Him and Her still on the road.: May 2010

Chiang Mai. Returning back into Thailand after an amazing time in Myanmar we head North to Chiang Mai, a part of Thailand we have never been to before.

Hoping for a bit of respite from the high temperatures we soon found that the unseasonably hot weather was here as well. Again we opted for A/C accommodation, Linda did a fantastic job in finding one of the best budget places we have stayed at, Bann Nud-Kun. What a gem of a place.

As we are here to sort out our next steps we are not going off to do too much sight seeing, Our first detail was to get our Visas fro China sorted out, as usual the day we arrive there is some sort of local holiday and the Embassy is closed. Next day we trek across town to get them sorted, it was a doddle, so easy, we had our passports back later the same day complete with our Visa. Now time for some Sight seeing.

We hired a cab for the day as this was cheaper and much more convenient than getting on and off buses and hanging around. First up was an Orchid farm followed by an Insect Zoo !

After this natural excursion it was back to more temples and stuff, the Doi Suthrup temple overlooks Chaing Mai and is well worth a visit, a square courtyard with covered surround housing rows of tidy gold Buddha images, in the centre was a gold stupa.

Or next venture was to the North of Thailand towards the Golden Triangle and area where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet, its also the place where a lot of opium trade once ( and possibly still does ) take place, the local tribes openly boast opium as a main source of income ! an interesting Juxtaposition with the strict Thai laws on drug use !! As we were only a few hundred meters from Laos we thought it would be rude not to pay a quick visit, a 20 bhat one day visas ( 40p ) was all that was required, and a boat of course.

On the way to the Northern states we paid a visit to the touristy Hot springs and to the awesome White Temple, now this really is something ! A gleaming White construction with quirky sculptures combined with authentic designs, Brilliant.

Over the next couple of days we continue to make further plans regarding China before going to Bangkok to catch our flight to Hong Kong .... Bangkok did we say ? yep sure did, just as the Red Shirt protests are removed by the Army and soon we find ourselves in the middle of loads of armed police and soldiers, barricaded into shops, put under Curfew, not what we were planning but hey it makes for a change !!!

Orchid Farm

Butterfly

Jack Fruit.

Bangles.

Lychees

Indigenous Tribes Village.

Fishermens huts at the Golden Triangle.

Laos Ferry.

Laos Hooch !

A different sort of "Snake bite" not quite the Cider & Lager mix we are used to !

Ferry with tanker.

Myanmar in the distance.

Buddha on a boat.

Goldfish at the White Temple.

The White Temple.

White temple guardian.

Hands and one red fingernail.

White Temple sculptures.

The White Temple with reflections.

A unique health warning..

Reflections.

Hot Springs Chiang Mai.

Quail eggs cooking in the hot springs.

Hot Springs.

Orchids again.

Doi Suthrep Temple Chiang Mai.

Doi Suthrep

Jack fruit.

Doi Suthrep.

Chiang Mai from Doi Suthrep.

Bells Doi Suthrep.

End of Chiang Mai Blog.

Next Hong Kong ( if we get there ! )

Lake Inle. Now down for a few days left in this amazing country, not sure what we expected but it keeps throwing up more “wow’s” the more we see. Today we arrived at the small town of Nyaung Shwe, just a short boat journey from Lake Inle which we hope to explore.

There has been virtually no rain here for months leaving the channels to Lake Inle very Shallow, luckily we can get to the lake from the village as the channel has been made deeper. Lake Inle is quite big, about 22miles long and 7 miles across at its widest. We see the famous leg rowers on there fishing punts ( hard to describe so just look at the pictures ) We cross to about halfway to a floating Village and the Jumping cat Monastery. What is very surprising is the man made islands which support a huge tomato growing community. Fascinating to see, quite surreal, Tomato’s growing in a lake is not what we would have expected.

From the Village we venture up lake and down some smaller channels to arrive at Indien, a small Village situated just 1km from the forest Pagodas of Pa-O.
Pa-O is another gem, loads of ruined and renovated pagodas lead up to the Pa-O temple. On the way back to Nyaung Shwe we pass more local backwater villages, in truth this is better than the Kerrala backwaters, much quieter and nowhere as touristy and far more genuine.

The Town of Nyaung Shwe is really just a jumping post to the Lake but it has a few gems of its own, a couple of impressive temples and a great little Italian restaurant called the “Star Flower” serving up awesome home made pasta and Pizza, again not what we would have expected to see in the middle of no where. Tomorrow we go to a place called He Ho, before flying back to Yangon , so you could say “he ho here we go” ! That’s’ about it for our venture into Myanmar.

Apart from a few bits we read in the local papers you would be hard pressed to see why the West has such a negative view of Myanmar, the Myanma’s are very friendly people and they really don’t seem to have much truck with politics, they are much more interested in the Premier league football, that said that’s about their only bad point, most are bloody Cheslski supporter’s .. It did make for an interesting night out in a bar watching Liverpool get humiliated on TV ( yes we were cheering on Liverpool ) the locals thought it was great fun to see us suffer !