Entertainment, Outdoors and Culture

Of course, our trip to Chiang Mai would have been incomplete without a dose of local entertainment, outdoor adventure and Thai culture.

Entertainment wise, we didn't have much trouble scouting for eateries - there were heaps of food choices, and you'd be surprised to know that Chiang Mai is a melting pot of German, Italian, American and Thai cuisine all rolled into one. And since we were surrounded by such a varied fare, food was one of our main highlights! Good thing we were only there for a few days, or we would have stuffed ourselves silly with the cheap and good food available :)

Chicken sandwich with green tea butter and homemade chicken pie in the back garden of a quaint tea house

Hungarian goulash and pork knuckle at a German restaurant in the heart of the night baazar

Our Thai feast of mushroom glass noodle salad, prawn tom yum soup, spicy crab, sizling duck and green curry chicken

To justify our 'feasts', we resorted to thronging the night baazar on all three nights we were there. Walking is always a good way to work off some excess kilos! By day, Changklan Road is just like any ordinary road with rows of shops flanking both sides. Come evening however, the same street would turn into a sea of colour dotted by vendors peddling their goods in brightly lit stalls. Naturally, we did our Christmas shopping there and succesfully found something for everyone we were supposed to get presents for.

Part of the stalls making up the night baazar

One of our days was spent visiting an elephant camp, the local hilltribes and stopping at a waterfall along the way. Trust Anderson to throw in some 'hiking' during our honeymoon! We learnt that elephants are rather big eaters and greedy too, for they just wouldn't budge when we ran out of food to feed them! Not only that, we were snorted at with elephant goo, which we found quite gross and disgusting :(

Atop the elephant and trying to feed it

Left: A Hmong tribeswoman busy making traditional costumes for the new year; Right: A Karen lady weaving brightly coloured scarves

Thank goodness we had bamboo rafting on our itinerary, as that was one fun activity and a sure way to make sure we were cleansed of snot from earlier in the day! We were drenched alright, thanks to how the raft was constructed and our playful guide who went all out to make sure there wasn't a dry spot on us. Even he wasn't spared when he lost his balance and fell into the river ;)

On board the bamboo raft (notice we were still dry in this picture!)

With those bases covered, we spent our final day exploring the ancient city which still had certain parts of its original walls erect and a moat encircling it. Being the ambitious person that he is, Anderson had wanted to visit all five gates that surrounded the city, but we only managed two, as it was quite unwise to roam around in the midday sun. Jo was already complaining of the heat mid way through and wondered why we had to tire ourselves out during our honeymoon.

Tha Phae Gate

Temples we saw along the way ... doesn't the picture on the bottom right look like enlarged dim sum baskets? ;)

Chiang Mai Gate

And so we called it a day and settled for cup noodles, Swensen's ice cream and potato chips in the comfort of our air-conditioned hotel room while watching Independence Day!

Well deserved after a day in the sun! :)