Thailand
Chang Klan

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    • Day 7

      Chiang Mai

      October 5, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      Voll bepackt ging es gestern Mittags raus aus unserer Appartement Komfortzone... Tickets abholen... Zeit rum bringen und dann endlich in unseren Nachtzug in den Norden...besser gesagt in die Kühltruhe... endlich mal wieder zwei Hosen an...
      Eindrucksvoll schneller Umbau des Zuges in ein Stockbettenlager, muss man schon sagen.
      Nach wenig Schlaf (unser Biorhythmus... Daniels Lieblingswort 😉... Hell und laut) gönnen wir uns im ersten Restaurant am Bahnhof in Chiang Mai ein feines Frühstück, das uns wieder a bisl in Schwung brachte. Die Kinder lieben unser neues Apartment in der Chinesenvorstadtsiedlung. Daniel und ich finden die Chinesen dann doch etwas langweilig und spießig. Alles sieht gleich aus 🥚🥚🥚🥚und wir irgendwie so anders 🍳🍳🍳🍳🍳...
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    • Day 8

      Tempel, Pool und Alltagsgeschichten

      October 6, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

      Gerade erst bemerkt 🤓💡, versuchen wir das rasante Tempo, des Fluges, der Megacity Bangkok, der Bahnreise,... von uns abzuschütteln. Unser aller Körper stellen sich auch allmählich auf den hier herrschenden Rhythmus ein. Und manches ist wie immer 😂...Read more

    • Day 13

      Rundum chiang mai

      October 11, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

      Mittlerweile haben wir uns schon ganz gut eingelebt und finden mehr und mehr in unseren Reise Rhythmus: halb zehn Frühstück, dann lernen, am Nachmittag was unternehmen, wie sticky waterfalls, canyon oder art in paradise... Oder auch mal einen Tag rum hängen und am Abend einen bunten Markt besuchen und fein dinnieren.
      Obwohl wir uns jetzt, nach Bangkok und chiang mai, der zweitgrößten Stadt in Thailand, schon auf unsere nächste Station, das wesentlich beschauliche chianrai freuen, wo es morgen hingeht. Denn vom Zimmer aus ein bisschen Natur zu sehen, fühlt nach zwei Wochen city life für uns country Boys and Girls jetzt sehr verlockend an :)
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    • Day 2

      Day 1 - The Long Haul to Thailand

      December 11, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

      At 6.00am the taxi arrived to take us to Hickstead to connect to the National Express coach to Heathrow for our next trip. All pretty uneventful.

      Check in at Heathrow was quick but chaotic, then we boarded the Thai Airways A380 with 500 other passengers which included way too many paedophile or sex tourism old men for
      my liking. The 10 hour flight passed without incident. The service on Thai Airways was pretty good, much better than the last couple of times we had flown with Emirates.

      I had been looking forward to watching a couple of the inflight movies, but I managed to mislay my Thai Airways headphones despite hunting high & low around my seat for them. My personal earphones wouldn’t work in the seat socket, so I was reduced to watching bits & pieces on my iPad.

      As we commenced the descent into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, Jackie found her airline headphones still in their cellophane wrapper in the seat pocket in front of her. She had spent the entire flight watching movies with my ‘missing’ headphones 🎧. Great - I’m alright Jack!

      After negotiating Immigration & Customs remarkably quickly we located the check in desks for VietJet Air & our internal flight to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, we had a 50 minute wait for the check in to open for our flight, so we waited on the concourse amongst crowds of people, mainly elderly & excitable Thai women who had no concept of personal space or the etiquette of queuing.

      A couple of hours later, now tired & ratty we boarded the VietJet aircraft for Chiang Mai. Upon stepping foot on the plane, we were assaulted by the most infantile song imaginable that was on permanent repeat until takeoff. The song kept repeating the words happy happy happy & lucky lucky lucky. It felt like we were being tortured, I would have admitted to anything!

      I have since researched this song and it is called Fly For Love and is the official song for
      VietJet Air. It is on YouTube and is definitely worth a look. The outfits worn by the dancers in the video are in fact the exact same uniforms worn by the crew - Burberry berets & shorts with a red blouse.

      My research revealed a post on Globejotting.com that was titled ‘Why I’d Rather Stab Myself in the Eardrums than Fly VietJet’. It was a rant about the song that I couldn’t have put better myself!

