The Chang is cheaper in Chiang
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2009
1
24
46
Trip End
Apr 06, 2010
Where I stayed
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Chiang Mai in northern Thailand is still classed as a City but its a lot smaller than Bangkok, everyone seems more relaxed and doesn't dash about at 100 miles an hour all the time , The streets are still busy though and our hotel was right in the night market district which takes place every night and gets quite packed .No shortage of places to walk or things to see .
Decided to chance the street food here so one night settled ourselves in a very nice scrapyard !! ,It seemed very popular as there were plenty of others there ,, we only saw 2 rats the whole time ,, but the food was good .
Everything is a lot cheaper ,,large beers now down to 50 baht ( one pound ) ,
Massages are every where , the streets are lined with reclining chairs with people having foot and head massages,, theres also the fish spa where you sit for 15 minutes with your feet in a fish tank and hundreds of small fish nibble away ,An hours good massage ( a normal one !) will set you back five pounds . Its the sort of place where you can be sitting in a bar and a man appears walking an elephant , course it is .
Did the tourist trail one day and went bamboo rafting and to the Elephant park where we got to ride them,unfortunately ours was very old {65} and wasn`t in the mood to walk so we were last back to camp! {just our luck} We went to an Orchid farm and a village of Long neck karen tribe, the women put metal rings around their necks from an early age as it is supposed to be a safety precaution against tigers spirit gods who would grab them around the neck because the men of the tribe at some point pissed him off ( so legend has it ) ,, typical!!! all in all was a great day
Chaing mai has some very interesting wats {bhuddist temples} so we went to see the largest one day and went to see what we thought was the head monk inside only to be told by a thai person on exit that it was a wax dummy [thought he didn`t move much!} ha, apparently he died in june and they had preserved his body until his funeral on the 16th of this month they were building his funeral pyre whilst we were there for the ceremony, it`s a shame we wont be here to witness the cremation.We then went to another temple down by the river to try to catch the novice monks from all over the area having their heads shaved and being given their robes but we just missed them. It is a fascinating religion only wish we understood it more, there were people getting small birds from cages and setting them free for good luck and people making offerings of flowers and other things to the bhudda`s. Thailand is a colourful,diverse and fascinating place that draws you in.
