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Roaminallover-Here, There and Everywhere
We headed north from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand with a population of around 200,000 depending on whose stats you read. It's a popular place on the tourist trail so has its share of cafes, temples and visitors. Despite that it's an interesting place and we had no problem filling our nine days.
When we booked the accommodation we weren't too sure whether nine days might be stretching things, but we knew we had to organise our Myanmar (Burma) visa, and could travel out from the city to various local sites, so we went ahead. Deciding to stay turned out to be a good choice, and a longer stop now and again is always a good chance to catch it on the laundry. The climate is generally cooler here and less humid, although it still touched 35 degrees around midday on a few days. Consequently it's not been so easy to get the washing dry in our room. At least that's my excuse for taking it to the laundry woman. 40-50bahts (about 60-80p) for a kilo of washing seems fair to me, and it gives John time off from his laundry chores.... (Tee hee)
Whilst we've been here we've done lots of walking, although the increased beer intake seems to have negated any potential weight loss. We usually try and avoid tours as we don't like being herded around, rushed from one place to another- but booking through an agent seemed to be the only way we could see some of the things we wanted to try and visit whilst we were here. We ended up booking trips to the elephants, and a day learning Thai cooking. We also booked a one day tour which included visits to hot springs, one of the hill tribes, and the famous White Temple near Chiang Rai. The tour also included a chance to visit the Golden triangle, originally famous for illicit opium production, and take a short boat trip on the Mekong at the point where the three countries of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet. Despite spending time on all these trips we even managed to fit in for John to play a round of golf, AND we got the Myanmar visas!!
Our day with the elephants was the first of the trips out of Chiang Mai. First we had to visit the market with Eddy, the elephant owner, to buy bananas and sugar cane, so we could ingratiate ourselves with our respective elephants. Then we headed off into the hills. After donning our mahout outfits, we were taught how to communicate verbally with the elephants. The six of us in our group repeated each of the commands in unison, all feeling very proud that we would soon be able to control our own elephants. Then we were off..... Looking forward to a rewarding rapport with our elephants. It turned out elephants are not so dumb. The first two we met were Hamoon and Jenny. At 38 Hammoon was older, and significantly larger than 9 year old Jenny. We were shown how to feed them and then given a chance to feed them ourselves. Hamoon turned out to be a gentle old dear (not sure why I'm calling her an old dear as they can live into their nineties). She would allow you to put the fruit into her mouth or the end of her trunk. Jenny on the other hand was a little madam and would try and cadge extra fruit whilst holding onto her stash in her trunk.
Having established we could feed them, the next step was to learn how to get on, as we were going to ride them bareback. Fortunately the experienced mahoots were on hand to give the commands to the elephants, who were told to raise a leg so we could use it as a step up. Having stepped onto the elephants leg we were then supposed to be able to swing a leg over the elephants back and sit just in front of its shoulder blades. The whole thing proved easier said than done, but after a bit of pushing from behind I was eventually perched precariously, but thankfully facing the right way, atop Hamoon. Giving the command to start walking she set off, with me precariously gripping the top of her head for dear life. She seemed happy enough, (apparently flapping ears are a sign of enjoyment) although I wasn't so chuffed as her big leathery ears slapped on my legs.) I'm not even going to try and describe how you get down, needless to say I can report an elephants hide is certainly rough, and it was a long way to the floor.
After lunch we were all due to ride our respective jumbos through the jungle and down to the river. We all marched down to the elephant corral, excited at the prospect of an afternoon with our respective pachyderms. John and I had booked to share an elephant, as had the young French couple. The other French couple were taking one each, so we needed 2 extra elephants. Enter stage left Egg, and a nice calm young female. Egg was a huge male elephant who turned out to have a mind of his own. Guess who was allocated Egg? This time we were allowed to climb on from a raised platform which made the whole process a lot easier, at least until I tried to hotch forward of his shoulder blades as instructed and nearly slid off. I don't know who got the biggest scare, me or Egg when I grabbed his ears. I suspect that he realised from that point on that he had a couple of numpties on board. We set off at slow pace, John and I trying to remember how to pronounce the command for "go on", at the same time as me kicking the back of his ears, as instructed by the mahoots. Thankfully he seemed happy enough to just keep going until he spotted something potentially tasty en route, and we would deviate off. All I can say is it's a good job we had the mahoot to get him back on track. Our Elephant lingo is obviously as bad as our Thai. It was as much as the two of us could do to stay on top.. As we got closer to the river we were just concerned about making it down the bank, going downhill when you are sitting on it's back with nothing to hold but the top of its head is pretty scary. Our relief was short lived when we got to the bottom, as Egg decided it would be great fun to swing his trunk through the water soaking John and I In the process. I guess he got his own back on us. Having successfully negotiated the river without a soaking the others were looking pretty smug, so after we'd all given our elephants a scrub Eddie, the elephant owner, organised a photo shoot. The elephants, encouraged by their mahoots thought this would be a great time to shower all the trainees, so everyone ended up soaked. All in all a great day was had by all, and we had the added bonus of being able to spend time with all the broods of chickens that were running around too.