      55 minutes later we touched down at Chiang Mai International Airport only for that bloody song to immediately start up again. Aaaaaaaah. With our ears bleeding, we hurried through
      the airport, where we met Neil, our Nepalese driver, who delivered us to our hotel just 15 minutes later.

      After checking into the Thannatee Boutique Hotel, we took our luggage up to our Colonial style room & opened up the rucksacks. To my horror, there had been a leakage in mine of some strange reddish brown fluid. Typically, it was 3 white linen shirts & a pair of linen trousers that were most affected with big soggy stains.

      What could have caused such a disaster? The bag of suntan lotions that Jackie had given to me to put in my rucksack. Luckily I wasn’t tired or ratty!

      After chucking them in a laundry bag & dropping them off at reception, we popped down the road & found a little shack, Mary’s Restaurant. It was just after midday, so we had a Pad Thai, a chicken & cashew nuts & a couple of large Chang beers each. Total bill less than £10.

      Around 2pm we returned to the hotel & slept through to 6pm. After a shower, we were back out on the streets of Chiang Mai. We walked down to the moat that surrounds the Old Town intending to just go where our fancy took us. Instead we saw a group of westerners who seemed to know where they were going, so we headed in the same direction.

      We walked down Thanon Sridornchai & stopped at a little market, NGFM Vol 2, set up in a park. A decent band was playing which had attracted a large gathering and we wandered round the market which was selling mainly vintage clothes at ridiculously cheap prices. £1.50 for t-shirts for example. Sadly we haven’t got any room in our rucksacks for anything else.

      We continued on to Le Dta’wan Market Street Food Chiangmai, which was selling all sorts of exotic foods. It was very tempting to stop, but we favoured on playing it a bit more safe on our 1st night. We would go back.

      We then headed up Thanon Changklan & turned into Anusarn Market Chiangmai. We negotiated the brightly lit stalls & rested our legs at a bar for a Chang beer🍺. We then moved to street food stalls of Changnoi Market & sat down with our beers. We ordered some chicken satay from one stall then a plate of mixed dumplings, called Gyozas 🥟 (pork, chicken & vegetables) from another. The Gyozas were sensational.

      We had a second beer and reflected on this being pretty much our idea of heaven. It is difficult to put our finger on exactly why, but it is the food, the smells, the sounds, the climate & the happy lovely people. Chiang Mai appears have all those Thai qualities, but is less busy, exceptionally clean and cheaper.

      Eventually we moved off turning left into Soi Loi Khoi where we located the girly bars. We both needed a wee & hunted for a suitable establishment to use the loo. We finally found what appeared to be an ideal venue, the Ba Ba Bo Bo Bar. I raced in & used the gents & came back out only to find Jackie still stood outside. The ladies didn’t have a door, but instead a few strands of plastic hanging down in the doorway and the toilet clearly visible for the whole bar to see. Strangely Jackie didn’t want to use it!

      We continued into the Old Town, which had all closed up for the evening & located Chiang Mai Gate Night Market, where Jackie had a wee & I had a banana pancake. We stopped for a beer on the way home and we were back in bed shortly after 11.00pm, knackered.

      Song of the Day - Fly For Love by VietJet.

      Happy happy happy lucky lucky lucky flying round the world for love on repeat.
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    • Day 4

      Day 2 - Shoes On, Shoes Off

      December 13, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      Woke up at 3am & didn’t get back to sleep again, so read & did my blog as Jackie slept through.

      The plan was for today to be a cultural day to see Chiang Mai’s finest Temples. My Lonely Planet guidebook had a walking tour route that took in the highlights.

      Jackie insisted on wearing her Navratilovas, a relatively short skirt (that was probably too short for the temples) & trainers Apparently I was going to carry an entire wardrobe change in my rucksack, so she could dress appropriately only as & when necessary.

      Around 9am we went down for breakfast which included 4 espressos that had me physically buzzing, omelette, croissants, French Toast & fruit. So much for my promise to myself to stay off the bread. Jackie had curry.

      During breakfast I heard a couple enquiring about dress code for the temples and being told that women should have their shoulders covered & wear a skirt or trousers that came down below the knee. Fellas were just fine.

      This prompted a complete outfit change, Jackie changed into a pair of trousers, a different T-shirt & flip flops.

