8th - 13th December 2011
Having had so little real sleep on the bus we decided to put our feet up and relax for a bit before heading out. After a little breakfast we sat and read, worked out and then headed out for dinner. There was a big night market on and we went to take a look with Ray and Katie, the roads were lined with stalls selling clothes and souvenirs, inside one of the indoor markets we sat and had some rather uninspiring dinner from the food court and then slowly wandered back home.
The next day, Wednesday, we decided to rent out a scooter for the afternoon and have a little look round the city. I discovered that I do not like riding round cities on scooters, far too terrifying. We had lunch at the Vegetarian centre where we had two meals, a drink and some fresh papaya for little more than a dollar, it was ridiculously cheap (because I had only one topping on my rice, my dinner was free) and surprisingly good. We left and doubled back to visit the university grounds, the main draw was the big temple and the small chedi cemetery near it. The day was beautiful; warm, sunny with a bright blue sky, the gold domes were even more golden against the blue of the sky and the white wash of the cemetery. Dogs lay snoozing in the shade, everywhere.
Inside there was an enormous seated Buddha and I stealthily took photos until Djalma took my camera off me and declared with confidence that it was perfectly fine to take pictures of the large Buddha, and it was. We left the quiet university behind and drove further out to Wat Umong, set in tranquil woodland. It was here that Djalma stayed for a two days to practice meditation (a rather big change after Vang Vieng). The place was beautiful, different buildings spaced out between trees and connected by a tarmacked road. On the first section of the road there were signs in Thai and English quoting proverbs from Buddha and perhaps not-quite-so-common-sense.
We strolled round the park, exploring some underground tunnels which branched out, ending in small shrines. We sat and talked in the shade and then went for a stroll round the small lake where people with bread were feeding the fish. It was utterly serene and a beautiful place to come and think.
Running out of time before sunset we got back on our scooter and headed further out and up to a large temple complex overlooking the city. Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is one of the most scared temples of the North, and easily the most impressive. The views out over the city are enough in themselves to be the reason for a building of importance to be located here but the site was chosen in the way plenty of sites were chosen for important temples. A sacred relic of the Buddha (like an eyelash or toenail clipping) was mounted to the back of an elephant which was allowed to roam as it pleased before dying and therefore “choosing” the site (in case you're wondering it occasionally happens to take years for an elephant to “choose” a suitable place).
There were plenty of elaborately decorated buildings, beautiful creatures protecting doorways and an abundance of colour. After walking round the outside we left our flip-flops outside one of the entrance ways and had a look inside where there was even more cool stuff and a blinding amount of gold leaf.
As usual the walls were covered with beautifully painted murals and there were plenty more tourists outnumbering the people there to actually pray and ask for guidance.
The night drawing in we took the steps down having cheated on the way up, getting the cable car. We got back on the scooter and despite the night drawing swiftly in we took the winding road back to the city nice and slowly, the air getting noticeably warmer the further down we got. Back in town we dropped off the scooter and walked to a string of food stalls to get a good cheap dinner.
The next day we were up before the sun and rushing out to meet the minibus that was to take us an hour outside of town into the jungle where we spent the next three hours whizzing from tree to tree dangling on zip wires.
Once we arrived, we got kitted up in smelly harnesses and helmets and drove a little further to the starting point, we were given a safety brief and then promptly launched ourselves off a wooden platform, one at a time, by the ebullient Mr Cash and his older assistant Mr Anang.
The other people in out group were a mix of kids from the UK, US, NZ, one slightly older guy from Argentina and an older Thai lady who was lovely, we swung from tree to tree through the forest. About half an hour in we had a little walk to an area with water and conveniently close to a tree where the Gibbons we were here to see were hanging out. For those of you who don't know what a gibbon is – it's basically a biggish monkey with long arms and no tail, we were lucky enough to see a mother and her offspring up in the expected tree, chilling out and swinging like a monkey respectively.
How can I string out three of hours monkeying about? We sped from one platform to another, the longest zip-wire was 800 metres, there was one where the clip was attached to a loop on our backs and we landed in a big net which we then had to crawl up and onto the platform, on the longer runs I screamed and felt a bit ill.
