Tuesday - 9 June 08
Airport Plaza Shopping Centre
Chiang Mai
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Welcome to the Daily Blog from Chiang Mai
Tuesday - 10 June 08
Well here we are having another great day in our new hometown as temporary as it may be. We have settled in quite nicely to the Chiang Mai lifestyle and already the staff at the hotel and taxi & tuk tuk drivers out the front of the hotel know us well, even though we don't always use their service as we try to walk as much as we can. My soup man ( a young Thai guy) at the food court everynight has become quite friendly with us too, besides the fact that he makes the best Crispy Pork, Wonton and noodle soup, he likes to have a chat and joke.
I was up early this morning (6.30am) as I had a few phone calls to make and emails I needed to get off early. I left Rick to sleep as he was worn out after our big exciting day yesterday. I hope those of you that looked at the photos on the blog enjoyed them, but photos still don't do justice to the experience. So far I have nearly 600 photos in my photo gallery of this trip and there is still 4 and a bit weeks to go. Awsome!
Today was a much more relaxed and easy going day. We really hadn't planned anything so we just dropped some washing off at our laundry lady just down the road and walked back to the hotel and jumped in a tuk tuk and got the driver to take us to the other shopping centre, the Tesco Lotus so we could check it out. Turns out there are two and we wanted to go to the one closest to the Old City which has Sizzler but ended up at the other one, not the drivers fault he took us where we asked to go. Tesco Lotus is like your big shopping malls not quite as big as the ones in Australia but good anyway. We looked around, had some brunch and then went into the supermarket to grab a couple of things, WoW! it was huge and it sold everything as well as supermarket items and you could also buy supermarket items in bulk. Similiar to the Super Kmarts that some states in oz had many years ago. We spent a fair while in there until Ricks head starting spinning at the size of the place and how long it would actually take us to look through the entire shop so we grabbed the couple of items we wanted and headed out. We jumped in a tuk tuk and headed back to ChangKlan Rd which is where our hotel is.
Man we tipped the tuk tuk driver that took us there 20 baht for getting us there alive, he floored it to get there and as I have reported in previous emails, Thailand has no road rules and I am sure no licences. Its a free for all, but I have to say they know how to do it and they are always corteous to one another, there is no angst they just take it in their stride. Meanwhile Rick and I are sitting in the back writing out our wills, but hey its fun!
The rest of the arvo we just hung around in our room and relaxed. Tonight was the usual, off to the food court for our Soup dinner a bit of a look around and me down at the lobby doing the blog while Rick is upstairs watching his Bloomberg.
So blog followers and dudes, our day was a quiet one and its still awsome to be in such a great place. Until tomorrow!!! Kob n Chai
Well here we are having another great day in our new hometown as temporary as it may be. We have settled in quite nicely to the Chiang Mai lifestyle and already the staff at the hotel and taxi & tuk tuk drivers out the front of the hotel know us well, even though we don't always use their service as we try to walk as much as we can. My soup man ( a young Thai guy) at the food court everynight has become quite friendly with us too, besides the fact that he makes the best Crispy Pork, Wonton and noodle soup, he likes to have a chat and joke.
I was up early this morning (6.30am) as I had a few phone calls to make and emails I needed to get off early. I left Rick to sleep as he was worn out after our big exciting day yesterday. I hope those of you that looked at the photos on the blog enjoyed them, but photos still don't do justice to the experience. So far I have nearly 600 photos in my photo gallery of this trip and there is still 4 and a bit weeks to go. Awsome!
Today was a much more relaxed and easy going day. We really hadn't planned anything so we just dropped some washing off at our laundry lady just down the road and walked back to the hotel and jumped in a tuk tuk and got the driver to take us to the other shopping centre, the Tesco Lotus so we could check it out. Turns out there are two and we wanted to go to the one closest to the Old City which has Sizzler but ended up at the other one, not the drivers fault he took us where we asked to go. Tesco Lotus is like your big shopping malls not quite as big as the ones in Australia but good anyway. We looked around, had some brunch and then went into the supermarket to grab a couple of things, WoW! it was huge and it sold everything as well as supermarket items and you could also buy supermarket items in bulk. Similiar to the Super Kmarts that some states in oz had many years ago. We spent a fair while in there until Ricks head starting spinning at the size of the place and how long it would actually take us to look through the entire shop so we grabbed the couple of items we wanted and headed out. We jumped in a tuk tuk and headed back to ChangKlan Rd which is where our hotel is.
