Chiang Mai - Thailand

In Chiang Mai now, arriving this afternoon at 2.30 with flight Thai Airways from Bangkok. Having spent one night in bangkok resting after the 10 hours disastrous trip from Siem Reap to the border with Thai, this morning I felt already a bit freshened up. Actually I didnt have a place to sleep yet but Lawrence (a friend from Singapore) was happened to be in bangkok with his friends and he said I can share one room with one of his friends (he already had a friend with him).

The road trip from Siem Reap was really a unforgettable one.. The trip would take approximately 2.5 hours normally but last time we did it in 5 hours due to the heavy flooding along the way... We saw trucks (big, heavy trucks) in the middle of the road with the whole rear wheel hopelessly stucked in the mud.. there were around 7-8 points where the road was flooded. The taxi that we took from Siem Reap didn't want to risk the trip and had us boarded a kind of small tractor (which turned out to be the best way to go through the mud. The driver was going with us too until we met his counterparts that would eventually take us to the Poiphet border. This explains why we had to pay US$60 for the taxi, we had had to use 2!...

Anyway, is good in Chiang Mai. Nice, cool air with not too much traffic. I stayed in the Lanna Thai Guesthouse (280baht, room with fan) with 1 minute walk to the infamous night bazaar.. Things are said to be cheaper in chiang mai than bangkok, so I think I would check some things out... The food is also nice.

One thing that surprised me is the large tio ciu community in chiang mai. In the food market (open air) I heard sellers talking to the customers in tio ciu. Not one of them either..

Tomorrow I'm going trekking to the mountains for 2 days and I'll spend one night in a hilltribe village. It's 1500 Baht (not a bad deal)...