Chaing Mai was full of surprises. Elephants playing football was definitely one of them.
Showing posts with label Chiang Mai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chiang Mai. Show all posts
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Friday, 11 September 2009
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Thai Cooking in Chiang Mai
It was my second time in Chiang Mai. The last time I came here was for New Year’s Eve in 2001. This time it did dawn on me as we were taking the bus to Chiang Mai that it may be full of skyscrapers, but thankfully not. It had all the charm and warmth I remember from the last time but it was just a bit more laid back as New Year was not being celebrated.
As I’d already done the bamboo rafting and trekking into the hills to a village on my previous visit, I decided to spend a lot more time in the city. We spent 7 nights here and my week started off with a full day of what I’d call traditional tourist activities. I loved it but it was like being anywhere else in the world. The real pleasure for me was the cooking course I did with Yui at A Lot of Thai the next day, a fantastic recommendation by Gade, our guesthouse owner. I had a fun filled day cooking and eating some of my favourite Thai dishes.
Yui started off with a demonstration of each dish and then we had a go. There were 4 of us in the class and there are only ever a maximum of 8, so you really get the personal touch. In the morning to get to the class I was picked up from our guesthouse, Elliebum, in a blue VW camper van kitted out with sofas. That set the feel for the rest of the day, relaxed, fun and informative. My favourite dish of the day was Tom Yam, just delicious.
As Jono was busy doing a Thai massage course, I had the days to myself. I spent them wandering around the city and just enjoying the place and taking photographs. The people are so friendly too that it was just bliss. I’m a real exponent of travelling in the off season now as wherever I was it was tranquil and peaceful. No tour bus loads of tourists descending like ants in one particular place.
Staying at Elliebum really made it for me in Chiang Mai and as we were there for over 5 nights we got a free cooking course with Gade. Before we started, Gade had one request - that I cook something too which was traditional to me. I chose to do dahl (yellow lentils) and chapattis as it’s my favourite food and its simple to make. We cooked in the evening so that Jono could join in after his Thai massage course. It was fun and manic at the same time, as Gade’s nieces and nephews were also ‘helping’ while we tried to cook. It was sweaty work but the food was delicious and it made a nice change from eating out.
I would say that if you get to Chiang Mai, definitely do the trekking, elephants and rafting but if you have the time just wonder the streets and enjoy the place.
As I’d already done the bamboo rafting and trekking into the hills to a village on my previous visit, I decided to spend a lot more time in the city. We spent 7 nights here and my week started off with a full day of what I’d call traditional tourist activities. I loved it but it was like being anywhere else in the world. The real pleasure for me was the cooking course I did with Yui at A Lot of Thai the next day, a fantastic recommendation by Gade, our guesthouse owner. I had a fun filled day cooking and eating some of my favourite Thai dishes.
Yui started off with a demonstration of each dish and then we had a go. There were 4 of us in the class and there are only ever a maximum of 8, so you really get the personal touch. In the morning to get to the class I was picked up from our guesthouse, Elliebum, in a blue VW camper van kitted out with sofas. That set the feel for the rest of the day, relaxed, fun and informative. My favourite dish of the day was Tom Yam, just delicious.
As Jono was busy doing a Thai massage course, I had the days to myself. I spent them wandering around the city and just enjoying the place and taking photographs. The people are so friendly too that it was just bliss. I’m a real exponent of travelling in the off season now as wherever I was it was tranquil and peaceful. No tour bus loads of tourists descending like ants in one particular place.
Staying at Elliebum really made it for me in Chiang Mai and as we were there for over 5 nights we got a free cooking course with Gade. Before we started, Gade had one request - that I cook something too which was traditional to me. I chose to do dahl (yellow lentils) and chapattis as it’s my favourite food and its simple to make. We cooked in the evening so that Jono could join in after his Thai massage course. It was fun and manic at the same time, as Gade’s nieces and nephews were also ‘helping’ while we tried to cook. It was sweaty work but the food was delicious and it made a nice change from eating out.
I would say that if you get to Chiang Mai, definitely do the trekking, elephants and rafting but if you have the time just wonder the streets and enjoy the place.
Friday, 4 September 2009
Snakes and Tigers and Elephants in Chiang Mai, Oh My!
After nearly two months in Cambodia and Laos, arriving in Chiang Mai was a bit of a shock to the system. Neither Cambodia nor Laos can really boast being hustle and bustle kind of countries, so getting to Chiang Mai was a reminder that busy-ness really does exist!