Thursday saw us off to cooking school. John and I were nursing some sore inner thighs from our day stretched over the elephant, so we were looking forward to a less energetic day. We had a fantastic venue, cooking outdoors in a covered kitchen area. There were six of us for the day course all keen to learn how to differentiate our Pandanas leaves from our kaffir lime, and our sticky from our jasmine rice. Throughout the day we each cooked six different aspects of a Thai meal- curry paste, curry, salad, stir fry, soup, and dessert, eating the results as we went along, and consequently getting more sluggish. By the time we got to Mango sticky rice we were definitely finding it harder to get back to the kitchen.
We did have an after-lunch excursion to try and blow away the post lunch cobwebs- having a guided tour of a local produce market. It gave us all a chance to ask the questions we'd been storing about the various things we had seen on food stalls and in the city markets. We also had our first insect taste experience - cocoon. (Also known as butterfly pupae). Not wishing to offend the stall holder, who was struggling to disguise her laughter, we each tried one of the pupae. Fortunately they had been marinated in some form of brown coating, and were definitely motionless. Now I don't know about you, but although a big fan of Haribo gums, I'm less keen on those that contain any liquid inside. You know the ones that squirt all over the inside of you mouth when you bite into them. I made sure there was no chance of this happening and warily put it in my mouth. Almost in unison John and I agreed they had a prawn taste, and weren't unpleasant, although It might be a while before I order a bag full.
As we moved around the market, being introduced to a host of ingredients we don't see or use at home, we became aware of the diversity of foods utilised by the Thais. The market was full of both fresh and cooked foods. Lots of fish, both fresh and dried, which assumed the strangest shapes. The mackerel looked quite odd as their heads were at 90degrees to their body, and others had been dried to the point where they were so distorted it was difficult to tell what they were, except by the smell of course. One of the highlights for me was the chance to buy a piece of Bamboo sticky rice. I had seen people filling bamboo tubes with rice on TV programmes about Asia, and just assumed the bamboo was taking the place of a cooking pot. In actual fact the bamboo is much more than that, as it can act as the lunch box as well. The rice is gently steamed inside a bamboo tube, and when cooked you just peel back the bamboo like a banana to reveal a tube of perfectly cooked sticky rice. Fast food on the go.
All in all a successful few days which prepared us for the rest of out time in Chiang Mai.
When we booked the accommodation we weren't too sure whether nine days might be stretching things, but we knew we had to organise our Myanmar (Burma) visa, and could travel out from the city to various local sites, so we went ahead. Deciding to stay turned out to be a good choice, and a longer stop now and again is always a good chance to catch it on the laundry. The climate is generally cooler here and less humid, although it still touched 35 degrees around midday on a few days. Consequently it's not been so easy to get the washing dry in our room. At least that's my excuse for taking it to the laundry woman. 40-50bahts (about 60-80p) for a kilo of washing seems fair to me, and it gives John time off from his laundry chores.... (Tee hee)
Whilst we've been here we've done lots of walking, although the increased beer intake seems to have negated any potential weight loss. We usually try and avoid tours as we don't like being herded around, rushed from one place to another- but booking through an agent seemed to be the only way we could see some of the things we wanted to try and visit whilst we were here. We ended up booking trips to the elephants, and a day learning Thai cooking. We also booked a one day tour which included visits to hot springs, one of the hill tribes, and the famous White Temple near Chiang Rai. The tour also included a chance to visit the Golden triangle, originally famous for illicit opium production, and take a short boat trip on the Mekong at the point where the three countries of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet. Despite spending time on all these trips we even managed to fit in for John to play a round of golf, AND we got the Myanmar visas!!
Our day with the elephants was the first of the trips out of Chiang Mai. First we had to visit the market with Eddy, the elephant owner, to buy bananas and sugar cane, so we could ingratiate ourselves with our respective elephants. Then we headed off into the hills. After donning our mahout outfits, we were taught how to communicate verbally with the elephants. The six of us in our group repeated each of the commands in unison, all feeling very proud that we would soon be able to control our own elephants. Then we were off..... Looking forward to a rewarding rapport with our elephants. It turned out elephants are not so dumb. The first two we met were Hamoon and Jenny. At 38 Hammoon was older, and significantly larger than 9 year old Jenny. We were shown how to feed them and then given a chance to feed them ourselves. Hamoon turned out to be a gentle old dear (not sure why I'm calling her an old dear as they can live into their nineties). She would allow you to put the fruit into her mouth or the end of her trunk. Jenny on the other hand was a little madam and would try and cadge extra fruit whilst holding onto her stash in her trunk.
