Tuesday, December 11, 2007
I'm finally back from the 8 days 7 nights trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The weather there is relatively dry and hot, making my skin look old and starting to peel off!
(Times are according to Singapore time.)
Day 1 - 3/12/07 (Singapore - Chiang Mai)
I woke up at around 3.30 am. We quickly washed up, checked our luggage one last time before leaving for Budget Terminal. At the terminal, there were already many people there queuing for their tickets (to Macau I think) and to check in their luggage. When we reached there, we realised that the flight was delayed by 30mins. We had plenty of time left, so we had our very early breakfast at the Han's cafeteria. I ordered a plate of spaghetti. It totally sucked! The pasta was too hard and the sauce tasted weird. My parents and bro had sandwiches and some beverages. Oh yeah, the Milo was so concentrated that we had to add water a few times. The person preparing the drinks had added one HEAPED spoonful of Milo powder into the small cup. It's obviously too concentrated for us humans to consume!
It was about 5.30 am before we checked into the waiting lounge. I tried using my MP4, but it just went out on me. God damn it. It's such a lousy device! Then at about 6.10 am, we lined up to enter the plane. Waited for a while before we boarded the plane - Tiger Airways. They have started allocating seats since March, and we only knew it today. Well, it's not a bad thing either because Singaporeans will not be so 'kiasu' as to save seats for their friends or relatives. Hmm..
At 6.35 am, the plane left Singapore for Chiang Mai! Whee!!
We arrived at Chiang Mai airport at 9.10 am. Jackson uncle and his family were out there waiting for us. Arik has grown quite big size! We took 2 Mercedes taxis to our hotel, Royal Lanna Hotel. Our room number was 1020 :) After we left our luggage in the room, we went down to McDonald's for another breakfast. The fast food didn't taste nice though.
Then we walked to a temple near our hotel to pray. Bro and Arik freed sparrows at the Mae Ping river. I was quite afraid that the birds might be sick. :( Next we took the local taxi to Lotus shopping mall. It was a few minutes ride from the temple. There at the megamarket, we shopped for a few hours for clothes etc. My mum bought many clothes for my relatives and I hate it. She's spending so much money on others whom I dislike and despise! Spent about a total of about 5000 baht there. Wow! That's gonna be about 200 s.d!
When we came out of the megamarket, I bought 6 doughnuts from Dunkin Doughnuts. 6 doughnuts for 109 baht, quite cheap. But the doughnuts tasted weird. Hmm.. Then we had lunch at the food court. Used cards to purchase our food. A good idea. Even Singapore doesn't have this system! And after lunch, we walked around for a little while more before returning to our hotel room to rest.
And at night, we went to some place in the night bazaar for dinner. Had roasted pig and some other local dishes, and the bill amounted to 2650 baht! Is it cheap? I don't know. Then after dinner, we walked around the bazaar. The things sold are quite expensive. According to my elders, you can cut the price down to 50% of the price they ask for. We were feeling quite tired after one day's of shopping and walking and having to wake up so early, so we went back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
Day 2 - 4/12/07 (Chiang Mai - Doi Tung)
Had breakfast at about 9 am. I had only a piece of bread and a cup of milk (bread and milk recipe by Nigella Lawson). Didn't like American and Continental breakfast coz that makes me vomit. I miss Singapore food!! After breakfast, we quickly packed our luggage and took a van up to Doi Tung (the place where Queen Mother had been). On the way to Doi Tung, we stopped at the area where we can cook eggs in a big spring. We've been there quite a number of times but I still like the idea where we can cook our eggs in a spring! The water smelled of rotten eggs!! Yuck! When the eggs were cooked, we went to a stall for lunch. Had Kway Teow noodles, their local food. The noodles tasted alright, but the meatballs were full of those hard joints, so in the end, we left the meatballs uneaten. :)
After lunch, we continued on our journey. Our second stop was at a big wide temple. It is quite new, painted white all around and there were small pieces of mirror around the temple too. (I'll put up the photos in another post) At bridge leading towards the entrance of the temple, there were many hands sticking out from the ground. They look like the Inferi in Harry Potter.. It's quite scary though. I think the temple prays for some weird future coz there were aliens and earth exploding?? in the murals on the walls inside the temple.