We eventually managed to find our way to our guesthouse – Elliebum (as in Elephant’s bum). Brilliant name for a brilliant place – overall, it’s got to be the best place we’ve stayed. There were only two rooms in the place, but it also doubles up as a café. The room we had was a really good size, with a seating area, cable TV, DVD player, Wifi internet and the whole place was spotlessly clean – luxury (for us)! The owner, Gade, and her staff, were what made the place what it was. They were so friendly and helpful, and always went the extra mile to make our stay comfortable and informed. To top it all off, the little extra touches were brilliant – I haven’t seen anything quite as classic as Elliebum labelled soap, with an elephant’s bottom wiggling at me while I’m having a shower.
We both had plans for the week that we were going to be in Chiang Mai for – I was going to do a massage course (more on that later), and Mahmoud was going to enjoy a bit of Mahmoud-time. In the meantime we had a couple of days to spare, and Gade (owner of Elliebum) suggested a few things we could do. We decided to hire a car and driver, something we had not done since India, and tour some of the outer areas of Chiang Mai – sightseeing!
First off was the hilltop temple of Doi Suthep, somewhere Mahmoud had “definitely, 100% not been”. We drove up and up in our nice and comfy air-con car, our friendly driver chatting away. Upon arriving, we discovered that Mahmoud had, in fact, definitely 100% been before, he just did not remember until arriving. The temple was very interesting – unfortunately it was very cloudy and we could not see the city below, but it was still good to see it.
The next stop was the Maesa Snake Farm. I was slightly pessimistic about what we would actually see here, not being a great snake fan (more disinterest than dislike). When we arrived, the snake keepers were all sort of sitting around, but they jumped up and showed us around. Before I knew it, a snake was draped over my neck and it sort of hung there, before slowly sliding up my torso. It was horrible and cold and wet feeling, and very heavy. If I’d been a bit more prepared I might have handled it better, but I just sort of froze while Mahmoud took my picture. The snake was then promptly transferred to his neck, where it lazily hung for a few seconds, before being moved on. We walked around various cages containing snakes, including cobras, some of which tried to strike at us through the chicken wire! Fortunately I don’t think any of them were spitters, but they did look pretty menacing. Once a few more tourists arrived, the snake show got underway. This mostly involved a man taunting various breeds of snake and making them strike at him, and scaring the crowd with them. He always seemed to identify the people in the crowd most scared of the snakes, and target them with the scare tactics. It was a really good show, and I really enjoyed it.
Next up, we went to the Tiger Kingdom for lunch. At Tiger Kingdom you can enter the enclosures and stroke the tigers, get your pictures with them, etc etc. We opted not to, so we ate lunch and watched other people doing it. It was a little bit sad to see the huge cats in captivity – the keepers were quite actively playing with them, but at the same time they were waking them up to take photos with tourists, and the whole thing felt a little like exploitation. Still, we ate there so I guess we partook in it anyway!
After this we visited an elephant show. The elephants were really sweet, and we fed them some bananas and bamboo. There was a really cute little elephant, whose keeper gave it a hat to put on my head. The little elephant put it on my head, and then patted the hat with it’s trunk while Mahmoud took a photo. It then did the same to Mahmoud. It was so cute – such an expressive face. It was my first time up close with elephants, and I have to say I thought they were really sweet – full of personality, even if a lot of what they do is learned through training. We watched the show, in which the elephants played football, painted pictures and adopted sweet poses for the crowd.
Next, we took an hour long ride on one of the elephants – a big 33 year old female. She plodded along, up and down tracks so steep that you never would have thought anything that size should be able to make it, but elephants seem to be really surefooted, testing the way with their trunks as they go. The ride was very comfortable, and a good experience. She posed for the camera when the elephant driver took our photo – so sweet!
Lastly, we visited the “umbrella village” east of Chiang Mai. This looked suspiciously like an emporium from the outside, however once we went in we found people working away making the paper umbrellas. It was interesting walking along and watching each stage of the process, and Mahmoud got a few photos (the only real reason for going there!).
The rest of the week was good for the both of us, although we each did separate things owing to my massage course. One thing we did do was visit the Sunday Night Market – an event sponsored by the government to allow people to set up shop along the main street without having to pay rent. The result is cheap goods and a great night out for all involved. We did a bit of shopping and had a good time – had some excellent local food too! Best of all was at 6pm, when the national anthem blasted out through the speakers along the street. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood to attention while it played. Mahmoud was buying something and the transaction was paused mid-sale. A whining dog was shushed. The whole world stopped for one minute, and once the anthem was over, the street sprang back to life. It was definitely worth seeing!
The only bad thing about Chiang Mai is that it’s full of dirty old sex tourists (ST’s as we call them). Shame really, as it kind of puts you off your dinner when you see a leachy old man draped over a young Thai girl (or boy). That’s a bit of an unfair generalisation, but a lot of the time it’s just plain exploitation, and I don’t really like to see it happening.
More on the week to come, but generally we enjoyed Chiang Mai. It was a nice change of pace after Laos, and a great introduction to Thailand. Mahmoud’s lack of memory of his last visit seems to make it like a first-time destination for him as well!
