My vacation of the year

I was on vacation in Chiang Mai for the last week.
The first time I've been back to Thailand since 2nd Grade.
I've expected it to be as Bangkok or Hayt yai.
But no.... Chiang Mai is totally out of my expectation.
There's no dusty mud ride out of town for 3 hour for a buddha statue. there's no crazy cars flying around or insane trafic jam.
there's also not Smog days and night.
It's the raining season and it's still the best trip I've had.
first thing came into mind when you talk about Chiang Mai is, it's not a big city, it's not a modern one and it's definitely not european.

The first day I was there, I we drop our bag at the hotel and then go out for lunch at a local hang out. which cook the most healthy looking and terribly delicious fried rice noodles. literally there's no oil on the plate when we finish the meal.
We choose to stay at the Empress Hotel which is a bit far off the main stay for foreigners in the night market place. the Hotel is about 4 km along the street to the night market and we simply enjoy the peaceful it brings.
on the contrary most of the people on the same tour as us stay in the 50 bucks five nights cheaper, Suribong right in the centre of the streeet and the only way you are gonna go to sleep is after midnight. that's a 2 stars compare to the 4 star of Empress. If you wish for a most comfortable stay at the centre of night market there's Le Meridien and Royal Lanna. which is in the same place right opposite Suribong only with higher star rate.

Lets get the schedule out of the way, I gone to the Double Dragon Temple the first day after lunch. which is a great climb of 306 steps to the top of the mountain at the Zoo and University Area. that's where all the buddhist have their pilgrim on Wesak day which is te next day after I left.

Then there's Handi Craft visit which is the usual schedule comissioned for tour agency. And the Botanic Garder and Elephant ride. I love the latter programme. what I like about the tour is that they don't have tour guide that actually forces you to buy things. which is why at the end of the day we give a big tips to the tour guide haha. there' s a story behind the whole story and I'm gonna tell you guys later.




So the elephant ride was scary as hell. I was riding on my own and every time the elephant goes down hill my butt slip off the seats a little bit HAHA. but it's fun totally. So after some hectic days we go to the famous massage house and got some massage. actually we went almost everyday when we are there and I've tried all the types of massages there is to try. and to tell the truth I was so scared cos it's my first time. I was so scared that I'd have some unpleasant or embarassing reaction. And in the end nothing. Great HAHA.

Traditional Thai Massage is a bit rough where they rub you with clothes on, and some Twist and Breaks is applied. If any one wishes a softer approach take the oil Massage. though cautionary is that Oil Massages have to be done without any clothes on and all you have is a piece of towel to cover you and they move it around or flip it open all the time so that oil massage can be done to your whole body. That was a bit scary as I've never naked with a stranger and stranger as it sound on a bed, except on a nude beach. A bit of a disadvantage when you're the only one naked when teh messues isn't.... Just kidding. but the Massues are very professional. and I enjoy the whole process relaxing too. But to keep myself fully experiencing the whole process I did a bit of concious meditation by closing my eyes all the time. For the first time I actually know my sensitive spot and the non sensitive one and unfortunately/fortunately my sensitive spot are very very limited, bout 3 or 4 places only haha.

OK. then we go to the third day which is when we go way up north to Chiang Rai. the Trip to the north in a Van are not pleasant at all. we turn a hundreds turn up hil to the hot spring. and Am I glad when we reach the top after one hour. I was so dizzy already I was ready to puke. we took some picture and take another 2 hour ride down hill to the white temple. which is the most beautiful temple that I've ever lay my eyes on. the Temple was painted white and the lay out are all decorated with mirror so it shines like no other temple. a briliant design indeed.

so next we go to the hill village to visit some foreign villager living in Chiang Rai. where finally we see the Long Neck Ladies. the fact that they have such long neck and wearing that 4 kg metal on their neck still amazes me.
then we move on to the border town Measai to the 3 county connect with meakong river. Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. nothing much to see except the fact that we have come to the northern most end of Thailand.

Then it's the dreadful 3 hours ride trip back to Chiang Mai. well, Choosing not to stay in Chiang Rai for a day is still a great choice. because by the end of the day though we are tired there's nothing much really to visit at the northern border. so you'd wonder how i get through the last 3 hours ride. I crack up my IPod with disco sound and dances on the van. HAHAHA. that's how I actually help me ignore the fact it's so bumpy amd imagine myself dancing in a club. since you are moving already.... it's all about volunteery and invonlunteery movement when dancing anyway so there's no different.

