Our final day in Chiang Mai and the first order of business for the day is to get bus tickets for tomorrow to Sukhothai. Most of the hotels and tour companies around us sell the tickets for about 380 baht. We’ve looked online and know the price is 240 baht, so we decide to hire a moped and go to the bus station and buy the tickets directly (for some reason in almost every Asian city we’ve been to the bus station is always located miles away from the city centre). The cost of the moped is about equal to the savings, but now we have a bike to get around and see some sights. The first place we decide to visit is the gardens of Bhubing Palace, which is most of the way up Doi Suthep (the mountain next to Chiang Mai). We had passed it a few days earlier but at 3:30pm they weren’t allowing new visitors, today we got there nice and early. 50 baht each (90p) got us into the gardens which are over 2km in length and are a very colourful sight. We spent about 2 hours walking around the gardens and eating lunch. Our next destination was the Art in Paradise gallery, which looked like an interesting way to kill a few hours. The price was pretty steep at 300 baht each (£5.60) and we were slightly worried that it wouldn’t be worth what we’d just paid. We needn’t have worried as the gallery turned out to be a great way to spend a few hours and Annemarie especially was enjoying herself, immersing herself into the pictures. She surfed: Was almost eaten by a bear: Finished the Mona Lisa: Traversed a huge waterfall on a rickety walkway: Flew on a magic carpet: Snowboarded: And many more, which you can see here. Posted from Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai,...
Read MoreFinding good hiking in Thailand is proving to be quite difficult. It is either a big, expensive, multi-day, group tour or a one day hike which is only a few hours walking and then padded with trips to ethnic villages where hikers can stare at ‘different’ people, usually elephant rides are added on, etc. We managed to find a company which did do proper full day hiking but at £40+ that made us more determined to find routes ourselves and do it for free. We finally found this, a description of a walk in the forest just outside of Chiang Mai; Perfect. The starting point was a few miles out of the city so we hired a bicycle each and with some water and sandwiches we cycled to the lake. The lake looked to be a favourite for locals to come and relax. The shore of the lake is crowded with simple wooden huts, standing in the water on stilts. Families were sat in there, relaxing and fishing. We sat in a bandstand (no idea what they are called in Thailand but I doubt they are called bandstands) and ate our sandwiches whilst overlooking the lake and a giant golden Buddha. We then set off into the forest. The directions were not detailed enough and we found ourselves going wrong a few times after a very short distance. The path forked many times and we simple e had to guess which direction to take. Eventually I figured a method, using the track loaded into Google Earth and GPS to see my exact location I could follow the track. This was slightly concerning as I knew it would devour the battery and the phone might not last the whole route but it was the best we had. Even with the improved method we still went wrong a few times. We headed up the bank of large stream as it made its way down the mountain side. Then it was a steady uphill until we reached a large waterfall. After the waterfall the going got tough. It was steep uphill for the next hour and combined with the heat we were dripping with sweat. As we ploughed on uphill through bushes, low trees, ferns, etc we were constantly walking through cobwebs and on giant leaves. The paranoia of spiders, snakes, scorpions, etc was starting to take effect, not helped by the fact that we were getting eaten alive; the cobwebs constantly wrapping around ours heads, arms legs didn’t help… By now we were wondering why we thought this was a good idea. We covered ourselves in insect repellent and carried on....
Read MoreA few nights ago we were sat in a restaurant and I noticed one of the posters was advertising a massage course. Up until that point neither of us had considered taking a massage course, but for some reason we suddenly decided that it was a good idea and something we should do whilst in Chiang Mai. The restaurant had WiFi so I browsed a few companies and found one which was both cheap and had good reviews. I emailed with an enquiry before the meal and by the time we paid the bill I had an email confirming a course for Tuesday for the two of us. 890 baht (£16) each for 4 hours was OK we thought. (WiFi in restaurants is a great thing for spontaneous ideas!) So today was the day we learnt how to massage in the Thai style. It wasn’t too difficult, our teacher would perform a few techniques on one of us whilst the other watched and made notes, then she’d swap so the other could watch. After about 8 massage techniques we would then have to practice on each other. We learnt pretty well, but our hands and particularly our thumbs are nowhere near strong enough to do it properly. The Thai massage is quite strong and requires strength and stamina and apply lots of pressure through the fingers and maintain that pressure. But for a first attempt we weren’t that bad, we didn’t hurt each other. A few of the techniques are harder for us because we are bigger than our Thai teacher (and most Thai people in general). She weighed a little over 47kg, whereas we are around the 70kg mark. So when she stands on our legs it’s OK, but when we stand on each others legs it’s a bit more painful. And yes, one technique is for one to lie face down, then the masseur stand on the back of the leg (just above the knee) and bend the feet round the inside of the masseurs legs, then the masseur bends causing the leg muscles to be stretched. She did it with ease and elegance, we did it with neither… We have the book from the course so we can practice. Posted from Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai,...