      Finally we got out & started walking down the street when I noticed that Jackie was wearing one blue & one yellow flip flop. She had been undecided which ones went better with the outfit. And I thought only someone as forgetful as Diane Abbott could make such a faux pas!

      Eventually with matching flip flops, we walked for about a mile to our first temple in the Old City, Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai’s most revered temple. Pilgrims flock here to venerate the famous Buddha known as Phra Singh (Lion Buddha) housed in a small chapel.

      We paid our 40 Baht (£1) each entrance fee and wandered the monastery grounds. There were about 6 lavish temples and buildings within the grounds which required us to remove our shoes prior to entry. I was already regretting my decision to wear my brand new trainers & tiny socks that kept rucking up under my soles.

      Wat Phra Singh was spectacularly colourful and shiny. Resident monks were in the temples chanting and praying and prayer joss sticks burnt. It all felt very spiritual. The strangest sight was seeing some visiting monks taking selfies in front of the gold coloured stupas.

      After looking at every single Buddha & image, we moved on to the next. I bought a pair of sensible ankle socks for 20 Baht, then we called into the temples of Wat Si Koet & Wat Thung Yu for several more shoe removals at each.

      Next we came across the very fancy Chiang Mai Police Station that had entered into the spirit of all things shiny with a gold statue outside the front door, then Wat Chai Phra Kiat for our not so favourite pastime.

      We continued to Wat Phan Tao, considered to be the most atmospheric wat in the city. The grounds were full of colourful fluttering flags & ribbons and the monastery (shoes off) interior is everything teak. Nice. Shoes on.

      Pretty much next door was Wat Chedi Luang & Lak Meuang, which required another 40 Baht entrance fee. Lak Meuang was a ‘men only’ affair so Jackie waited outside with all the other ladies, whilst I entered bare footed. I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about, but apparently Buddhist rules dictate that women are not allowed to enter and view the revered city pillar. I took a photo, which I would have shown Jackie if I thought she would’ve been remotely interested!

      We then continued into the grounds of Wat Chedi Luang with its enormous towering Lanna-style chedi. It was built in 1441 and is currently in ruins, but it is subject of a restoration project by UNESCO & weirdly the Japanese government. This was probably my highlight of the day.

      We visited all the temples without our shoes & contemplated talking to some monks. A group of monks were sat under a sign that read ‘Chat with monk’. Apparently they will tell you about their life as a monk & they benefit by practicing their English. I was up for it, but Jackie didn’t fancy it, not knowing what to ask them. I suggested she ask “Do you come here often?”

      Jackie wasn’t having any of it and instead busied herself by taking a photo for an American lady & writing a little message on a gold heart having paid a small donation.

      By now it was lunchtime, so we found a little Thai restaurant, Huan Chao Bua Tip, for a couple of beers. I had some not so great crispy dumplings & Jackie had a very spicy Tom Yum soup that made her sweat & cough, but apparently wasn’t too hot for her!

      Eventually we set off again, north up Soi Prapokklao to Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang, where we peered in from the steps, then looked at Anusawari Sam Kasat, a statue of the three Lanna Kings who founded Chiang Mai. At this location were three museums, that didn’t appeal to Jackie, so we looked at some weird art that was part of their annual Art Week that ran for 15 days!

      Our final temple of my walking tour was Wat Chiang Man, which is the oldest Wat in Chiang Mai founded around 1296. By now we were a bit ‘templed out’, so apart from going into the main temple, we just looked into the others from the doorway.

      We were now feeling totally knackered, my back & shoulders ached from carrying my rucksack, so we called it a day, walking about another mile back to our hotel. We did stop at Mary’s Restaurant for a much needed quick beer, then we fell asleep back in the room.

      At 7pm, we dragged ourselves out of bed & headed out for the evening. We headed towards the Ping River to check it out & see if we could find any river boat cruises. We didn’t.

      We then found Ploen Ruedee Night Market, which drew us in with the booming music of an extremely good rock band. They were playing on a large stage in front of loads of tables & chairs surrounded by food and drink vendors. It was really smart, so we bought a couple of large Changs & sat down to listen to the band, who covered Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi amongst others. My only gripe was that the beers were double the price we had been paying elsewhere.

