Map:
About 2.5 hours drive to Myamar (Burma), 3 to Laos, and 7 to Bangkok. It is a beautiful area and favored over Bangkok by many foreign travelers. Thailand in general is very liberal (except for drugs... don't even attempt). The people are very genuine, nice, and service oriented. Many know english, albeit broken and hard to understand with their accent, so it's not difficult to get around and get what you need.
The climate is tropical and characterized by 3 'seasons'.
1. Hot season- end of March-June: average highs are 95 with mid-uppe 70's night temps, high humidity. Little rain. Clear skies in the morning with towering cumulus clouds by afternoon that never produce rain.
2. Rainy season- end of June to end of Sept: average highs are 85 with low 70's night temps, high humidity. Usually, the skies are clear in the morning. By mid-morn, clouds have started to build, especially over the mountains around Chiang Mai. By mid-afternoon, localized storms can be noticed. From the 5th floor balcony of my office building, I can see far into the distance- mountains to the north, west, and east. On any given day, I can see no less than three rain storms in the distance. Eventually, a thunderhead forms over/near Chiang Mai. Rains for an hour, then stops. Some of the rains can be quite heavy w/dazzling lightning.
3. Cool season- October-Feb: average highs are 80-85 and lows in the upper 60's to 70's. Reasonably high humidity. Almost never rains at this time. High tourist season.
I reside in Chiang Mai for a couple months, back in the States for 1.5 months- back and forth. I figure, it's about time I toss a Thailand PET up for the motley crew here. All of these pics are from this past Sunday. Synopsis: Woke up about 10AM, drove up the mountains to the north myself, came back and shoppe for a bit, napped, then met a co-worker and his wife to visit the Walking Market in downtown Chiang Mai. Stayed there from about 6PM to almost midnight.
My car- A good ol' 318 that runs quite well. However, on my way up the mountains, the passenger side, front window's motor shit the bed. Window stuck halfway down. Prayed I would get back to the city before it rained.
Pulling out of my apartment complex. My apartment is very near to Chiang Mai's center city. I can get there via car in a few minutes, literally. Not too much need to, however. Mos everything I need is quite close to me. Can get what I need walking. A very good watering hole, the Drunken Flower (http://www.muantae.com/index.php?option ... view&id=36), is just to the right in the below picture (off-picture). Nice thing about the Drunken Flower is the massive CD collection they have there. I've gotten to know the owner/brtender a bit and is happy to play any requests I may have. Saturday night, happily played Lou Reed/Velvet Underground for me. Great place.
A quick left in the above pic, then a right about 300 yards up puts me on Nimmanhaemen Rd:
About 1/4 mile, then a left towards Doi Suthep, the highest moutain overlooking the city. Straigh on this road for about 15 miles and you're at the top of Doi Suthep.Although shrouded by clouds, you can see the base of the mountain straight ahead in this picture:
Along the way, while still in Chian Mai proper, you never know what you're gonna see. No, this isn't a Thai thug in the back of this truck. Many Thais try and keep the sun from their faces to prevent cancer and to keep their skin more pale. The Thais generally like lighter skin rather than dark. The men don't like Thai women with darker skin as much, for example.
Winding my way up Doi Suthep. Constantly switchbacking all the entire way.
About halfway up, noticed a sign for a waterfall. Turn right, 400 meters. So, I did. Turned and another sign said waterfalls 9km. Drove this road to the waterfalls. This is honest to goodness jungle. Very thick undergrowth, tall trees, and the sound of shrilling insects and birds. Quite worthwhile.
Higher in elevation, of course, it was cooler than down in Chiang Mai. A good 10 degrees cooler. I arrived at the falls and pulled into a small parking lot. Couldn’t see the falls but could hear them… so I hiked towards the sound. About 100 yards, I came upon them. Now, this is only part of the falls, albeit not very large. But definitely beautiful.
One can hike up the mountain to higher stages of the falls (I think there were 6). It was a very tight trail and strenuous. Some parts were quite steep. Frankly, a bit dangerous in spots. I was by myself, so I didn’t go all the way up in the event I twisted an ankle or even worse, broke something.
Couple pics of the trail:
Stopped at one point to take this picture into the jungle from the trail:
Another pic, up into the trees:
One or two stages up the trail to another part of the falls:
On the hike, saw many different types of flora. Amazing. A few of my favorites:
When you are in the jungle, especially alone, your mind kinda works in strange ways. You get a bit jumpier. A bit more cautious. More nervous. Your mind takes over, in a way. So when I saw this freaking thing out of the corner of my eye, I about shit my pants. My mind took over for a second or two. Bloody hell, thought a freaking bat or even a cobra was ready to strike or something. I stepped back then realized it was a flower:
Turns out, it is called a ‘Black Bat’. Don’t know what the genus/species is. The flower itself is about 8 inches from top to bottom. I should research merely out of curiosity- I’d like to know what the evolutionary reasons are for the way it appears.
