Doi Suthep and the truck of terror

On Friday we paid a visit to Doi Suthep which is a temple on a 1676 meter high hill 16km from Chiang Mai. The site is one of the most sacred in Thailand and was, a legend has it, founded in 1383 when an elephant carrying an important relic collapsed and died at the site.

The route up the hill was via an incredibly twisty and steep mountain road. The driver of our sawngthaew was taking things at a fair old pace anyway but went into a crazy Lewis Hamilton mode when he got a minibus in his sights. The driving was atrocious as they raced each other side by side at breakneck speed up the twisting mountain road. By the time we got to the top Liz had gone a strange translucent colour and had to dash to the nearest toilet to say hello to breakfast again!

The temple at the top was a really nice oasis of calm after the wacky races ride up. Although we again seem to be visiting somewhere during the repair season!

From the top of the hill there are supposedly great views over Chiang Mai. However; we could hardly see anything as at this time of year it is really hazy due to the popularity of slash and burn agriculture that is used on the local farms.

Not sure whos Mom this is a statue of but it certainly isn't mine . . .

The drive back down to the bottom wasn't much better than the one up and left Anne seeking a bin!

In the evening we headed over to the Nimmanhaemin Road area of town which is where all the local trendies hang out (we of course fitted right in!). We ended up in a great bar/club called Warm-up where we were entertained by a local band who were belting out some impressive covers of Radiohead and Muse songs. It was really nice to go to a bar where the locals go for a night out rather than the usual tourist haunts.

Fire in the hold!

We had a rather unusual evening on Thursday after dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant called Miguel's Cafe (chicken chimichangas and lime margaritas all round). We had nipped into a bar on the way back to our guesthouse for a quick drink only to be interrupted by the building opposite bursting into flames!

We're not really sure how the fire started but things were a little scary for a while as not only where we sat right in front of the blaze but our guesthouse was virtually directly behind the building on fire. Luckily the men from the Chiang Mai fire brigade were on hand to sort things out before the fire spread to the surrounding buildings. Thankfully no one was hurt in the blaze.

Chok Chai Tour

One of the big draws of visiting the Chiang Mai area is being able to go elephant trekking and to visit some of the local tribal people.

As we've already said on some previous blog postings, we're not fans of organised tours and usually try avoid them like the plague. However we took a trip out with Chok Chai Tour on Thursday and it turned out to be a great day out.

We started the day with a visit to an orchid farm and butterfly house. The gardens and flowers were really beautiful but the butterfly house was a bit of a let down.

Considering that Thailand is a fairly exotic tropical country we expected to see some really colourful creatures. However, the butterfly house only appeared to have some rather dull looking brown ones. Rubbish! We saw better ones walking around town.

The next stop was for a bit of bamboo rafting which was a fairly sedate but very pleasant punt along the river.

Liz and Anne even got the chance to wear a bit of rather fetching head gear.

Next up was the main event, the elephant treking. We had about an hour traipsing through the jungle on elephant back over terrain that would thwart a Land Rover. It was great fun and quite hard work to keep in the saddle when the elephants went down any steep inclines.

Then after lunch we also got to see an elephant show, which we hadn't actually paid for on our trip! It was very impressive to see the elephants put through their paces but we always feel a little uncomfortable watching performing animal shows.

Then it was onto the most pointless bit of the trip, the waterfalls. We love a good waterfall but this one was just plain rubbish. In the eyes of the owners mother nature hadn't done a good enough job so they thought that they would help out with a bit of concrete. They also thought it would be nice to have more water cascading down so the hillside was covered in bright blue plastic water pipes.

Next up was a trip to a long neck Karon hill tribe village where we saw some amazing looking women who wore traditional neck extending jewelry.

The Karon women believe that having a long neck is beautiful so wear the metal rings to make their necks as long as possible. They start to wear a few rings as young as 4 years old and then gradually increase the amount of rings until they have about 25 or 26. Not too sure about this pair though!

On the way back into town we also got to see a new temple complex that was under construction and also a factory where they turn elephant dung into paper. Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy (of the temple, not the elephant poo)

We're not quite sure what this little fella's about . . .

Ok, here's some elephant poo too. . .