Having established we could feed them, the next step was to learn how to get on, as we were going to ride them bareback. Fortunately the experienced mahoots were on hand to give the commands to the elephants, who were told to raise a leg so we could use it as a step up. Having stepped onto the elephants leg we were then supposed to be able to swing a leg over the elephants back and sit just in front of its shoulder blades. The whole thing proved easier said than done, but after a bit of pushing from behind I was eventually perched precariously, but thankfully facing the right way, atop Hamoon. Giving the command to start walking she set off, with me precariously gripping the top of her head for dear life. She seemed happy enough, (apparently flapping ears are a sign of enjoyment) although I wasn't so chuffed as her big leathery ears slapped on my legs.) I'm not even going to try and describe how you get down, needless to say I can report an elephants hide is certainly rough, and it was a long way to the floor.
After lunch we were all due to ride our respective jumbos through the jungle and down to the river. We all marched down to the elephant corral, excited at the prospect of an afternoon with our respective pachyderms. John and I had booked to share an elephant, as had the young French couple. The other French couple were taking one each, so we needed 2 extra elephants. Enter stage left Egg, and a nice calm young female. Egg was a huge male elephant who turned out to have a mind of his own. Guess who was allocated Egg? This time we were allowed to climb on from a raised platform which made the whole process a lot easier, at least until I tried to hotch forward of his shoulder blades as instructed and nearly slid off. I don't know who got the biggest scare, me or Egg when I grabbed his ears. I suspect that he realised from that point on that he had a couple of numpties on board. We set off at slow pace, John and I trying to remember how to pronounce the command for "go on", at the same time as me kicking the back of his ears, as instructed by the mahoots. Thankfully he seemed happy enough to just keep going until he spotted something potentially tasty en route, and we would deviate off. All I can say is it's a good job we had the mahoot to get him back on track. Our Elephant lingo is obviously as bad as our Thai. It was as much as the two of us could do to stay on top.. As we got closer to the river we were just concerned about making it down the bank, going downhill when you are sitting on it's back with nothing to hold but the top of its head is pretty scary. Our relief was short lived when we got to the bottom, as Egg decided it would be great fun to swing his trunk through the water soaking John and I In the process. I guess he got his own back on us. Having successfully negotiated the river without a soaking the others were looking pretty smug, so after we'd all given our elephants a scrub Eddie, the elephant owner, organised a photo shoot. The elephants, encouraged by their mahoots thought this would be a great time to shower all the trainees, so everyone ended up soaked. All in all a great day was had by all, and we had the added bonus of being able to spend time with all the broods of chickens that were running around too.
Thursday saw us off to cooking school. John and I were nursing some sore inner thighs from our day stretched over the elephant, so we were looking forward to a less energetic day. We had a fantastic venue, cooking outdoors in a covered kitchen area. There were six of us for the day course all keen to learn how to differentiate our Pandanas leaves from our kaffir lime, and our sticky from our jasmine rice. Throughout the day we each cooked six different aspects of a Thai meal- curry paste, curry, salad, stir fry, soup, and dessert, eating the results as we went along, and consequently getting more sluggish. By the time we got to Mango sticky rice we were definitely finding it harder to get back to the kitchen.
We did have an after-lunch excursion to try and blow away the post lunch cobwebs- having a guided tour of a local produce market. It gave us all a chance to ask the questions we'd been storing about the various things we had seen on food stalls and in the city markets. We also had our first insect taste experience - cocoon. (Also known as butterfly pupae). Not wishing to offend the stall holder, who was struggling to disguise her laughter, we each tried one of the pupae. Fortunately they had been marinated in some form of brown coating, and were definitely motionless. Now I don't know about you, but although a big fan of Haribo gums, I'm less keen on those that contain any liquid inside. You know the ones that squirt all over the inside of you mouth when you bite into them. I made sure there was no chance of this happening and warily put it in my mouth. Almost in unison John and I agreed they had a prawn taste, and weren't unpleasant, although It might be a while before I order a bag full.
As we moved around the market, being introduced to a host of ingredients we don't see or use at home, we became aware of the diversity of foods utilised by the Thais. The market was full of both fresh and cooked foods. Lots of fish, both fresh and dried, which assumed the strangest shapes. The mackerel looked quite odd as their heads were at 90degrees to their body, and others had been dried to the point where they were so distorted it was difficult to tell what they were, except by the smell of course. One of the highlights for me was the chance to buy a piece of Bamboo sticky rice. I had seen people filling bamboo tubes with rice on TV programmes about Asia, and just assumed the bamboo was taking the place of a cooking pot. In actual fact the bamboo is much more than that, as it can act as the lunch box as well. The rice is gently steamed inside a bamboo tube, and when cooked you just peel back the bamboo like a banana to reveal a tube of perfectly cooked sticky rice. Fast food on the go.
All in all a successful few days which prepared us for the rest of out time in Chiang Mai.
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