Today is our last day in Chiang Mai before taking an overnight train back to Bangkok. It will take us a total of 16 hours. We have a sleeper train though which is great. The last time we took it, we were surprised at how comfortable the beds were. Felt like kids since we had top and bottom bunks….Cool!!!!!. The train seems to hail back to something out of an old Indian movie. Clacka, clacka, claka it went all night, but you soon get accustomed to the sway and rythm of the engine creating an all around romantic feel (if that makes sense to you).
Chiang Mai is a surrounded by a moat on all sides. I would say Chiang Mai is the “Tail of Two Cities” On one side of the moat is a city that is very Bohemian where the hippies thrive. Its is all about cooking schools, health foods, yoga classes and various treks. Rooms are cheap and life is all about tranquility, taking it very slow and exchaging travelling stories with fellow back packers. On the other side of the moat is guess what …… STARBUCKS!!!!! Along with Buger King and McDonalds. The tourist are older retiered folk who look at us a bit strangely. Most are from countries other than the U.S. so they may not be too accustomed to seeing people like us as strange as it may sound. Clearly they are tourist who are about the most equisite and comfortable hotels, being catered to. The Bohemian tourist are more open, they say open “hello, ask where we are from and seek to make conversation.
But as people of color that is part of the travel experience and that is how it is. It by no means takes away from the fact that we are having a fantastic time. So moving right along….. We wanted to take in so much more of the city but alas!!! Montezuma’s revenge hit us with a vengence. We were bed ridden for two whole days. What did we eat? We are not sure. Maybe we thought, came to us from the fantastic cooking school we went to for a day of cooking classes, because from the next day it was all down hill. However the next day we saw ran into two members of our cooking class and they said they were fine. Anyway we are now back up and kicking. The night markets here is an experience. If you take a closer look though it seems like a greater version of Chinatown in NYC or San Francisco but with so much more. It is like 8 times the size with anything you can imagin for sale. We saw some fantastic peices of silver jewellery from the Hill Tribes and got a couple of pieces. We tried to barter of course. I tried to Barter a price down from 600 BHAT to 550 BHAT. It was funny, cause after a bit of thought I realized I was trying to negotiate over only $1.50 USD.
no picsssssssssssss!!!!!