Chiang Mai starts with a 13 hour train ride from Bangkok.. and probably our best yet - the food was great, the staff were great and the seats that became beds were really comfortable. We decided to entertain ourselves by watching Bangkok dangerous with Nicolas Cage - I think someone needs to tell him to retire shortly.. ahem.
We arrived early in the morning and it didn't take long before it was sweltering at 41degrees Celsius.. yeow. . since that first morning we adopted a juice bar as our new best friend - serving up any kind of fruit blended with ice for a cool $1.50. It is the low season here and we were literally feeling like one of about 4 farang (fleshy walking tourist ATM) in the city.. there isn't much you can do to cool down but hang in your room.. Mmmm.. that won't do?
We decided to get some hot burning air in our faces and hired a VRX400 motorcycle to take on a day loop out of the city and into the mountains. As you turn off from the main highway you hit the road with all the tourist attractions;
Tiger temple (where that lady recently got munched), snake farm, monkey park, insect zoo, orchids, butterfly zoo (where our friend James Gow ended up to find only 4 butterflies), and a million elephants between waterfall attractions.
I'm not even posing in this shot - This is what everyone looks like when they ride in Asia.. like they just watched happy days with the Fonz
Our first stop on the way was the Mae Sae waterfall. It is a huge area of 10 waterfalls with a snaking walking track (we actually saw a snake on it too) running to the top. You can go swimming and just generally take in the serenity...ahhh, how's the serenity?This next shot is actually from the centrefold of a adult magazine - I thought I'd slip it in though.
The lovely Desh and I before a medium sized fall
They call these snake branches.
No climbing or sharking please
A little rest spot
We decided to hit some more commercial attractions this time - with the Monkey park. I filmed loads of this - but it is too sad to show. Monkeys performing tricks;weight lifting, riding bikes, counting numbers.. etc.. instead I will show you the cute monkey we found on the way out.. ain't he something special in video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MAuIhL2qgo
We actually ran out of time to do anymore attractions - as the afternoon ticked on and we had mountains to climb on the bike.
The next night we went to the Thai boxing - and man was it awesome! These guys dance in the ring, and the true pros spend more time hypnotising their opponent with their snake like charm gently dancing their poised arms up and down and side to side before striking the deadly blows.
Chiang Mai was getting hot and lazy, so the next morning I went out and hired a Honda Phantom chopper - which is kind of like a sofa on wheels to take us on the golden triangle up to Pai. The golden triangle is a loop that has 1600 corners over a few days.. we opted for 762 over 140kms each way - still takes 3.5 hours or more to get through all the hairpins and S bends.
The roads are great in Thailand, and they maintain them.. not sure about safety though as there is no speed limit and helmets are optional - we opted.
Looks free right - make sure you pack the dental floss to get the insect road kill out.
Pai is an awesome wee town - really really cool. It is a hippy town/commune from way back- slightly developed now, but the core remains. A lot of dreads come this way - and there are even dreaded dread shops to maintain the smelly threads. Rumour has it that cops are really cracking down on the Marijuana situation ( it's in the widn alright ), and conduct random urine tests in bar raids.. the outcome is immediate jail time. We found a cute little place straight away with bungalows and a swimming pool (much needed). Each bungalow had a theme - and ours was U2.. we turned down the rolling stones for Bono.
Here is a video tour of our bungalow with Ladesha Dromgool on commentary - I think she has a TV career ahead of her;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyS0wTSbMW0&feature=channel_page
and another of the Phantom of Pai in action;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-C0RCwbm20&feature=channel_page
The only problem we had with Pai was power. Because you get the most incredible storms at this time of year - whenever a rain cloud would come near the power would go out for hours.. and we couldn't find anyone who spoke enough English to get a reason why. We did manage to string one explanation together that the town was fed by one wire all the way from Chiang Mai - and the storms were breaking it every day.. whoa - they must have permanent staff up there in dem hills on maintenance.
This leaves one funny last story. We thought we would treat ourselves to a nice flashpacker hotel on the last night.. boy was the room lovely. So we check in about mid day and even borrow a DVD to watch - luxo. So we are chilling under the A/C about 12.30 when the power cuts out.. it was then we find that the water pump is electric too - so no toilet or shower. The power didn't come on until 1.00am when we were fast asleep and checking out early the next morning.. AhhhhhhhhHHHh
This is the alternative power supply in Pai
The storm clouds above us in Pai
A little something in Chiang Mai
We bought this branch of Lychee for $0.50 .. there were so many that I was giving them away on the street and to the staff at the hotel.. I felt like a lychee God
Some Chiang Mai graffiti
The Thai Boxing ring.
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