- ChiangMai, Thailand; Part 1 -

Hello, I'm back! This time I will be blogging about my latest trip to Thailand - (supposedly) the land of smiles. 

I think it has yet to be my most adventurous trip to date, especially since it is with my family. We aren't risk-takers, nor are we adventurers..so this trip is worth a few posts!

Started off leaving Changi Airport to Bangkok Suvarnabhummi International Airport to change to domestic flight to Chiang Mai!

2 flights in 5 hours.

Met the local guide there and my family formed the whole group. We had a small little van to ourselves and first stop was Wat Pra Singh. 'Wat' refers to 'temple' in Thai..that is if I didn't get it wrong. We had quite a bit of problems understanding the Thai's English >.< 

Anyway, the temples in Thailand are very particular about dressing. You got to be appropriately covered up before entering. By appropriately covered, it means no shorts, not even berms. The temple goers were all in long sleeves and pants. I didn't take any photos within the temple because I normally don't take photos in religious places, out of respect.

There was a monastery next to this temple where we learnt that parents voluntarily signed their sons up for it. It's kinda like "summer camp" haha or National Service. I think it is to redeem the sins for their families and for blessings.

 And then guess what? It was the end of that day's tour -.-"' The guide dropped us off at the hotel and said she had more guests to pick up. That was not promised to us when we signed up for the tour though. But we were in a foreign land and at her mercy..so yep. Anw back at the hotel, we decided to take pics! Hahaha..our rooms were connected so it was pretty awesome. And we had free wifi within the room! Lazed around a bit and out we went for our own little discovery.

 The moment we stepped out of the hotel, we were swamped with many tour touts asking us to join them in their city tours. Boy, were they persistent. It's like you cannot even walk a short street without being approached. It became natural to just smile and say "no, no" whenever you hear a honk or someone approaching you. No pictures of the streets and touts as I was afraid my camera got snatched HAHA.

Anw, Thai's Ronald McDonald does the "Sawadee" hand-clasped gesture, much to my mum's glee.

Our hotel were supposed to be near the night bazaars which we were pretty excited about. This is how it looks like in the day. I think it was 12pm then. Totally different at night, bustling with people and activities. Unfortunately, I was busy squeezing through the streets at night to take any pictures.

ChiangMai is a quiet place...look at the streets..hardly anyone...This was pretty far from the hotel already. This was near the locals residential areas. 

This is the Muay Thai ring right at the end, and bars and pubs lining the sides. Some of them were preparing for business and we saw a number of Ladyboys here. The Thai Boxers were also sitting down for a rest so didn't manage to catch any boxing!

We were tired of walking and wanted to try some local dishes so we went into a cafe. The moment we opened the door, there was this Thai man who was shouting and flailing his arms right infront of us. We totally didn't know what he was saying and all the people in the place stared at us O_O We just stood there shocked and did not know what to do. But after he was done with his shouting at the people at the counter, he went out and zoomed off on his motorbike, gesturing and shouting again. 

Haha but since we didn't understand, we just decided to find a seat and order some local dishes. Awesome food at reasonable prices. Expensive according to local standards but affordable in Singapore's contexts. Haha. Everyone else in the cafe, other than the service staff, were Caucasians. Yup, so this is the target group haha.

Anw, we ordered Phad Thai, Tomyam and Mango Sticky Rice!!!! AWESOME DOODLES. Hahaha loved it so much. Ordered Matcha Latte because the coconuts were sold out :( Total bill added up to S$18?

This was the last red Tomyam we had in our trip btw. The rest all looked harmless but were really spicy hahaha. The mangoes were soooooo sweet T_T 

In case you are wondering what is the name of this place, I captured a photo!! You may like to visit this place if you go to ChiangMai and do not dare to patronise the road-side stalls like me :P

 More walking along those dingy streets and I discovered a public phone that was nicely vandalised. When I stopped to take the photo, my dad even commented to my mum that I am taking that picture because I have not seen a public phone before -__-"'

Walked around more to understand our surroundings and to check out what is available at the night bazaars!!

Heehee..the below pic kinda scared me when I walked past it...hahaha... 

We were so tired from the walking we decided to pop into Burger King for drinks and fries. Prices are the same as in SG. It was in Burger King that made me more determined NOT to try the roadside stalls' food. We were on the second level overlooking the food stalls by the street and there was this lady who was squatting by the road washing the utensils used for her food stall. Then she dipped the brush into a bucket full of ice, which was seemingly used in DRINKS to be served to customers :S Then, she used the very same brush to scrub her SHOES! Crocs, to be exact. OMG. We were gawking in horror. Their level of hygiene was...err..."remarkable" HAHA.

After which we walked around the food stalls and saw that houseflies were feasting on the food to be sold but they did nothing to swat the flies away O_O To be fair, the food smelt really good but we were not going to risk being sick on our trip. 

So it was back to the hotel to rest after walking for about 4 hrs...we already covered the whole area around our hotel TWICE. There really isn't much to see..there were loads of massage parlours, local tour "agencies" and drinking joints. 

