Share Chiang Mai, Thailand
← Navigate the gallery by thumbnails, swiping, left & right arrows & enable full screen. →
What I did…
The Coach to Chiang Mai
To say this was horrid is an understatement! Jase summed it up about 8 hours into the 13 hour journey… “If any of us end up going to hell, this is how you will be taken!” … The suspension was shot on the bus so we were flying around the place at the 1st sign of a crack in the road! The seats constantly squeaked for the whole 13 hours so sleeping was out the question! We arrived in Chiang Mai at about 7 am the following day after no sleep at all and very little food!
Off bus, no sleep, shattered! Got taken into Chiang Mai by a small pickup truck with me and about 9 others seated on the back. Next thing we know we are skidding to a halt… whack … guy on a motorbike under the front of the car!! The guy just picks himself up from under our pickup, gets his bike to the side of the road to dust himself down… the we just drove off as if nothing happened! Hit and run? YES … Did they care? NO! Unbelievable!
Eventually after about a 30 min walk we found Libra House where we were recommended to stay. .. Not least after seeing two lady-boys ride past us on a motorbike at 7.30 am! Very obvious and very weird… Rare!
Went through our options for Jungle trekking with our hostel owner… we are going for 5 days on Monday 11 Oct… Sounds amazing!
Had a stroll around the day market and saw some really weird stuff! Live crickets to eat, eels to eat, snails, turtles to keep as pets and a mound of dried chilli’s big enough to keep you on fire for eternity! After this we were feeling so tired so decided to go for a Thai full body massage! Cost 100 bht which is about 2 gbp… Jason got the guy, hahahaha… The massage was pure pain, she was standing on me a snapping my back and allsorts! Pure pain during, but so relaxing after…
I met American Kevin, South African Anja, Nat from Saaarf Laaandaaan… although she had an aussy accent! lol and Nick from New Zeland. We all walked up to the Night Market to get some food and just generally mooch about. Ended up with a couple of Mojitos in a bar called The Local… right next door to bed! It had been about 36 hours with no sleep… I was straight to sleep in bed, great nights sleep ready for day 2 in Chiang Mai.
Pad Thai curry for breakfast and then me Jase and Ed hire bicyles for the day… me and Jase got pink bikes that made us look even more homo than we prob did anyway! Ah well, ur on holiday, who gives a …. what you look like!
Rode round Chiang Mai city on bikes. Went to temples Wat Morkhamthuang, Wat Phasingh, Wat Chedilunag and Wat Sandok… we went to the Buak Hadd park and acted like the small children we are and played on the random objects the park had to offer… massive kids!
Rode bikes up a massive hill to this lake side bar that overlooked the whole of Chiang Mai. I was the only one who made it up the hill on the bike, the others had to push… not showing off, just saying it was one steep hill (and they are weak!).
Had some lunch lakeside and then set off back into Chiang Mai city. We decided to get to know the back roads so got off the Motorway, I know… bicyles on the motorway… we got a little lost and nearly died a few times but we eventually just started cutting everyone else up as they were doing to us…
As it started to get dark decided to tramp it up with a Chang beer on the side of the road. We returned the bikes, got washed and fed (Thai Green Curry) with a big group of people from our guest house. Ended up very drunk in some random bar and did not get in til 5am. Night highlights… Played pool, chipped white into some random thai guys back… not pleased! Hip Hop rave with Ed, Jase and Anja. Taked to a Thai ‘girl’ on way home, before running off after concluding she was a he, or used to be a he… or just looked slighly manley… either way I was outta there. Honest!
Got up really late due to hangover. Showed lads pic I got of Thai ‘girl’ from night before. They concluded great swerve! Phew. Had a walk to a local market in afternoon. Brought stupid Mexican Sombreros for the Jungle trek! Why? God only knows. We looked like a right set of tools. Went on the inet for a few hours to do some blogging. Went out to another local market for dinner. Had a great banana and milk pancake for desert! Kevin’s last night before flying back to the States so we all went out for beers to send him off. Had quite a few shots of Samsung but held up quite well.
Went to local market to get some shite t-shirts for trekking with Jase, Ed and Kev. Went for lunch in a bar round the corner called JJ’s Bar… and where is the owner from? Wolver-bloody-hampton! Had to shoot off back to our guest house for our breifing about Jungle trekking. After the hour meeting 6-7 we went to the Sunday night market… oh my god that thing was huge! We walked for hours and still got nowhere near seeing it all… it seemed like the whole city was just one huge market! Great place to get souveners but there is no way I’m going to carry them round for 5 months! Fiona moved onto Laos so we all said our bye for now… no doubt meet again soon!