Chiang Mai & Laos Boarder Crossing, Baan Thai Cookery School (Final Thai Beers for a while & True Thai Cuisine)

The travel in Thailand is very good and well organised. The roads are smooth and the coaches and local buses so far have been comfortable. The six hour journey north to Chiang Mai didn’t disappoint with air conditioning and once we arrived we headed towards the old part of the city in our first Thai tuk-tuk.

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We roll into Chiang Mai in the Tuk-Tuk.'There is a dog at the drivers feet-seriously'

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Passing the main river towards the old town

Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second largest city after Bangkok but is still regarded as a cultural darling. It is said to be a cool place to kick back and relax where the streets are alive with motorbikes, monks, book shops and cafes. It is a hub of culture and a great place to learn the language as well as meditation, massage and Thai cooking. It is also famous for trekking where you can visit traditional hill tribe villages.

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Taaxxxxiiiiii..........

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The Beer is in town

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Buddhist Monk.  Feel like a stalker

We checked into Grace’s Lodge in the old city which is boarded with a moat and medieval styled wall built 700 years ago to defend against Burmese invaders. Outside of the old town is a busy city streaming with traffic but once inside the walls the place relaxes and you understand that the regions Lanna heritage is worn with pride by the locals.

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Grace Lodge. OK place to stay just has a psychotic owner. Very Entertaining...

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The Old Town Walls

We enjoyed relaxing for a couple of days where we explored the old town which is awash will temples at every turn. To be honest following Sukhothai we did feel a little templed out but it was enjoyable none the less. With plenty of places to eat and stop for delicious locally supplied coffee and fresh fruit shakes it was a perfect place to catch up on our journals and to crack on with the blog. This meant that we didn’t venture into the surrounding mountains but that wasn’t a problem with many treks already under our belts.

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Some more beautiful temples to see & take photographs of

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This time some gold not just stone

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More Gold Buddha Statues. The Temples really do make you feel spiritual. So calming...

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Templed Out we need some Chocolate Cake

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I am sure thats the Singha Beer Mythical Lion

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We decide to release & set free 2 little birds symbolising us for good luck. Our good deed for the day...

Chiang Mai has a famous night market and one evening we headed away from the old town and into the new district. Now the new part of the city was a different place and very touristy with large hotels expensive restaurants and plenty of girlie bars. It was a good job we had set up camp in the old town. On the other hand the night market was amazing and probably the largest market we had ever seen. A definite if you are ever in Chiang Mai, with clothing, watches bags, electronics, jewellery, art work etc...We also had time to check out one of the local street bars that was full of trekking guides and Leo Beer.

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Following the signs for the night bazaar & market

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Huge busy market area but the new town is much more Westernised

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A lot of advertising by Chang Beer in Chiang Mai there is a local brewery. This is Chang Bar One

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Chang Bar Two with a huge stage for live performances. Branded to the hilt in the centre of the night market square

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Night Market stalls where you can buy anything & everything brilliant place

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My little favourites. Tuk-Tuk's made out of drinks cans

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A random Cocktail Bar at the side of the road

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Time to tuck into some Thai Beer before we hit Laos

Chiang Mai was our last destination for Thailand part one, so we also had to organise our transfer to Luang Prabang in Laos.  This wasn’t a problem and we decided on the one day coach transfer rather than the three day slow boat.

With just one night remaining we saved the best until last and decided to end our time in Thailand with a Thai Cookery Course. We decided on BaanThai Cookery School and it was an amazing experience. With a small group of fellow travellers from around the globe we enjoyed a visit to the local market to learn about local ingredients before picking five dishes each to cook. The lesson lasted for four hours and we were even able to enjoy each course with a Singha Beer. It was an amazing experience with a cookery book to take home. The food was amazing and probably the best in Thailand if I do say so myself. Some of you guys are going to be lucky when we return home. First it was Indian food and now Thai food. Vietnam is firmly on the list for our next cookery course.

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 Traditional Thai Cooking School

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Buying Ingredients at the Local Market. This mini Chilli blew my mind 

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Our cookery teacher explaining Thai Ingredients

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Very strange. We didn't use these in the cooking. Quite funny though...

