Mandy: 28th October – 3rd November
We had both been looking forward to going to Chiang Mai. Everyone we knew who had been there said it was amazing. However we were a little disappointed when we arrived last week. The streets were clean, there was tarmac on the roads and it didn’t smell! There were lots of other white people walking around neatly dressed with clothes that had clearly been ironed, obviously spending their two weeks holiday here with a large suitcase in a hotel with and iron and hairdryer! Within the first ten minutes we saw not only a McDonalds and Burger King but a Boots Chemist!!!!!! After just a short one hour flight from neighbouring Burma we had been catapulted back into civilisation and we weren’t best pleased! Although the one benefit was that they had sugar free brown bread! So maybe not so bad after all. (smile)
The food was excellent there in fairness even though we had to walk around a bit to find a cafe that didn’t proclaim to sell the best burgers in town. Some of the best meals were in the cheapest cafes, as usual.
We visited Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Theravada Buddhist temple, 9 miles outside of Chiang Mai Province, up a very steep winding mountain road. It had wonderful views across Chaing Mai once we took the cable car to the top.
No elephants were harmed or abused during the taking of this photo!
They not only had male, female and disabled toilets but one for the monks too (smile)
Children from a local hill tribe dressed for the tourists at the bottom of the 300 steps that we walked down from the Temple.
We were not forced to sit with other people at breakfast in the Thapae Boutique Hotel or when out in cafes in Chiang Mai but we have met and spoken to English people for the first time. Well Scottish actually, a young guy who now lives in Chiang Mai. Oh and the friendliest of all, Luciano Pozzi, an Italian man who had lived in India and Thailand for many years. We saw him in the street on a bike as we looked out of a cafe one lunchtime. He was giving away free hugs! So I went and got one…now I think of it I am not sure whether he was giving out free hugs or asking for free hugs but the result was the same. I am sure he is never short of conversation (or hugs) as he travels around on his bike. In a town where hugs or ‘special hugs’ in any case don’t come for free I am sure he was a happy man! I asked if I could have my photo taken with him afterwards, a Swiss man, who had just finished hugging Luciano as I approached them, took our photo. Glen was in the cafe eating our Mango sticky rice and coconut ice-cream all the while, but it was Glen who encouraged me to go out and meet the hairy stranger in the street and I’m glad I did. There was a French Canadian lady talking to him as I got there who I am sure was going in for a hug too (From Luciano not Glen) After we finished hugging he asked my name and he said how I was the second Mandy he had met. In fact he thought I was the same Mandy and I said “I think that I would have remembered if we had met before” (chuckle)
As anyone who has read all of our blogs (90+ so far) will know we are always going on about how we see film crews wherever we go from Malaysia where I accidentally walked into shot in Malacca! Up until last week in the park in Yangon. Well today I didn’t see a film crew but I did wonder if I was being filmed by the Candid Camera team as I willingly hugged this complete stranger in the street. (Smile)
Living on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t go to see a live band. This was set up by Tha Phae Gate. We saw the owners of these ‘instruments’ playing later that night. I say instruments, the owner of the horned bike sings (smile) The plastic tubs produced a surprisingly good drum beat (smile)
Glen’s at it again! I kept a close eye on her to make sure she didn’t go sticking her little finger in Glen’s ear like that young barber in Vietnam last year! Glen had to slouch in the chair because otherwise she couldn’t reach! Bless her, she had heels on too!
As we walked through the Saturday night ‘walking street market’ we saw many weird and wonderful people. There were two men dressed up as women in full makeup, one dancing and one around another corner just seemly enjoying being a spectical!
This photo does not show the eccentricity of this old couple but it will help us to remember them. She had the most….. How do I put it….. memorable smile which I did not manage to capture here sadly. Although if you are reading this while eating your tea you will be glad believe me!
Our pork dumpling street food starter
We did not take photos of the many stalls with insects on. They weren’t like the ones in Bangkok which I think were for drunken tourists. They had all sorts of bugs, some huge, really huge!! But people weren’t taking photos they were buying them to eat! Although they were either locals, Chinese and Japanese tourists by the look of them.
This lovely man cooked our second course. I told him how handsome he was and how good his food looked but that he let his stall down by having the plastic chicken hanging up! He seemed to be pleased and I think he understood! Perhaps it was the only way he could indicate that his food had chicken inside. By the look of his sign (below) he couldn’t write in English.
On the way to the night market one night we saw a man who had covered the pavement on the corner of the street by our hotel with hundreds of large evil looking beetles tied to bamboo sticks. I asked if he was selling them to eat and he said no. He was infact selling them for fighting. A few hours later we walked back to see the last few left having the final battle. We googled It up (wink) ……..They are hard winged rhinoceros beetles of the Scarabaeidae family, commonly known as the fighting beetle.
Beautiful Chiang Mai’s moat around the old town with Doi Suthep Mountain in the background.
Parts of the original wall still just about standing.
Posing in front of an ornate door near another temple in the old town.
Our hotel did not allow irons in the bedrooms due to ‘health and safety’ which was strange in a town where workmen stood on electric wires to untangle them without a harness….don’t suppose there was much point in wearing a hard hat under the circumstances.
Not sure what the collective noun for 20+ Tuk Tuks taking a group of Japanese tourists around town is but I like to think of them as a Conga of Tuk Tuks (chuckle)
Monks leaving the Wat Pha Singh Temple squeezed into a new Song Thaew van. These taxi vans were everywhere.
Glen noticed this mobile ATM! How cool is this (smile)
Everything was so clean and new in Chiang Mai; such a contrast to the shabby old fume belching local buses in Burma. (My first semicolon just for you Sue! Not sure it’s correct!!) Chiang Mai wasn’t what we expected but we had a good time here and learned lots too so glad we came.
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Love Chiang Mai…..although I don’t remember there being a Mcdonalds there 20 years ago :-/ have a lovely time 🙂
Hi Fiona, apparently it has changed in the last five years. But it must have changed a lot! In the last 20! People who said they liked it went 25 years ago. There was plenty of good local food though at a quarter of the price of a Big Mac and much tastier 🙂 x
Looks like a good time is still being had. It’s cold and drab here. Enjoy xxxx
We are now in beautiful Pai, in the mountains, but it’s raining here too today :s it’s drab and we can’t see the mountains …….but it’s still lovely and warm 🙂 soz 😉 x