This is the blog/travel journal for Chris & Joanne Reilly from Glasgow, Scotland. After quitting our jobs and selling our house, we plan to travel around the globe for the next year.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Ready Steady Puke

We were picked up at the airport and threw our things in the back of a truck which stopped more times than it started, but it was a free lift so we couldn’t complain. We were staying at the Chiang Mai International Youth Hostel and on arrival were given the full run down of all the tours that they can provide (there were quite a few).

So we dumped our bags and walked into town which was a 45 minute walk from the hostel. We managed to find one of the luxury shops called “Boots” you might remember them, pharmacy come smelly goods shop and I had to have a browse (well I did buy some things). I only wish that they would have accepted my Advantage Card to get me some extra points. At night we wandered through the night market full of copy CD’s, t-shirts and plenty of other touristy knick-knacks to keep our attention in between the ear piercing shrieks of “MASAAAAAGE you want foot MASAAAAAAGE”. We ate in the Phon Non Café that night and Chris ate the classic Pad Thai (noodles) and I had an excellent bowl of Red Thai Curry.

We then went in search of some bars but found it difficult to find one that wasn’t either empty, full of Thai girls waiting for old western guys or full of old western guys with a really young Thai girls. So we opted for the Rock ’n’ Pizza to have a drink and watch the end of a Premiership game, it was nice to be able to afford another drink apart from beer after the prices in Malaysia.

On Sunday we went back to the shopping mall where we had been in the day before and Chris bought some computer software. We went to a couple of the temples firstly Wat Phra Singh which has Lanna architecture and murals and then Wat Chedi Luang which suffered a huge earthquake 1545 and was partially restored to stop it crumpling any further.


In the evening went to a bar which was showing an old Rangers game. Chris was hoping for the Celtic game to be shown, but as the bar only had one Swedish guy (who was married but wasn’t here for the ladies) and the rest were Thai girls patiently waiting. So we went back to the pizza place and Chris managed to get them to put the same channel on and guess what the Celtic v Motherwell game was on. He was one happy chappie but I’m not sure if was due to the drinks or the Celtic score.

We decided that we would watch the first half of the Man U v Liverpool game further down towards the hostel and went into a small bar. We sat for a bit and then a group of guys sat near us and one of them started to talk to us. He worked for a furniture company and was on a works night out at the ten pin bowling. His boss was telling him to tell us about his store and gave us his phone number so that we might go and buy some furniture. We tried to explain several times that we didn’t have house to put anything in but it was going in one ear and out the other. He continued to ply us with beer and ice, which is how the Thai’s drink their beer and we felt that we ought to buy them a beer or two back. We watched the game to full time 1-0 to Man U before heading drunkenly back to the hostel.

I was up early the next day as I had booked a Thai cookery class, but I only wished that I had stopped drinking about 10pm. I had some breakfast and was picked up and met every one in the group who were really nice. We stopped off at the market where we were shown the different types of veg/herbs that we would be using that day and for other Thai recipes.

We were then driven out to the school for our lessons. Our teacher was ‘Perm’ and was hilarious which made the class fly by. We made the Thai soup which was sweet/sour and absolutely delicious (even if I say so myself). We then made a stir fry dish with the option of having an “adventure” throwing water into the oil with the flames coming out of the top, the guy taking my picture didn’t manage to get the camera to work at that point but I did managed to take a cracking picture for an Aussie with the flames hiding the two people standing next to her.


We then made a Pad Thai (noodles), Penang curry and green curry. We were shown how to make sticky rice with it going into a salad and also a mango pudding which I could have eaten all day. Then we got to sit down and eat. By this point I was full but then I started to have pains in my stomach….I’d eaten something with prawns in it and spent the next half hour throwing up!! We packed what we hadn’t eaten into bags – well all of mine went in and I spent the next 45 minutes trying unsuccessfully not to throw up in the back of the truck.

Back at the ranch Chris couldn’t understand why I ran in and immediately went to the loo. He had spent the day using the laptop and on the internet. Later on we managed to get the hostel to heat up the food and Chris ate all that I had cooked – he said it tasted quite nice but I’m not sure if he was worried that I might have poisoned him also. We had a quiet night in.


On the Tuesday we visited the oldest Wat within the city walls aptly named Wat Chiang Man which contain the Crystal Buddha believed to have the power to bring seasonal rains and Buddha Sila. We wandered again through the night bazaar before buying some last minute supplies from Boots for our 3 day trek the following day.

1 Comments:

Blogger alsdeinanwalt said...

dear chris,
actually we did not meet in Luang Prabang in person.

When I came to one of the internet café's close to the night market (next to brasserie xyz) your site was open in one of the browser windows...so I started reading and had quite a fun time.

My stay in Laos and Thailand ended right before new year's eve...

Wish you guys all the best for your journey...life is all about emotions ;).

Cheers
Oliver

1:32 pm

 

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