The rest of our train journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was very very long and uncomfortable! A few hours in, they gave us some really fishy rice, which I think the only purpose for giving us it was to make us all feel a bit sick! We did arrive late as expected, but on the whole it was an uneventful 13 hour journey.
We took a taxi from the station to our hostel called Gong Kaew in the old town of Chiang Mai. We had heard and saw the old town looked very nice, it's surrounded by a moat and still has the remains and parts of the wall that used to surround the town. Chiang Mai has now greatly expanded around the old town, packed with temples on every other street and trees and flowers, I thought it was a really nice place.
It was about 10pm when we arrived at our hostel but found it all chained and locked up! As we has been travelling since 11am the previous day, this was the last thing we wanted! The taxi driver tried to shout to get someones attention, and another man appeared from nowhere and offered to phone the office. On the whole, everyone is so friendly over here, they've really helped us out when we've been stuck and it makes things much easier! Eventually a little man came and after some mix up with keys, he let us in. The place was nice, clean and the owners friendly, although, this hostel may have the squeekiest and most uncomfortable beds so far! But it does have free tea, coffee, hot chocolate and toast 24 hours a day! Bonus!
The next day we had a slow start and did some much needed clothes washing. Jade still wasn't feeling too good so we took it easy.
We went for a late lunch then hired a tuk tuk for the afternoon which took us around a few temples in the old town. Every single one of these is set in large grounds and are so grand with countless statues to worship to. Plus the inner and outer decor is flawless and extremely impressive. Similarly, when we were on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, every half hour or so, there would be a humongous golden Buddha or statue rising out of the hillside. However, around these would be a couple of corrugated metal shacks where people live. It's such a contrast of wealth and grandness. But when visiting the temples, people go and donate a lot of money to the places and monks there. Religion seems to have a very large influence on Thai life for people of all ages. We were at one temple the monks were called to pray and a lot of them were really young.
As the temples began to shut we headed over to the night bazaar and market. This was really nice, selling locally made bits as well as anything else you might need. I well recommend it for anyone who visits Chiang Mai. Anything you wanted to buy, you have to barter the price down (Mum, you would love it!) so we had some fun with that!
The next day, we hired a tuk tuk driver for the day costing us about £2 each! We first went to the Tiger Kingdom where you go in the enclosures with some of the tigers. There were four categories to choose from, the big, medium, small and smallest tigers. We all chose to go in with the smallest 1-2 month old tigers. These were very cute with a couple of the littlest ones being very sleepy, while the others were more playful. Sally, Ruth and me then chose to go in with the biggest tigers which were massive! A park warden stayed with you all the time and walked you to each tiger. There is some debate here whether the tigers are sedated, which I think may be true as they were very relaxed, but they did play and walk around and chase things the trainers threw for them. Plus, they have all been reared in the kingdom and in the wild would sleep for 18 hours of a day anyway. Like I say I'm not sure if they are sedated, but they seem healthy and live for longer in captivity than the wild so cruel or not, I'm undecided! We did enjoy it though!
From here, the tuk tuk driver took us up over some big hills to the elephant safari. Sally, Ruth and me took an elephant ride through the jungle to see some of the local hill tribes. My elephant was a bit younger and cheekier, taking different paths, stopping to eat, or just turning around all the time! Jade has been before so saved her cash and met us at the hill tribes. Even these were a bit of a con as it was basically just a big market where you felt you had to buy their goods. A lot of the women we saw making scarves and showed you how they were doing it and they were very nice. We then went to see the long neck tribes, where the female members wear metal rings around their necks and parts of their legs to elongate them. I felt a bit rude as you just go to look at them, so to compensate, you buy something from their stall! Also, as we were walking over, one of the younger girls was on her phone, then saw us so quickly hid it and put her hat and beads on! It was nice of her to keep up the act for us! Still, it was interesting to see.
That evening we headed back over to the night bazaar to eat and pick up some last bits and bobs. We were then lured into a free ladyboy cabaret show, which was advertised to us as 'one of the greatest shows on earth!' After watching it, I can tell you it wasn't! It was a good laugh though!
Today we took a taxi to a temple just outside the city called Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep on Doi Suthep mountain. We took the 306 steps up and had a look around. From up here we got some really good views of the city and the temple was really nice. We got our fortunes (which were good and bad) and were blessed by one of the monks.
After this we came back as we were taking a bus overnight to Laos. We stopped off for something to eat and got a tuk tuk to take us back to our hostel, but it got us lost! So we were a bit late, I found it stressful rushing around! But it turns out the bus was going to be an hour and a half late so there was no need to panic!
So, it is currently 6am and we have been dropped off at some service station again in the middle of nowhere!
I think we have rated this as the worst journey so far. We were picked up last so have been sat in the most uncomfortable seats on a tiny minibus for hours. We thought the boat was bumpy, but turns out this was even worse! I think the driver is about 12 and likes to emergency stop every minute or so. His other favourite trick is to overtake everything but then not have enough time to get back in the line of traffic before another car comes the other way, so instead, he swerves onto the dust track at the side of the road! Therefore, we can't sleep, though the man next to me doesn't seem to have that problem, he's been sleeping on my arm the whole 8 hours so far!
So, at 5.3am we were kicked off the bus into a service station and told to fill in our visa forms for Laos. They also gave us a fried egg sandwich and a coffee so I guess it isn't all bad! I think we're waiting for immigration to open on the Thai/Laos border so we've got another hour and a half to wait. Then I think we've got another 4 hour bus ride on the other side of immigration to get to our destination of Vang Vieng in Laos.
Seeing all the different places is good, and I know there's worse things in life, but some of the physical travelling around is tiring! I think we've spent half of this week sleep deprived on public transport! But hopefully that will be the part we forget!
Amy x