Since I’m on my 4th week in Thailand, I had time to get acclimated to my new environment. I, somehow, know my way around the neighborhood now and developed a daily routine that fits my job requirements. Since the last time I went on a bigger adventure was when I first got to Mae Sot, my friend Poppy and I decided to plan a little excursion to Chiang Mai for the weekend. Leaving on Friday after work, Poppy and I had a quick lunch. I packed frantically as I was too tired the night before. As we headed out on foot hoping to grab a motorbike taxi to the bus station, we had to change plans as there were non available. So we walked the 25 minutes to the station. Once there, we had to figure out where to purchase our tickets and where to catch the bus. The bus we were taking was more like a 15-passenger van. The van would take us to Tak City, which is about an hour east of Mae Sot. We made the trip out of the valley twisting and turning around the mountainsides. This offered beautiful sights of the Thai countryside.
Once in Tak City we had 20 minutes to purchase our tickets and find our bus. Once on the bus, we sat in the first available seats, as the bus was almost full. As we waited to leave, people continued to come onto the bus despite all the seats being filled. I started to question where they were going to sit until I turned around and saw that some of them were sitting at the back on small footstools. With a 5-hour bus ride ahead of us, I was thinking it was going to be a very long trip for those people. For a long bus ride it was quite decent and the countryside along the way is very pretty. Arriving in Chiang Mai around 8:30 PM, we grabbed a taxi to our hotel and took a bit of time to freshen up before going out to meet up with some friends. Leaving the hotel, we tried to navigate the streets but eventually gave up and jumped into a Tuk Tuk. It was my first time trying it and it was quite fun to ride in one as it drove in and around the traffic. Arriving at a restaurant called John’s Place, it was full of lights and seemed like it should be in Las Vegas. We met up with our friends Millie and Libby – who are from the UK – and had dinner before heading off for drinks. By the end of the night, some of them chose to stay out and watch the World Cup game that was playing and I chose to walk back to the hotel. Unfortunately, for me I got lost and could not remember how to get back to the hotel… But hey, it’s all a part of the adventure! The easiest thing for me to do was retrace my steps and find my friends. I watched the end of the soccer game with them and then headed back to the hotel by Uber or in Chiang Mai it’s called “Grab”. Waking up before Poppy the next morning, I headed out to have breakfast with Millie and Libby. I can say that after a night out the coffee was fantastic! After breakfast, we chose to walk around and visit some temples as were still waiting for Poppy to wake up. We visited about 3 temples and they were gorgeous! During the afternoon we stayed around the pool and just relaxed in the sunny and warm weather. That evening, Poppy and I took a taxi bus to the Saturday Market. The street was lined with food, clothing, and souvenir stalls and between the stalls it was jammed packed with people. As we strolled along walking among all the locals and tourists, periodically stopping to check out a vendor it began to rain. I don’t think I have ever seen a street empty so fast! We continued to walk and saw that vendors were covering the front of their tables with plastic and most tourist were taking shelter to wait out the rain. When we finally reached the end of the street, we got into a taxi bus and headed to a shopping centre. The shopping centres in Thailand are massive! They usually have about 3 to 5 floors that include clothing stores, food court and even a cinema. We were meeting Millie and Libby in the small market across the street as we were going to watch the England vs. Sweden soccer game. While there, I had one of the best Pad Thai for about $2.50 (remember when I was telling you that food is cheap in Thailand?)! Poppy and I started Sunday off with our complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel before heading out on an adventure. We had no specific place we wanted to visit so we just jumped on the taxi bus and went to where the night market usually happens. From there we walked around until we found a few temples to visit. I truly enjoy visiting temples, as they are calming, serene, and Zen. One of them was made completely out of wood and was very beautiful! We stopped for lunch thinking we would have enough time before our bus home, but as we drank our fresh coconut water – which is very refreshing by the way – we realized we were running out of time and had to leave. Knowing that any kind of taxi would take too long, we jumped into a “Grab” again to take us to the bus station. One thing I am coming to realize is that at 7-eleven stores you can get and do anything! For example, we pay all of our bills at the store near the house and in Chiang Mai we booked our bus tickets online and then went to the closest 7-eleven to pay for them. Waiting for our bus back to Mae Sot, I got to experience a public washroom… It cost me 3 baht or about 12 cents. Public washrooms are interesting since there is no toilet, it’s simply a hole in the ground that you have to squat over. And the smells can be overwhelming sometimes. Our return trip was nice because we went directly from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot. The ride home was interesting when we hit the mountains, the bus began twisting, and turning around the mountainsides at 90 km and there are no side rails. We may not have done much over the weekend but it was a great first experience of Chiang Mai, which is a beautiful city. It was also comforting to be in a city with a decent amount of tourists, and where there is a bit more spoken English than in Mae Sot. Overall, it was a nice experience after completing our first month in Thailand. The next adventure to happen will be in Southern Thailand!
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