Thailand - Chiang Mai

Upon arrival in Chiang Mai, we made our way to our guest house. As we didn't get there until 2.30 AM, it was a good thing that our new intended home for the next few days had a 24-hour reception. Which was one of the few good things about the place, it being our fifth choice in town (all the others were full or did not take bookings in advance). Also, the room looked comfortable enough, especially as we were both knackered after the trip.

That this was only appearance became clear the next night, when the tripping of a cockroach on the hard-wooden floor woke JP up. Afraid that the creepie-crawly would end up in the luggage, a hunt was started for the animal. Not by Nicola though, whose contribution was to hop into JP's bed and find cover under the duvet, squirmishly asking not be called upon for assistance. After a good thirty minutes, the beast was caught and disposed of. Only to be followed in the 'keeping us awake games' by an english couple drunkenly and loudly having a marital spiff downstairs. If we needed any further incentive to move, that was it.

The next day we were lucky enough to check into Gap's House (they operated a first come first served check in policy), which was everything our previous guest house wasn't - relaxed, beautiful, a garden overgrown with tropical plants, large rooms with teak antiques inside - and all of that for less!? Chiang Mai could start........That is, after a morning behind the PC sorting out rooms for the next few locations we will be visiting.

During our time in Chiang Mai we focused on seeing the main sights in and around town (mainly temples - surprise - the busiest being a hill-side one, where thousands of thais visit to worship the buddha at this, the holiest site in the north) , walking through the National Park (we managed to descend 800 meters along 4 waterfalls - beautiful!! - by foot in approximately 3 hours, at the time of writing we are both aching in every possible joint we knew and didn't know of) and shopping. For Chiang Mai is the centre for original handicrafts (woodcarving, paper umbrellas - nice ?, ceramics and silk), antiques and the usual knick-knacks.

As we were going to ship stuff home (as we packed too much) we felt this was a great opportunity to fill our bags with some new stuff and find some price pieces (Chiang Mai is also renowned as the shopping capital of the north). We succeeded on both accounts, with new 'jewelry' and clothing for less than twenty pounds and some nice ceramics. However, we had also had our eye on some of the buddhas we saw during our cycle trip through the country-side, but a quick check on the internet showed that this could cause some issues at both the Thai and Dutch customs, so we decided to leave these (for now!).

By the way, shopping in Chiang Mai is a bit of an experience - there are several markets, combined having more stalls than London has buses! All selling roughly the same stuff for roughly the same price. But what is really great is the emphasis on food (you cannot walk for 15 meters without seeing a new food outlet, all serving freshly made home-cooking) and the relaxedness of it all. Thousands of people wandering around, looking, shopping, eating, but not drinking (unlike a street festival in Europe, no-one is drinking and/or carrying alcohol). And everybody is included - from 6 year olds performing the dance of light to ninety-year olds in wheel-chairs selling 'knick knacks'. All in all a very pleasant way to spend a few hours and a different experience from the madness of European shopping streets.

Chiang Mai is also known for its cooking classes and trekking trips. Given all our other activities, it is not surprising that we did not have time to do either of these. After the slow start, Chiang Mai has grown on us, a place where we have some unfinished business - cooking class, trekking and a buddha - a place to come back to.

But now we are on the airport, on our way to Luang Prabang in Laos. As we had been told to expect, the flight is delayed by a few hours, but we are both full of anticipation to experience Laos (which is still a bit off-the-beaten-track for general tourism) and see Luang Prabang. Without really knowing what to expect. We will let you know next time how we got on.......