Thailand - land of the Chang

Arriving in Bangkok airport was a bit of a shock after Cambodia - smart, shiny and new! It was positively refreshing to see civilization. That lasted all of about 10min, because with civilisation comes 'other people' and they get in the way, stand in your queue and make you now just another tourist among thousands, not the rare breed you were!

We didn't last long in Bangkok - one night (I hear you all singing along) We managed to squeeze in the Night Market (with many an offer for for 'girlie shows') some good Thai grub and the hottest night in a hotel. All the little fan in our room did was chase the ever hotter air around until we could bare it no more and escaped at an unprecedented 7am for a walk and a McDonald's breakfast! Bangkok also delivered a much needed haircut for Simon and a fringe trim for me.....Thai style does not suit Simon and we will be seeking out a trim as soon as we land in Oz!!!

After an entertaining taxi ride back to the airport (he tried to charge us 3 times the price of meter cabs) we headed to Chaing Mai - much less humid and more relaxed. We discovered where Scoobie-doo has been hiding all these years, at MD House. The hotel owner didn't look like him, but they sounded remarkably similar! Oh the land of aircon and a swimming pool, we were safe and cool at last.

Chiang Mai is wonderful. We spent our days chilling or swimming or exploring the town. Our two major expeditions were a 2 day trek and cookery school.

The cookery school was excellent - they taught us all about the leaves and spices on the market (you must have a local market from which to buy all these things) and we diligently learnt how to do it all from scratch. Two problems - I now know how to make the most amazing coconut milk from the raw stuff, but pray-tell, where in London do I go to get my daily fresh supply? The other problem was Simon's confidence in his chilli eating skills. There are two types of spicy, Farang-spicy (2 or 3 chillies) and then Thai-spicy (up to 10 chillies) I am not sure where Simon ended up in his chillies chopping state, but he didn't eat much of what he made and ate tears for lunch instead of his Tom Yum Gai. Lesson learnt! Actually the day was excellent fun and we will be sure to try out our Thai cookery skills on all who are daring enough when we get home.

Visit to the market


(Hot) Chefs at work


Before Chilli incident - the smile was quickly wiped!


Trekking through the hills in Thailand sounds a bit more romantic than it really is. Imagine yourself in a sauna, with a backpack on and not much in the way of a breeze. Even stumbling upon a Tarantulas nest (spider in tact) was not enough to get us moving any faster in the heat!! The countryside is lovely and staying with the hill tribes in their village overnight was very cool. I loved the little piggies (they had lots of freshly produced piglets) and broke the rule by feeding them most of my breakfast the next day just to hear them snort with delight. Simon made some friends and opted for a dinner of bugs that evening. The tribe children make a fire and then stand around it knocking sticks together - this combination is to attract the cicadas. He proved to be a great big landing area and the little children delighted in picking the BIG bugs off him and roasting them in the fire - he said they were good, but I was not brave enough. The second day we spent our first hour on elephants, wandering up the valley. They are rather gentle and quite relaxing to ride, but there were parts where we wondered how they got up/down there until they showed us how.

Chaing Mai set a great precedent for the rest of Thailand. We found the best, cheap Phad Thai from a local man and ended up dining there 3 times. By far the best bar in the town is Babylon - a rasta bar with a huge tree from which a swing hangs - many a beer was consumed on that swing while we listened to yet another rendition of 'No woman, no cry!' We spent days strolling and reading and swimming and wandering through markets...generally chilling.