Chiang Mai & Slow Boat!



Temple in Chiang Mai



We flew into the enormous Bangkok airport on Nov. 28th and jumped on an overnight bus to Chiang Mai (in Northern Thailand). The bus ride was a bit over 10 hours but the seats folded down almost all the way and blankets and pillows were provided so we settled in for an uncomfortable sleep. :) The bus dropped us off while it was still dark but luckily we were picked up right away by a sawngthaew (basically a pickup with benches in the flat bed) that took us to a decent hotel in the city. They only had twin beds but we were really tired and the room was only about $12 so we checked in and went back to bed. I actually think Dev prefers twin beds :)



Devin at the night market



We woke up late and had lunch then I dragged Devin to some of the city's temples which he was really excited about. This was the first Buddhist city that we had been to so all the monks walking around in their neon orange robes was a novel sight. The Thai people seem to love Dev because all day he was getting chatted up outside the temples and on the streets! The people were crazy nice and love to practice their English by talking to the tourists. We walked around the old quarter (half of the city is enclosed by a wall which used to be the old kingdom) which is filled with cute restaurants and guesthouses and we stopped for our first Chang beer. Apparantely the beer averages about 6.5%, each bottle is different and they call what you feel the next day after drinking it, the changover. :)



Meg scarfing a banana roti!



Chiang Mai is known for its night markets, so that night we decided to get dinner there. The market was located near all the fancier hotels and consists of a large square and side streets filled with stalls selling scarves, trinkets, watches, etc. There are about 500 stalls but only about 10 varieties. :) There were so many cool things, it was hard not to buy anything! We ate way too much food at dinner but still had to check out the roti stand on the way home. There are loads of these women with food stall carts selling what looks like a crepe filled with bananas then covered with chocolate and sweet condensed milk. They are crazy good and less than $1, we've been eating way too many of them! :) I think we're going to come home about 100 pounds heavier! :)



Jungle Flight!

The next day we had booked a zipline trip near Chiang Rai with Jungle Flight so we grabbed a quick fried noodle at the stall next door and got picked up by our guide. It was about an hour away and as soon as we arrived, we got suited up and headed for the first platform. We had opted for the long program which included something like 33 platforms and 4 abseils. It was a little scary at first but after a few, it was easier to enjoy the scenery :) The guides were crazy Thai teenagers that kept everyone laughing and the mountains in the background sometimes didn't even look real so we had a great time. Meg was especially nervous during the abseiling, because you get dropped freefall style. The last jump off was 40 metres high and was super scary! :) We had lunch with our group which consisted of an older Dutch lady and some Koreans. We were then taken to a hot spring then back to the hotel. Along the way, Dev got bumped to the back seat to make room when our driver offered a monk a ride home. :)

Meg in action!



New friends at Riverside Bar



That night we went back to the night market for dinner then decided to check out a bar by the river we had heard about, the Riverside. We got a great table upstairs with a river view and had a few beers and were just heading home when an awesome live band starting playing downstairs. It was a six piece band with three really great singers and they played loads of great music. We made friends with an older Irish guy and his English friend and ended up staying for the rest of the night. :) We caught a tuk tuk home from the bar that night. Changover.

Cooking class in Chiang Mai

In the morning, we had to get up early as we had a Thai cooking class scheduled. We didn't know what to expect but it was great. The class was run by a younger (25 ish) brother and sister pair with great English. Outside there were 10 covered cooking stations and inside there was an air conditioned room with a table for eating our food (yummy!) and a classroom where they showed us how to make each item. Everyone chose seven dishes (one appetizer, one stirfry, one curry, etc.) and we would watch the brother/sister make all the appetizers, for example, then we would head back to our stations where the ingredients would be set out for our choice and we started cooking. Dev and I both chose spring rolls for our appetizer which were pretty fun to make, I needed a few tries and some assistance to roll them, but frying them was really fun and mine ended up better than his :) We also made green curry, phad thai, coconut chicken soup, papaya salad and mango sticky rice. I ate soooo much food but Dev started to feel a little hungover during the day :) The food was delicious, we're hoping we will be able to recreate some of the dishes at home, the phad thai for sure!



Slow Boats in Laos



After the class we were really tired so we booked a room for a couple of hours for a nap and a movie before we caught a mini bus to the Thailand-Laos border. We were picked up about an hour and a half late (not unusual here :)) and got picked up last so we both had to sit at the very front of the van. It was maybe the most uncomfortable ride yet as my middle seat was super high with no leg room and no headrest and I was a couple of centimetres from the air conditioning vent for the whole van, so super cold. The ride was a bit over four hours but felt like way longer and we arrived at our overnight stop at about 2:30 in the morning. We went right to sleep as we had to be up at 6:30am for breakfast and the ferry. Everyone at the hotel was on their way to take the slow boat from Thailand to Luang Pradang in Laos, a two day boat trip down the Mekong river. It is actually twice as slow but twice as expensive as a bus to Luang Pradang but pretty famous here for tourists. There were a number of steps in this process that morning, first the truck ride to Thai immigration for our departure cards, then the ferry to Laos, then Lao immigration for our visas, then an hour wait at a restaurant to board the boat. At the restaurant we met a few friends that we ending up spending the next week with, Miguel and Kathy both from Germany and Victoria and Ashley from the Waterloo and Stratford area (small world :)). When we finally boarded the boat, there were barely any seats left, luckily Dev and I got a seat together! :) The seats were these wooden bench seats set super close together. We had luckily bought seat pillows before we got on! :)





On the Slow Boat



The trip the first day was about six hours which we spent either watching the crazy scenery, reading or chatting with people on the boat. Having people stuck on a boat for two days was a great way to meet people. :) We got off the boat in a small town named Prabang which is mainly just guesthouses and restaurants for the slowboat riders. We met up with the Germans and Canadians to find a hotel together then we headed out for dinner. The hotel owner dragged us to his restaurant where his kids were running around with no pants on...but the food was good and he gave us free banana pancakes for dessert and Lao Lao shots for everyone! :) (their local liquor made from sticky rice). Miguel had met an English guy on the boat named Gareth who joined us for dinner and joined the crew for the next week as well. :) Laos is a communist country so there is a 12:00am curfew, so bars close around 11:30pm. So after dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night. In the morning, we got up early to try to get better seats and managed to all sit together. The ride was about seven hours the next day and so I think everyone was happy to get off the boat in Luang Prabang although it had been a good trip. :)