      The nearest vendor to us was selling insects, including large scorpions. We bought a taster portion of fried crickets for 20 Baht & had our very own Bush Tucker Trial. Jackie could only stomach the one, but I pretty much finished the rest. We also had skewers of beef & chicken served up in bamboo sticks with an assortment of spicy dips.

      Sadly the rock band finished their set & a pop band took over singing swing & disco songs. Not so much our cup of tea, so we headed home & surprisingly stopped at Ba Ba Bo Bo Bar for a nightcap beer & cocktail & people watched. Jackie did eventually have to use the loo, but discovered that it did have a door on it after all.

      It was around midnight when we finally got to bed.

      Song of the Day - Temple of Love by Sisters of Mercy.
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    • Day 4

      Day 3 - Heaven in a bowl

      December 13, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

      Woke up at 5am to the news that exit polls were predicting a massive win for the Tories, a humiliating defeat for Corbyn and best of all Jo Swinson to lose her seat. I then spent the next 4 hours monitoring the results as they came in on the BBC website.

      Around 9am, we had breakfast, Jackie had fish curry, then set up camp on the only 2 sun beds beside the pool at the rear of our hotel. Here I wrote my blog for Day 2 and we caught up with some admin & planned our movements after Chiang Mai.

      The result of our mornings endeavour was that we booked 2 train seats for the 10 hour journey from Chiang Mai to Ayuthaya on Tuesday morning. We have already been allocated our seats & Jackie is fretting because it doesn’t look like we are sitting together. We had intended to travel on the Monday, but worryingly the only train available got into Ayuthaya at 3.00am.

      As a result we have extended our stay in our current hotel for an extra night.
      Through the staff on reception at our hotel we have also booked a hire car for Saturday & a short cruise on the Mae Ping River on Monday.

      We have researched accommodation in Ayuthaya for 3-4 nights and discovered that the websites were showing that no trains were available to take us then on to Bangkok!

      Just after 2pm we headed out for lunch & decided upon a restaurant called Pakorn’s Kitchen, which we had seen people queuing to get in to on our 1st night. We sat at an outside table & ordered 2 beers, but were told they weren’t allowed to sell alcohol between 2 & 5pm. Seeing our disappointment, the waitress asked us if we wouldn’t mind drinking out of mugs- not at all. She returned with 2 large tea mugs filled with frothing Chang Beer.

      In their food menu was an article stating that CNN had declared the Thai Massaman Curry as being one of the Top 50 dishes in the World. It wasn’t clear if it was their Massaman curry or just Massaman curry in general. Either way they were clearly proud of their Massaman curry, so I ordered a beef one - as I always say “When in Rome.........." Jackie ordered a pork & chilli dish.

      After having our mugs surreptitiously refilled, our lunch arrived. The curry arrived in a huge bowl with chunks of succulent beef. The sauce was utterly heavenly and very nearly forced me into an involuntary Greg Wallace impersonation. This dish most definitely features in my Top 10 meals I have ever eaten & one that I am unlikely to ever forget.

      Jackie’s lunch was also nice, but she enhanced it with several spoonfuls of my special sauce. At the end of our meal, Jackie tried to discreetly steal the cloth pouch our cutlery had arrived in by sliding her specs into it. She got well & truly caught by the ladies on the next table who were laughing, pointing at her & exaggeratedly pretending to zip their mouths. We paid up & managed to evade capture!

      We then took a stroll around the backstreets in the vicinity of our hotel & ultimately found ourselves in the centre of a bustling locals food market with delicious looking stalls, apart from the one that sold pig bones that were all piled up with skulls & jaw bones clearly visible. We had a beer at a roadside shack to observe the hustle & bustle of local life.

      Later after getting ready for the evening, we headed out into the Old City without a specific plan. We entered the Old City via the Chiang Mai Gate & strolled around until we found Restaurant Kaow Tom 1B on Soi Ratchadumnoen. It was heaving with people including local Thais, so it must be good. TripAdvisor gives it rave reviews.

      We grabbed a vacant table at the front & ordered. Jackie had a prawn chilli dish & I ordered fried kale with crispy pork. Unfortunately it all arrived at the same time as our chicken satay starter, which is one of my pet hates. The satay was good, but both main courses were bland. I didn’t like to think which bits of the pig my slivers of pork were from, but it felt like a Bush Tucker Trial for a second day on the trot!