We eventually managed to find our way to our guesthouse – Elliebum (as in Elephant’s bum). Brilliant name for a brilliant place – overall, it’s got to be the best place we’ve stayed. There were only two rooms in the place, but it also doubles up as a café. The room we had was a really good size, with a seating area, cable TV, DVD player, Wifi internet and the whole place was spotlessly clean – luxury (for us)! The owner, Gade, and her staff, were what made the place what it was. They were so friendly and helpful, and always went the extra mile to make our stay comfortable and informed. To top it all off, the little extra touches were brilliant – I haven’t seen anything quite as classic as Elliebum labelled soap, with an elephant’s bottom wiggling at me while I’m having a shower.
We both had plans for the week that we were going to be in Chiang Mai for – I was going to do a massage course (more on that later), and Mahmoud was going to enjoy a bit of Mahmoud-time. In the meantime we had a couple of days to spare, and Gade (owner of Elliebum) suggested a few things we could do. We decided to hire a car and driver, something we had not done since India, and tour some of the outer areas of Chiang Mai – sightseeing!
First off was the hilltop temple of Doi Suthep, somewhere Mahmoud had “definitely, 100% not been”. We drove up and up in our nice and comfy air-con car, our friendly driver chatting away. Upon arriving, we discovered that Mahmoud had, in fact, definitely 100% been before, he just did not remember until arriving. The temple was very interesting – unfortunately it was very cloudy and we could not see the city below, but it was still good to see it.
The next stop was the Maesa Snake Farm. I was slightly pessimistic about what we would actually see here, not being a great snake fan (more disinterest than dislike). When we arrived, the snake keepers were all sort of sitting around, but they jumped up and showed us around. Before I knew it, a snake was draped over my neck and it sort of hung there, before slowly sliding up my torso. It was horrible and cold and wet feeling, and very heavy. If I’d been a bit more prepared I might have handled it better, but I just sort of froze while Mahmoud took my picture. The snake was then promptly transferred to his neck, where it lazily hung for a few seconds, before being moved on. We walked around various cages containing snakes, including cobras, some of which tried to strike at us through the chicken wire! Fortunately I don’t think any of them were spitters, but they did look pretty menacing. Once a few more tourists arrived, the snake show got underway. This mostly involved a man taunting various breeds of snake and making them strike at him, and scaring the crowd with them. He always seemed to identify the people in the crowd most scared of the snakes, and target them with the scare tactics. It was a really good show, and I really enjoyed it.
Next up, we went to the Tiger Kingdom for lunch. At Tiger Kingdom you can enter the enclosures and stroke the tigers, get your pictures with them, etc etc. We opted not to, so we ate lunch and watched other people doing it. It was a little bit sad to see the huge cats in captivity – the keepers were quite actively playing with them, but at the same time they were waking them up to take photos with tourists, and the whole thing felt a little like exploitation. Still, we ate there so I guess we partook in it anyway!
After this we visited an elephant show. The elephants were really sweet, and we fed them some bananas and bamboo. There was a really cute little elephant, whose keeper gave it a hat to put on my head. The little elephant put it on my head, and then patted the hat with it’s trunk while Mahmoud took a photo. It then did the same to Mahmoud. It was so cute – such an expressive face. It was my first time up close with elephants, and I have to say I thought they were really sweet – full of personality, even if a lot of what they do is learned through training. We watched the show, in which the elephants played football, painted pictures and adopted sweet poses for the crowd.
Next, we took an hour long ride on one of the elephants – a big 33 year old female. She plodded along, up and down tracks so steep that you never would have thought anything that size should be able to make it, but elephants seem to be really surefooted, testing the way with their trunks as they go. The ride was very comfortable, and a good experience. She posed for the camera when the elephant driver took our photo – so sweet!
Lastly, we visited the “umbrella village” east of Chiang Mai. This looked suspiciously like an emporium from the outside, however once we went in we found people working away making the paper umbrellas. It was interesting walking along and watching each stage of the process, and Mahmoud got a few photos (the only real reason for going there!).
The rest of the week was good for the both of us, although we each did separate things owing to my massage course. One thing we did do was visit the Sunday Night Market – an event sponsored by the government to allow people to set up shop along the main street without having to pay rent. The result is cheap goods and a great night out for all involved. We did a bit of shopping and had a good time – had some excellent local food too! Best of all was at 6pm, when the national anthem blasted out through the speakers along the street. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood to attention while it played. Mahmoud was buying something and the transaction was paused mid-sale. A whining dog was shushed. The whole world stopped for one minute, and once the anthem was over, the street sprang back to life. It was definitely worth seeing!
The only bad thing about Chiang Mai is that it’s full of dirty old sex tourists (ST’s as we call them). Shame really, as it kind of puts you off your dinner when you see a leachy old man draped over a young Thai girl (or boy). That’s a bit of an unfair generalisation, but a lot of the time it’s just plain exploitation, and I don’t really like to see it happening.