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, which is the second largest city in Thailand, lies close to the boarder of Myanmar (Burma) and Laos in the far North of the country. Historically the city was the centre of the caravan trade in opium and silk from the Yunnan province of China to the port of Mawlamyaing in Myanmar. The town is still well known for its numerous markets and infamous night bazaar which sell many of the local and tribal handicrafts (as well as the usual big brand knock offs).

The city is centred on the old town which is bounded by fortified walls and a moat that were built in 1800 to provide protection from Burmese attacks.



The town has a very different atmosphere to anywhere else that we have been in Thailand. A lot more relaxed and laid back, in fact it feels more like Laos.

The other really noticeable difference is that the cost of everything is far cheaper here than the other places we have been to in Thailand. We've found the cost of living in Bangkok and the beach resorts of the South to be far higher than expected and nearly on par with back home in the UK. It hasn't been helped by the fall in value of the pound in the currency markets. However; the biggest factor by far is what appears to be the overpricing of things for tourists. The cost of everything in Chiang Mai from hotels and transport to food and drink is about half of what we have paid elsewhere in Thailand and more like the rest of Southeast Asia.

Chiang Mai is also home to many temples which we've spent a bit of time exploring.




Some of the temples were really interesting, at Wat Chedi Luang you could even have "monk chat". A lot of the temples had scarily realistic wax dummies and gold leaf covered statues of respected deceased monks which was all very strange.

One of the temples, Wat U Mong, turned out to be a bit of a disappointment though. As always seems to be the case, it's the ones that are hardest to get to that are the most disappointing. It was really raved about in a couple of the guide books and listed as a must see temple amongst the forest. In reality it was just a collection of 3 or 4 brick lined tunnels in the trees!

The bar and restaurant scene here is really lively too with plenty of variety. There's also a really big live music scene with lots of the bars and restaurants having bands. We took another tip from Jon and Linds and headed out to the Riverside Bar and Restaurant which is just outside the city walls on the banks of the Mae Nam Ping. There's a row of about 6 or 7 restaurants in a row which back onto the river. We had a great night but got our timing a bit wrong, as when we left Riverside Bar to go to check the music out at The Brasserie everyone else went in the opposite direction and we ended up in an empty bar with no atmosphere.

Bye-bye Bangkok

We've really enjoyed our numerous stays in Bangkok. It's a great place to visit and recharge the backpacker batteries. It has a real mix of home comforts, the exotic and the unusual. Plus there's some top class attractions to see too. There are also some great bars and restaurants, Sawasdee Terrace on Soi Rambutri being our particular favorite (I think we must have been there at least every other night we were in town).

It may not be the prettiest city in the world, the recently completed sky train, an elevated concrete railway, is a bit of an ugly mess (couldn't it have gone underground?) but it's got a lot to offer.

Next stop Chiang Mai.

Electric Blue

While we we out in Patpong on Sunday night we came across this great advert for a go-go bar . . . no we didn't go-go in!

Back to Bangkok

We're back in Bangkok for the third and final time. We're again staying just off the Khao San Road on Soi Rambutri, this time at a fantastic guesthouse / hotel called O Bangkok.

Being as Anne has not been to Bangkok before we're spending most of our time taking her to our favorite spots from our previous visits; China town, Jim Thompson’s house, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. We wrote about them on some older posts so wont repeat ourselves.

We've also been to some new places too. On Sunday night we headed out for a couple of games of ten pin bowling at possibly the swankiest bowling alley we've ever been to, Blu Rhythm and Bowl. It was a really great bowling alley, far better than most of the flea pits that we get at home.

The big surprise was Liz coming last on the first game. She's normally does really well and always scores into the mid hundreds, where I'm quite lame and need the bumpers putting down the side channels like when a four year old plays. Somehow I managed to fluke a score of 141, Anne also got a great score of 133 (record best scores for both of us) whilst Liz trailed in last on 91.

Things were returned to normal on the second game when Liz wiped the floor with us both.

We've also been to what is probably the strangest bar we've been to. A place called Full Tank which is on the forecourt of a disused Shell petrol station. It's a very strange setup as the tables, chairs and bars are scattered amongst the petrol pumps!