Busy Bee's in the North

Well, its been a pretty busy little week really... well, comparatively anyway.

On Monday we left for Pai (pronounced kinda like "bye") via Mini-van, except we got picked up from our guest-house in a Saawngthaew - a covered ute with 2 rows of bench seats on either side. Michelle and I quickly, although slightly worriedly, accepted this as our fate for the next 3 hours. They crammed 10 of us in and away we went - that is until we reached the ACTUAL mini van, which carried us in comfort through the 762 corner's on the road to Pai. Pai is a cute wee town (thanks Annie for the tip) on the banks of a river in the far north west of Thailand. It seems to be a bit of a haven for musicians and artists and that sort - kinda like a Thai version of Matakana perhaps. Being way up in the mountains, and with a cold snap heading in from China, Pai turns pretty darned chilly at night. I know its winter and all, but aren't we supposed to be in the tropics??? With night-time temperatures around 10 (or colder) and a morning fog that keeps things brisk well into the morning it doesn't really heat up until about 11.30. Fine by me (although I was feeling a bit blue-knee'd in shorts) but Michelle was freezing.

Anyway, after 11ish it was great, getting up into the high 20's as we've come to expect. We hired a Chinese made (JCB for any that care) scooter which I nick-named "squeeky" and proceeded to explore the local attractions - a Great Barrier style "hot-springs", a muddy creak which you sat in, and some local villages - very cute. I also had an "altercation" with the local traffic law enforcement. Fairly intimidating, but I paid the small fine and everything was great. With that done there is only one thing to do in Pai - sit by the river and drink fruit shakes, which we proceeded to do with great delight, watching the local fishermen and bamboo rafts float by. Rather pleasant.

Then we mini-van'd back to Chiang Mai for a night before catching the local train to Lampang - 3 hours south. The train cost an unbelievable 23baht each - about $1.

Lampang was... interesting. Also a cute (in its own way) riverside town. Though in this town we spent the entire first afternoon wandering around, without seeing one single tourist! We were getting the occasional odd look from the locals too, and those that could speak some English could only manage one or two words. So it turns out that we'd wandered well off the usual tourist trail! No problem, it gave me a good opportunity to practice my thai (Phom passat thai neit noy!!!) and Michelle and I got to try out our skills at charades. We stumbled (there were no english signs, so we were relying on the out-of-date Lonely Planet to see us right) into a local food market - cue more odd looks - where they were selling every every kind of food imaginable, and some that are beyond imagination - when I post photos next we can all play "guess the mystery meat" - Hint, you can see a paw.

Yeah...

Our culinary adventures were only just beginning, as that night I ordered a Larb Moo (Pork Salad). My salad came with a whole range of pig parts, so the salad resembled something from Fear Factor. In fact we're pretty sure that there was indeed, pig's anus in there.

The next morning we ate some nice safe muffins, before taking a Horse and Carriage ride through the city, before heading out to the National Elephant Sanctuary and worlds first Elephant Hospital. What an amazing experience! There were dozens of Chang (Elephants) from huge Males with tusks that were so long they crossed in front of their trunks, through to wee baby elephants. So we fed them (just for you Arina), had a ride, watched them bathe, and saw an elephant show. Incredible!

When we got back to our guest house a night market was setting up outside, so we spent the evening strolling the local market, again only seeing one or two non-local faces amongst the crowd. We did happen to meet a couple of Mormon missionaries, which I found entirely amusing. They were both very nice, but good luck trying to convert 60 million devout Buddhists!

The people of Lampang were brilliant, even though most only knew one or 2 words of English, they invited us to sit with them and tried to converse as best they could. They offered us samples of their food (which Michelle was dodgy on after the previous nights debacle) and were very kind. Well thats what I hope was happening anyway!

Now were back in Chiang Mai for a 3rd time, heading to Chaing Rai tomorrow, then on to Laos...

11.1.09 - A night of culinary delights

The first day we're up on our finances. It;s been a day of a lot of walking and sight seeing. From taking a stroll down to the river to a walk through into the old city. We've taken in the vibes of Chiang Mai and loving every minute of it. Tonight however was a favourite, starting out with a walk through the Sunday markets by the "Gate". I was into trying locally6 made wine. I started with a lychee wine - semi dry, not so pleasant on the nose but a delicious drop none the less. 11% alcohol, 50% fruit (lychee I suspect) and 40% herbs. In fact it was such a nice drop that i had to try another. The only thing missing was Ginny & Scott our wine tasting pals! Second drop was a strawberry wine, it was sweet, soft pink and easy to drink. Shaun i and tried some Chiang Mai sausage, chicken kebab (which we ate one bite of and decided to throw the rest out - neither of us wanted a repeat of the previous weeks Thai belly, and well i don't think our chances would've been high with the gai (chicken) being barely luke warm. As we began to walk past the other food vendors heading for the Roof Top bar (RTB) our eyes sighted steamed spring rolls, had to try those, along with chicken balls. All that for 20 baht ($1) seemed a steal. Lychee wine was 30 baht and strawberry wine 20 baht a glass. We climbed the stairs of the RTB after kindly being escorted across the frantic road by traffic police. They'd come on duty in preparation for the madness of the night markets that were still to come. Shaun and I watched an amazing sunset and a birds eye view of the night market below. We finished our drinks ready to peruse the markets once more. We were so spoiled for choice we'd already had wine, entrees and next was the main course. There were savoury treats for miles and in every block to tantalise our taste buds. We settled on BBQ moo (pork) possibly the BEST pork I've ever eaten, had the smokey flavours of the best Matapouri BBQ's. Next on the list was prawn steamed dumplings, more spring rolls and finally to finish mango and sticky rice and banana and chocolate roti - Aroy Mark Mark (delicious). I arrived back at the guest house feeling particularly spoiled by the culinary delights I can't wait to see waits in store for tomorrow as we move on to our next destination - Pai.