Around Chiang Mai.

Cool helmets.

Chiang Mai

You're almost there!

Wat Doi Suteph

Sights on the path.

We accidentally visited a monk.

My way or the monk's way.

A man and a tree.

A tree looking like a snake.

I felt like a lilliputian.

The little one is taking a nap.

This guy was hungry.

They were might cute.

Even the king of the jungle feels drowsy because of the heat.

Meet Ferdinand.

And this one is Oliver. 

We were not too excited about sitting in the bus for another 3,5 hours so we decided not to go to Chiang Rai. Besides we have yet another bus trip ahead of us as we are going back to Bangkok for New Year's, because our Thai friend Mr. Oa has invited us to his New Year's party. The past week has been really chill so we decided to rent a vespa to keep us active for two days. And it was really worth it, the past two days have been great!

We met a Canadian couple before Christmas and they recommeneded driving up the mountain to the temple of Doi Suteph. The road was almost as steap and as curvy as in Koh Chang but also in a lot better shape! We drove uphill for 17 kilometres and in hald way there you could definitely feel how the temperature dropped quite a bit. Not only was the temple of Doi Suteph on top of a mountain, but you also needed to walk something like 303 steps to the actual entrance. We climbed up there but decided not to pay the entrance fee; the temples are pretty much the same every time. Doi Suteph is however one of the most important temples in the North of Thailand so it is definitely worth seeing. Too bad the surroundings of the temple has turned into a huge bazaar area where they sell all kinds of scarfs and buddha statues for souveniers.

We continued driving for four kilometres after Doi Suteph and soon we reached a place called the Phuping Palace (heh). We think it is the king's residence in Chiang Mai, but we could be wrong. On our way back there was a little sign on the road which said "cave". We stopped and decided to go and have a look. The cave turned out to be one of the sights on this 800meter path in the jungle and  this little experience in the woods was a 100 times more interesting than the temple! When we reached the cave we realized that a monk was living there so we basically walked right through his "house".

Once we got back from the mountain we drove to the Chiang Mai Zoo. The coolest thing there was the panda bears who were just adorable! There were three of them and one of them was just taking a nap and two of them were having a lunch break! This was probably the only time we get to see pandas in our lifetime. The Zoo was a good experience in general so it was worth the 100 baht general entrance fee, 20 baht for the bus ride and another 100 bath for the pandas.

This morning we headed for the Tiger Kingdom which is about 20 kilometres away from our hotel. We drove the vespa and it was cool to weave among all the cars, tuktuks and scooters. The traffic here really looks like a bit of a chaos but it is surprisingly organized once you are actually in it.

The Tiger Kingdom has been one of the best experiences on this trip! We paid 420 baht to go and visit the big tigers for 10 minutes (the cubs would have cost 520bath) and it was indeed money well spent. As I was petting the first tiger I almost got tears in my eyes because the whole situation felt so unreal and the tiger was more than amazing. The tigers in Tiger Kingdom are born there so they are used to people ever since they are little cubs. The animals are not drugger neither are they kept in chains. So we were in the same cage with three adult tigers!! I think we will never forget this experience!

By the way, Joni created a map of our trip. See it here. You can find a link to the map also after the introduction part (on the right hand side, on top of the page).

Christmas spirit in Thailand

The king is always there to greet you.

Our room in Julie's Guesthouse.

Joni is tuning himself into the Christmas mode.

Monkey Business in Chiang Mai?

The downstairs common area at Julie's.

The Nuanpranee House offered everybody a Christmas meal!

Nuanpranee House.

Many different ways to rent a room.

The free ride to the Magic Forest Party.

Joni and the Magic Forest.

If Christmas spirit means that people are kind to each other and show respect on one another then Christmas spirit is to be found in Thailand all year round. Tourists are probably the main reason why they celebrate Christmas here in Thailand, but according to what we saw (and heard) yesterday I would say that quite many of the locals were in an equally merry mood as the farangs (westeners) and quite many of them also enjoyed dressing up like elves. Anyway, it has been nice to celebrate a green Christmas for a change.