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Our Home & Kitchen for the next 4 hours

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Pad Thai underway in Ready Steady Cook...

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Awesome Pad Thai washed down with a chilled can of Singha Beer-Perfection

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Kate's freshly hand-made Thai Fish Cakes

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While Kate was on Fish Cakes my job was Spring Rolls

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Reedy's rather large hand-made Thai Spring Rolls & another Singha of course

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Some of the group tucking in. 5 dishes each. Make & EAT...

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Bashing the Curry Paste is harder than it looks

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One Thai Red & One Seafood Curry

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Looking Happy with ourselves. 10 dishes complete between us

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Great Food, Great Company, Great Beer & Very Full Backpacker Bellies. A Perfect Night

  

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Signing out from Baan Thai. Wok one hand. Singha the other with my Singha T proudly worn. Now that's a Billboard Shot

http://www.cookinthai.com/ You should be able to see our pictures in the websites Gallery. Saturday 29th January enjoy...

With no Laos Visa pre organised we piled into the back of a mini-van with bright pink interior and feeling nervous and anxious about our first land border crossing in South East Asia we set off towards Chiang Khong in the north eastern corner of the country passing through Chiang Rai and stopping to see the White Temple.

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Cool Mini-Van but packed to the rafters for 7 hours

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The White Temple is Spectacular & Filled with Pop Culture Art apparently. No time to enter!

Seven hours later and just in time before the border closed we passed through Thai immigration which was a kiosk before walking down to the edge of the Mekong River where we climbed aboard a long-tail boat for the one minute crossing to Laos. It was quite surreal to be stood looking across a river from Thailand at Laos and once we arrived in no man’s land we headed to the Laos immigration office loaded up with US$’s. With a few forms to fill in we eventually managed to get our 30 day visa which cost us $36 instead of $35. It was Sunday so an extra dollar was required for over time. It could have been a lot worse from stories that we have heard.

You can just see Kate with bag over shoulder passing Thai Innigration on the way to our Long-Tail Boat

You can just spot the Laos Border Control across the Mekhong River

In the Long-Tail. We should be in Laos in 2 minutes

All sorted with a relaxed steady heart rate we were bundled into another minivan and driven to the bus terminal where our twelve hour overnight bus was waiting for us. By this point sugar levels in the body were far too low after being unable to eat since breakfast and with no idea when we would next eat and with no local currency we were able to buy crisps and biscuits with Thai Baht.

The VIP bus didn’t quite look like a VIP bus and apparently the roads in Laos are non-existent.

Finally on the VIP bus this will be my leg room for the overnight 12 hour journey

Kate looks quite Happy as we get comfortrable. We'll see! Check out the box in the isle next to her right elbow...We had to climb over all the box's to make it to our seat. I wonder why they are there??? 

Well with that farewell Thailand for three weeks and I would like to welcome you all to Laos.

This is our first view of Laos on the road as Dusk settles. We're off...

We will see you in Luang Prabang where we will let you know how the bus journey turned out.

Phitsanulok & Sukhothai, Buddhism & Temples (San Miguel Pale Pilsen)

The bus from Bangkok even had a air-hostess. Now that's another first

In-flight meal included. VIP travel or what

A little easier than our arrival in Bangkok, we headed straight for the Lithia Guest House in the centre of town and managed to check in immediately. A great room as well. Spotless with free Wi-Fi, cable TV and breakfast included. A few of days of luxury that was much needed after weeks on the islands living in squalor.

For once we arrive with no problems

More luxurious than it looks, we even had hot water WOW!

Breakfast included even though the toast was like cardboard. They must of thought I was on a diet

Phitsanulok was a great place to spend some time. It was off the beaten trail and allowed us to see the real Thailand. The small town was built on the river with a local market that was open all day and night with amazing food stalls. We even tried a different not Thai beer San Miguel Pale Pilsen. I know it’s Spanish but it is brewed in Thailand and it is very difficult to order something else from a San Miguel Beer Girl.

