I woke up on my air-con sleeper to realise that I was one of the last few crawling out of bed at 10am. Following that was another 2 hrs of staring out of my seat at rolling hills and vast expanses of farmland dotted with grazing cows. At one poitn of the journey, my imagination took over, and I was seized with horror at remembering a story about how everyone on a train died whilst in the tunnel due to carbon monoxide poisoning while we were in a tunnel.
Arriving in Chiang Mai, we were besieged with song thraew drivers and people offering hotel rooms. Decided taht 20 Baht was a good price for a trip to town, we paid up and were on our way to town, although we were later to find out that the standard price was 10 Baht.
After washing up in our guesthouse, we decided to visit a Wat in the area enclosed by the Tha Phae gate, namely Wat Pha Singh. It is probably to our misfortune that neither of us were particularly interested in temples, since the greatest attraction in Chiang Mai are her temples.
After the temple visit, we decided to just bum around and find some dinner before going for the night market, so we settled for an air-con place serving Thai food. The choice of food perhapers best describes the disparity between comfort zone travellers and out of comfort zone travellers. On the one hand, there are cafes catering to an exclusive Western clientale, offering typical Western dishes like pork chops, which cost upwards of 150 Baht. On the other hand, a local diner can serve pad thai for a mere 20 Baht. I suppose it pays to move out of one’s comfort zone, or in our case, fortunate that Thai food is still within our comfort zone.
Wanting probably hit a goldmine with the night market, as it promises the entrapments of Chatuchak market without the heat involved. The night was concluded with a sweet supper of roti prata with bananas and chocolate costing a mere 20 Baht.
Chiang Mai at night
Banana Chocolate Store
Wanderlust 