Christmas 2010 on our part was very chill and there was no hassle involved. We spent the days reading our books at the guesthouse and in the evening we had a nice meal. Joni gave me a really cool christmas gift; a 2,5hour luxury treatment at a local spa! It was awesome! Yesterday evening we went to a christmas party called the Magic Forest Party. The setting was really cool and it felt as if you were dancing in a forest. They sprayed some foam from above the dancefloor so it felt a little bit like it had been snowing.

Since our last blog update we have changed our guesthouse twice. After the Green Oasis we got a room from Julie's Guesthouse which has been recommended in Lonely Planet. Julie's has been one of the best places we have stayed in so far! I felt like a thousand bucks when I realized that the air in our room was filled with the scent of fresh linen! Our room had several windows too. There were two common areas at Julie's, one on top of the roof and one downstairs, and those areas were meant for the guests to hang out and to get to know each other. If you come to Chiang Mai do try to get a room from Julie's! We would have loved to stay there for two more nights but the guesthouse was fully booked. Therefore we changed our guesthouse again yesterday and now we are staying at Nuanpranee House. This is probably the cleanest and the newest guesthouse we have stayed in and if there was the same kind of atmosphere as in Julie's, this would be really perfect. Julie's cost us 250baht and Nuanpranee 290baht per night.

We tried to think about the highlights and hardships we have had on our trip so far, but we realized it is a bit difficult to pinpoint anything. Everything has gone very smoothly and pretty much according to our plans and we have not encountered any major problems or challenges. It has just been really nice. :) I guess the worst thing that has happend is when one morning the cap of our toothpaste was filled with little ants on the inside (and we have not even seen that many cockroaches!). And if that is the worst thing that has happened to us I would say that we are doing pretty well!

The first night we arrived in Thailand we went for a lovely dinner with our new Thai friends. During that first dinner in Thailand we made pretty much every single mistake you can make if you want to get your stomach really upset: we shook hands with everybody, did not use the hand sanitizer, we ate some finger food and we also tried the spiciest foods on the table. Ever since then we have been care free eating from the street kitchens and nothing seems to turn our stomachs around. Quite the contrary actually; I am in Asia and already on my second round of taking laxatives. Who would have guessed!

Greetings from Chiang Mai!

The little boys started the evening.

A peptalk and a pray to Buddha before the match.

The red one won.

One of the temples in the old city.

The trench surrounding the old city.

A local cable guy.

It's all about the right rice!

A fresh food market.

Greetings from Chiang Mai, the northern capital of Thailand! It took us almost 12 hours altogether to get here, out of which 9 hrs was spent to the actual bus ride. The timetable that we got from the lady at the travel agency was not quite accurate, but a 3-hour gap is more than ok. The bus ride would have been comfortable enough if only they had not played those movies during the way (2 action films, one local comedy and then some soft-porn in the evening). It was not even about the movies, but the volume was turned on so loud that not even the earplugs helped to avoid hearing all the sound effects. Anyway, we had a lovely "flight attendant" who took care of us all the way to Chiang Mai. HE was wearing more make-up than I ever do and at some point HE changed his pants into a miniskirt.

We stayed at the B.M.P Guesthouse the first two nights in Chiang Mai. This was the accomodation the lady at the travel agency booked for us and it was the worst place we have stayed in so far. The room was ok but the overall image of the guesthouse was unclean and shabby. What is more, we paid 500baht/night and there are several nicer and a lot cheaper guesthouses right in the center of the city. Now we are staying in a guesthouse called the Green Oasis which is owned by a German man. The location is excellent, the rooms are not too hot even without A/C and internet is included. We pay 250baht (around 6,5€) per night here.

Chiang Mai is definitely a lot more peaceful and unstressful than Bangkok. The climate is also more comfortable and the air seems so fresh after the busy and pollutant capital city. The price level here is lower than in the south of Thailand, it is easy to walk around the city and people speak surprisingly good English. Nevertheless, it somehow feels like as if you were in the Canary Islands. There is quite a lot of tourists here but still it is not too busy and crowded, who knows how long it will stay that way.