The towns central round-about paying homage to the Royal's

Overlooking the river that runs through Phitsanulok



Great Markets for the locals



Not so sure about this food offering

The sausages were pretty impressive

SAN MIGUEL BEER, PALE PILSEN, PHILIPPINES, 5% ABV

San Miguel Brewery Inc brews and distributes San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen, which is the Philippines’ Number 1 beer and a leading brand in Hong Kong and South China. The trade name San Miguel is from the district of San Miguel in Manila as well as originating in the local brewery of San Miguel, Barcelona, Spain. It is one of the world’s largest-selling beers and is among the top 20 beer brands in the world. Its products include San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen, San Miguel Light, San Miguel Super Dry, San Miguel Strong Ice, San Miguel Premium Lager, Red Horse Extra Strong Beer and Cerveza Negra.

 

In Thailand the San Miguel Pale Pilsen is brewed and distributed by San Miguel Beer Thailand Ltd. The beer itself had a dull golden colour with a thin rapidly vanishing head. Little lacing on the branded glass but did have a pleasant barley aroma. The flavour started out OK, quite sweet with a little hoppy bitterness but the aftertaste and finish was quite metallic. Not really what I would call a Pilsner but not completely at a loss. I wouldn’t rush out in a huge effort to track it down. Overall the Pale Pilsen is a standard mainstream low quality lager beer.

San Miguel Pale Pilsen on the river bank

Chang Bottled Water. They're all at it!

Phitsanulok also has a famous temple called Wat Yai. It is regarding as having one of the most beautiful Buddha images in Thailand.

Passing the Day Market towards the Temple

Wat Yai

The walk of the Buddha's

Exquisite...

As well as the sights and our visit to Sukhothai which will follow a little later, Phitsanulok will also be remembered for a fascinating group of people that we met and enjoyed some meals and stimulating conversations with. They were two ladies and a gentleman from Russia who were Buddhists and had been travelling so far for six whole years. Quite remarkable really and some of their tails were from parts of the world you just wouldn’t think of travelling. They had all sorts of ideas about how to earn money while travelling and they actually played the stock-market. They even offered to teach us how to meditate but we never got around to it. They were lovely and so helpful with tips. It just isn’t everyday that you meet a group of people that are, Buddhists, economists, psychologists and Russian Snipers all rolled into one.

With Sukhothai being only one hour away by public transport we decided on a day trip out to the old town that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Once there we hired bicycles and set out to explore the ancient temples in the Historical Park.

Arriving at Sukhothai & not the amazing Thai Restaurants in Leeds (UK) it was 1 reason we had to visit

By-cycles Rented & Good to Exploire History

Sukhothai’s ancient city is amazingly well preserved and beautiful. It is of no wonder that the name means ‘Rising Happiness’ and is regarded as the blossoming of a Thai artistic sensibility.

The Old Historical Site. Just a fraction of the old town of Sukhothai

Amazing stone sculptures at every turn

I will try not to comment on every picture but the place is extrodinary

Definitely worth the trip

Entertaining myself as always

Sukhothai is considered to be the first independent Thai Kingdom and it emerged as the Khmer empire was crumbling in the 13^th century and ruled over parts of the empire’s western frontier for 150 years. The ruins of the old city are said to be a mini-version of the architectural temples found at Angkor in Cambodia. We will wait to make a judgement on that until we get to Anchor Wat in the coming months. One thing can be said and that is Sukhothai has a pleasant collection of gravity-warped columns, serene Buddha statues and Orchid shaped towers.

Hopping on & off you even had to chain up the pink bike

Map of Sukhothai Historical Park

Built around beautiful gardens & lakes

The famous Golden Hand Buddha & a Buddhist Monk. Quite fitting

A great sight to behold

Show me the hand...

Nearly time to move on

The place is fantastic and has turned out to be the highlight of Thailand so far.

That's us if your wondering & it's time to return the by-cycles

A must visit destination if you are ever in Thailand & not too far from Bangkok

Leaving Sukhothai back to Phitsanulok before heading to Chiang Mai

Just for goog measure we are packed in the back of a pick-up on the school run being unbelievably over priced

With just three weeks in Thailand before heading into Laos we have tried to experience different areas to give us a little taste from the southern beaches to the capital and now part of central Thailand. Next on the hit list is the city of Chiang Mai a northern province.