Chiang Mai

After booking our train to Chiang Mai, we were both rather interested as to how decent second class would be, especially just coming from 5* accommodation we were somewhat sceptical. However, after arriving at the station and grabbing a quick bite to eat complete with a very outrageous dunkin' doughnut, we walked down the platfom to our carriage. It was fab! Everything was clean and tidy, the seats were leather and comfy and when th beds finally got put down, they were more than adequate. A 15 hour journey got us to Chiang Mai which was very easy and shot past. Unfortunately however we arrived to pouring rain, which seemed to dampen our excitement. Stepping outside to find a taxi, we were approached by a woman who said she could drive us to the guest house, we were naturally sceptical. Despite this we ran to her truck, piled in, however she ran off... After waiting for 5 minutes we realised that she was being a nob especially when we saw her drive away in another car. GREAT! Soo, after a right kerfuffel we found a tuk tuk to drive us. She broke down. FANTASTIC! So there we were stranded at the side of the road with a broken tuk tuk and getting soaked by the english weather. After 10 minutes of waiting, a taxi driver took pity and stopped and after negotiating a price he drove us to Julie's Guesthouse. Paying the driver the 20 baht we had greed on seemed to go down bady as apparently he was asking for 20 each... cheeky sod! After arguing with him, the driver gave james a deathstare which we laughed at, before going on his way. Julie's was awesome, a backpackers haven full of foreigners trading in stories with stupidly cheap beer (around 60 baht or 1.20) for a litre! The room itself was basic, but clean so we were both happy :)

The first day in Chiang Mai was a bit of a washout, raining all day, so we spent the time playing pool at Julie's and heading into town to find a coffee house, a lazy day. The next morning we headed to the numerous temples in the city, feeling the need to do something cultural. The first temple Wat Phra Singh is the most popular temple in Chiang Mai due to it holding the most revered Buddha image, the lion Buddha. The temple was impressive, however, after visiting several temples in Bangkok, we realised that they seemed to be all roughly the same. What was interesting is that the monks were sitting in the chapel, eating communially while the public were walking through them and tourists taking photos. Very bizarre... Our temple hunt continued for about an hour, visiting a couple smaller and less popular temples, before we decided to head for coffee.
That evening we ventured to the night market, a bustling area fiilled with hundreds of stalls stretching from inside a large complex onto the sides of the roads. The market was vast and filled with everything you could possibly think of, yet, with no money to spend it was an anticlimax.
The next day it was raining AGAIN. Apparently caused by the earthquake near Japan. We wanted to make the best of Chiang Mai so after a good few games of Pool, we ventured out to see what the shops had, and to go to the Black Canyon Coffee House again (best one we've ever been to!) We managed to stumble across a Tailor's shop... intrigued we asked the price of two, three piece suits. After a starting price of 7000 baht each (150 pounds) we got him down to 5000 each (solid 100 pounds). We then shopped around to make sure we werent being ripped off and indeed he had offered us a very reasonable price. We went back and after a bit more chit chat we had 2, three piece bespoke suits, with 4 silk ties and 2 hankerchiefs all for a modest 10,000 baht. Materials were chosen – italian cashmere, grey for Tim, blue for James. Tim chose a grey suit with blue and white striped silk linings. James chose a blue suit with red and white striped silk linings. We visited later on to be measured up and set him the task of making them by the tme we got back from Pai 4 days later.