Taking something reminiscent of the crazy night bus from one of the Harry Potter films, we traveled south to Chiang Rai, making our way into Thailand. With high expectations we were met with a ghost town, desperately out of season but never the less we still managed to find probably the nicest and cheapest value accommodation on our whole trip so far and still made the most of it. (After all we were still being shadowed by our drinking buddies and new bestest friends from Laos, Chris and Leanne.)
Time here was spent wondering round Orm's bookstore (an amazing 2 storey house full of books from which the kind owner makes absolutely no profit from trading at all. what a guy!), having boys vs girls competitions including loadsa drinking, connect 4 challenge, uno, cards and even damn right crazy shit like who can lift the heaviest things up with just their toes!!!!!! (Needless to say Jo won that one!), wondering around the massive night market & food stalls with the cheapest beer and the spiciest food ever, Cat & Dog bars and also some much needed time in air-con.
Finding little more to do, from here we caught the Green bus (VIP motherfucker!) to Chiang Mai. What luxury - something we weren't used to before! TV, films, free food, water, working air-con and fully reclining seats!!!!!! A world away from Laos in comfort yet only hours from there in distance.
Chiang Mai. So much to do here, cheap, cheerful and the best Mexican food (except Vegas)!
After a two hour struggle to find a place to stay with minor breakdowns being staged from all, as Chris and I decided to sit down with the bags, the girls found us a place to stay. It didn't quite live up to our previous home but it was still nice enough.
Amazing food journeys started at the best named restaurant in the world - JON's - where they did amazing traffic light curries (stay away from the fish tho!), Mike's burger joint (a bit too greasy for me but still an awesome milkshake), a nice italian pizza place (not that me and chris remember as we got pissed before we ate) and last but not least, as previously mentioned, the 2nd best mexican food I have ever tasted. I mean FREE nachos the size of giant hands and amazing dips before you had even ordered, even then the massive burritos were more than enough to share. Needless to say we went back more than once!!!!
Now with food almost out the way, explaining the rest of our time here should be easy. We spent great times doing a day long elephant (Mahoot) training course at an elephant conservation centre where we rode elephants, bathed them and learnt how to control them. well not they listened! Then we had another good day doing an organic thai cooking course meeting some really nice people and learning how to cook some really tasty thai dishes. (dinner invites will be in the post as soon as we get back.) Also we trekked round possibly the biggest night market so far and participated in a very british pub quiz. We didn't lose but we definitely didn't win!
Once again on our drinking quests we met up with Lara and Victoria from Nam for the night, Jo found yet another new drink with inexpensive pricing (relief!) called Siam Sato - basically a cheap arse beer that tastes rank but apparently tastes like white wine spritzer when mixed with sprite???? and we also found Jo some much needed cider, a few games of pool and in general happy days. See the photos to believe it.
After such a great week here of fun and adventures, it was going to be hard to top. But hold on, next stops Bangkok!!!!!
Arriving unscathed from another mammoth bus journey at a less than palatable hour of 5am we traipsed along a half empty Khao San Rd (apart from the hoards of lady boys) until we reached the familiar destination that resided at Happy house. A few hours of sleep later and after a bit of unpacking our time here was to begin once more.
Meeting up with Lara and Victoria AGAIN! for the last time before they flew back to the UK we spent several nights drinking with Chris and Leanne taking in as much cheap booze as 7 eleven could throw at us and spilling it all out over the Khao San Rd. Not literally but hopefully you know what I mean. Amongst plenty of good nights here we did spend one strange evening with me falling asleep in a bar after only a few drinks at 9pm but having had no sleep for days - (i'm sure my drinks were spiked, i'm not a lightweight honest!) annoying thing was it was our last night with C&L and to tell you the truth after so long in a group of 4 it was weird spending our last 3 days here again with just me and the wife!
Never the less we begrudgingly slipped back into the old JJ routine and made the most of our remaining time with another exhibition at the design & culture centre, watching the new Harry Potter in 3D at the IMAX, visiting the never ending world of Chatchuk market (massive beyond belief!) and shopping til we dropped. That was before Jo even bought anything!
Anyway, next stop down to the islands and time for a tan (hopefully), yet my only regret was missing out on not visiting a place called Pai...... Oh well, I suppose Bangers & Mash will have to do........
until next time.
JJ
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