When we came out of the temple, we went to the shops opposite to purchase some drinks and fruits. I like the guava there. It very fresh and tasty compared to those sold in Singapore and you can just eat it like that without and flavourings. Yum!
I'm having car sickness coz I feel like vomitting! If I don't sleep during the ride, I'll probably throw up many times, so during the whole trip, I guess I've slept for 3 hours! The whole trip took about 6 hours! (If you do not stop for rest, you can reach Doi Tung in 4 hours) It's cool at Doi Tung in the afternoons. We reached the resort at about 4.30 pm. The room has a nice view and the facilities are quite new. I like the room! We were feeling quite hungry when we had unpacked our luggage, so we took the van to the restaurant. Although dinner officially starts at 6 am (thai time), we couldn't wait any longer and started dinner an hour before 6. While having dinner, the weather slowly became cooler and cooler, till 15 degree celsius in the middle of the night. Cold right?
Amount spent for dinner was, I think, below 2000 baht. As the temperature was quite low, we went back to our room for some warmth. There's HBO and Star Movies!! I watched 'War Of The Worlds'. The show was quite scary as it was talking about aliens and fighting. That's very bloody!
It's quite cozy in there and I quickly fell asleep after the show ended. Zzzz..
Day 3 - 5/12/07 (Doi Tung)
Breakfast was at an open area near the reception counter. It has a nice view from the area. I didn't like the breakfast. Had 2 bowls of cereal :) I'm still a kid!! I always had breakfast at about 9 am coz I take a long time to wash up and bathe, and mum was quite pissed at it. Well, I can't help it. It's so comfortable bathing in warm water in such a cool day. It's refreshing!
After breakfast, dad, bro, uncle, auntie and I walked up to the main area in Doi Tung. It was very tiring as we had to walk up very steep slopes. But well, we managed to climb up there! A great feat for me! We bought tickets to the museum (30baht) and Mae Fah Luang Garden (80baht). There ain't much to see in the museum and most of the exhibits are in Thai, so we spent about 30 mins there. The musuem is linked to the garden, so when we came to the end of the musuem tour, we could see many plants. The flowers and leaves were very beautiful and fresh! I would recommend you to visit the garden. There's a lot of walking and climbing in the garden, so make sure you wear comfy sports shoes. There's a cafe in the middle of the garden. We rested for while at the cafe to enjoy the nice view and cool breeze. The coffee didn't taste good though. It was 12.30 pm when we came to the end of the garden. We had spent an hour and a half at the garden. Took a lot of photos there. Opposite the exit was a cafeteria, so we went in for lunch.
After lunch, we went to the Poppy Garden (50baht/pax). Climbed a lot there too. There ain't much things to see. We went there at the wrong time! According to one of the gardeners, the poppy flowers will only bloom in January! Oh well, wasted 50 baht. 50 baht for exercise. Haha.. :D
Next, we went to a temple some 30 mins ride from the garden. There were many bells there. Guess there's about 100 over bells there. We took a wooden stick and started knocking on them while walking. Quite noisy though.
Later, we went to the Akha tribe which was quite near the main area of Doi Tung. We only stood on their water tank to observe the surroundings coz there were many dogs in the village. We were afraid the dogs might attack us. There seemed only a few houses in the tribe, but when we view from our resort, we could see many zinc-plated houses in the tribe.