Man we tipped the tuk tuk driver that took us there 20 baht for getting us there alive, he floored it to get there and as I have reported in previous emails, Thailand has no road rules and I am sure no licences. Its a free for all, but I have to say they know how to do it and they are always corteous to one another, there is no angst they just take it in their stride. Meanwhile Rick and I are sitting in the back writing out our wills, but hey its fun!
The rest of the arvo we just hung around in our room and relaxed. Tonight was the usual, off to the food court for our Soup dinner a bit of a look around and me down at the lobby doing the blog while Rick is upstairs watching his Bloomberg.
So blog followers and dudes, our day was a quiet one and its still awsome to be in such a great place. Until tomorrow!!! Kob n Chai
Monday, June 9, 2008
Sawasdee Ka!
Monday - 9 June 08
Hello to everyone out there still reading this blog daily. Today has been a brilliant day. We have seen so many things that were beautiful, funny and awe inspiring. We have been entertained to the max today, let me tell you.
Rick and I were both up early this morning as this was our big day of really going places and seeing things. We had our driver with car that took us only where we wanted to go to see what we wanted to see and let me say its the best way of doing it. Our driver was a really nice and friendly gentleman who runs the small travel agent in our hotel and he was very informative, easy to understand and answered all our questions.
First stop was the Butterfly and Orchid farm and that was really nice and the colours of the butterflies and orchids were absolutely beautiful. I took heaps of photos but don't know what I did cause I lost the photos of the internal memory and the memory card. Bugger! Why don't they make cameras idiot proof for people like me.
Next stop was the Maesae Elephant Camp and what a treat! It was wicked! First we watched the Elephants have their bath and swim in the creek and they were so funny. They had 2 people standing down a little bit further in the creek with baskets to catch the elephant poo as the end of the creek is a waterfall which services the town below. What a shitty job!
For the next hour we were in stitches watching these elephants, they did their tricks and the baby ones were so funny with the hoola hoops, then the older ones had a game of soccer and man can they kick that ball, they had one of the bigger elephants as the goalie and he was showing off, of course. Then they all set up their tressles and painted and the pictures when they finished were awsome. You could buy their actual painting but you had to get in quick as they were lining up before the show was even over to buy them.
We then met our driver back at the main entrance and he drove us to Doi Suthep temple which apparently is on the highest mountain in Chiang Mai. It was a nice drive up the mountain along the windy roads and it reminded me a bit of driving through the Sunshine Coast hinterland. This temple really was something, I have been to hundreds of Buddhist, Chinese and Hindhu temples over the years but this one really took our breath away, the energy and atmosphere was something out of this world. Our driver dropped us off at the entrance to the cable car and we caught the cable car to the top to the temple which took about 2 seconds. We the went to the lookout at the temple to take photos of Chiang Mai and until then I didn't realise how big a city Chiang Mai is. Its the second biggest city after Bangkok. Bangkok has 5 million people and Chiang Mai has 3 million. WOW!
We spent an hour walking around in the temple and watching the people giving their offerings and praying in front of the golden buddhas. We watched a couple of people receiving blessings from the monk in the main temple and then stopped and had an ice coffee at one of the many cafes there surrounding the actual temple. We did what I have always done and gave a donation in the donation box. I got some wicked photos. In all honesty you need at least half a day just at the Doi Suthep. Hopefully we can visit there again before we leave Chiang Mai.
