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Sorry for the delay. We are still alive!
We spent our last day in Bangkok doing a cycle/boat tour which was absolutely superb. We visited loads of little back streets which we would never have seen otherwise, toured all the small canals that surround the city and cycled through plantations which were absolutely beautiful. After the tour we headed back to the hotel for a last swim before heading to the bus station to start out journey to Chiang Mai. The bus was great and we had loads of space as it wasn't very full. It took just over 9 hours and we arrived a little after 6am in Chiang Mai.
We jumped in our first "red van" which is basically a pick up truck with seats in the bed of the truck and found the hostel. We checked in and both promptly fell asleep in the lounge area. After a few hours sleep we found some breakfast and the hostel owner gave us some good ideas as to what to do on our first day. Chiang Mai isn't very big and it is easy to walk everywhere or alternatively jump in a tuk tuk or red van which cost next to nothing. We visited a few temples in the old city and had a walk down the Main Street. It's a lovely place and feels like a different country from Bangkok as everyone is very relaxed and takes things slow compared to the franticness of Bangkok.
After we got our bearings and our legs started to tire after 5 hours of walking, we headed back to the hostel for happy hour. 3 bottles of local beer are £2 so we are pretty happy with that. After more than a few beers we headed to the night bazaar to have a wonder round with the aim of ending up at a cabaret show with lady boys/drag queens which we had heard about and is supposed to be hilariously fantastic. We got a little side tracked however and stayed in a bar where a really good band were covering English songs. Although the lead singer was excellent her accent made some of the songs sound hilarious. After they had finished we found the cabaret show but unfortunately it was just finishing so we are planning to head their tonight.
Today was another full day of walking and we started off by heading up to a temple at the top of one of the mountains that surrounds Chiang Mai. As it was a Saturday the temple was packed but it was interesting to see how all the locals prayed and laid flowers/money/gifts on various shrines. We also both got blessed by a monk who threw rather a lot of water other us in the process. We think we probably looked rather hot and was trying to cool us down as well as do this blessing procedure!
We got a red van back into town and went to a local "travel agent" as we needed to book our way to Luang Prabang in Laos on Thursday. We ended up going for a 3 day, 2 night trip on a slow boat along the Mekong river. I think the 3 days will be anything but luxurious but it is by far the cheapest way of getting there and should be quite fun! While at the "travel agent" we also booked a trek with them which we are going to do tomorrow. It includes seeing the local elephants, swimming in waterfalls, bamboo rafting, hiking and last the whole day. I will tell you more after we have done it!
This afternoon we decided we needed some air conditioning so decided to go to the 3D art museum. The museum consists of large murals painted on the wall that when you look at them from the right position, they appear 3D. The museum was excellent and we have some great photos that we will share with everyone soon!
We are back at the hostel now showering up before heading out. We have decided to have our first western food since we arrived almost a week ago and found a nice looking Mexican place not to far from us. Afterwards we are going to go to the cabaret show which should we a really good laugh!
- comments
mum/ Nikki Full on days! Sounds like you are having a great time!
Nana and Grandad Thank you for the update, it all sounds amazing, hope you enjoy your river cruise! Love you Nana and Grandad xx