Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the northern capital of Thailand and is about 700 km from Bangkok, closer to the mountains in the north of the country. This was to be our first stop in Thailand, and we had 10 days planned here to ease into the Thai life, including Paddy's day in the sun.

Our landing at Bangkok started badly as my guidebook is 2 years old and hasn't any info on the new airport or onward connections, but after a little bit of confusion, we simply hopped on the first bus heading or the train station. We weren't going to be staying in bangkok and needed to get the overnight sleeper train from bangkok, which we hadn't actually booked yet as the train site was quite hard to use being mainly in Thai. When we got to the station, the only tickets available were 2nd class but we had read that this was fine..... which it was, although as with most things in Asia, not built for 6 footers! The train journey was alright, not exactly restful, but bearable. Emma slept right through it again.

One of the highlights of our trip to Chiang Mai, was a Thai cooking course that I wanted to do and Emma signed up as well. We checked a few out online and booked with "A Lot of Thai" which I would highly recommend if any of you find yourself in this part of the world. We booked for 2 days which covered most dishes I wanted to learn and some basic Thai cooking skills like making your own curry paste. we were picked up each day by Kwan and Yui, the married couple who run the school Yui is the teacher and her poor hubby runs around after her ferrying students back and forth (his real job is freelance graphic designer and he designed the cookbooks we got at the end of the course, which were very nice) On the course, we are shown how to cook each dish with explanations of why and how certain things are done and then you get to have a try yourself. Everyone then sits down and eats what they have just cooked....as Christy Moore once said, its an awful job trying to eat all day. Each day you try 6 dishes with a break at lunch to do a different activity. On day 1, we toured the local market and Yui showed u what the ingredients all look like raw and how to buy them when fresh. Not sure how useful that will be when I try and find them in the local Wing Yip, but an interesting diversion. On the 2nd day, we learn how to make your own curry paste, its definitely easier to buy it, as it involves a lot of work with a pestle and mortar. It was definitely worth doing and I'll be sure to show off some dishes when i get back

Chiang Mai is a great place, it is really relaxed and has a nice vibe about it. The centre of town, where most of th touristy stuff is located is small enough that you can walk to most places and ignore the numerous tuk-tuk drivers who are always looking for business, but rarely annoying about it. When you do need to take a tuk-tuk anywhere, it seemed like the standard fare was 50 Baht. (Having chatted to a few people around town, this seemed to be the same for everyone, not just rip off a tourist rates). I think they are a great way of getting around a city, quick, compact and when new, relatively eco-friendly. It was also the hottest place we have been so far, and the average temp was 34 degrees, but with low humidity so it was comfortable enough.

The city has a lot of Buddhist temples and you could easily spend most of your days seeing them if you were inclined. However, as the are all fairly similar, we only really checked out 2 of the most famous, Wat Phra Sing, and Wat Doi Suthep. These are linked as WPS holds a holy relic believed to be the shoulder bone of Buddha, and when it was first placed in the temple, it split into 2 pieces. The king at the time, then placed the 2nd half of it in a shrine on the back of a white elephant and let it roam the land to find a resting place for the relic. The elephant walked off for a few days and wandered up the mountain, it is then said to have come to a stop, trumpeted 3 times and then fallen down dead. The king then ordered the building of a new monastery on this site which is now Doi Suthep. This is one of the most holy sites in Thailand, so we got a cab up the mountain to get a look. When you get there, you have to climb the 309 steps from the entrance into the main bit of the temple, hard work in this weather! One of the most surprising things about the Buddhist temples, is the sheer volume of money making opportunities that they have inside them, the catholic church has definitely missed a trick in comparison. All around the layout there are separate Buddha icons and little temples, all with collection boxes in front, they even have an ATM within the temple walls, just in case you don't have any cash on you!!!!

I also went to watch the Muay Thai boxing, although Emma stayed at home as it wasn't really her thing. So with a few guys from the hostel, we went along to watch. If you have never seen a fight, its an interesting experience. There is so much ceremony involved and it gets a bit dull after a while. First the boxers bow to each corner of the ring and then they have to perform a dance which shows off their athleticism to each side of the stadium and after all that, then they are allowed to fight. While all this is going on, there is a really annoying band playing pipe music in the background. Watch the videos and you will get a good idea of what goes on.

As I said, we also planned to spend Paddy's day in Chiang Mai. But the options are quite limited in the town. We scoped out the options earlier in the week and there were 2 Irish bars in town. One is O Malleys, in the centre of the night market, which looks the part, but is crap. Its a food orientated pub, which didn't even show the Ireland vs England game. The other is called the UN Irish bar, which is a bit more basic,but at least it had Irish people in it most days. We actually went to a quiz night in this bar, but didn't do very well as there was a strong American slant to the questions. We came 11th of 21 which was reasonable i guess. Rather than spend all day in the pub, we spent the day on a trek into the mountains, which is another thing Chiang Mai is well known for. It involved an hour trek to see a native hill tribe, followed by lunch, a trip to a waterfall, some bamboo rafting and ended with elephant riding. The elephant riding was a highlight, although you have to feel sorry for these great animals trekking round in circles 2 or 3 times a day. still, its better than working for a logging firm like most did before moving into tourism. We ended the day in the pub for some well earned beers. With a Thai singer churning out Irish songs, a token Dub that we had picked up as a drinking partner and a very strange Aussie bloke who ws in thailand getting his teeth fixed on the cheap and kept telling us about it. Thats about it from Chiang Mai....next stop the Thai islands. As we managed to get a cheap flight to Phuket, that is our first stop and then Phi Phi, Krabi before going across to Ko Samui for a few days in a spa.