Lillywhites in Chiang Mai

Our seat come bed for the night on the train - before
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Well, we arrived in Chiang Mai after our 13 hour overnight train journey from Bangkok – we got a second class ‘cabin’ as all of the first class had been sold out. But we’re actually glad we did – we ended up having a real laugh and chatting to quite a few Thai people – the few beers we brought helped aid our bilingual skills!

Sitting opposite us was an American guy and his Thai wife. He’s been living In Thailand for about 5 years and gave us loads of tips on where to go and eat in Chaing Mai, it was great.

Our bed - after
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Each carriage has an attendant and he comes around and makes up your bed whenever you want – we thought grand, we’ll have a few beers and go to bed about midnight. This didn’t really fall in with everyone else in the carriages plans – they were all tucked up in bed by 8:30! We happily sat enjoying our beers until the attendant came around at 10pm and shooed us to bed - we had to pretend to be asleep all the while secretly sitting in the bottom bunk drinking. Finally 7am arrived and it was a new morning in Chiang Mai and another tuk tuk ride to our accommodation (which happens to be gorgeous!).

Welcome to Chiang Mai - Tha Phae gate, one of the gates into the city
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To be honest Chiang Mai was a welcome relief after the mayhem and madness of Bangkok. We finally feel like we can relax and enjoy what this place has to offer. To start (and not surprisingly) we went straight for food to this tiny mis-matched little corner street coffee shop called “Changs” which had “real ground coffee” – just what we needed after a long train journey and a little hangover. After a lazy day of wandering we picked up enough energy and courage to face the night bazaar where anything can be bought…we managed to restrain ourselves to a banana pancake and a few bits of jewellry. We were slightly paranoid at the way people kept openly laughing at us and pointing, but we soon learnt that our nicknames had become “Lillywhites” due to our lack of tan – something we’re hoping to improve!

Wat Phra Sing Temple - one of around 300 in Chiang Mai
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Day two in Chiang Mai and relaxation was the agenda of the day. After a lovely fresh fruit lunch (which we ate in the playground of a school..) we decided after all of our hard work(!) that we deserved our first traditional Thai massage. On the search for a decent massage place we bumped into Pitchit - a friendly Buddist monk who was keen to practice his English with us. He invited us in to see his temple and where he lived – an interesting experience! We finally found a massage place we thought looked nice and headed in. It was fantastic! Relaxing isn’t a word to describe it though….but you do feel so good afterwards…Louise is actually sporting a few bruises from the experience! You were pushed into positions you never thought possible! We ended the day at our guesthouse where the lovely girl there got the chef to cook us up two bowls of Khao Soi – the traditional noodle soup of Chiang Mai – (just delish man) and we both managed to eat it all with chopsticks – we’ll be experts by the end of this trip.

Gordan Ramsey eat your heart out!
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Today, for a change, was all about the food! We went along to our first traditional Thai cookery lesson which was great fun. The best part was that you got to eat what you cooked! We met loads of people and learnt a few tips along the way. The day started with a trip to the local market where we saw every type of food being sold and cooked (I wont go into detail about the pigs head being hacked in half!) we bought the ingredients for the days cooking and then headed back to the kitchen. Our menu consisted off Fried big noodles with sweet soy sauce, steamed fish in banana leaves, yellow chicken curry, chicken & cashew nut stir fry, spicy prawn salad and finished with banana in coconut milk…when I say we cant move….!

That’s all for now. We’re heading to Pai tomorrow where we plan on a bit of trekking, rafting & visiting elephants. We will let you know how we get on.

Apologies for the food theme of this post, but we just love it!

Hope to hear from you all soon, feel free to let us know how cold it is over there, we’re currently sitting in 32 degree heat!

Niamh & Lou

xx