      On the way home, we stopped at Chiang Mai Gate Night Market & purchased a Nutella & banana crepe, which was not as good as the Thai pancakes, then finished with a nightcap at our local bar.

      Song of the Day - My Country by New Model Army. (Dedicated to the General Election Result).
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    • Day 6

      Day 4 - Driving up into the Mountains

      December 15, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

      Woke up at 5.30am & wrote the previous days blog.

      Around 9am we went down to breakfast. I had the usual, apparently too much, and Jackie had green curry.

      At 9.50am we were waiting in the hotel reception for our hire car to arrive. Twenty minutes later, ten minutes late, our black Nissan hire car arrived. I filled in the paperwork with the guy & handed over 5,000 Baht (approx £125) as security. It was that or my passport, but I was too scared that it could get lost.

      We then went outside & inspected the car for current damage. It was riddled with minor scratches & dents, which he insisted on me photographing, but the reflection of the sun made it difficult to actually capture the damage on my camera. After, I signed my life away in which I was liable for the 1st 10,000 Baht’s worth of damage & he for any more after that.

      Paperwork complete, we headed out on to the chaotic Old City ring road & battled through the traffic. We headed north & did remarkably well in not making a wrong turn. We drove up to & through Mae Rim on the busy Highway 107, then turned left onto the scenic Route 1096. We were following a driving route recommended by my Lonely Planet guidebook.

      Our 1st stop was Mae Sa Waterfall that were just inside Doi Suthep-Pui National Park. We paid our 100 Baht each ‘foreigners’ entrance fee (also 30 Baht for the car) & drove in. Jackie was not amused that we had had to pay 100 Baht, when Thais only had to pay 20 Baht!

      The entrance fee was soon forgotten, when we parked up & set out along the path through lush rainforest to the waterfall. Mae Sa Waterfall is in fact a series of 10 cascades each about 150 metres apart that run down the rocky Mae Sa river from the San Doi Daen mountain ridge through the jungle. A concrete path ran alongside the cascades, which we followed to the very top. With the sun falling in shafts through the tree canopy it made for a very atmospheric hike, particularly as there were very few other visitors, just hundreds of butterflies.

      Below each cascade was a pool, some of which permitted swimming, but we gave it a miss. I was however on the way down forced to wash my feet in a pool, because I had used the bathroom & inexplicably obeyed the sign requesting me to take my adventure sandals off before entering. I realised I had made a massive mistake when I was suddenly wading in god knows what to get to the urinals!

      Upon returning to the car, we continued along the 1096, passing numerous elephant camps, to our 2nd scheduled stop, Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden. I pulled up to the entrance hut & declared I wished to pay for 2 adults. The young cashier asked “Is that for senior citizens?” Quite taken aback, I enquired what age qualified for senior citizenship & she said “60”. Instead of lying & paying the discounted fee, I indignantly informed her that I was only 55 & needed to pay the full 100 Baht each. We drove in leaving her with a fit of embarrassed giggles.

      Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden covers an area of 1,000 hectares & is situated in the foothills of Doi Suthep-Pui. Our 1st stop was the Canopy Walk that was a 400 metre long raised metal walkway high above the jungle below. The biggest problem for me might have been the height, but instead it was getting past the hoards of locals who were taking photos of each other every step of the way. The stupid thing was that they could have been anywhere, because they didn’t actually look out over the canopy. Potentially we could have seen Draco Maculatus, a flying lizard, unique to Doi Suthep mountain, but we didn’t.

      We drove on to the Glass House complex and viewed an array of plants in different categories. Interesting, but not anything we hadn’t seen before. The best bit was the scenery surrounding it all.

      After, we stopped for lunch which consisted of just a Cornetto, Jackie had Strawberry & I had Black Hojicha, which I later found out it is a black tea. The ice cream was grey & it had a black charcoal cone. It wasn’t that nice.

      Time was moving on so we continued our trip. Next stop was due to be the Hmong village of Nong Hoi. Annoyingly the description of the route to get there was non-existent, so we made an educated guess & ended up in some private estate with tepees & a lake, that gave the impression of being the home of some sort of cult. We drove around the lake & saw people tending the grounds but no one stopped us. We were clearly in the wrong place so we drove back out again.