On the way back our driver, Toa, pointed out a few places of interest as we went past them and I asked him many questions about the King and the Royal family which I find quite interesting. We got back to our hotel about 2.30pm and it was such a good day, we treated ourselves a quick Nanny & Poppy snooze. We were out and about again by 4.30pm. We caught a tuk tuk to the Airport Plaza shopping centre which is near the airport and man what a shopping centre. We went to the supermarket and got some supplies like more coffee, sugar, salt and of course our daily chocolate bar. Then Rick decided we should have KFC for a change for dinner to have a break from Thai food, which I agreed we needed. We walked around a couple of floors of the shopping centre and since we had a big day and it was getting dark decided to head home to the hotel, got ourselves a tuk tuk and were home in 15 mins. Rick is now lounging around ( probably asleep) or watching his beloved Bloomberg channel while I am down in the lobby doing emails and this blog.
Today was such an awsome day I really don't know how we are going to top it. Perhaps our visa run trip to Chaing Rai might do it but I doubt it. There is another blog before this one where I have posted a small sample of todays photos and as usual still not having any luck lining them up on the page so hope they don't look too messy. Anyway everyone its 10.30pm and I have to head down to the 7/11. Hope everyone is having a wicked long weekend even with the high fuel prices. Until tomorrow enjoy!
Hello to everyone out there still reading this blog daily. Today has been a brilliant day. We have seen so many things that were beautiful, funny and awe inspiring. We have been entertained to the max today, let me tell you.
Rick and I were both up early this morning as this was our big day of really going places and seeing things. We had our driver with car that took us only where we wanted to go to see what we wanted to see and let me say its the best way of doing it. Our driver was a really nice and friendly gentleman who runs the small travel agent in our hotel and he was very informative, easy to understand and answered all our questions.
First stop was the Butterfly and Orchid farm and that was really nice and the colours of the butterflies and orchids were absolutely beautiful. I took heaps of photos but don't know what I did cause I lost the photos of the internal memory and the memory card. Bugger! Why don't they make cameras idiot proof for people like me.
Next stop was the Maesae Elephant Camp and what a treat! It was wicked! First we watched the Elephants have their bath and swim in the creek and they were so funny. They had 2 people standing down a little bit further in the creek with baskets to catch the elephant poo as the end of the creek is a waterfall which services the town below. What a shitty job!
For the next hour we were in stitches watching these elephants, they did their tricks and the baby ones were so funny with the hoola hoops, then the older ones had a game of soccer and man can they kick that ball, they had one of the bigger elephants as the goalie and he was showing off, of course. Then they all set up their tressles and painted and the pictures when they finished were awsome. You could buy their actual painting but you had to get in quick as they were lining up before the show was even over to buy them.
We then met our driver back at the main entrance and he drove us to Doi Suthep temple which apparently is on the highest mountain in Chiang Mai. It was a nice drive up the mountain along the windy roads and it reminded me a bit of driving through the Sunshine Coast hinterland. This temple really was something, I have been to hundreds of Buddhist, Chinese and Hindhu temples over the years but this one really took our breath away, the energy and atmosphere was something out of this world. Our driver dropped us off at the entrance to the cable car and we caught the cable car to the top to the temple which took about 2 seconds. We the went to the lookout at the temple to take photos of Chiang Mai and until then I didn't realise how big a city Chiang Mai is. Its the second biggest city after Bangkok. Bangkok has 5 million people and Chiang Mai has 3 million. WOW!
We spent an hour walking around in the temple and watching the people giving their offerings and praying in front of the golden buddhas. We watched a couple of people receiving blessings from the monk in the main temple and then stopped and had an ice coffee at one of the many cafes there surrounding the actual temple. We did what I have always done and gave a donation in the donation box. I got some wicked photos. In all honesty you need at least half a day just at the Doi Suthep. Hopefully we can visit there again before we leave Chiang Mai.