We went to a thai-boxing match on Monday evening. It was a lot more positive experience than I expected. It was more about the show, betting and funny music than about kicking one's ass and swollen faces. The air was full of excitement, sweat and mystique. The music they played during each match was accelerating towards the end of each round so it was easy to get excited about the match and the general atmosphere.

We will stay here in the north side of Thailand until we start heading to the south in the beginning of next week. The plan is to visit Chiang Rai before continuing with our journey. We have three more weeks to go so we have plenty of time left before going back to snowy Finland. Greetings to everybody! :)

The second round in Bangkok

The view from our hotel room

The craziest exit ever!

This was a good spot to be reading a book.

A typical Thai woman.

A typical Thai man.

Somewhere along the way.

Bird's nest soup.

The minibus ride to Bangkok on Wednesday was quite bumpy but luckily it did not take too long. The highways were occasionally in such a bad shape that a motion sick person would probably have thrown up several times during the way. Thank God nobody got sick on the bus. :)

A funny thing happened to us when we checked in to the Baiyoke hotel. The girl at the reception gave us a room that was already occupied. It was obviously by accident but to compensate for the pain and suffering she upgraded our room into a junior suite! Sweet! The "room" was bigger than our apartment in Finland and it was in the 25th floor so the view was quite amazing. The bathroom was twice the size of our finnish kitchen and it contained both a shower and a bath. Oh my, what a difference to the Yellow Mango bungalows!

Baiyoke sky-hotel is definitely a must-see if you visit Bangkok. It is a really good hotel too, but all the other tourists coming to visit the obsevation deck makes it quite restless, even a bit stressfull. But considering how much we paid for the room it was definitely worth it (and more)! Also, there is a really cool shopping mall downstairs. It is more for whole-sales but you can buy individual pieces as well. We recommend the highest and the lowest floor of this mall because you can find all kinds of cool street- and pop-fashion there. If you are looking for Dior & co. you should go for example to the fashion mall called Gaysorn.

Now we are in Check Inn Chinatown and this hotel is quite nice too. The room is small but very clean and it includes free wifi, a bathroom and a little kitchenette. Chinatown in Bangkok is just as crowded and full of everything as it is anywhere in the world and also the general atmosphere here is rather cool. And what about all the food! Yesterday we had a taste of the bird's nest soup which is a delicacy in the Chinese cuisine. Apparently they make the soup from the saliva the bird has used when building its nest. The soup is served with boiled eggs and it really does not taste too much of anything, it just tastes a bit sweet.

We will be heading to the north and to Chiang Mai tomorrow morning. We will take a bus since the train was fully booked already. The bus is actually a bit more expensive than the train but it takes only nine hours to get to Chiang Mai (the train takes at least 12hrs and today they were approximately 5hrs delayed), that is, if everything goes according to the plan. :) We have the Millenium-trilogy by Stieg Larsen in Joni's E-reader so I actually am looking forward to those nine hours in the bus. :)

The last day in Koh Chang

Just to remember the name of the place.

 Entering the jungle.

 A man, a waterfall, and a sign.

We definitely recommend Janina's resort!

We wanted something special to do for the last day at Koh Chang so we went to rent a scooter again and headed for the Khlong Phlu waterfall.

Both of us had to pay a 200baht national park fee to be able to walk to the waterfall. Walking the jungle path was quite cool and the sound all the insects and birds were making was quite amazing! The waterfall itself was  pretty enough and the water there was quite chilly (which was actually really nice for a change). I went swimming but I kind of slipped as I stepped on the rock beneath the water surface...So, it probably looked like I was going down a water slide because I could not get a grab of anything and the edge was quite steep. Oh well, luckily I had audience and now there is a little bruise reminding me of the event.

We did not do anything special during the afternoon and now we are just waiting for tomorrow and getting back to Bangkok. We have already been dreaming of the breakfast at the Baiyoke hotel...

Oh, we found Stieg Larsens novel "The Girl Who Played With Fire" for 2,5€ in one cafe! Yay!