It was quite early when our day ended. Had instant noodles while watching TV, chatting and running about the field. Then around dinner time, we went up to the restaurant for dinner again. Ordered the same few dishes. When we were about to finish our dinner, someone came to us and gave us a candle each. We were supposed to go out onto the roads to pray for the king. It was the King's birthday. Watched the live broadcast from Bangkok while holding onto a light candle. It was damn cold out there. When our candles have burnt to a few centimetres long, we could leave the area. Someone asked my mum if she would like another candle and of course she declined the offer. We returned to the restaurant to finish our food. The food had turned cold after leaving them for 30 mins. Then we quickly footed the bill and retreated back to the room for warmth and rest!
*If you want to experience how it's like staying in the mountains, you can stay at the resort for 2 to 3 days. The room rates are a little expensive though. 2000 baht per day (from September till April); 500 baht for an extra bed. But the security is quite tight as it's a royal villa where the Queen Mother had stayed or visited.
It's better to visit Chiang Mai, Doi Tung etc during December as it is the dry season. You would then be able to visit more places and take more photos. :) There would be floods during November, so try not to go there then.
Day 4 - 6/12/07 (Doi Tung - Lampang)
After breakfast, we checked out of the restaurant and left for Lampang at 10.30 am. I missed Doi Tung, the resort, the weather (and the ppl)..
Our first stop was a temple in one of the mountains. We had our lunch in the area first before going up to visit the temple. The meatballs there sucked too!
There were many statues of weird-looking snakes and few of other animals. It seemed that the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac would always appear in temples. The temple was quite worn out even though it's only 30 years old. Guess nobody bothered to repaint and clean the temple. While looking at those statues, aunt seemed to see a live snake hiding in a gap. She was quite frightened and we quickly left the temple after that.
Later on, we went to a lake. A big big lake in the area. It seemed like the stretch of sea between Singapore and Malaysia. There were many people at the lakeside having picnic or party. The weather's very hot there. So we didn't stay there for long and left for the hotel in Lampang.
We reached our hotel, Lampang Wiengthong Hotel at about 6 pm. It looked quite old; I didn't really like staying in that hotel. But if you compare this hotel to others in that vicinity, it's a hundred times better! We quickly unpacked our luggage and left for 'Big C' megamarket for dinner. Then we shopped around after dinner. Mum spent another 5000 baht buying those quite unneccessary stuff.
When we returned to our hotel, Dad and I went down to use the comp. It costed 100 baht/ hour. It's interesting when they gave you a small piece of paper which contained the id and password which allowed you to use the internet. I was exhausted after using the comp and I slept just like that. Day 5 - 7/12/07 (Lampang)
Our first destination of the day was 'Baan Sao Nak'. It's a old-fashion Thai house. The entrance fee was 50 baht/pax. The house looked like Malay houses where the house is lifted off the ground. It's made of wood, so the house was quite cooling. There were many antiques displayed around the house. Then we were given biscuits and drinks. Yum! They tasted delicious.
Then we went to a temple (I do not know the name of the temple). There were 7-year old students following a monk on a tour around the temple. Those kids were cute. We followed them into a large hall where the monk taught them some things. I couldn't understand what he was talking about, but we just followed the kids and bowed to the buddha statues.
We left the temple a while later and travelled to another temple. There ain't much to see so we left a while later.
Then we went to another temple. I didn't enter the temple coz the weather's hot. While waiting in the van, I could see many roosters and hens. There was one hen which acted quite stupidly. It knocked against the van's door and then walked underneath the van without knowing there's humans in there. Lol.
After visiting the temples, we went for lunch at one of the shophouses near our hotel. The owner and his wife looked Chinese, and their noodle soup tasted fantastic. The stall next to theirs was selling roasted chicken. We bought one and shared among us. It's quite tasty, but it's a little powdery.
Bro said he wasn't feeling well so we went to the hospital there. We spent 1 hour waiting for check-up and to get medicine. Bro was given four bottles of syrup. Guess he loved it. He's weird; he likes to eat medicine. Eww!! After the check-up, mum and bro returned to hotel while the rest of us went to the ceramic fair near 'Big C'. I bought 3 cups for my dear friends, and dad bought key chains and small cutey bowls for his colleagues. Spent about 300 baht for all.
