Sickness, Songkran and Shady Water Parks
Hi All
Sorry for a bit of a gap between posts, we have had a couple of obstacles in our journey. Firstly Lily being laid up for a few days in bed due to some strange illness and the lunacy of Thai New Year or Songkran festival starting just as we landed in Bangkok.
We left Sri Lanka pretty heavy hearted wishing we could have stayed an extra week and arrived in Bangkok ready to tackle the next leg of our journey. We navigated the train from the airport into town rather easily and hopped in a cab to the eclectic Koh San Road. Our accommodation was quite nice (we found out that it featured in Jack Whitehall's netflix series with his Dad) and had the best duvet of the trip so far. We landed on Wednesday evening and although we were told Songkran was going to start on Friday it had already begun on the streets outside our hostel. For those who don't know, Songkran is a bank holiday in Thailand for the celebration of their new year. Its basically a huge water fight on the streets that has now become a money making scheme where they sell big plastic water guns to everyone and the water fight/drinking goes on for 4 days. As Lily was not well we could not have landed in Bangkok at a worse time. We only left our room to eat and one trip out to a shady doctors surgery (top tip: if you're sick in Bangkok just go to the hospital, the 'doctors' surgery's charge a ludicrous amount).
After a sorry 3 days in Bangkok we flew up to the north of the country to Chiang Mai. We checked into a great cheap little hostel called Mojo House (would definitely recommend if you are ever there) and decided to embrace the last day of the festival. Songkran was much different in Chiang Mai, it felt like more locals were celebrating and not just a rabble of tourists shooting each other with waterguns for 10 hours. There were lots of happy families and mishevious children running around ready to bless you with ice cold water.
Lucky enough for Luke there was a pub serving pizza with live sport so we spent our evening watching Newcastle beat Arsenal 2-1. Once the game was over and Luke was in a good mood we headed over to the Sunday Night Market, it was brilliant full of people, stalls and food. A great end to our day.
The next day we had a walk around the town, happily knowing we weren't going to be drenched and stopped by one of the numerous temples within the city walls.
That evening we headed out to a Thai cookery course. Much like our time in Goa we were with a great group of people and made some really tasty food. We started the evening with a quick stop in the local food market, we got there a bit late in the day so there wasn't much food left but a nice pit stop none the less. We then headed over to the farm where we were shown around their gardens and picked a few chilli's to cook with. We had options of what we would like to cook so both picked different things. We each cooked a curry, stir fry and a soup.
On Tuseday we headed outside of town to Doi Sutthep, a large golden temple. The temple was nice however we felt the whole set up (stalls selling shite everywhere) was there just for the tourists. We got caught halfway down the 400 steps in what we can only describe as a deluge of rain, possibly the highlight of our afternoon.
That evening we met up with two of the guys we met at the cooking class, April and Matt, and saw a Ladyboy cabaret show. A barrel of laughs and a few beers later we headed home to get ready for another exciting day.
We decided that we didn't want to visit any animal sanctuaries whilst in Chiang Mai. We weren't convinced about how the animals are really treated as some of them looked cruel with drugged up big cats and dubious elephant excursions. After our wonderful encounter with wild elephants in Sri Lanka we were happy knowing we have seen some of the most majestic animals in their own back yard and we didn't feel the need to ride them or spend a day playing in the mud with them.
Instead we headed to The Grand Canyon Water Park - an old quarry filled up with rain water and some suspect floats. It turned out to be an amazing day! Completely old fashioned fun with no health and safety just a huge 'total wipe out' style assault course, a few things to jump and slide off and a zip line.
Our meal that evening was possibly the best we have eaten for the whole trip. We went to a small hipster looking joint on the university side of town. We ate crispy chicken with a sticky tamarind glaze, spicy brazed pork relish dish, papaya noodle salad and some crispy pork shoulder. Words are unable to describe how good this was, spicy, sweet, salty and sour - everything that good Thai food should be.
We followed it up with a really good whippy on the way home.
