Day 10 – Chiang Mai – Friday March 11th 2011
Our plan was so simple:
- Have breakfast
- Check out of the Winner Inn
- Check into new place
- Spend the afternoon visiting temples
The reality was far from simple. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned how complicated addresses can be in Thailand. We were within 50 feet of our new guesthouse and still couldn’t find the place. Even a Tuk-Tuk driver took us half way across town without finding the place.
In the end, we set up a base camp at De Naga, a Hotel and restaurant. Nic and Chick waited with our bags and Frank and I went off to find the place. After about 2 hours, tucked down a narrow side street we found it. There were two almost identically named roads.
We went back to the girls and took our bags round to get checked in. We still had time to tour some temples and ended up in a public park at the bottom corner of Chiang Mai. The park was busy with people practicing juggling, tightrope walking and playing games on the grass.
That night we walked to the night bazaar for some food and ended up eating from a strange food court where you exchange money for tokens, then tokens for food. The food was pretty average but the walk back afterwards was an eye opener. We saw countless old fat white men chatting up Thai women in sleazy bars. Some real desperate stuff. As we were in couples we didn’t get much hassle from the girls in the bars but we saw single guys get pounced on as they walked past.
I nipped in to a 7-11 for a Coca-Cola slushy on the way back. My favourite refreshment in Thailand aside from Chang beer, and only 35p!