.. on to Chiang Mai

Monday, having conquered the Bangkok Metro & Skytrain last week, we decided to try out the local buses. Heading for the Royal Barge Museum. After a really interesting walk from the bus stop to the Museum, along some narrow residential lanes we discovered that, despite what the website said, the Museum was closed due to the high flood water.

We were then sold a long tail boat trip around the canals by a local fixer. With the deal struck he wanted the money, then he would get the boat! We finally agreed he could have half the money when we saw the boat, and the rest at the end of the tour! So his mate was called to bring the boat, which was fine so we did an hour tour up the canal, which was great!

Tuesday, we checked out of the accommodation early and headed to catch the train for the 11 hour journey to Chiang Mai, an interesting journey, lots of standing water around Bangkok. A really busy train of only 3 carriages, we had seats, but not the best leg room as they were near a bulk head. Arrived in Chiang Mai an hour late, jumped a taxi to our new accommodation, which is our cheapest to date, £60 for the week! and it is OK, basic, a little dated, but clean and perfectly adequate for our needs.

Wednesday, we walked around the Chiang Mai old town, within the canal, had dinner at the night market which cost us about £1.50 each!

Thursday, started early when we were woken by an earthquake at 4:36am 4.2 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre about 12 km away. Thankfully there appears to be no damage locally in Chiang Mai.

8:30am we had a tour booked to visit some caves and then kayak down the river. We were picked up in a pickup truck, only 4 of us on the tour, us and a couple of guys from Spain.

Really impressive caves, part of a 400 year old temple complex. The caves were a bit narrow and low in places but not too bad. Saw bats, crickets and huge spiders in the caves.

Then on to the river in kayaks, covering about 8km downstream, there had been some recent flooding as all the vegetation on the side of the river had been flattened. A couple of slightly hairy bits of “white water” but both of us managed to stay in the kayaks, one of our Spanish friends was not so lucky and went in twice.

All in all a good trip out of the city.

Friday, we walked around the parts of the the old city we had not visited earlier in the week. Tried to get some cash out of an ATM which swallowed our card! So had to deal with that, thankfully we had a spare card for that account (Revolut) so no real issues, and managed to get so cash out on Saturday, at a different ATM.

Friday evening we walked out of the old city to a herbal garden, near the university and hospital. An interesting walk seeing all the medics and students, we even passed the Faculty of Nursing. The evening was spent watching the world go by from a hotel veranda, and finding another good local restaurant to eat. The cocktails and beer more costly than the food here!

Saturday found us going to explore the local fruit and veg market, part wholesale and part retail. We were fascinated by the growth in locals shopping on their mopeds, getting as close to the stalls as they could, and driving between stalls to fill their baskets. We accepted free bottles of orange juice, being given away as it is a bank holiday weekend, Chulalongkorn Memorial Day. The juice was cold and very welcome on a hot morning.

Sunday, after another chilled day wandering round the city, we enjoyed a drink at one of our favourite bars, only to dodge a rain shower you understand ! We then visited the huge night market in the centre of Chiang Mai, then ended up sharing a table in a restaurant with a couple of Germans, who had only met up that day on an excursion, and as the restaurant was bus, offered to share their table. Had an interesting chat about traveling! We ended the day with mango and sticky rice from a local market stall, 62p a portion…. Yum😋.