Chiang Mai
After the long and arduous trip from Bangkok, we arrived in
Chiang Mai exhausted and in all honesty, in desperate need of a shower. After a
quick negotiation with a local taxi driver to take us to our new digs (Diva 2
Guesthouse) we were on our way and had our first look around the lovely city
that is Chiang Mai. Despite the fact that it is still a very busy place, with
lots of tourists and locals, it was still a great change to the aggressive
hustle and bustle of Bangkok. After arriving and spending a few hours resting
and acclimatising we hit the local Sunday market where Jane quickly spent all
of the money that we have been saving over the last 6-8 months. (Seriously, if
any of you could spare a few pounds I would be eternally grateful and could
have something to eat!).
The following day we set off to find the waterfall and
Buddhist temple which we had been told was at the exit of Chiang Mai Zoo, which
itself was set against the side of a mountain in the north west of the city.
The zoo itself was incredible with all sorts of exotic animals that never seem
to venture close to NE12 and as a result I’d never seen before. Alligators, hippopotamus’,
lions, tigers and monkeys were just some of a long list of animals that I could
reel off here. Oh and of course elephants. Before we’d gone to the zoo we’d
debated for some time whether we should go to an elephant enclosure, due to the
unethical treatment that they received and our negative feelings towards this.
I’d read that a lot of the time these elephants were formerly used for both
people and goods transportation and since this had been banned, they were
living their remaining time as zoo animals. There was a section in the zoo
where you could go on the ‘Elephant ride’ but we declined, not wanting to put
the poor animal through further negative treatment for a few moments of
entertainment. Further down in the zoo we did see another elephant which you
could feed at the cost of 20 Baht, which I could not decline. Although it was
Jane’s idea to feed the elephant, I have to admit that I did give the elephant
all of the food as she was taking the photographs. I do still think to this day
that she believes I was eating them myself as well in “One for you, one for me”
scenario.
As we ventured further through the zoo and out of it, we
soon realised after walking for some time that we couldn’t find the waterfall
or the temple. So, extremely disappointed, we turned around and headed back
down the way that we had come. But not before we’d done a little bit of zip
lining first, navigating our way down with some girly shrieks of excitement
(from both of us).
After exiting the zoo we soon realised that we could get a
taxi up to the Buddhist temple that we wanted to see. We met another English
guy who wanted to do the same trip, spoke Thai (he had lived in Thailand for
some time 20 years ago and was clearly a former spy) and helped us negotiate
our price with the local, non-English speakers. After about a 20 minute trip we
arrived in Doi Ithanon, had some lovely street food chicken and began walking
up the 306 steps to the entrance of the temple. The views from the top were
breathtakingly incredible, where we could see pretty much all of Chiang Mai as
well as a slight curvature of the earth on the horizon. Unfortunately we were
unable to see the sunset from there as the time was getting away from us and so
we set off in our taxi, along with the former spy, to take us back to the
guesthouse. But first, the taxi driver
decided about halfway through the journey that he would swap his taxi with his
own, brand-new looking pick-up truck. (and stuck his dad in the pick-up part at
the back) Eventually we made it back to the guesthouse unscathed.
The following day Jane wasn’t feeling too well so I decided
(was forced) to venture out and find her some food and a coconut. Coconut water
is very good for rehydration and replenishing sugars apparently and tastes
pretty good too. I walked down to the local market and tried speaking a little
Thai but once I appreciated that I knew nothing other than ‘Hello’ I soon
realised I was out of my depth and starting pointing and hoping for the best.
Somehow I returned with a coconut and some bananas. Thai bananas are amazing by
the way. I hate bananas but Thai bananas are something else, no idea what it is
but they are. That evening after dinner we went to a local tattoo place and I
decided to get my ears pierced and the following day we set off on the short 3
hour bus drive to Pai…
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