On the way back our driver, Toa, pointed out a few places of interest as we went past them and I asked him many questions about the King and the Royal family which I find quite interesting. We got back to our hotel about 2.30pm and it was such a good day, we treated ourselves a quick Nanny & Poppy snooze. We were out and about again by 4.30pm. We caught a tuk tuk to the Airport Plaza shopping centre which is near the airport and man what a shopping centre. We went to the supermarket and got some supplies like more coffee, sugar, salt and of course our daily chocolate bar. Then Rick decided we should have KFC for a change for dinner to have a break from Thai food, which I agreed we needed. We walked around a couple of floors of the shopping centre and since we had a big day and it was getting dark decided to head home to the hotel, got ourselves a tuk tuk and were home in 15 mins. Rick is now lounging around ( probably asleep) or watching his beloved Bloomberg channel while I am down in the lobby doing emails and this blog.
Today was such an awsome day I really don't know how we are going to top it. Perhaps our visa run trip to Chaing Rai might do it but I doubt it. There is another blog before this one where I have posted a small sample of todays photos and as usual still not having any luck lining them up on the page so hope they don't look too messy. Anyway everyone its 10.30pm and I have to head down to the 7/11. Hope everyone is having a wicked long weekend even with the high fuel prices. Until tomorrow enjoy!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Lazy Day in Chiang Mai
Sunday - 8 June 08
Sawasdee Ka to one and all! This will be a short blog as we had a bit of a lazy day in Changers today. Its Sunday and it was very quiet, must be the one day the locals actually take it easy. We did the usual McShit for breakfast and mainly because its cheap and they have the only good latte's in Thailand. We are doing really well with our daily budget, we have allowed ourselves a daily budget of 2,000 baht per day ($67 Aud) which includes accommodation and all meals. So far we are only spending including accomm around 1300 baht, so what we save can go towards our flights to Phuket as opposed to spending 13 hours on a bus.
After breaky this morning we decided to do our usual daily walk and headed south along the main drag, we walked for hours and hours through the suburbs, passed expensive resorts, along the river and its so interesting to see the Thais going about their daily living, which most of the time seems to revolve around working.
The rest of the arvo was spent watching the AFL game between Freo and the Lions and just relaxing. Rick slept most of the arvo and finally woke up around 7.30pm so we could go out and have dinner. We treated ourselves to our normal Maccas ice cream and packets of dried Mango and headed home to our hotel. No rain or storms today which is a shame cause I love watching the storms roll in over the mountains from Myanmar, it makes for good photos.
Anyway thats it for today, should be a better blog tomorrow as we are off on our tour all over the place. So until tomorrow! Kob Chai
A
Sawasdee Ka to one and all! This will be a short blog as we had a bit of a lazy day in Changers today. Its Sunday and it was very quiet, must be the one day the locals actually take it easy. We did the usual McShit for breakfast and mainly because its cheap and they have the only good latte's in Thailand. We are doing really well with our daily budget, we have allowed ourselves a daily budget of 2,000 baht per day ($67 Aud) which includes accommodation and all meals. So far we are only spending including accomm around 1300 baht, so what we save can go towards our flights to Phuket as opposed to spending 13 hours on a bus.
After breaky this morning we decided to do our usual daily walk and headed south along the main drag, we walked for hours and hours through the suburbs, passed expensive resorts, along the river and its so interesting to see the Thais going about their daily living, which most of the time seems to revolve around working.
The rest of the arvo was spent watching the AFL game between Freo and the Lions and just relaxing. Rick slept most of the arvo and finally woke up around 7.30pm so we could go out and have dinner. We treated ourselves to our normal Maccas ice cream and packets of dried Mango and headed home to our hotel. No rain or storms today which is a shame cause I love watching the storms roll in over the mountains from Myanmar, it makes for good photos.
Anyway thats it for today, should be a better blog tomorrow as we are off on our tour all over the place. So until tomorrow! Kob Chai
A
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Hi Everyone in Oz!!
Saturday - 7 June 08
Hello everyone! I have done 2 posts today, this one and one with photos of the wicked storm we had this arvo. Its the same everyday, storm in the morning with heavy rain and storm in the evening with even heavier rain, its good because it manages to keep the place cooler so walking around is much more pleasant and you don't sweat.
