chilling in chilly chiang mai

cheffing it up
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We didn't really know why we were going to chiang mai.  the guide book didn't make it sound overly exciting (unless you wanted to go and stare at some hill tribes - which we didn't, i find the idea a bit weird and had read an article about the long neck women in national geographic that implied they were kind of forced into it by not being allowed to do any other work.  but who knows how old the magazine was or if i had remembered it correctly).  But evryone we know who had been here said it was a nice place anyway.  so here we are.

monk football tournament
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actaully we liked chiangmai, i think it had a lot to do with the weather - bright sunny days, not too hot and a bit of morning chill to make you appreciate the hot coffee - and the fact that it is a small city (certainly compared to our last two - bangkok and singapore)  so we could walk around and not have to deal with conman taxi and tuktuk drivers all the time.  i think i am a small town girl, can't cope with hassle of a big city.  that why i liked living in cambridge so much.  doesn't bode well for our time in hanoi and ho chi minh does it?

i think it is the curry volume he is concerned about

how to boil an egg in a hot spring. not sure if these are universal instructions. or how it applies to the lovely eggs with embryos in them that they sell in these parts.
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We spent four days in chiang mai, one day was spent mostly shopping and sitting cafes, one day doing temples, one day learning to cook, and one day on a moped.  temples were nicer up here - not as gaudy, more dark wood - lanna style apparently.  although still plenty of gold.  the shopping was excellent - we liked the weekend walking streets best - a mixture of foreigners and thai people so you didn't feel it was all put on for your benefit so much as at the night market.  we bought lots of random sweet treats and some origami huskies, amongst other stuff.

not strictly pc
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the day on the moped was fun. we went out to a weaving a paper making village and didn't buy anything as we could work out how to get fancy paper or a parasol home without breaking it.  then we went to some hot springs and soaked pour feet and boiled some eggs in a little wicker basket - it seemed to be THE thing to do.  mr alex has a grass jelly drink - it was dark brown, had bits of green jelly in it that looked like worms and tasted a bit like burnt sugar.  i had lemongrass juice - much more sensible.  on the way back to town (30km away) we got well lost and ended up on the "super highway" and then stuck in the one way system on the incredibly busy ring road at rush hour.  not much fun for moped novices like ourselves.  mr alex got us back safely though, with only a few screams from me on the back - mainly when we screeched away from traffic lights at what felt like great speed - alex said he finds it hard to control the bike at low speeds so he just goes really fast!  i did the driving on the country lanes - much more sedate.  oh did i mention that it was dark for this mammoth journey?

doi thusep.
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we also used our moped the next morning to ride up to doi suthep - a magnificent temple on a hill 1000m above chiang mai.  don't forget a jumper it is cold on a moped in the early morning.  the road was very twisty and quite steep but no potholes and great views overthe city.

we didn't enjoy every moment on the bike but it hasn't put us off mopeds - it is nice to go at your own speed and be able to stop and look at a paddy field whenever you like.  although the boy needs to learn better posture! - when we go up hill it is hard for me to hold all his weight up as well as my own!  matbe we will have two mopeds next time!

in the eye of the dragon
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our remaining day in chiangmai was pent at cookery school. there are about 20 cookery courses in chiangmai.  we chose "a lot of thai" because we read on a blog that it was good (a guy called richard barrow - google the blog it should come up) because the class is taught by the owner, who loves food and who speaks excellent english.  and she teaches it in her own house, which is nice and homely.  we even went with her to pick her son up from school as the class ran a bit late.  she was a good teacher, although i don't think we were a paricularly challenging group - we all seemed to know our way round a wok!  there was me and the boy and a woman who worked at th american embassy (who had done class at the same place before - so that is a good reccommendation) - and two of her holidaying friends.  we learnt six dishes and also how to make curry paste and we got a good cookbook.  so maybe you will all get a thai feast when we get home?

we stayed in two guest houses in chiang mai, both in teh old town near the tha pae gate, first your house 2, then eagle house 2, both these places had been specially reccommended in our guide book (the rough guide).  they were both pretty rubbish  -the beds were uncomfortable- so hard that i woke up feeling like i had slept in my tent WITHOUT my thermorest! and a nasty sewage smell emmanated from the bathrooms at both.  the staff at your house were fairly unfriendly - when we asked to swap rooms due to the smell they refused saying there wasn't a smell, hence we left for eagle house.  both these places had been specially reccommended in our guide book (the rough guide).  that'll teach us to follow our guidebok.

we left chiang mai on very nice green bus to chiang rai (where we didn't stop) then got on a much less comfortable bus to the border town of chiang kong on the mekong river.  we stayed at a really nice guesthouse which was also specially recommended in the rough guide, so thay are right sometimes.  lots of blankets on comfy beds, a lovely terrace overlooking the mekong, yummy choc-chip cookies and a funny little fat dog that carried its dinner home from a nearby restaurant in plastic bag.  we would have stayed another day, but the boy informs me we are hurrying a bit so we have enough tmne to volunteer with elephants and eat lots of curry in india.  i think it is the curry volume he is concerned about.

well done if yu have read all this rambling.  we are off down the mekong into laos next.......