There were suspended walkways and the odd bit of abseiling towards the end – it was horrid especially when the young, exuberant Mr Cash decided that a little free-fall action would be fun – I nearly tossed my 7-11 breakfast sandwich. The others, Djalma included were swung from side to side and sent flying, but at my request I was given the gentle treatment, it was more than enough excitement, thank you very much.
Towards the end I'd had enough, I was tired and hungry and all the youthful excitement was a bit draining, no thanks, I don''t want to launch myself off a platform hundreds of metres in the air and try to fly like superman, or go upside down, or backwards.
What a Granny. Lunch was good and we got a free T-Shirt at the end, I've worn it a couple of times no and it's more suitable for baking in, which is what I do, it's being replaced by something that doesn't match my hair.
Back at the hotel we relaxed for the afternoon, feeling utterly worn out after such an early start, and then headed out to the nightly food market where we had some chicken for dinner.
Djalma was up bright and early the next morning, he said goodbye and then cycled out to Wat Umong to commence his two days of meditation practice. I got up a little later, worked out and then took myself out for breakfast at a café where I sat and wrote for three hours, the first real coffee I'd had in months, giving me the energy to really work – my fingers hurt rather a lot from all the typing – it also kept me up until half three in the morning, but that came later. After my super strong coffee and a piece of blueberry cheesecake for breakfast I went back and dropped off the computer, collected my camera and headed out for an afternoon of tourism. I started it off with lunch, spaghetti bolognese and a small carafe of Merlot in a nice café while I sat and wrote my postcards from Vietnam.
Feeling pleasantly buzzed I left in the early evening to explore the Saturday night walking market. The same street I'd walked up was now buzzing with stalls and customers, in-between searching for trousers to replace my constantly ripping (but still much loved) Goan trousers I took pictures and explored the main street. There were plenty of cool things to buy and temples to look at, in one; Wat Phan Tao, a temple built from teak and with a raised area outside dotted with small candle illuminating a tree decorated with different coloured fabric lanterns.
I was there for a while taking pictures and was about to leave when a small group of orange clad monks made their through the maze of lights, moving them about and lighting more. It was magical, but shopping called. I detoured off the main drag and found a lady who wasn't selling the exact same things as everyone else, I found a pair of trousers that resembled two skirts joined at the waist, tried to haggle but couldn't resist her smiling shaking head, so bought them at the full asking price, which to be fair wasn't that bad . All buoyed up by my purchase, having searched for replacement trousers for a rather long (and frustrating) amount of time, I promptly brought a small ankle bracelet which was long enough to encircle my not-so-Thai-sized ankle (isn't funny how spending begets spending?!) after a few more photos of elaborately dressed child buskers, I made my way back to the hotel where I sat and watched films until midnight.
The caffeine buzzing through my system, still, I was wide awake until three or four in the morning. If the coffee hadn't kept me awake a rather annoying girl who spent several hours crying rather drunkenly, would have.
Feeling rather good if guilty about the money I'd spent on food and wine the previous day I resolved to do better, but.... I didn't quite manage it. After a banana and another workout I followed the moat around the old quarter and found a nice open air café where I had some local food at last. Admittedly it was upmarket and twice as expensive as what I would have spent had Djalma been with me, but what the hell, he wasn't and it was pretty. I had an ice cold coke and tucked in to a beautiful Chiang Mai orange curry with noodles. Fuelled for my walking tour I set out to the end of the market road that I'd visited the previous night and walked around the city's most elaborate temple, Wat Phra Singh. On the way I picked up a sweet and salty lime juice, the best thing on a hot day, and was side tracked by one of the small insect museums.
The ticket price was temporarily lowered so I decided to step in and have a look. The owner of the small museum was charmingly cute old man who, having read lots of the signs and descriptions, was madly in love with the natural world. The ground floor was cluttered, in a good way, with bits of termite sculptured wood, rocks, plastic bugs and huge butterflies.
(READ THE CAPTION, CATHOLICS EAT YOUR HEART OUT!)
Moving my way slowly round the little exhibits and reading all the spiritually minded descriptions I made my way upstairs where a small room packed with bugs, butterflies, rocks and a rather moving story about the power of belief and his great grandmother were all laid out for inquisitive eyes.
