| Chiang Mai |
20-22nd November 1998
School finished at 2:30pm and at 2:36pm I was sitting in a taxi bound for the airport. I had a 5pm flight for which I arrived in plenty of time... time enough to buy the book "The Beach" and read the first three chapters while waiting for my flight to be called. The book is about to be made into a film staring Leonardo Di Thingy and is set in areas of Thailand I've become familiar with.
While minding my own business in the departure lounge a tout asked me if I had a hotel booked in Chiang Mai. He showed me to the airport hotel reservation desk and contrary to my intentions (to find a nice hotel when I got there) I decided to play safe and book into the Chiang Mai Novotel. This I did then Boarded my 1 hour flight to Northern Thailand
I arrived in Chiang Mai Airport to see one of my great ambitions come true. There was a man waiting for me with a board with my name written on it. Apparently part of the Novotel service is to meet you at the airport. I say my name was on this board, it
actually said "Mr John"! To my surprise the man lead me to a large chauffeur driven Volvo and we drove out of the airport. I couldn't help thinking that all this was for a different "Mr John" and that they'd picked me up by mistake.As the journey began my guide explained that there was a large group booked into the Novotel who may be very noisy at night so I'd been upgraded to the Chiang Mai Orchid hotel! This was the number two luxury hotel in Chiang Mai and as we pulled into the forecourt I could hardly believe my eyes. At the same price I paid for the lowly Novotel (plus a discount because I worked in Bangkok) I'd got two nights in this palace of comfort. whoopeeee!
After Friday night walking around this interesting town I had a nice meal and a quick tour of some of the local bars (surprise surprise).
Venturing out of the hotel on Saturday morning I found myself walking along a quiet road along which the shops had not opened. A car pulls up along side me, the back window opens and a lady speaks to me. She was heavily made up and I guess forty something. She says she is Burmese and can I tell her the name of the road we were on . She held up a Chiang Mai Street plan. As I leaned over to look more closely at the map she opened the back door of the car, moved over and asked me to join her sitting on the back seat of this car. hmmm I shut the car door and walked off ... but what if I'd have got in ... what would have happened... I'm intrigued!
Chiang Mai has more Wats than a very deaf inquisitive person and the city centre is surrounded by a square city wall and moat. Plenty to look at within walking distance of the hotel.
I'm writing this in Chiang Mai, in the Internet Cafe opposite the hotel. The lady behind the desk has just told us all to wait a while as she has to contact her provider... funny time to start praying I thought!
Though the weather on Saturday was beautiful, Sunday in complete contrast was awful. It rained that persistent sort of rain that reminded me of countless camping trips in North Wales. Being up here in North Thailand the temperature was a little cool too. Apart from that, other aspects of Sunday were fantastic.
I was booked on a whole day trek in the jungle... The morning on an elephant and the afternoon on a bamboo raft going down river. The trek started at a place an hour out of Chiang Mai by minibus. The first treat was a view of the elephants taking their morning bath in the river. this was followed by the elephant show.
I had never ridden an elephant before. Two of us sat precariously balanced on a bench type platform behind a young mahout as we bushwhacked along muddy trails. As you'll see from the pictures the whole thing was made comical by the fact that we were carrying umbrellas. Every so often we'd pass a woman up a tree selling bananas. She knew she had to be up high in order to take our money from us as we were really high too
After dismounting the elephants we were taken to the river in an ox cart.
The bamboo rafts were punted along the river by two punters! No when you think of punting you think of men in white trousers, stripey blazers and boaters sedately moving along flat water to the sound of the Eaton boating song. Well this river had white water and out punters got quite excited negotiating the rapids.... two fell in ... hehehe
After completing our river voyage we were treated to a gentle amble around an orchid farm, then a Siamese cat farm and then... well I've seen snake shows before but this one takes some beating. Three Thai guys did battle with huge dangerous snakes on a circular sunken stage which we all sat around. Ever so often a snake would get fed up with all the hissing and fighting and rapidly leave the stage straight for the audience. Well as you can imagine the audience went wild running for the exits. Just to spice things up even more one of the snake men would occasionally throw a piece of (snake like) rope into the audience!
The day ended with a traditional Thai massage and the red eye flight home. Hope I can function at school tomorrow!