      We had another go up a road on the other side of the 1096 & crawled high up the mountain only for the fuel warning light to come on, hence we abandoned that idea. Back on the 1096 we were relieved to find a petrol station & we put in 200 Baht, which only took the level back to where we started.

      We continued to a hotel called Proud Phu Fah, which was recommended for it’s views from the restaurant . We chose not to stop but continued the route as described by Lonely Planet. We climbed a steep windy mountain road through stepped coffee fields for about 5 miles until we were certain we weren’t on the right road again. One bonus was that we had to stop in the road for an elephant and his trainer to cross.

      We were forced to retrace our route back to the Proud Phu Fah hotel & get back on the 1096, then picked up Route 1269 and swung around the mountain ridge back to Chiang Mai, where we hit total gridlock. The Saturday market was causing absolute chaos on the roads back to our hotel. On the way, we stopped for more fuel & being a total tight arse, I put in just an extra 100 Bahts worth which didn’t get the fuel gauge back to where it needed to be. Bugger, I’d have to go back out again in the morning.

      We got back to the hotel around 6.30pm & after freshening up went straight back out again. We headed for the famous Saturday Walking Market in Th Wualai just up the road from us. As anticipated it was heaving with stalls selling food, clothes & novelty handmade goods of every description with an even more heaving mass of locals & tourists browsing. The market was essentially one very long narrow road with a river of people flowing in both directions & occasionally crashing into each other. Amongst these masses were schoolgirls, blind guitarists & others weirdos busking. It was all Jackie’s idea of hell!

      We looked at Wat Srisuphan, the silversmiths temple & discovered we had to pay, so decided to visit another time. We bought a Chiang Mai spicy pork sausage that tasted of satay. Luckily we finished it just before a man with such severe facial burns walked past that he made Simon Weston look like he was just suffering a mild sun burn.

      Feeling slightly queasy & having had enough of the market, we left in search of somewhere to eat without the crowds. As it happened our favourite Massaman curry restaurant was open but entirely empty, so we couldn’t resist the opportunity to do it all over again. It was just as good as before, but if I had to find fault, the beef was slightly fatty. On the way home we stopped for a nightcap & had a relatively early night.

      Footnote : Doi Suthep and Doi Pui are two of Northern Thailand’s most sacred peaks.

      Song of the Day - Holy Mountain by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
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    • Day 7

      Day 5 - Sunday Bloody Sunday

      December 16, 2019 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Woke up too early again. At 9am we had our breakfast, a small one.

      During breakfast, we were informed that the car hire bloke would be arriving in 10 minutes, only an hour and a half earlier than he had told me he would return. I did not have enough time to put more fuel in it. I was also slightly nervous because I had noticed scratches on the door which I didn’t remember noting down with him. I needn’t have worried because he hardly looked at the car & gave me the full deposit back.

      After a disagreement over Jackie’s outfit for the day, she insisted on wearing her Navratilovas & a vest top, which didn’t cover her knees or shoulders, we set out for the day. First stop was Wat Srisuphan, the silver temple. We paid our 50 Baht and entered the complex. Jackie put on her cardigan & crouched so it covered her knees. As it happened the main temple was men only so only I was allowed in!

      Next we stopped at Chiang Mai’s former women’s prison which was now a restaurant and massage parlour, then we went all authentic & had lunch at Keatocha Chicken Rice. It was a locals fast food restaurant that served only 4 different dishes. Jackie had crispy pork & rice and I had crispy chicken & rice. The mystery pieces of fried animal were a bit cold & it wasn’t even that cheap! The best bit of the meal was a westerner, fell unconscious & had to be taken a way in an ambulance.

      We then visited the Lanna Folklife Museum, which was recommended. The Lanna Kingdom was an Indianized state centred in present day Northern Thailand from the 13th to the 18th century. The museum had several life size waxwork models to depict life in Lanna. There were various others relics and an obsession with gold infused skirts, at least 20 of them were on display. It wasn’t a particularly exciting museum.

      Next we visited a photo gallery, which had an exhibition on street photography & another displaying recently taken photos of Chiang Mai landmarks alongside ancient photos of the same scene. Much more interesting.

      We decided to walk back to our hotel to sit around the pool for a couple of hours. We passed a location along the city wall where pigeons were encouraged to gather with seed being thrown for them, then people, mainly girls in their best dresses, would get amongst the flocks for photos. It was a bizarre, but apparently popular pastime.

