Chaing Mai, Thailand
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Today I flew
Bangkok Airways to Chaing Mai leaving behind the great memories of Bangkok (some seedy but mostly very good and overall I have enjoyed the hostel that I stayed in).. Got to the airport in plenty of time (you know me) and by mid afternoon I had already decided that the duty free shops weren't as good as the ones in
Manchester and that the airport wasn't half as scary as what everybody makes it out to be (well so far nobody has tried to smuggle the drugs into my suitcase and there aren't the sniffer dogs you see on Bridget Jones).
Bangkok airways was quite a pleasant experience, raw chicken sandwhich (with lots of curry flavoured greasy skin on the outside on a rock hard baguette that allowed for at least one slice of cucumber as accompanyment) and the magazine and duty free shopping were quite limited(there's one up for good old thomsons). The views however coming into Chaing Mai airport were something else.. Chaing mai is an hours flight north of
Bangkok and as its at higher altitude the weather turned out to a be quite a few degrees cooler than Bangkok which at night was more jumper and jeans weather than t-shirt and shorts that I'd been used to. The mountainous view, the greenery bordering the pastel coloured rooftops and brightly lit festive streets was the sign that the people were also as colourful and friendly and this was going to be one of the most cultured places on my trip so far if not in all. I arrived and immediately got offered a taxi ride to my hotel for 3lb, covereing the same distance as the split 10lb id paid in
Bangkok it was immediately apparent the price difference and giving the taxi guy a tip it was obvious this was as alien to him as this place was to me. Just as I was feeling both excited about exploring the place but at the same time not in a comfort zone with not many people having comprehension of the English language I got out at my guesthouse to find it was nothing more than a coffee shop with rooms attached but I immediately felt at home when I tripped up the million or so cats lining the entrance feeling like I was back in Mossely with Nikki's lulu and Norbury Hollow with Katy's sox. Nikki you really would love it here, 6lbs a night for a kingsize bed, air con lovely budda and rustic style guestroom with unique outdoor shower/toilet on the private and not overlooked balcony (in the morning the air was so fresh that taking a shower outside was so refeshing! apart from this was the place where I thought oh god I might actually find a snake in my bathroom!). So having met the most friendliest Thai girl owner who reminded me of Amy as she dressed the same, was a big smiling face she couldn't help me enough with giving me a introduction to the city over a welcome drink (when I'd asked for beer she said so sorry we're a coffee shop - ok so in Chaing Mai its not like in
Bangkok where you could quite easily get a peanut butter sandwhich, foot massage and purchase a hamster wheel all in a petrol station). She explained where all the main Wats (budda temples) were in the city, where the old city walls were in relation to where the hotel was and what kind of daily itinerary I could follow for my 3 days that I was going to spend there. She mentioned about a lovely little backstreet Thai restaurant that once I had dined there that evening I could go and visit the arty (what I would say were the type of art and craft markets you would find dotted in the Northeren Quarter in
Manchester) and true to her word after Id spend that day walking round the city, having a few beers (again!) and not to mention booking onto a day tour for the following day to visit Chaing Rai (a town which is 3 hours away from Chaing Rai and which is near the northern Thai border with Miramar and West towards Laos) I followed the owners advice and did just that. The night bazaar was also amazing, the atmosphere there was so warming and friendly, and speaking of which yes there was a gay scene here, one I stumbled across quite accidently when I asked the tuk tuk guy to take me from the studenty northern quarter area (with yes lots of student drinking bars - i kindof felt quite old and certainly out of place being the only european in the bars) to a more commercial side of town. Going past one place with a massive sign in pink, purple and black called "Powerboys" I decided this place was not going to be given a miss however good job the taxi driver didn't have any change when he stopped there and asked me to get some from inside which was full of young men parading around the stage in this time black underpants and old men gorping on eyeing up which one they were going to have for an evening as cheap as a drink back home in england, i walked straight back out and got back in the taxi but at least he knew my intentions of locating a few gay bars in the area.. and yet again that's where I ended up only this time talking to a Thai guy called Tomi who had a really bad tina turner hair cut and had the figure of victoria beckham ... actually rather him parading over and talking to me as I ordered a drink and sat down I ended the night realising that in places which are a bit more remote from the tourist drag different cultures seem more of a novelty to these people and as a result they are naively more friendlier and receptive towards people, a nice little oasis in the middle of a big bustlying east asian country I thought as I got a Songtheau (red car which is a giant tuk tuk shared by many travellers and who will drop you off anywhere you desire for a fraction of the price you just holler one down when you seen one on the street) home.
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