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Hi,
Time for another update on what we've been up to, from our 4 days in Chiang Mai...On Wednesday night we caught an overnight bus from Bangkok north-bound to Chiang Mai. This bus was like nothing we had experienced in India! Firstly, it departed on time, very promptly at 9 p.m. It was air-conditioned, perfect after the heat of Bangkok, and had almost fully reclining seats, with head-rests and blankets for sleeping. Amazing! We even had an 'air-hostess' figure on board, who made little announcements and brought round a full meal for us. Despite all these modicums of comfort we still didn't manage to sleep! We arrived, bleary-eyed at 5:30 in the morning...
When we arrived, everywhere seemed to be shut still, and we had a sense of de ja vu after Udaipur, India. However, Jo managed to find a traveller who was checking out of his room at this early hour, and he very kindly offered to give us the key and let us get a few hours sleep...Very cheeky of us! When we got up at 8 we went to the reception desk, where the receptionist gave us a puzzled expression and asked whether we wanted to check out. We instead asked if they had any rooms available...we left the key on the desk after she told us there wasn't any, and made our escape! We eventually found a really quiet and relaxing hotel nearby, with a cool water-feature and loads of plants in a shaded cafe, where we had breakfast each morning. Thursday involved lots of Wat (temple) visits. The best of these was Wat Phra Singh, which is famous for it's Lion Buddha image, though the Buddha didn't look anything like a lion (Jo and I were slightly puzzled!). It had really pretty grounds though, and good Lanna-style architecture.
On Friday we joined a Thai cookery course, an essential experience. This was loads of fun. Arriving at 9.30, we met the 4 other people doing the course with us (3 Irish and 1 Dutch) and then went to a market to buy our produce with our teacher. We also got to choose what we wanted to cook from a choice of three different items. Jo and I picked separate dishes each time to improve our repertoire, but unfortunately we didn't realise this meant we'd be spending the time cooking our dishes apart, as the different meals were cooked in different rooms! We did, however, sit together when we ate the food, and shared it between us. The course was really informative, and obviously, hands-on. We both cooked some really tasty things though! We're already planning what we would put on our menu if we did a Thai dinner party one evening! We even made our own curry pastes using a pestle and mortar before we cooked our curries. Everything was done from scratch, and it gave us a real sense of achievement when virtually all the dishes were so tasty! Even the puddings (mango with coconut-infused sticky rice and water chestnuts in coconut soup) were good! 6 courses, however, was a lot to eat...this didn't stop us from going to dinner in the evening though!
We visited the Elephant Nature Park on Saturday, which was one of our favourite experiences yet throughout the whole of our travelling. We got a minibus for an hour and half out into the Chiang Mai countryside, watching a DVD about the park and its elephants on the way. Our guide Hin, was crazy, and spent the whole day entertaining himself by doing silly things, referring to me the whole day as 'Mr. Oliver'...I particularly liked him as when I told him I supported Leicester City, he immediately said to me 'Emile Heskey' and 'Neil Lennon'! This was a really good park to visit, as at many of the others the elephants are forced to perform in shows or undertake rides with too many people on their backs for too long a period. Here we just fed the elephants, and bathed them in the river. Virtually all the elephants in the park are rescued elephants, who have had some misfortune in domestic work. The park's owner is campaigning to have all elephants listed as endangered, not domestic, animals in an effort to save the rapidly dwindling Asiatic elephant population. The setting was really beautiful, in a small valley with a river running through it and mountains rising in the background. The park had 33 elephants ranging from 7 months old (there were two really cute babies) to 80 years old. When we fed the elephants, each had their own bucket of food which had watermelons, bananas, sweetcorn and melons in them. They would reach out with their trunks, grasp the fruit from your hand, and then take it to their mouths. The trunks were really coarse and wrinkly, and extremely powerful. They can knock a human out with one swipe! Washing the elephants involved throwing buckets of water over them, and getting soaked ourselves in the process. Jo wasn't a very good aim, and managed to soak another girl!
Today we have been to a couple more wats, the best of which was Wat Doi Suthep, set on the top of a mountain in a protected national park area. You can get 306 steps when you get out of your tuk-tuk to the top of the mountain, or take the cable-car...we opted for the latter! On top it was nice and breezy, and there were really good views over the city. Inside there was a huge gold chedi (spire) and lots of Thais milling about, lighting incense sticks, paying their respects to the Buddha etc. In the evening we went to the Sunday Walking Street, literally when a whole street closes to traffic and sets up stalls and shops on either side of the street. The wats nearby host food stalls, the perfect place to refuel and people watch when the shopping became too much! We bought some different bits and bobs, and ate quite a lot as well. Our full list of food was as follows: 2 corn on the cobs, 3 sausages, 1 spring roll, 6 pieces of sushi, half a breast of honey roasted chicken, 4 barbecued pork sticks, 5 mini doughnuts and 1 waffle. The total price: 4 pounds between us. Amazing!
Tomorrow we go on to Chiang Rai, right in the far north of the country. We're planning to do a hill trek, before we cross the border into Laos either on Wednesday or Thursday! Hope everyone's good,
Ollie and Jo xx
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