      Back at our hotel, five people were sat around the pool and there was literally no room for us. We decided to go back out & find a bar in the sun. As it happened, we couldn’t find an open bar full stop. Apparently all bars are closed between 2pm & 5pm on a Sunday!

      After mooching around all the roads in the vicinity of our hotel, we headed back into the Old City. Still everywhere was shut, but as we passed a hostel, we saw a fridge containing beer and 2 chairs out front in the sun. I went in & enquired if we could purchase a beer, which we could, then if we could drink them on the chairs, which we couldn’t. However the receptionist kindly allowed us to go into their back garden where they had tables & chairs. We spent a nice hour or so supping our beer in the sun & taking advantage of the free WiFi on our iPads. The best bit was that the large bottles of beers were just 65 Baht, our cheapest yet.

      About 4.50pm, we headed out for the Sunday Walking Street market which is open between 4pm & midnight all along Th Ratchadam. It is pretty much the same market as Saturdays, but it was a bit quieter, probably because we were earlier and the road was wider. Jackie bought 2 silver toe rings & 2 anklets for a bargain price & I bought a white linen shirt for not much more than a fiver. That’s our Christmas presents for each other sorted.

      After a much more enjoyable market experience, we left in search of some street food. Pretty much everywhere was closed, apparently they all set up stalls in the market. In the end we returned to our local bar, where we had Pad Thai & a spicy pork dish, each costing just the equivalent of a pound.

      With a small bottle of whiskey & soda water, we watched the Man Utd game on the bar television & chatted with an English family who live in Dubai. The son with them is currently studying at Bristol University. It wasn’t the best game, ending in an unsatisfactory draw.

      Song of the Day - Sunday Morning Coming Down by Johnny Cash.
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    • Day 7