Then we returned to hotel to rest and wash up before leaving again at 6.30 pm for horse carriage ride. It costed 200 baht and the whole ride lasted for 20 mins. The four of us managed to squeeze into the carriage! Haha :P The ride was stinky coz of the waste gases produced by the vehicles plus the horse's shit. We were in the middle of those metallic machinery, and it kind of felt odd. Even the horse has to stop when the traffic light turns red. :)
After the horse ride, we went to the night bazaar in Lampang. There were many people there. We were searching for a place to have our dinner but we could not find one. In the end we went to 'Lotus'. We were all starving when we reached 'Lotus'. The food court was closing so we went to MK restaurant for a steamboat dinner. The steamboat isn't like what we have in Singapore. The soup tasted sweet instead of salty and we had to order plates of veggie and meat. But dinner still tasted great. That's probably because we're very hungry??
It was about 9 pm when we had our dinner. Then we went back to our hotel. It was still early, so I watched some programmes. There aren't many choices to choose from: Hallmark channel, CNN and CCTV 4. Pathetic. :[Day 6 - 8/12/07 (Lampang - Lamphun - Chiang Mai)
We checked out of the hotel at 10 am. We took the van back to Chiang Mai.
On the way, we went to the temple of reflections (Pratartlampangluang temple). Women are not allowed in that room. I don't understand why they despise women. Hadn't women given birth to males? If females weren't present, males would slowly perish! And the buddha statues looked quite feminine (no offence). I just don't see the point why women can't do what males can. We had to remove our shoes whenever we enter a room in the temple, and it's very troublesome.There were many people there too.
Next, we went to 'Kad Tung Kwian' (Tung Kwian market). We shopped there for about an hour's time. Mum and dad bought shirts, bags and ceramic products. In the market, there were stalls selling boar meat, fried worms and insects (YUCKS!), pets (they look ill) and other local products. It was quite stinky in the wet market part.
At about 1 pm, we went to a roadside stall for lunch. Had kway teow noodles again. But I don't get tired eating them. The food they serve here is quite special. They give pig kidneys and intestines and the pork had a strong smell.
One hour lunch time, and then we went back to the market again. Mum bought more stuff..
Then at 3 pm, we went to 'Watphathatharphunchailamphun'. There were many people in the temple too. Many parts of the temple were under reconstruction.
Next, we proceeded on to another temple, 'Wat Mahawan', which was just a few metres away. This temple was smaller in size and there weren't any visitors except us. The entrance of the temple was closed, but we could still see the buddha statues inside. They were sparkling in the dark! The structures and designs of the temples looked relatively similar to each other. We could just visit one temple.
When we checked into 'Royal Lanna Hotel' in Chiang Mai at 6 pm, we went to the food court somewhere in night bazaar. Food sold there is quite expensive but there are more choices like western, muslim food etc.
After dinner, we shopped around night bazaar. Bought 2 shirts for 180 baht. One shirt (S-size) had actually costed 150 baht, and we had cut the price down to 90 baht each! Wow! That's about half the price they ask for! Things sold there are quite expensive as they are sold to 'rich' tourists.
I bought my favourite prata which I always buy when I'm in Chiang Mai - Prata with egg and banana + sugar + condense milk. Yum! It's 30 baht for one prata. There are other flavours, but I was too full to try them.
Watched Boomerang with bro before turning into bed. I like Scooby Doo and Popeye the Sailorman!Day 7 - 9/12/07 (Chiang Mai)
After breakfast, we took taxi to the market (100 baht for 7peeps). It was not so crowded at first, but nearing noon, there were more and more people. When we arrive at the market, mum had already bought bags and shirts. Then we continued with 'shop shop shop'. The big bag was quickly filled up with many stuff.