We have had a busy day today, brunch again at McShit as it is cheap and its the only thing open at that time (10.30am) to eat. No Thai food available until later in the day or early evening. We walked for hours again today and we never seem to get sick of exploring the streets, markets and the city of Chiang Mai, its never boring. We walked to the Day Markets which I call China Town because of the chinese gate at the start of the road you walk to get to the day markets, I think I posted a photo on the blog a couple of days ago of it. The markets were packed it must be the day all the Thai people go there as well, the crowds were enormous. We were walking along the steet stalls and there was this beautiful little boy, about 4 years old sitting on the narrow footpath outside one of the shops, begging with his cup. I couldn't believe it, he was such a sweet little kid and it was a bit upsetting to see it. Anyway we stopped and put 10 baht in his cup and I gave him one of the keyrings with a stuffed kangaroo on it and showed him what a Kangaroo does, hop, hop. He was so happy and it broke my heart, I really just wanted to pick him up and take him with us.
You know I got to thinking just how lucky we foreigners really are. Our children, grandchildren and even ourselves never have to go out on the streets to beg just to live and yet we whinge day in and day out at every opportunity we get that what we have isn't enough. How ungrateful are we. Thats my sermon for the day!
Today we have booked all our tours that we want to do whilst we are here. Monday we booked a taxi and driver to take us to the things we want to see and do, so we are off to The Elephant Training Camp to watch the elephants paint and do their chores and other things. Then we are off to Doi Suthep which is a huge buddhist temple on the mountain and it overlooks Chiang Mai. When we look out our hotel window we can see the temple up on the mountain and when the storms roll in the clouds roll in around the temple and the mountain and it just disappears, it is really fascinating to see and if the sky is clear of a nightime we can see the lights of the temple up on the mountain. We then go to the Butterfly and Orchid farm which I have been told is beautiful to see. I will be taking lots of photos.
Wednesday night we are off to the Cultural Show to watch all the different styles of Thai Dancing and dinner is included, looking forward to that. You even get to learn some of the steps of the dancing. Yeh rock on Rick & Nic.
We have also booked our visa run tour for the 19th June as our visas run out on 24 June. We are doing the day tour to Chiang Rai and then on to Mae Sai which is the border town of Thailand and Myanmar. We stop at the immigration gate at Mae Sai, have our old visa stamped to leave the country of Thailand, walk across the border into a small village, have a look at the market stalls and then walk back across the Thai border to immigration and pay 10 USD, fill out forms and get a new 30 day visa stamp on our passports, it takes about 50 minutes, get in the tour bus and finish our sightseeing on our way back to Chiang Mai.
I just want to clarify our visa run in case anyone in the family are talking to mum and she starts to freak out, as she does, thinking we are going to be caught up in Myanmar and the Military Junta decides to take us and not let us out of the country. We walk across the road from Thailand side of the border to the Myanmar side of the border, spend a few minutes there and walk back and get our new 30 day visa to enter into Thailand and finish our trip. We are not travelling or touring through Myanmar (Burma) we will be there 5 minutes only, ok.
This arvo we watched the AFL game between West Coast and the Swans, and it was a great afternoon because the Eagles got there arses kicked in the last 5 minutes, go the Swans, sweet!
Tonight the Freo vs Brisbane is on and we will be watching that, go Freo! We went out to our usual spot for dinner and I have to say the last 3 nights I have had Wonton Noodle soup with pork and egg noodles and I tell you Wonton Soup has always been my favourite soup which is why I cook it so much at home. But this one is the best and I will be making and cooking it when I get back the same as they do it here, I stand and watch the young guy as he does it and its so simple, same with Pad Thai. I would love to do a half day Thai Cooking Class, maybe I should, something to think about.
Anyway the nights almost over and the footy about to start so better end this blog and settle in for the night with coffee and chocolate. Stay tuned - Until tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!! La Kon (Good Bye!)
Hello everyone! I have done 2 posts today, this one and one with photos of the wicked storm we had this arvo. Its the same everyday, storm in the morning with heavy rain and storm in the evening with even heavier rain, its good because it manages to keep the place cooler so walking around is much more pleasant and you don't sweat.