So the last day of the trip we extended our tour and get a day free to ourselves. which proves to be the best decision we have ever made. earlier on the second night we have the most funny night. we went to the cities Departmental store and there's more local people that foreigners compare to the night market. And I get my first taste of fried Cricket and termites. which doesn't taste too bad. one advice though take off the leg of the cricket first . they stuck to the throat and not that pleasant when you eat it. and we 5 people actual closes a store that sell thai pork Teriyaki or in Malaysia they call satay when we bought together 50 stick of it when it opens. HAHA and then on our way back we took the "Red Taxi" it's actually somekind of pickup truck that's modified to take people as taxi. where it's more like a bigger "Tot tot" (Taxi modified from a Tricycle) and there's these Kid on the taxi with us and they are geting off from on of the places which looks like a night market when actually it's not the famous night market of Chiang Mai. IT's called Warorot Market which is the real market place of Chiang Mai and at night they have the same night market as the Peak Night market. where most of the customer here are local.



So there's actually more than one night market in Chiang Mai and this one is much more cheaper as the market is more for local people. of course the shop keeper here are not too fluent in english either. but you get like hundreds more local cuisine to feast on here.
so if you are looking for anything Cheaper then come to the Warorot Market in the Day all the indoor Traditional Market is open and you can get a real taste of Thai market place. here you can get anything from bags, cloths, clothes, bed sheets, gold, silver, pots, you name it they have it and they also have the most humorous collection of t-shirt I have ever seen. HAHA
but if you are looking for some eye candy or a place where you won't feel so foreign, then the Peak Night Market is the place.

And the benefits of having a day free also allow us to actually ask around and experience the whole place thoroughly, we plan to go to the zoo to see the Panda and Koala but a 30 bucks entry fees it si too much for us. we rather save the money for massages. so we went to the second best place which is Mardul and Hai Ya Road because one of our tour mate wishes to buy some cheap dog food for his dog. and there is there most multi breed of dogs you can see there and the pure breed of dogs there are abundance there's almost 20 dogs in a small corner of every half shop-lot.

After that we went back to the hotel for another round of massage. then we actaully able to acquire the info that there's a saturday night market which is obvious that opens only on saturday. the last day of my trip. so thinking i have bought all the souvineir i needed I thought I was going to go there to have a taste of all local food only and am i so wrong. the saturday night market actually occupied one of the longest street in Chiang Mai and it's a total of 6 km walk from one end to the other. there's the most beautiful handicraft you can get, the most unusal and famous of all Thailand there. and there's plenty of people with dogs there which is a greta thing for me and a not so great thing for the other tour mate of that who is totally scared of dogs HAHA. so I bought like the whole collectiong of numourous spiderman statue, a table lamp and another dozen set of Nobu Cartoon set. and it's so lucky that I actually saw the set because one of my mate were looking for magnetting palter model when I saw the 2 sets, he wanted the same of after wards and there's actually one complete sets left for both sets. lucky me. HAHA. the largest bought of my trip is today. At the end of the days I've tasted all the cuisine to be tasted. even the pork burger and Yam Pie of McDonald.





I can imagine why westerner like to call Thailand the paradise. There's no poeple who bother you, you can take a bike and ride around town. people here are friendly as hell, except for that one girl who is jealous of us 5 buying 5 pair of slippers instead of one of her statue and came up to us and tell us unpolitely to be aware of her statue when looking at shoes. HAHA. oh! if you want to have all the bites that Thailand offers go to the Saturday Night Market on Wau Lai Road. there is a whole side of the whole 6 km walk at the exit of the walk of local food stall. And the most lucky thing I have is that Whenever I walk out the street the rain stopped. I have hardly have any drizzle on me the whole trip and no sun at all. just the perfect cool weather everyday.

so that wraps up my trip. oh the lesson....... HAHA. the trip turn out to be totally a pleasant one which totally waste my time fussing about the worries I have before I board the plne. that's one. don't fuss about the small stuff or stuff that actually not gonna happen. Second lesson, don't compare with others. there's these tour mates that actually came on the same plane with us from beginning til the end but not followed us on the last day.....actually ask us about our trip and learn that we have went to the Saturday night Bazaar adn they didn't. and their faces simply turn from happy to angry the whole way through custom. oh please when you have a great time why ruin it by comparing with others. such a waste so just that one sentence you gonna diminish the whole 5 days of fun you have? HAHA so stupid. and the third one is Tip the tour guide. these girls were so angry they started scolding the tour guide for not telling them there's a saturday night market when we actually acquire the information from the hotel counter not the tour guide fault and to scold the tour guide before you check in through the gate and not tip him is a big big no no. cause you know why? cos he's not gonna help you when you don't know how to group check in your baggage and you end up over weighing every baggage and have to either pay of hand carry all 20 kg of stuff you bought from the night market. HAHA. so one tips give the tour guide 30 bucks and you are better off paying the airport 300 bucks or carry a cos on your lap the whole flight back.
in this trip I conquer some of my own evil and I have learn of some I need to keep improving and it's simply enlightening to have a lot of occation that coincidence happening to simply at the right time.