As I previously mentioned..we had connecting rooms! Haha! Once wifi is present, everyone whips our their phones. The smartphones era.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, it was time to go out and meet the guide who brought us to dinner. Along the way, I saw this very interesting sign. Roadside selling coconuts I presume, but the stall was nowhere to be seen. This is literally by the road. Captured this because I thought it was innovative how they made use of what they have to mark their territories and sell their wares. Free rental too. Haha.

 Mangoes were growing everywhere. No wonder mangoes are so cheap in Thailand. In case you were wondering, no, I didn't pluck any mangoes on this trip. Neither did I get to pick any off the ground :(

ChiangMai is not a rich city area so don't expect the food to be extravagant. Haha. This was dinner and a local restaurant. The steamboat in the center was tomyam fish soup. Looks harmless right? It was really spicy though! The other dishes were pretty similar to our SzeChar stalls in Singapore. Sweet and sour pork, vegetables with egg, soy sauce chicken etc. Our lunch won hands down in terms of taste haha. Pretty disappointing...

 After dinner, they sent us back to the hotel. Crap right? What's the point of signing up for tours. More of it will come in later posts. My rants rather. Haha and it was still early! I think it was only 830pm thereabouts so we decided to hit the same streets and check out the night bazaars.

They sold paintings, decorative items, clothes, socks, etc.

Guess what these are! Pretty aren't they?

They are SOAPS!!

This lady was sculpting the soaps on the spot. Actually, throughout the night bazaars, there were many locals showing off their extremely artistic skills. Like hammering the metals to form pictures...painting...sewing...sculpting..I'm sorry I don't have pictures. One reason is that I didn't dare to take out my camera. Another is because I don't know if they like it if I take their pictures. I may be obliged to buy their stuff?? Cheapo me. HAHA.

 For this particular stall, there were many people videoing her sculpting process so I quickly took out the camera to snap a picture. HAHA.

 That's it for Day 1. Till the next post!

- >.< -

So I finally visited Gardens by the Bay where I have received mixed reviews. Nevertheless, I was still very excited about this little excursion on the 1 year anniversary!

Look at the excited me running down on my own!

I was told to stop...so....

The customary stand-with-flowers-and smile photo.

I like this cage-like thing very much! In fact I would want something similar at my wedding, that is if I get married :P

Amazing plants! I mean it's WHITE amongst all the greens! I have the name somewhere...

HAHAHA I realised my pose is very much the same...

This was one of the last few pictures in the cloud forest because it was so dark by the time we went up and I almost died of fright up there. There are many who don't know how terribly frighten I am of heights.

I am even afraid of taking cable cars but I overcame that phobia (somewhat) when I kept taking cable cars one year when I was overseas. I mean, I took so many that I was able to breathe normally and look out of the cable, not without clutching on to something tightly though.

I mean, I already took that crystal cable car with the see-through floor at HK which lasted like an hour or so? I mean standing up in the cable car is still a big no-no but I was able to take cable cars, look around, and not hyperventilate or die of holding my breath.

But the top level of the cloud forest was a whole new level. I almost cried I tell you. No kidding. The worst is that the path was so narrow and there were so many people on it, kids were even running on that narrow path! Oh my gosh. And the path at the sides were see-through. It was meant to let people admire the view from the top but I almost died. My hands were dripping wet with sweat (no exaggeration) and I was struggling to stay on the path that I thought was concrete, and couldn't see what was below me.

Of course, there were people who were forever in a rush and kept pushing me and I definitely could not stand at the netted-grilled-part with the see-through floor! Wth to those jerks who kept pushing me mann. If they were not afraid they could have taken the sides with the see-through floor! Why the hell do they keep pushing me? I mean, I wanted to turn back, but I knew shobou wanted to explore. So I continued the trudge and I was too afraid to speak.

There were TWICE someone forced me to move and he himself refuse to stand on the netted part. But since scaredy-cat-me could not take it, I stood on the concrete path and bended over to hold the handrail next to the netted floor. So no matter how much he pushed, I will not budge from my concrete floor.

Ok this is hard to explain...You just imagine the center path is the concrete path and the sides were netted-flooring, with the handrails. It's just one path with different flooring - one that is see-through, and the another which you cannot. So my feet were on the concrete path and I was holding on to the handrails at the netted part. Yea, if you can imagine, my body was really bent in that weird shape, like an arc?? Haha..what a sight I must have been. But seriously, this is a phobia mann. I didn't care what people thought of me at that time. I really thought I was going to die. Tears were already welling up, and holding on to another person's hand really does not help. I think it's a trust issue? I had to hold on to that railing in that awkward position while others were running about the freaking bridge which I wonder if it's stable. I mean, it should be but there's still this fear?? Btw, it's about 10 stories high. It's not that high when i think about it but I can't control my fear ok.

Ok, so that's the few photos I had of the Cloud Forest. At least I got pictures of the fountain, which was really the best of the place. The rest? Please go explore on your own.