Read MoreAbout 50 miles south of Chiang Mai is the Doi Inthanon National Park which is named after Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand. Conveniently there is a sealed road to the summit, so we decided it would be a good idea to ride there. Along the route are a number of waterfalls and a large temple near the summit, plus the adventure of riding the bike there and back. Our first stop was a bakery just outside the old town of Chiang Mai, for coffee and pain au chocolat, a favorite of ours for breakfast. We also picked up a great looking sandwich each and a cake, to take with us for lunch at the summit. The first part of the ride was a bit dull, a dead straight dual carriage with traffic lights every now and again (with a timer on showing how long they’ll be on red. Very depressing when the timer starts at over 100 seconds). After almost 2 hours we reached the smaller road which would wind its way to the summit of Doi Inthanon. After a few minutes on this smaller road we saw signs for a waterfall. We turned off and followed a very steep and windy road down to a car park. As it was midday we decided we might as well stop and eat lunch too. The base of the waterfall would make for a scenic picnic spot. The waterfall, called Wachirathan Falls, is an impressive sight. At about 80m it roars and thunders at the lower observation point and creates plenty of spray. We spent a while here taking photos. We then set off for the summit. I had only ever been on a motorbike twice before, once in Vietnam and once the day before so I had rented an automatic bike again. These are easy to ride but not very good when the road isn’t flat. The automatic clutch felt like it was knackered, we had a horrible burning smell every time we hit a significant slope and we would rapidly lose speed and end up at a waking pace if the slope was quite long. As we ascended the sun ended up behind a few big black clouds, causing a huge drop in temperature, accompanied by the altitude and wind we were soon rather cold. Putting on our fleeces helped at first, but by 2000m above sea level we were freezing cold. The bike was now really struggling with the hills and we rode at 20kph up every slope for the last 5km of the road. Finally, after what felt like an age we reached the summit...
Read MoreOn the edge of the city of Chiang Mai is a mountain named Doi Suthep. At the top, overlooking the city is the temple of Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, a site which is very sacred to Buddhists. We hired a moped for the day at set off for the temple. The ride to the temple was pretty easy going, a wide but windy road leads to the temple which is surrounded by the usual food stalls and Buddhist memorabilia tat shops. I had a curry sausage for lunch, mostly fat and a punnet of strawberries. Annemarie had a few mouthfuls of fatty sausage and decided she didn’t like it. We found her some pork skewers, slightly less fatty but tasty. And half a pineapple for pudding. We then ascended the 300 steps to the temple. At the centre of the temple is a 16m golden stupa. In the bright sunlight the stupa was glistening and was an impressive sight. After the temple we headed for the summit. In hindsight we shouldn’t have! The road narrowed to the width of one car, with a steep uphill slope on one side and steep downhill slope on the other. Unfortunately, the road was two way, with no traffic management. This resulted in huge amounts of traffic as cars attempted to pass each other in the few places where there was enough soil at the side of the road to fit about half a car. We crawled up the hill at snails pace to find there wasn’t a viewpoint, or even a nice cafe! We decided we would walk around the gardens of the Bhubing Palace, located halfway between the temple and the summit. Visitors are allowed when the Royal family isn’t present and according to our information was open for a few more hours. Riding back down to the palace was almost as bad as coming up. Despite it been turned 3pm and there been nothing at the top of the hill the road was still packed with cars trying to come up. It took an age to get back down. By the time we reached the palace it was about 3:30 and although we had read it was open until 4:30 it was closed for new visitors. With nothing else to do in the park we rode back to town. Posted from Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai,...
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