More on the week to come, but generally we enjoyed Chiang Mai. It was a nice change of pace after Laos, and a great introduction to Thailand. Mahmoud’s lack of memory of his last visit seems to make it like a first-time destination for him as well!
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Huay Xai to Chiang Kong Border Crossing - Laos to Thailand
Huay Xai was a sleepy place holding very little charm. I think most people pass through in a day crossing the border to and from Thailand. The border crossing to Thailand was one of the easiest we’ve done. You ‘checkout’ on the Laos side of the border, dump your bag onto a very small boat and get zipped across to the Thai side in a minute or two across the Mekong. The boat itself holds a maximum of 8 people so it’s tiny but several of them go back and forward as soon as they get filled.
On the Laos side as the passengers disembark, they get a thermometer stuck down their ear to get screened for H1N1. It’s a bit like the thing the doctor sticks down your ear when he wants to have a look. You know at home he puts a shiny clean bit on the end of it before using it, but here the man gives it a quick wipe on his leg before sticking it in the next person.
As we disembarked on the Thai side, which is actually getting off into slightly muddy soil while trying not to drop your backpack, you get screened for the H1N1 virus. This time it’s a gun type contraption that takes your temperature, thankfully no dirty contraption stuffed down our ears for us!
You make your way to ‘check-in’ which is a port-a-cabin type contraption up the river bank, where you fill in the required forms, usually in triplicate and then you are in. On a border crossing you get 15 day entry stamp for Thailand, whereas if you fly in you get the month. Apparently this is to stop long-timers hopping over the border to renew their stamps/visa. I guess crossing the border every 15 days it would be a right pain. We’d planned ahead and got our visas in Vientiane as we plan to be here for about a month and we knew there was a promotion where you get a free 60 day Visa.
From there we had already organised a Mini-Van to take us to Chiang Mai about 250 KM away. As drives go this was one of the dullest we’ve taken, partly due to what felt like the snail pace the driver took. That just may be my perception as in both Cambodia and Laos the drives are a little more erratic, as the buses use all the road to avoid kids, potholes, chickens, dogs, ducks, cows, cyclists, snakes…….. making it much more entertaining.
We arrived in Chiang Mai eventually and were dumped not at any bus station, but at a guesthouse which the driver must get commission from, which always makes working out where you are a challenge. Our first task was to go and find a cash point as we had no Thai baht, not great planning on our part. Once that was sorted we tried to get a tuk tuk to the guesthouse we had chosen. The tuk tuk driver did not know where it was however he called the guesthouse and got the directions. A reasonable price was quoted, much, much cheaper than tuk tuks in Laos, and he took us to the guesthouse with a smile!
I’m already loving being back in Thailand!
On the Laos side as the passengers disembark, they get a thermometer stuck down their ear to get screened for H1N1. It’s a bit like the thing the doctor sticks down your ear when he wants to have a look. You know at home he puts a shiny clean bit on the end of it before using it, but here the man gives it a quick wipe on his leg before sticking it in the next person.
As we disembarked on the Thai side, which is actually getting off into slightly muddy soil while trying not to drop your backpack, you get screened for the H1N1 virus. This time it’s a gun type contraption that takes your temperature, thankfully no dirty contraption stuffed down our ears for us!
You make your way to ‘check-in’ which is a port-a-cabin type contraption up the river bank, where you fill in the required forms, usually in triplicate and then you are in. On a border crossing you get 15 day entry stamp for Thailand, whereas if you fly in you get the month. Apparently this is to stop long-timers hopping over the border to renew their stamps/visa. I guess crossing the border every 15 days it would be a right pain. We’d planned ahead and got our visas in Vientiane as we plan to be here for about a month and we knew there was a promotion where you get a free 60 day Visa.
From there we had already organised a Mini-Van to take us to Chiang Mai about 250 KM away. As drives go this was one of the dullest we’ve taken, partly due to what felt like the snail pace the driver took. That just may be my perception as in both Cambodia and Laos the drives are a little more erratic, as the buses use all the road to avoid kids, potholes, chickens, dogs, ducks, cows, cyclists, snakes…….. making it much more entertaining.
We arrived in Chiang Mai eventually and were dumped not at any bus station, but at a guesthouse which the driver must get commission from, which always makes working out where you are a challenge. Our first task was to go and find a cash point as we had no Thai baht, not great planning on our part. Once that was sorted we tried to get a tuk tuk to the guesthouse we had chosen. The tuk tuk driver did not know where it was however he called the guesthouse and got the directions. A reasonable price was quoted, much, much cheaper than tuk tuks in Laos, and he took us to the guesthouse with a smile!
I’m already loving being back in Thailand!
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