On the second floor there were more insects, great big ones with enormous stabbing bits and wings, bright green ones, things that looked like the coolest leaves, mosquitoes and more butterflies. In the gaps on the walls he had hung examples of his own artwork which made colourful splashes between the black and brown bugs. It was a quirky and charming collection of insects with beautiful, soulful descriptions and explanations by the man himself, there was nothing dry about this museum.
I went back downstairs and spoke to him again, mentioning the Planet Earth episode which looks at the forest floor and the different fungus that eat ants and other insects, he had no idea what I was talking about but he smiled and was lovely all the same. He let me back through his automatic gate (a grey plastic bar resting on two table tops) and gave me a one-of-a-kind beetle postcard and wished me luck.
Getting to my original start point I arrived at Wat Phra Sing. Established in 1345 it is an excellent example of Lanna architecture, it looked the same as all the other temples in Thailand to me. I wandered round the different buildings snapping away without any thought about how many Djalma was going to let me keep (he's been a real stickler about memory space recently and it's utterly depressing) I felt like a proper tourist and it was good.
On the way out I was approached by two very shy Thai boys who were trying to complete a university assignment by having “chats” with native English speakers. One boys held his snazzy phone up to record our conversation while the other read through his question list (doing a rather good job of asking follow up questions, from the perspective of an EFL teacher) at the end they wished me a nice time in Thailand and as soon as I was a few feet away having wished them both luck with their assignment, they fell about giggling like little girls, having spoken to a real live girl (and hopefully not at an unknown bat in the cave). I retraced my steps and stopped at the Writers Club and Wine Bar where, I had to do it, polished off another small carafe of Merlot and a plate of chips, this time writing the postcards I had printed the previous day of Laos.
I continued along the main street and revisited the Teak temple, Wat Phan Tao, decked out in yellow flags it was almost as impressive as the previous evening when there were all the little candles.
This time though I wandered inside and got a good luck at the Buddha image and all the offerings at it's feet. Leaving the temple behind I followed the route past a sculpture of the three Lanna Kings where lots of people go to ask for good luck, leaving these dudes behind I headed round the corner for the Women's Prison where you can get good massages.
I had a look round the prison shop and in the massage room, it wasn't the most inviting of places so I left without a massage. The last place on my little tour of the city was Chiang Mai's oldest temple; Wat Chiang Man, built by the city's founder in 1296. The sun was starting to go down and the grounds were tranquil and studded with flowering trees and plants.
I had a look round inside but it was the outside that was the most interesting, a large chedi surrounded by elephants was home to one of the eyelashes of Buddha himself. A grumpy looking monk was watering the garden outside the living quarters and a small collection of dogs and cats lay sleepily on some steps.
It was a lovely finish to a lovely day and it was a five minute walk from my hotel, result! I headed back and worked on photos, checked my email and then hunger calling I decided to visit a little Mexican restaurant where I gorged on a black bean burrito, corn ships and salsa and washed it down with an ice cold Singha. Living the good life! I headed back and started arranging things to be packed the following morning, having finished I got a lovely surprise when my husband walked through the door, hours early. He was struggling with the cold and despite there being one cool Israeli monk at the Wat the rest didn't sound that nice and forgot to look after him properly, he slept in a cold room without a blanket the first night and couldn't face it a second night. I went out and got him a burrito, having confessed to having one myself, while he got nice and warm and waited for his dinner.
We packed the next morning, worked out and then got a lift to the airport in a taxi with pink tinted windows, the world really does look better when tinted pink. Our much smaller bags were now able to fit in the overhead lockers so we didn't have to check any baggage in, we had both thrown away clothes that were worn out and needed replacing, which left us with virtually nothing so we ended up wearing our bright orange T-Shirts. Our flight to Phuket in the South, cut out a chunk of travel time and we arrived after just a couple of hours. The air was much warmer in the South and in our thick orange T-Shirts we were soon sweating bullets.
We managed to hitch a lift to the main road, paying half of what a taxi would cost and then waited round for a bus heading to Khao Lak. We didn't wait for much more than half an hour and the bus we got on took about two hours to get to our destination. We headed to the Similan Diving Safaris office where we rechecked our live-aboard booking and then waited as they very kindly called around a cheap place. Half an hour two cheerful ladies came to pick us up in their converted scooter with a sort of side car attached and took us 2 minutes up the road to their hotel. Slightly more expensive than we were used to paying, it was a gorgeous room with a good firm bed and a power shower. Result.