We have had a busy day today, brunch again at McShit as it is cheap and its the only thing open at that time (10.30am) to eat. No Thai food available until later in the day or early evening. We walked for hours again today and we never seem to get sick of exploring the streets, markets and the city of Chiang Mai, its never boring. We walked to the Day Markets which I call China Town because of the chinese gate at the start of the road you walk to get to the day markets, I think I posted a photo on the blog a couple of days ago of it. The markets were packed it must be the day all the Thai people go there as well, the crowds were enormous. We were walking along the steet stalls and there was this beautiful little boy, about 4 years old sitting on the narrow footpath outside one of the shops, begging with his cup. I couldn't believe it, he was such a sweet little kid and it was a bit upsetting to see it. Anyway we stopped and put 10 baht in his cup and I gave him one of the keyrings with a stuffed kangaroo on it and showed him what a Kangaroo does, hop, hop. He was so happy and it broke my heart, I really just wanted to pick him up and take him with us.
You know I got to thinking just how lucky we foreigners really are. Our children, grandchildren and even ourselves never have to go out on the streets to beg just to live and yet we whinge day in and day out at every opportunity we get that what we have isn't enough. How ungrateful are we. Thats my sermon for the day!
Today we have booked all our tours that we want to do whilst we are here. Monday we booked a taxi and driver to take us to the things we want to see and do, so we are off to The Elephant Training Camp to watch the elephants paint and do their chores and other things. Then we are off to Doi Suthep which is a huge buddhist temple on the mountain and it overlooks Chiang Mai. When we look out our hotel window we can see the temple up on the mountain and when the storms roll in the clouds roll in around the temple and the mountain and it just disappears, it is really fascinating to see and if the sky is clear of a nightime we can see the lights of the temple up on the mountain. We then go to the Butterfly and Orchid farm which I have been told is beautiful to see. I will be taking lots of photos.
Wednesday night we are off to the Cultural Show to watch all the different styles of Thai Dancing and dinner is included, looking forward to that. You even get to learn some of the steps of the dancing. Yeh rock on Rick & Nic.
We have also booked our visa run tour for the 19th June as our visas run out on 24 June. We are doing the day tour to Chiang Rai and then on to Mae Sai which is the border town of Thailand and Myanmar. We stop at the immigration gate at Mae Sai, have our old visa stamped to leave the country of Thailand, walk across the border into a small village, have a look at the market stalls and then walk back across the Thai border to immigration and pay 10 USD, fill out forms and get a new 30 day visa stamp on our passports, it takes about 50 minutes, get in the tour bus and finish our sightseeing on our way back to Chiang Mai.
I just want to clarify our visa run in case anyone in the family are talking to mum and she starts to freak out, as she does, thinking we are going to be caught up in Myanmar and the Military Junta decides to take us and not let us out of the country. We walk across the road from Thailand side of the border to the Myanmar side of the border, spend a few minutes there and walk back and get our new 30 day visa to enter into Thailand and finish our trip. We are not travelling or touring through Myanmar (Burma) we will be there 5 minutes only, ok.
This arvo we watched the AFL game between West Coast and the Swans, and it was a great afternoon because the Eagles got there arses kicked in the last 5 minutes, go the Swans, sweet!
Tonight the Freo vs Brisbane is on and we will be watching that, go Freo! We went out to our usual spot for dinner and I have to say the last 3 nights I have had Wonton Noodle soup with pork and egg noodles and I tell you Wonton Soup has always been my favourite soup which is why I cook it so much at home. But this one is the best and I will be making and cooking it when I get back the same as they do it here, I stand and watch the young guy as he does it and its so simple, same with Pad Thai. I would love to do a half day Thai Cooking Class, maybe I should, something to think about.
Anyway the nights almost over and the footy about to start so better end this blog and settle in for the night with coffee and chocolate. Stay tuned - Until tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!! La Kon (Good Bye!)
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