Chiang Mai
Caught the bus to Chiang Mai and stayed at Hotel Ruang Roong where I have stayed before. I like the upstairs rooms which have a small table and chairs outside each room overlooking the small courtyard. Must admit that the place is going downhill and even though it is cheap I will look for a cleaner place in future.
Weird Scenes in Chiang Mai
As I was passing a temple I saw an elderly monk blessing a new motorcycle and its owner (smartly dressed young lady) by spraying water on them. Two young acolytes in attendance. She needs all the blessing she can get ; traffic here is hectic.
Wrong Way in Chiang Mai. While having breakfast I saw a 4 wheel drive vehicle going the wrong way up the major 4 lane street outside my hotel. No one seemed to bother but the foreigner driving must have finally realized what was going on, backed down the street and turned around to go the right direction. I guess the point is lots of people do that to take a shortcut and the Thais just didn’t realize that he was confused.
Love/Hate relationship. Chiang Mai is a mess .. it is really now a large city with all of the disadvantages of that and few of the advantages (no public transport system so you are constantly being cheated by tuk tuk drivers). The pollution is bad – very bad. And yet, and yet .... the chaos of the place is the very thing which makes it authentically Thai (unlike Bangkok which is getting so regulated that it resembles an international city rather than a Thai one). Chiang Mai has a huge number of interesting temples, nice lanes to walk in ..and it’s cheap. Perhaps if I found the right place to stay here I might enjoy it more.
Dinner at a great place listed in Lonely Planet Guide – Ratana’s - it is a bit of a tourist joint but the food was excellent and cheap. Chicken (yes, I know all about Bird Flu), ginger and mushrooms with rice with a small beer for 100 Baht (£1.50)
I took the half day rate at the hotel so I would not have to wander around in the sun during afternoon while waiting for my train. Checked Internet, did packing, then got to railway station for 5:50 overnight sleeper to Bangkok.
The fine print
Date of travel : March 2005
Country information :
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html