Better late than never

Finally I am getting around to posting an account of my week away in Chiang Mai and Sukhothai. I must confess that most of the pictures are courtesy of Antonella. She is a very keen photographer, with a proper camera, and I am afraid I was rather lazy and hardly took any photos at all. (That also explains why she is in so few of the photos!)

Saturday 30th November
The holiday got off to an inauspicious start when my flight from Mae Sot to Chiang Mai was cancelled and the airline laid on a replacement minibus service instead. A normal bus trip to Chiang Mai takes about 6 hours, with several stops. This driver got us there in 4.5 hours, with just one stop. I tried hard not to think about how fast he was driving.....
I met Antonella and Alessandro at the guesthouse - they had arrived earlier in the day on a flight from Bangkok

Sunday 1st December
We hired bicycles and spent a relaxing day exploring the old city of Chiang Mai.
Quote of the day:
"Shall we visit this Wat?"
"What?"

 

At one of the temples you can participate in "monk chat" - a fascinating insight into the life of a monk

Monday 2nd December
We took a songthaew up to Doi Suthep, with the intention of visiting the temple and then walking in the surrounding national park. This turned out to be more of a challenge than we had expected, as no-one wanted to give us any indication of where the trails were. They prefer to take you to a few pre-selected destinations, for a fee, of course.
Quote of the day:
"Excuse me - do you have a map of the national park?"
Alessandro never found a proper map of the park, but his persistent search resulted in us meeting some other intrepid explorers intent on doing their own thing - a Dutch couple and two Italians - so we all joined forces and found our way to some waterfalls together.

 Feeling sick after the songthaew ride

 Anyone home?

 

Antonella makes a rare appearance!

 "Don't you dare take a photo of my bottom disappearing under this tree..."

 

After a few moments debating what was the worst that could happen to us if we ignored the sign we carried on anyway

 

 And then there were seven

 

Finally made it - and without the aid of a map!

 

A well-deserved dinner back in Chiang Mai

 

Tuesday 3rd December

We spent the day doing a Thai cookery course on a farm outside Chiang Mai. They showed us around the garden where they grow their own herbs and vegetables that are used in the recipes, before launching into the day's cooking. I chose:

• Thai vegetable soup
• Green curry with tofu
• Stir-fried tofu with cashew nuts
• Fresh spring rolls
• Bananas in coconut milk

It was all very tasty, and as I was cooking it myself I was able to have full control over the amount of chilli in it (i.e. hardly any!) The lady who was teaching us was full of fun and energy and had us laughing all day.
Quote of the day:
"Good for your man!" (referring to many of the plants grown in their garden!)

 

Wednesday 4th December
We met up again with the people we had met on Monday and went to Huey Tueng Tao Lake outside Chiang Mai. We spent a very relaxing day wandering at a leisurely pace around the lake and eating lunch at one of the little outdoor restaurants.
Quote of the day:
"No pressure, but we've done 0.2km in 40 minutes! (From Antonella, who was tracking our snail-like progress on her GPS gadget)

Thursday 5th December
The King's birthday and a public holiday. We spent most of the day travelling by bus to Sukhothai. After several hours of suffering, Antonella came up with this simple but effective solution to the relentless cold blast of the air conditioning:

The very pleasant guesthouse where we stayed in new Sukhothai - little individual bungalows

Friday 6th December
Another very relaxing, leisurely and enjoyable day, exploring the ruins of the old city of Sukhothai by bicycle.
Quote of the day:
"What does this Buddha pose mean?"
Closely followed by:
"Shall we visit this Wat?"
"What?" (The old ones are always the best!)

 

 

 

Saturday 7th December

Sukhothai to Mae Sot via Tak by minibus.

Quote of the day:

"How much further?" (From Antonella, who, despite the fact that we had the most careful minibus driver in the whole of Thailand, found the bumps and bends of the road from Tak to Mae Sot rather a challenge...)

 

Sunday 8th December

We explored some of the sights of Mae Sot together (of which there are more than the guide book would have you believe), including a couple of temples, the Rim Moei market at the border, the Reclining Buddha and the Burmese market)

 

Monday 9th December

I went back to work and Alessandro and Antonella went on a day trip to visit a gibbon sanctuary. We had planned to do a yoga lesson in the evening at the guesthouse where they were staying, but the teacher was sick so the lesson was cancelled. We asked if we could use the room anyway, and Antonella gave me my first yoga lesson! We had dinner together before finally saying farewell - they were continuing on for the last week of their three week break.

Quote of the evening:

"Where shall we go tomorrow?"

(They had still not decided by the time I left, but I have since heard that they went back south to Phuket and met up with the Dutch couple that we met in Chiang Mai.)

 

It was a wonderful break, and so lovely to meet up with friends from back home!