Chiang Mai

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Sorry for the lack of updates in the past week but we've been up in the hills and there's not much internet up there unless you've brought your own laptop and can catch those WIFI thingies.
So anyway, we'll start from the 22nd November when we caught 2 planes to Chiang Mai - the first got us from Krabi to Bangkok and the second on from Bangkok. Luckily for us there's been a bit of a boom in budget airlines here recently so it's fairly cheap to fly and it meant doing the whole journey in a sensible day rather than several days using the night buses/trains.

So we got into Chiang Mai in the early evening and eventually found ourselves a decent enough guesthouse. There's some very cheap accommodation here - anything from about 3 quid a night, so it takes a bit of looking around to find somewhere with a private bathroom and clean walls!
Chiang Mai is quite famous for it's Night Bazaar so we visited that. It's enourmous! We didn't buy anyhting but will probably go back tonight and see if there are any clothes we need. We ate at a nice food court where you buy coupons in advance and then go to the different vendors. Very cheap and quite tasty!

The next day (23rd) we had to move guesthouses as the one we'd found only had a reasonably priced room for that 1 night. We found a nice little soi (lane) with lots of guesthouses on and found a double room for 6 pounds. We wandered around the city a bit, looking at Wat Phra Singh as the sun started to set.
We rather foolishly entered ourselves into a pub quiz at an Irish bar. We thought we'd be ok against lots of stoner hippies but when we arrived it was full of old bloke ex-pats! We didn't come last and it was fun!

The 24th brought a trip to Doi Suthep. The public transport around here mostly consists of songthaews which are pick up trucks with two rows of seats in the back (it's not quite as bad as it sounds). Some have set routes and you can also stop them like a taxi. We were on our way to the main area for cathcing the songthaew to Doi Suthep when we noticed a tall ruin that we thought might have been old wall. It turned out to be a partially ruined stunning temple complex (it's the one in the photo). We spent quite a while looking around, it was beautiful.

As we got close to the area where the songthaews go to Doi Suthep we were collared by a couple of drivers who pointed us in the right direction. Unfortunately they have to be full before they'll leave if you want to pay the cheap price, so we waited around for a bit until we had 8 people and then drove up the mountain.
The story goes that someone had an important Buddhist relic that they needed a resting place for. They put it onto a white elephant and sent if off. The elephant went up the mountain and then died. So now there's a great big golden chedi there along with other temples and areas of worship. It also has great views across Chiang Mai.
We couldn't believe just how golden a place it was, and the sky was incredibly blue that day to highlight it even more.

We caught another songthaew down the mountain and got it to drop us off at a cinema that we'd scouted out the day before. We watched Casino Royale in English! Did have to stand up before it started to show our respect for the King which was slightly unusual but apart from that a pretty normal cinema going experience, except that the tickets were only 1.20 each! We liked the freerunning scene at the beginning.