Day 88: Planning in Chiang Mai

Although we'd extended our stay in Chiang Mai for another two days without really doing anything, we decided to use this downtime to do a bit of planning. So we had a hotel breakfast and then retreated back up to the room where we essentially settled in for the day.

A productive morning saw us book a hotel in Pai for our next stop (a hippy mountain town a few hours north-west of Chiang Mai), flights from Chiang Mai to Kuala Lumpur on September 17th (the day our Thai visas run out), an overnight hotel in KL, return flights from KL to Brunei for that week to check it out, a hotel in Brunei, tickets for the Malaysian Formula 1 grand prix on October 2, and a hotel to stay at in Manila during Shandos's blogging conference in mid-October. Productive!

So our plan is essentially at the moment, a few days in Pai, a few days .. somewhere, in the north of Thailand before flying to KL on the 17th of September. 18th and 19th we will spend in Brunei, then we've got a couple of uncommitted weeks in Malaysia (maybe the Cameron Highlands) before the Formula 1 GP over the weekend of October 1/2. We will likely head for the Philippines just after this, and spend probably most of October there. After that it'll ideally be Myanmar in November for a few weeks, then a few weeks .. somewhere, before heading home. And that's about the most concrete plan we've had in quite a while!

Ducked out for a burger at lunch from a modern hipster restaurant a few blocks away, before retreating back to the room. Shandos ventured out in the afternoon to do a bit of shopping and get a hair cut, while I did a bit of Skyping.

As evening approached we decided to head for the Chiang Mai walking street markets. This is a large street market that only happens on Sunday nights and has all sorts of stuff - handicrafts, clothes, artworks, food and drink, electronics, and so on. I was pleasantly surprised with this market, since I was expecting more of the usual elephant pants, Chang singlets and "Same Same But Different" t-shirts, but there was a good amount of variety here.

Unfortunately the skies were quite gloomy, and it was lightly sprinkling rain. We got a few hundred metres down the street before the heavens opened and a tropical downpour thundered away. We managed to duck across into the forecourt of a hotel without getting too wet, and we even found a couple of seats to occupy! After 30 minutes or so the rain hadn't eased (in fact it had gotten heavier), so we ordered beers and waited. Beers finished, and after we'd been there for 90 minutes or so the rain was just as intense as ever. Time to head back to the hotel!

Shandos was OK since she'd borrowed an umbrella from reception, but it wasn't large enough for both of us! I managed about 20 metres before my left arm was completely drenched, and spotted a lady doing a roaring trade in plastic ponchos. Only 30 baht ($1.20 AUD) which surprised me - I would've gladly paid 100 baht! Poncho on, I was completely comfortable since it covered me down to mid-shin, and who cares if your thongs get wet, right? As we approached the start of the market it was apparent the street's drainage was completely ill-equipped for the torrent of water - the street was entirely submerged up to ankle depth, and some of the stall holders looked very nervous!

Oh well, thongs off and just wade through! No street food for us tonight, we ended up getting a takeaway pizza from the Italian restaurant we'd eaten at a few nights previous and eating it in the room. I also drank my bottle of Siamsato, a local cross between malt liquor and rice wine which was .. interesting. It smelt like rotten cabbage but tasted a lot better. It's just funny because they sell it in beer bottles, next to the beer fridges in the 7-11, so a lot of people buy it expecting cheap beer! I wouldn't buy it again, but at least I tried it.Read more