Bangkok to Chaing Mai

Yo bloggers...

After a wicked time in the big smoke that is Bangkok. It was time to head up in to the north in search of some jungle trekking and more sight seeing. We took a crazy tuk-tuk ride to the train station. The driver was totally insane, he kept pulling out a grey hair at a time, while he must have had another 1000 at the back of his head. He was so twitchy moving his head like a bird and constantly touching buttons on his dashboard which did nothing. Then we were stuck in traffic and we would beep his horn for ages then look around to see who was beeping their horn at him. Crazy to the max but also very funny. I just couldn't stop laughing at him.
The train we took to the north was so much better than the India sleeper train we took earlier on our trip. It took 14 hours but it flew by as he sleeping area wasn't just a shelf it was an actual cabin. Upgrades included sheets, pillows, blankets, your own light, toilets that didn't stink off wee and nice people that didn't eat like pigs.
When we arrived in Chaing Mai we were feeling suprisingly fresh and alert. Straight away after arriving in Chaing Mai it was obvious to us that it was a lot nicer than Bangkok, it was much much cleaner (infact unbelievably clean), more friendly and a lot more relaxed. We booked into our guesthouse and headed out in to the city to check out what was going on with trekking tours, food places, internet points etc. That afternoon we went around normal day life for the Thai, non tourist stuff. We ended up walking to the night bizarre on the look out for some bargains and a bite to eat. The food up here is much better than that in Bangkok, more tastier and better value. On our search for a trek, we wanted a 3day 2 night trek but there were none available to start for the first full day we were in Chaing Mai. So we decided to wait out till the next day as it made economic sense to do the 3 day trek (rather than the 2day 1 night), both costing almost the same...
So instead of trekking on the first day, we decided to rent out a motorbike to see the sights. The bike wasn't as nice as the bike in Goa but it did the job anyway. On our tour of the city we stppped off at loads of Wats (Buddist temples), monuments and the arts and culture centre. Here we learnt all about the history of northern Thailand especially with respect to Chaing Mai. Pretty interesting actually. After a load of riding around the city on the bike and seeing all sorts of funny stuff (incuding a poodle riding on the back of a motorbike, not even strapped in :) ), we stopped off for our favorite food, green curry, yum yum. Later that evening we found out tht we were lucky enough to get with a big group of people on a 3day 2 night trek starting the next morning. Wicked!!!

Until the next blog folks ...

Peace out

d:>)