Between Koh Pha Ngan and Chiang Mai I dropped Anne off in Bangkok, picked Keith up at the airport, spent the night in an airport hotel and caught a flight the next day. It was a long two days of travelling, but Chiang Mai was worth it.
I had a very big misconception of Chiang Mai before I got there. For some reason I was picturing a quaint old city all located within an ancient wall and moat. What I got was the second largest city in Thailand. It is really nothing, in size, compared to Bangkok, but it was much bigger than I was expecting. The old city wall and moat are still there, but the city has sprawled way beyond those walls. Now it is a small remnant of the old city inside the walls, but outside is just like any other city. There is an ordinance only allowing three stories inside the walled part of the city, but outside they can be as big as you want and there are a couple of tall ones (usually hotels).
We stayed inside the walled part of the city at a great guest house called Libra House. I would greatly recommend this place. The rooms are great for a wonderful price. The people are friendly and are willing to help you with pretty much anything your heart desires and the location is actually pretty good. The food at Libra House is actually pretty good as well (and much cheaper than any of the islands).
Walking around old town Chiang Mai was interesting because it was a dichotomy of old and new. There are a bunch of wats (temples) around the old city of Chiang Mai and it seemed as though you could not walk very far without seeing another one. Then, next door to the wats were internet cafes, coffee houses (Keith said he had one of the best lattes he ever had in Chiang Mai), and a ton of clothing stores (as in custom made clothing stores). I broke down and decided to have some clothes made so I guess it was a good thing there were so many choices.
We did see some very cool wats. Many of them have ornate colors inside (much gold and red) as well as intricate paintings and carvings on the doors, windows, and walls.
The biggest, and most touristy, wat we went to was Doi Suthep. It is also known as the wat on the hill. Pretty much it is the wat that is on top of the nearest mountain to Chiang Mai (I think it might actually be part of Chiang Mai bounds, but I don't know for sure). The temple is huge and has its own compound (a walled off portion of the hill that has about 10-20 buildings as well as a ton of other things). Other than the temple, there are some great views of Chiang Mai from the top of the mountain. The road up to, and down from, the temple was actually really fun. It was a long and windy road that would have been really fun in a sports car or on an American motorcycle. Even in the back of the pick up truck taxi that we took to the top was pretty fun.
The last day we were in Chiang Mai we almost got caught in a huge downpour. Luckily we had stopped into the store to grab some sustenance for the night train we were going to take back to Bangkok when the rain started. Within 5 minutes the skies went from overcast to complete downpour. Like many of the locals, we stood in the doorway of the store and tried to let the storm pass. After about 40 minutes the rain let up a little and we made our way back to the guest house (it was getting close to the time we needed to head to the train station and we couldn't wait any longer. Even though the rain was slowing he damage was already done.
With very little drainage for the streets they flood quite easily. Walking back to the guest house was an interesting experience because we had to go through puddles in the street and the road outside our guest house was completely flooded (under about 3 inches of water). Lucky for us we had a taxi coming to take us to the train station.
On the way to the station we saw how the rain can cause problems for even more of the city. Because there was so much water on the roads traffic was a nightmare. At some places the water was deep enough to come up and over the bottom of the tire of motorbikes and some cars. The truly amazing thing was that it didn't really effect the people all that much. They still went out to the market and got the vegetables they need (even though they had to walk through 4 inches of water to do so), drove to get to where they needed, and simply continued on with their lives. What was crazy to both Keith and I it seemed like a normal way of life for everyone else.
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