We only spent a week in Thailand and it definitely had its ups and downs. Bangkok could be great, we just didn't get there at the right time for us. Chiang Mai was so much fun, we had a really action packed few days and ate some really great food. We are really looking forward to going back in a few weeks but for now we are heading into Vietnam.
Next stop Hanoi,
Luke and Lily
Sorry for a bit of a gap between posts, we have had a couple of obstacles in our journey. Firstly Lily being laid up for a few days in bed due to some strange illness and the lunacy of Thai New Year or Songkran festival starting just as we landed in Bangkok.
We left Sri Lanka pretty heavy hearted wishing we could have stayed an extra week and arrived in Bangkok ready to tackle the next leg of our journey. We navigated the train from the airport into town rather easily and hopped in a cab to the eclectic Koh San Road. Our accommodation was quite nice (we found out that it featured in Jack Whitehall's netflix series with his Dad) and had the best duvet of the trip so far. We landed on Wednesday evening and although we were told Songkran was going to start on Friday it had already begun on the streets outside our hostel. For those who don't know, Songkran is a bank holiday in Thailand for the celebration of their new year. Its basically a huge water fight on the streets that has now become a money making scheme where they sell big plastic water guns to everyone and the water fight/drinking goes on for 4 days. As Lily was not well we could not have landed in Bangkok at a worse time. We only left our room to eat and one trip out to a shady doctors surgery (top tip: if you're sick in Bangkok just go to the hospital, the 'doctors' surgery's charge a ludicrous amount).
 |
| Grumpy in Bangkok |
After a sorry 3 days in Bangkok we flew up to the north of the country to Chiang Mai. We checked into a great cheap little hostel called Mojo House (would definitely recommend if you are ever there) and decided to embrace the last day of the festival. Songkran was much different in Chiang Mai, it felt like more locals were celebrating and not just a rabble of tourists shooting each other with waterguns for 10 hours. There were lots of happy families and mishevious children running around ready to bless you with ice cold water.
Lucky enough for Luke there was a pub serving pizza with live sport so we spent our evening watching Newcastle beat Arsenal 2-1. Once the game was over and Luke was in a good mood we headed over to the Sunday Night Market, it was brilliant full of people, stalls and food. A great end to our day.
The next day we had a walk around the town, happily knowing we weren't going to be drenched and stopped by one of the numerous temples within the city walls.
On Tuseday we headed outside of town to Doi Sutthep, a large golden temple. The temple was nice however we felt the whole set up (stalls selling shite everywhere) was there just for the tourists. We got caught halfway down the 400 steps in what we can only describe as a deluge of rain, possibly the highlight of our afternoon.
That evening we met up with two of the guys we met at the cooking class, April and Matt, and saw a Ladyboy cabaret show. A barrel of laughs and a few beers later we headed home to get ready for another exciting day.
We decided that we didn't want to visit any animal sanctuaries whilst in Chiang Mai. We weren't convinced about how the animals are really treated as some of them looked cruel with drugged up big cats and dubious elephant excursions. After our wonderful encounter with wild elephants in Sri Lanka we were happy knowing we have seen some of the most majestic animals in their own back yard and we didn't feel the need to ride them or spend a day playing in the mud with them.
Instead we headed to The Grand Canyon Water Park - an old quarry filled up with rain water and some suspect floats. It turned out to be an amazing day! Completely old fashioned fun with no health and safety just a huge 'total wipe out' style assault course, a few things to jump and slide off and a zip line.
Our meal that evening was possibly the best we have eaten for the whole trip. We went to a small hipster looking joint on the university side of town. We ate crispy chicken with a sticky tamarind glaze, spicy brazed pork relish dish, papaya noodle salad and some crispy pork shoulder. Words are unable to describe how good this was, spicy, sweet, salty and sour - everything that good Thai food should be.
We followed it up with a really good whippy on the way home.
We only spent a week in Thailand and it definitely had its ups and downs. Bangkok could be great, we just didn't get there at the right time for us. Chiang Mai was so much fun, we had a really action packed few days and ate some really great food. We are really looking forward to going back in a few weeks but for now we are heading into Vietnam.
Next stop Hanoi,
Luke and Lily
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