An orchid flower, albeit dying a bit:
Not sure what this is, or even the genus:
Also, not sure what this one is:
This one would appear to be of the genus Euphorbia, the same genus as your holiday Poinsettia. It too had a milky sap further leading me to believe it was of the Euphorbia genus:
A Tibouchina. Reasonably common in the States at Garden centers, but native to S.E. Asia and Brazil. I have never seen a pink one like this. The only cultivated ones in the States are purple.
In addition to some flora, saw a few pretty cool insects. Most were hard to photograph since they’d fly away before I could get a picture. But this caterpillar I thought was pretty cool looking:
There are many butterflies, some mundane, others quite beautiful and large. Of course, hard to photograph and didn’t.
Okay, back into my car for the rest of the trip up the mountain to nearly the top of Doi Suthep. Stopped at this point to take a picture of Chiang Mail below:
You can see a small lake at the bottom of the mountain, before the city. Follow a line straight up from there to about 1/3 of the way into the city. That is where my apartment is. Before resizing, you can actually see my apartment building. If I still had photoshop, I’d draw an arrow pointing to it here.
Couple miles further up is Doi Suthep. It is a town and the mountain name (Doi=mountain in Thai). Here in Doi Suthep is the most famous Buddhist temple in Northern Thailand. It is very old and the highest in elevation in all of Thailand. The primary religion in Thailand is Buddhism and many are quite religious. Many Thais make their way to Doi Suthep to pray to statues of Buddha… like this:
They light incense, pray, and then place a garland of Marigold flowers on Buddha. Of course, capitalism rules all, so there are stalls selling these garlands for this purpose. This stall is right across the small street from the statue above. You can see the Marigold garlands for sale. The lady is holding a bunch of Lotus flowers and trying to get me to buy one. Apparently, I look Thai and she figured I’d buy one, then pray in front of the statue.
Small building about 50 yards to the left of the statue. Sold here is primarily food from outdoor stalls.
Okay, back down the mountain, to Chiang Mai, and to the parking garage under my apartment before the likely rain ruins my car’s interior.
To the Walking Market I go with a Thai co-worker and his wife. The Walking Market is held every Sunday right in the middle of Chiang Mai. It is very large and spans many streets/side streets which are closed for this weekly event. Thais set up their small booths on either side of the street, one after the other. Some sell handmade clothes, some crafts, some imported shit from Burma or China, etc, etc. Also, many stalls selling street food. A pic of just a very small part of the walking market:
Here, a stall selling fresh fruit. The pink/purple fruits are Dragon Fruit. One of my favorite fruits here in Thailand. It tastes as good as it is beautiful. They aren’t cheap though, for Thai standards, that is. Each Dragon fruit was 35 baht, or about $1.
An uncle of the co-worker I was with owns a storefront in this part of town (a collectibles store- stamps, coins, etc.). There is a bar next door to his store. About 9PM, we met him and a couple of his friends and made our way over to the bar and sat at a table on the sidewalk next to the walking market. We drank many Singha beers, which the uncle kept buying for us and wouldn’t take any $$ for (the best kind of beer). About 10:30, we got hungry, so I left for a bit, hit up a street stall and bought an assortment of Thai street food for us. No shit, 10 minutes later and $6 lighter in the pocket, I was back at the table with enough food for the 5 of us.
Anyways, a pic of the walking market from our table. At this point, it started to sprinkle a bit and a mass of scurrying humanity ensued. Every stall owner scrambled to cover their ‘goods’ with plastic. Actually, this was taken just as they all were nearly finished covering their ‘good’s.
About 11:30/midnight and well-buzzed, bordering on drunk, we left. Walking back, happened upon a stall selling fried insects. Now, the Thais think nothing of eating these things, including my cowoker. Both buzzed, he challenges me to eat some. FUCK, I think. I always said to myself that I’d do it when the occasion arises, so now, I’m on the spot. No turning back. FUCK. I’m going over my choices and sweating: bamboo worms (think larger mealworms), crickets, grasshoppers, and fucking cockroaches. I notice near to me a couple Caucasian chick/toursists smiling knowing what is about to happen. Bloody hell, I sure as hell ain’t doin’ this alone. So, I drag them into it, rack me. Me, dragging them into this endeavor:
Me ‘toasting’ each other with our chosen insects:
Finally, us, ‘bottoms up’:
Since we were both idiots, we challenged each other to a different insect, which we did:
Insects actually weren’t bad at all. Simply crunchy. Hell, not much different then eating some crunchy snack food in the States.
So, that's my Thailand PET.
Was in China for 10 days of business prior to Thailand. Beijing area, north of Beijing, and then deep into the country’s north central area (Gobi desert). Shit-assed country, but beautiful. Will try and post a PET at some point in the near future.
