Right, second attempt at an overly long post, although this time I'll be using the 'save to draft' function a little more.
Flew at early o' clock from Bangkok airport to Chiang Mai. An interesting airport for seeral reasons: it was built from start to finish in 3 years, something Heathrow T5 should seriously look at. Arriving so early, we had with us enormous 'breakfast packs' given to us by the hotel, which were enormous, clearly advertising the hotel on the side. Many giggles were had by passers by, until we eventually gave up and threw them away.. That was nothing though compared with the people trying to get 2 Sony widescreen tellies on as their hand luggage:
Not sure if they succeesed, but I doubt it The 700km journey lasted a mere 40 minutes but it was noticable that the flight was considerably quieter than the equivalent in Europe - everyone seemed to whisper rather than shout. On arriving at Chiang Mai, the increase in greenery an open space, while the decrease in humidy and general pandemonium were noticible and quite a relief.
The house where I'm staying is enormous, on 2 levels, its own gardens and a small house for the housekeepers. The space surprised me greatly: this much in London would be £10 million + so therefore not hard to see why so many westerners end up here.
I've seen lots so far, all of which has been great. Highlights include:
Visiting a thermal spa, where water shoots out of the ground into the air at 105•c. Eggs are sold to boil in the various ponds, then eat. The smell of sulphur, from both the water and eggs is, needless to say, quite overpowering!
Visiting the fairly new dam outside of Chiang Mai, which has made lovely islands and huge reservoirs - absolutely like the west coast of Scotland: you'd easily believe you were on Bute or Arran:
Getting properly into the countryside: forests in the distance, rice fields in the foreground. Beautiful:
Visiting more temples and seeing monks - even ones using mobile phones: not bad for a life of solitude and meditation! In several of the temples, there are several donation boxes, one for each star sign - you put your donations into the one applicable for you. The day of your birth, i.e. Tuesday also seems to be important in Buddhism.
I also managed to shove one of the locals out of the way and beat the gong, a la the start of the MGM films(?):
It's been a very enjoyable few days, next things on the agenda are seeing the centre of Chiang Mai, visiting the night market, home of all things counterfeit, and another temple, this time up a mountain. Further reports are awaited.
Other things to note:
Free range chickens on menus are more commonly known as 'freelance'.
On the A-roads, the carriageway is split up into 2 distinct roads each way, one for local traffic, one for continuing traffic. Like America, it's almost impossible to walk anywhere.
When people flash their lights at you, it means the opposite of the UK, meaning 'I'm coming, not you'.
When it rains, it really really rains.
Lizards are amazing, scuttling about eating flies with their tongue. Ants are either tiny and move tremendously fast, or big (and I mean big) with eyes you can see.
The mosquitoes in the UK have emailed the ones in Thailand to tell them I'm here: my feel and arms have become a prime target.
The biggest Tesco and Carrefour (French) that I've ever seen are here. Brent Cross, eat your heart out!
Lots more to say, but that's what I can think of at the moment. Let's hope this post actually gets published this time ;)
Oh, 2 more things. Liverpool are top of the league now ;) and, it's 32 degrees celcius here, about 25 more than the UK. Reality check heading my way on Friday I think!
-- Post From My iPhone
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