At 1 pm, we went to a stall near the market area for lunch. It's kway teow noodles again. But it tasted better here coz the owners were more 'Chinese'. They could speak Teochew, and that makes us 'ga gi nang' (our own ppl).
We continued shopping till 3 pm and we had filled up 2 bags! While we were resting in the room, dad and uncle went opposite to use the internet. It's cheap here, 30 baht/ hour. Yes, it's cheaper here compared to using it in hotels. We had Bud's ice-cream while waiting for them. It's 89 baht for 2 scoops of ice-cream and 'one scoop' of whip cream. :)
When the two fathers came out of the cafe, we went to 'Lotus' again - shopping and dinner. While mum was shopping in the megamarket, we waited for her in the food court and the 2 kids played in the 'arcade'. She took almost 2 hours to buy what she needed and she had actually spent nearly 3000 baht and those shirts and pants again. OMFG! That's burning a big hole in our pockets!
For dinner, we went to 'Pizza Company'. The pizzas were cheaper than those in Singapore. For 2 medium-sized pizzas, 1 garlic bread, 1 plate of bacon twists and 3 bottles of water, it costs only 708 baht (taxes included). That's about S$31. One pizza already costs 20 over dollars in Singapore! It's quite cheap right?
It's sad that we'll be returning to Singapore tomorrow.. :((Day 8 - 10/12/07 (Chiang Mai - Singapore)
Woke up at about 6 am, then had breakfast at the restaurant. There were a few people down there having breakfast already. Before leaving for the airport, we settled all the bills. It was 1600 baht for one night plus an extra bed. It had actually cost 2600 baht, but we managed to get a discount! :) At 7.30 am, we left for the airport. We had a total of 5 luggage - 4 to be checked in. The weight of those 4 bags was 55kg! Just 5 more kgs and we'll have to pay extra money.
Went to a restaurant in the old airport for drinks. Then at about 9 am, we went back to the new airport and checked in. We had forgotten to fill the departure form and we had to queue again. And we're gonna be late for our flight!!
Our flight was TR123. We took off at 10 am and reached Singapore at about 1pm. It was raining in Singapore so we got wet while walking into the Budget Terminal. I was feeling quite cold and sick then.
I tried using the 'express' counter, and I managed to pass it! Yay! It's my first time using that thingy. I had thought that I would not pass coz I'm using the old passport.
It was raining the whole day. My head felt heavy and I felt cold. I'm having FEVER and sore throat!! It just felt so terrible to be sick. No..
I'm feeling better now after taking medicine..
Now my trouble is HOMEWORK!! Just 20 more days before school reopens. Oh gosh! How fast time flies.. Haiz.. :(My conclusion:
Chiang Mai, Doi Tung and Lampang are nice places to visit. The toilets there are also relatively clean and you have to pay for it (2-5 baht per pax). There are lots of temples there, so if you are more of a buddha follower, you would love there even more. Yup, and I like the food there too. Kway teow noodles.. you would not get sick of it after eating it for lunch for 7 days. :)
There's something we have to take note of. There's one man, think he's in his 60s, moving around in the night bazaar and market in Chiang Mai. He's a SWINDLER! He approaches tourists, telling them that he's a Singaporean who's lost his money and wants some money to return home. He then quickly shows you 'his' I/C and passport (he doesn't show the name and photos) and wants you to lend him some money. When he sees you taking out your money, he'll then say he needs more money to buy some neccessities etc. He then gives you a number and address so that you can get your money back in Singapore.
Uncle was cheated of 8000 baht! When he called the number given by that old man, there was no such number!
He's such a wily, crafty, cunning old Malaysian man! You can know that he's not a Singaporean from his tone and pronunciation.
I hope that he'll get arrested (he hasn't been caught for many years!), get caned, get bashed, get cursed for his wrong-doings . Hpmh!
~ Ano sora hoete yukeru kana?..;
x Tuesday, December 11, 2007
