't get off that easy - my reward for been lazy is to be constantly splashed with water by the captain and by any locals who happen to be swimming as we float past. Soon Tere joins in much to the delight of our captain and by the end of the ride I am absolutely soaked.
The ride down the river is lovely and the banks are lined with locals having family picnics and drinking beer. All of them are so friendly and wave out to us. Beautiful emerald butterflies fly around us.
When we reach the end of our gentle river cruise we give our Captain $10 baht as a tip and have our photo taken with him - he is very cute.
Then it's back to our hotel.
We both thouroughly enjoyed our 1 day trek - good times :)

That night we head back to "The Brassiere" have a a few drinks and watch a Thai band playing covers of psychedelic 60's tunes - Hendrix and bluesy numbers. Awesome guitarist.
They are then joined by the infamous "Took" a Thai guitar legend and man is he good. He sings a Bob Marley number and both me and Tere are astounded as he sounds exactly like Mr Marley. We stay on till about 12 am and catch tuk tuk home.

7 May - Do Su Thep
Catch taxi up to "Do Su Thep" a huge wat (temple) high up on the hills of Chaing Mai. 2 other tourists in our taxi - Simon (wouldn't you know it originally from NZ) and his girlfriend Abby from UK.
We arrive at the wat and there are huge bells lined up in a row. Amazing vast views over Chaing Mai. We head into the main temple - wander around for about an hour - everything is so ornate.
Taxi back into town and we have lunch in mall at foodcourt - where I might add we accompianed our food with a pint of Singha beer. Yes it is possible to order a beer in a foodcourt in Chaing Mai - infact one entire foodstall was dedicated to beer. Try that in Queensgate...
As we walked back to our hotel we came across another street market (this was different from the Night Market) and contained more art - paintings, photography etc.. A buddhist monk began talking to us (it is very common for the locals to speak to us as they like to practise their English & are quite open about the fact). He asked what we had been up to & we told him we had visited Do Su Thep - he told us that he was the Abbott (head) of his temple and that Su Thep in Thai means "God of Mountains, in heaven."
We waved goodbye and headed back to our hotel to rest.

It's off to Phuket tomorrow.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Chaing Mai and we're genuinely sad to leave - everything here is so relaxed and cruisy. Would definitley recommend it as a must if you are planning on visiting Thailand.
PS) make sure you have the Vege Pad Thai and a Singha beer for me :-)