Thailand Trail north to Chiang Mai

 To be quite honest, the journey from Phnom Penh to Chiang Mai via Bangkok was rather arduous. A case of over ambitious planning that didn't suit the pace we wanted to move at. When you are exploring a new country, the temptation is always to try and see more than the time really allows with the result that things get both frantic and fraught. We left Cambodia by taking a taxi to Phnom Penh Airport. Our flight was delayed by two hours. The result was we had nearly five hours wait before boarding and our flight didn't land in Bangkok until 22-30 and with the sky train and a taxi to come, it would be around midnight before we reached our hotel room. Not much time the reorganise our luggage and pack a larger case which we planned to check in, giving us an extra 20 kgs of luggage. We would have to set out at 9 am to get to Bangkok's other airport from whence we were to fly to Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is in the north west part of Thailand and is home to the Lanna people and their distinctive culture. The old city is moated and walled. It is confined to quite a small area although an urban sprawl has developed since 2002. In the C19 this was the domain of the Teak merchants and it was their profits which paid for the numerous Buddhist Wats which abound in the streets. Wat Phra Singh is the principal one, which certainly sucks the money in. 

and inside,

 

is what the fuss is all about. The gardens are also beautifully kept as is the attendant religious paraphernalia.

You might recognise this image. The reclining Buddha reaching a state of Nirvana. The last one was in Bangkok and at least 10x the size. 

The Wat was at the top of the walking street which is the main road of the old city. It is now filled with coffee shops, restaurants and plenty of market stalls/boutique shops. Virtually everybody is up for a bit of bargaining but unlike so many countries the vendors are not at all pushy. We both bought garments. Well, with nice linen shirts at less than a fiver, who can resist?

Not so many tuc-tucs here, instead we have the "red car". It's a straight 30 bahts each and you just tell the driver where you want to go to and provided he understands you, he takes you there. 

These guys are owner drivers, a bit like the old Maltese buses. Apart from the colour they are all different configurations within a theme. They are all noisy, smelly and pretty rough inside. 

For tomorrow we booked a river trip and planned to have a Thai massage in the early evening. We were quite a cosmopolitan crew. The local skipper on the rudder, a Thames Estuary man, two Canadians, Helen and me, sitting forward of us was two French men, a Russian woman and a Polish woman. The trip itself was quite weird, We journied for 45 minutes up stream, stopped off for half an hour at a so called farm, then returned to where we had started from. 

The buildings on the riverside ranged from the very modest, built on stilts to keep them out of the flood water,

to the positivity palacial. The one below was hosting a wedding ceremony that day. 

Our destination, the farm. Well it had some bones of animals, old farming implements, dried herbs and spices. They also gave us some herbal drinks and rather nice ice creams. As you can see it is a pretty place and all the stuffed snakes around the pond didn't put the little boy off his play. The river incidently is called the Ping.

The Thai massage was undoubtedly a great experience. We both had the full-body oil massage which lasted for at least an hour for about ten pounds each. A little like the Onsen in Japan it was a cultural as well as a physical experience. One to be remembered and repeated. After our massages we walked out trying to find somewhere nice to eat and have a drink. This place is called the Music Canteen. I put my head around the door to see if they sold food. The pair of us were virtually dragged through the door to come in and join them. It transpired that this was the opening night for the venue which was owned by the young lady who dragged us in. All the people in the venue were her friends and supporters. We were actually her first proper customers! She had run a bar in London before returning home to start this business. The music was loud and the service slow, but good luck to her and we hope she'll still be here in a year's time. 

We had decided to change hotels to be close to the airport that we were both flying into and out of next morning. However someone had still to travel into and out of Bangkok in order for us to refresh our suitcases. I undertook this somewhat daunting task. It involved getting a motorbike taxi to the station then five different trains with four changes and finally a walk to our previous hotel who were taking care of our left luggage. Then the same in reverse. Below, this is the train in the brand new Bang Sue Central Station. This was 11-30 pm and about the last train. The view down the platform to the end of the train. 

The view up the train to the front.

Finally the view inside the train. Nobody would believe that this is public transport in Bangkok albeit nearly midnight. I did get back to our hotel safely.