We are staying at Le Meridien Chiang Mai - a nice hotel, thanks to my awesome spg points :)
Masssssive king sized bed and nice fluffy sheets :)
What was slightly weird was that there was a window from the washroom into the bedroom. Lol. Faciliated watching tv while in the tub.
Our first night back to the city, we decided to have something local, the local speaciality "khao soy"
Essentially, it is noodles in a curry soup, topped with fried noodles and chicken. To the side, there are items to enhane the noodle experience - chillis to increase spiciness, coconut milk to make it milder, pickled cabbage, bananas to help with the burn, and some other stuff i didnt use. :)
So after spending two days with the elephants, we decided to spend a day in the city just wandering around on a "motor bike". Now, just so we are clear, this is no ducati. But it definitely got us around faster than walking.
This guy right here was pushing a kart while he was on a motor bike. Multi tasking at its best.
Anyway, by the time we got up (sleeping in for the first time in a month felt glorious) and got ready, it was just anout lunch time. We ventured to a restaurant recommended by our hotel. "the Riverside" ...which is totally a tourist's restaurant but nonetheless still yum. We had duck in red curry...
Crispy catfish with red curry (dry style)
And pad thai, which i aparently forgot to take a pic of cuz i was so hungry.
Next we wandered to a nearby grocery store that was more well stocked than most of our grocery stores at home. And everything was placed so nicely...
While we were on the motor bike drive about, look what we saw!!! My damn camera didnt focus in time, but it was the google street view camera! Sooooo cool!
Aparenlty movement just doesnt agree with my camera. Couldnt get anything to focus. Good idea though.lol
We decided to visit the "old city" in chiang mai, which really just turned out to be much of the same as the "new city" of shops and random cafes. We came upon a buddhist temple, which aparently is the oldest in chiang mai built by the king ages earlier. It was nice, but i found no where near as impressive as the ones i have seen in bangkok.
The problem with riding a motor bike is that there is no cover. Its rainy season. It started to pour. Crap.
Sooooooo we ducked into a nearby one-couch cafe. Free wifi, magazines, cheesecake! Unfortunately, the rain did not let up, so we braved the rain and motor-biked while being soaked. Yay. We didnt lAst very long and headed back to the nicely clean and airconditioned hotel.
As lazy as we are, we took the motor bike one block to the japanese shabu shabu restaurant.
The idea was genius. Individual shabu shabu pots with raw food going around on conveyer belts. While you wait for your mini pot to boil, you can help yourself to some maki or tempura items to the side.
The conveyer belt is smart because the waiters dont have to bring you the food, and they cant really forget your orders like they do at toronto all-you-can-eat places.
Highly recommended :) just about $10 per person.
The rest of the night was spent wandering around the town, passing by all the sex-trade bars and checking out the street food.
A relatively uneventful night.
Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city but as it turns out, theres a significant gap between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Bangkok (the largest) is much, much muuuuuuccccch larger. There really isnt much to do in the city here. Most of the attraction of Chiang Mai is the nature. The next couple posts are slightly more exciting. I promise.
Location:Chiang Mai, Thailand
No comments:
Post a Comment