Off we go… Chiang Mai, 12 hours bus ride from Bangkok. We left at 6 pm and arrived here at 6am. it was nice and smooth ride with only one bus stop at 12 midnite in a small restaurant, then straight ride to Chiang Mai. When I woke up we already in the city, it’s still quiet and sleeps. As far as I can see, the city looks nice and clean. 20baht van ride to main downtown. We found this Siri Guest house ( from lonely planet book ) 400baht/per night, it’s nice n clean room with Air con, hot shower and internet.
Anyway, yesterday we checked out from our shitty hotel in Bangkok at 12 pm then bought tickets to Chiang Mai for 350baht each. We had 6 hours to kill, we hanged out in some small café which has wifi, from gecko bar, local street food stall till ice cream store. It was hot. we decided to leave early to Chiang Mai then heading to Laos and back to Bangkok.
I was so tired after the long bus ride, I had long shower, then fell asleep for 2 hours. Shea went to sport bar to watch his hockey team. Lunch I had fried rice, we walked around the city and found a local market where they sell vegetables, fruit, meat etc. I bought my favorite Asian fruit “rambutan”. The city is very nice, quiet, small and clean. I just realized there is a mountain/hill right behind the city, what a wonderful view. U can see the foggy mountain from the city, beautiful. Shea went back for his hockey game. I rent a bicycle for 50baht / day, with simple map I got from hotel I biked through the main streets. It was lovely, the weather wasn’t really hot but still sunny. I visited around 5 temples. But I’ve seen Angkor Wat (the biggest temple in the world) in Cambodia, so these temples look small compare to Angkor. There are so many new temples, modern handmade, seems like they love gold color, everything is in gold. Each temple has a big golden Buddha inside. One of the temples called “wat phantao” has this monk inside a glass box. OMG I was so surprised, even until now I still couldn’t figure it out if it was a real monk or just a clay monk.. it looks so real, it has a big golden goddess laying and these couple god and goddess (probably Rama n shinta- forgive me it is wrong). Another temple called “Wat phra sing” is just like another Buddha temples with gold ornaments etc. I passed a crowd of school students who just finished their school, and for sure so many young monks everywhere. they wear long yellow scarf cover their body with a simple handmade bag and for sure they all bold. I guess it is necessary for them to be a monk for period of time in their life just like sign out for a military. After they have done with the education then they can go home, some of them decided to stay and some don’t.
I have had sightseeing the city, temples and road for 2 hours then rode back to hotel, at first I thought I was lost but then I just followed the map (I’m not really good at reading map thou), it is such a small city of course I made it to the hotel J, Shea was too excited about his team won. And for dinner, I had Tom Yam tale nam sai, yes that’s how u say it for original tom yam without coconut milk. steve’s friend told me n I wrote it down. It was delicious and spicy, I had dinner by myself coz Shea is still sleeping. I was kinda scared walking through the dark street it was very quiet unlike Bangkok, less tourist here!!!
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