THAILAND - Chang Mai (6)

7-12-05 Today we arrived in Chang Mai. We got picked up from the station free of charge by the quest house we were staying at. The Guest House was called Eagles 2 and it was recommened in the rough guide. But it was horrible,dirty,smelly and i hated it. We only paid 240 baht (like 3 pound)! so i suppose what do you expect for that little money. That evening we went to the Night Bazzarr. It like a massive market there are stalls everywhere selling just about everything! Mum you would love it! This is so your kind of place!
8-12-05 - Today we checked out bright and early from the not so nice quest house. And found some where a bit more pricey but lovley and clean. It had a nice hot shower, frige and telly, all of which the other quest house didnt have. Then we got a moped and went exploring round Chang Mai. It proberly the easiest way to get around the town and they are very cheap to rent. Chang Mai is a very lovely place its chilled out and the people seem helpful and friendly, nothing at all like Bangkok which is totally mad! We went to the Zoo on the moped which was quite easy to find and had a really nice time. There are 7,000 animals at the zoo but i dont think there was that many when we were there. And there was quite alot of construction work going on so some animals were not there, like the penguins and seals which i would of loved to have seen. It was 20baht (30p) to get into the zoo much cheaper then London Zoo eh!
9-12-05 In Changi Mai at the moment its Mardi Gra, so there has been lots of partys! We went to the Night Bazzarr in the evening and there were thousands of people! We watched a live band and a procession down the main street. The Mardi Gra is on for three days and it seems to be quite a big thing here. That night we had Mc Donalds we so needed it Thai food is lovely but theres nothing like tasting something that reminds you of home. Thai food is all leaves, rice and noodles very good for you but we are kinda sick of it now! We've been out to an italian resaurant had pizza and pasta, a mexican resaurant had nachos and tachos, a isralie restaurant had falefel and hulomi cheese! Its amazing how many different types of resaurants they have, you would think it would just be Thai food,but then again theres so many foreigners around. Im getting a bit rubbish writting this diary i keep forgetting things we've done and on what days! I leave it a couple days before i update it and then forget so many things,i should write stuff down!One evening we met up with a friend of Weeny's friend who leaves out in Chang Mai. He has been leaving here for two years. He is a cool guy and we went to a bar had some drinks and he told us some nice places to go and things to see! We are planning to meet up again before we leave Chang Mai.
10-12-05 - We moved guest house again and found somewhere cheaper but just as nice. Its very clean and spacious and theres even a swimming pool. Its called the Top North Guest House, it took us a while to find but since we've got a bike its made travelling around alot easier! Since being in Chang Mai Weeny has done rock climbing on those man made walls they use, it was over 15 metres high!Now i no that doesnt sound high but trust me it was bloody high! I wanted to have a go also but wasnt wearing proper clothing. I may still have a go before we leave, it did look such fun and he got up that wall so fast, the instructors couldnt believe it was his first time! Arr im so proud! The other day we went to the Ma Sae elephant camp, there were over seventy elephants and we were allowed to buy sugar cane and bananas to feed them! I started taking photos and then my camera battery ran out, talk about bad timing! It was so wierd seeing so many elephants all together and being able to touch them and feed them! They are beautiful animals and some were so big! We even saw a two month old baby elephant, when i saw it i fell in love! It was the most cutest adorable thing ive ever seen, i was so upset i didnt get any photos of it! We played wiv the baby elephant and he was so sweet! After we'd spent time looking at all the elephants they performed a show. You will not belive the things these elephants did! They played football, played the harmonica,danced and even painted pictures of trees and flowers! It was proper crazy! And the elephants are even in the guiness book of records for being able to paint! The paintings were really good! I bet you think im pulling your leg but I swear we saw all of this. After the elephant we went to the monkey centre. Now I thought this was really cruel!! When we went in there were around a hundred monkeys all chained up! We bought some food to feed them and they were going berserk! like they had never been fed before. I thought it was evil to have them chained up, thats not how monkeys should live. I asked if they keep them chained all the time, they said once they close up for they day they let them free, but i dont no if thats true and even if it is, imagined been chained up all day! The monkeys also put on a show for us, they played basketball, rode on a bike, shook our hands, done sit-ups and press ups, they threw Weenys watch into this pool of water and made the money go and get it!I did feel really sorry for the poor monkeys!Thailand is definately a crazy place!
Been thinking of little Joseph and how much it would have loved to see all the animals!
13-12-05 - Today got woken up by the buidling work going on next to our guest house, yesterday was woken up by some extremly loud music from a live band, being played near the hotel! This was at like 8 in the morning we were not impressed. Today been chilling out done a bit of sunbathing and walked about the town! Tonight we have a free cookery lesson, it was a special promotion with one of the cookery schools! It should be good fun, we are going to be cooking at the airport with about eight other people, I think we are cooking chicken and cashew nuts. Anyway better get goin because we have to leave for the cookery lesson soon!Ill let you know how we get on.
15-12-05 - Last nite we had our free cookery course it was not at all what we had expected. We got picked up from outside the cookery school and thought we were going to the airport, but we were actually going next to the airport plaza to a massive outdoor food festival! Once we arrived we couldnt believe it, we were at this big festival with hundreds of people everywhere, and we had to get up on stage and cook chicken and cashew nuts with four other people. We where shown once what to do and then it was out turn to get stuck in!It was being filmed and we had an audience watching us, but was really fun! The food we cooked was yummy! Weeny was getting all muddled and in Thai they were talking about him over the mic to the audience! Once we'd finished we received certificates and a free recipe book!They also gave us 100bath in vouchers to use at the festival for food and drink, we went and got a free foot massage with a french couple we met there!After the festival we went out for drinks wiv the French couple we had met and had a really wicked evening! Today we went to the hot springs! It took us around an hour to get there on the bike. But as soon as we got there i managed to burn the back of my leg on the exhaust on the bike!It was so painful, we went and had a look at the hot springs we thought they were good, but not as impressive as we'd imagined!And because i had just burnt my leg I i was in alot of pain! We cooked some eggs in the hot springs and weeny ate some, i didnt wanna chance them they smelt rank!There is a resort next to the hot springs kinda like a Champneys, where you can getting pampered very cheap. We both decided to call it a day because my burn developed a massive blister and it was sore!
19-12-05 Today we are leaving chang mai and going to a island called Ko Samet. Its roughly around three hours from bangkok. I am sad to leave Chang mai ive become very fond of the place its so chilled out and relaxed here i can see why people love it so much!If there was a beach near it would definatly be 100% perfect.
Ko Samet looks stunning crystal white sandy beaches and the whole island is 6km long so nice and small to get about easily.
We are leaving at 6.30 this eveing and will arrive at Ko Samet 12pm tomorrow.