      Bamboo-Rafting & back to Chiang Mai

      January 8, 2020 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

      Heute früh wachten wir auf und waren ziemlich gerädert. Im 5 Minuten Takt haben wir uns die ganze Nacht von einer Seite auf die andere gedreht, weil das Bettenlager so unglaublich unbequem war. Aber auch diese Nacht überstanden wir. Als wir am Frühstückstisch saßen, war es noch recht kalt. Arthur‘s Uhr maß um die 15°. Das Dorf lag noch im Nebel, da es nicht weit vom Fluss entfernt war. Die Sonne ließ noch auf sich warten, kam aber dann gegen 10.00 Uhr raus, pünktlich als wir gerade aufbrechen wollten. Unsere Rucksäcke wurden auf ein Gestell auf dem Bambusfloß gehängt, damit sie nicht nass wurden. Wir nahmen mit jeweils 4 Personen plus zwei Thai, die das jeweilige Floß steuerten, auf zwei Floßen Platz. Daraus ergab sich zufällig ein Floß mit deutscher und eins mit kroatischer Besatzung :-). Los ging‘s flussabwärts und wir hatten schwer Spaß. Im Schatten noch recht frisch, genossen wir die Fahrt in der Sonne in vollen Zügen, hatte die Idylle um uns herum doch fast schon etwas Meditatives!
      Nach der Hälfte der Fahrtzeit von insgesamt 2 Stunden, hielten die Thai die Floße an. Schnell begriffen wir, warum. An dieser Stelle hatten sie ein Seil gespannt, mit dem man sich über das Wasser schwingen und in den Fluss fallen lassen konnte.
      Das ließen sich einige aus der Gruppe nicht zweimal sagen und trauten sich.
      Dann ging‘s weiter und wir machten uns einen Spaß daraus das deutsche Floß gegen das kroatische fahren zu lassen. Im Endeffekt kamen wir aber alle zeitgleich an unserem Ziel an. In einem kleinen Dorf im Nirgendwo kehrten wir erneut in einem Restaurant ein, um ein letztes Mal gemeinsam zu speisen. Es gab Pad Thai - eine sehr leckere, thailändische Spezialität.
      Danach bestiegen wir den Pick-Up, machten ein letztes gemeinsames Foto mit der kompletten Gruppe [ aus Kroatien: Oliver, Ana, Mia und Mira; aus Deutschland: Julia, Arthur, Christian und ich; aus Thailand bzw vom Karen-Stamm: Pa ] und fuhren dann Richtung Chiang Mai.
      Auf der Rückfahrt war die Stimmung etwas getrübt, wussten wir doch, dass sich unsere Wege bald trennen würden. Irgendwie hatte der Trip uns alle zusammen geschweißt und es hatte sich eine tolle Gruppendynamik entwickelt. Allen war bewusst, dass die Truppe irgendwie perfekt zusammen passte und nur ein einziger, nicht passender Charakter alles hätte ändern können. Je näher wir der Stadt kamen, um so schlimmer wurde es mit dem Verkehr und logischerweise auch wieder mit den Abgasen. Schnell sehnten wir uns alle in den Dschungel zurück, wo’s ruhig und die Luft sauber war.
      In Chiang Mai angekommen, hieß es nach und nach Abschied nehmen ;-(. Jeder ging nun wieder seine eigenen Wege, auch wenn man sich das noch nicht so recht vorstellen konnte.
      Chris und ich wurden als Letzte zu unserer Unterkunft gefahren, nachdem wir unser restliches Gepäck bei Chiang Mai Trekking by Piroon abgeholt hatten. Das Astra Condo hatten wir über Airbnb gebucht und der Check-In klappte reibungslos.
      Nachdem wir das Gepäck in unser Apartment 613B im 6. Stock abgelegt hatten, suchten wir den Pool auf der Dachterrasse für eine Abkühlung auf.
      Wie bereits in Bangkok hatten wir vom Pool eine tolle Aussicht, auch wenn man den Smog der Stadt nun richtig erkennen konnte.
      Am Abend liefen wir ins Stadtzentrum und kehrten dort in ein vegetarisch und veganes Restaurant namens Bubbles ein. Chris aß ein Red Curry und ich bestellte mir ein Massaman Curry. Beides schmeckte sehr lecker, hatte aber auch gehobeneres Preisniveau. Danach tingelten wir weiter durch die Altstadt, hatten allerdings Schwierigkeiten eine geöffnete Bar zu finden und hatten den Eindruck, dass hier abends die Bürgersteige hochgeklappt wurden. In einem Restaurant tranken wir noch was und machten Pläne, was wir wann die nächsten Tage unternehmen würden. Als wir gerade gehen wollten, kamen zufällig Julia und Arthur um die Ecke. Die Wiedersehensfreude war groß, also beschlossen wir noch zusammen irgendwo einen Absacker zu trinken. Ein paar Straßen weiter fanden wir eine kleine Eckbar und bestellten uns einen Cocktail. Die Bedienung schien etwas verpeilt, hatten wir doch den Eindruck sie wäre selbst ihr bester Kunde bzw. dass sie irgendetwas eingeworfen hatte. Wir spielten zwei Runden Jenga und ließen die letzten Tage nochmal gemeinsam Revue passieren. Dann trennten sich unsere Wege wieder und wir sagten erneut Lebewohl. Mit dem TukTuk ging‘s zurück ins Astra Condo.
      Zuhause in der Unterkunft sahen wir, dass das Reisebüro trotz später Stunde noch geöffnet hatte. Also gingen wir rein und buchten kurzerhand um 00.15 Uhr einen Tagestrip nach Chiang Rai zum Weißen Tempel, Blauen Tempel und zum Schwarzen Haus. Unglaublich diese Arbeitszeiten der Thai 😳. Im Apartment angekommen, rief das Bett ganz laut nach uns. Gute Nacht, Chiang Mai. Wir sind gespannt, was wir morgen mit dir erleben!
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    • Day 14

      Sawat di kha Thailand

      January 13, 2020 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

      Nachdem wir gestern mit einer süßen kleinen Propellermaschine nach Chiang Mai geflogen sind, sind wir nun auch gut in unserem Hotel angekommen.

      Bisher haben wir allerdings "nur" die Sunday Walking Street gesehen - die mich schon hell auf begeistert hat, da ich dort traumhaft shoppen konnte - und unser Hotel.

      Nach fast 2 Wochen haben wir es uns nämlich mal gegönnt auszuschlafen 😏

      Übrigens steht unser Hotel in einem netten kleinen Künstlerviertel, das Charme und positive Energie versprüht 😊
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Chang Klan, ช้างคลาน

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