Days 8, 9, & 10

Days 8, 9 and 10 Woke up and got our things together for our bitter sweet departure from Cococape, the "Happy Boat", and the island of Koh Maak. No more beaches! The cococape driver picked up our bags and took us to the pier so we could board the Lalawadee speedboat back to Loem Ngop in Trat province. It was a smooth 1 hour ride, and we got a ride to the parking lot to where the rental car was located, loaded our bags and headed north back to Bangkok for a 5 hour road trip. We stopped at Burger King and I bought a small dish of a flan type desert for the train ride to Chiang Mai. Everything is so cheap here a little $$ goes a long way. I can eat a meal for under $2.00. A 20 oz. bottle of water is .20 cents. Chicken on a stick is .40 cents and it comes with sticky rice. Sorry haven't seen monkey meat yet, although the chicken balls may have contained an unknown conglomeration of animal tissue (very tasty). See photos. So we made it to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (Soo wanna boom) airport and dropped off the rental and hired a taxi for the ride to the train station and we paid 295 baht plus a 100 baht tip so 400 baht at 35 baht per dollar = $11.43. At the train station we had a 4 hour wait for our 7:30pm departure time. Our friend had booked the tickets at a train station in another city a week prior and was assured that we would all be in the same room with two sets of bunk beds even going as far as showing him a diagram, however when we boarded we realized we were separated by a wall, needless to say he was upset and insisted we stay in the same compartment and hope that who ever had those tickets would be willing to swap with us, but that was not to be. The Thai girl who was holding the tickets was not only unwilling to swap with us but she was furious that a falang was in her bunk. So we just moved without arguing, but they never used either bunk all night long...lol. So we arrived in Chiang Mai after a 12 hour train ride of which I slept almost the entire trip. We arrived at 7am in Chiang Mai and stayed at a bed and breakfast on Loi Krau street near the old city and downtown where all the tourists stay. The room was nice and cost $15.00 a night. I rented a motorcycle for two days at a price of $7.50 for 24 hours. It rained in the mornings but was over all pretty good weather. The area where our friend had prebooked the room there was a travel agency, next to a restaurant, next to a massage place, next to a suit or clothing store and repeat this for two miles and thats Loi Krau avenue. I couldn't walk down the road without being harassed to come in for a massage, which I would just say sa wat dii kap mai kop kun kop. Hello, no thank you. Very annoying to the point I took the motorcycle everywhere. That evening a friend asked if we all wanted to go get our feet chewed on by fish, yes we were the bait for a change. You pay 150 baht for 15 minutes and they wash your feet and you sit down and dunk your feet in a tank full of sucker fish. It was like being shocked by a low level current, you wanted to jerk your feet out of the water, some people would let out a scream, it was hilarious to watch peoples reactions. So from there we left for the night bazaar. They had everything you could think of. See photos. Like nothing I have ever seen, really cool. The next day I decided to ride around the city in the rain. Eat chicken on a stick, and that night we all went to Miguels for really good Mexican food then back to the night bazaar. Kind of a boring day as our original plans had fallen through. The next morning I decided to go to doi suthep wat (budhist). and the Bhubing palace...weekend home of the Queen of Thailand. I rode the motorcycle for an hour up a winding mountain road to get there. The palace was nice but hard to see as it was in a cloud. I was the only falang (barbaric frenchman as we are known), and you will hear this everywhere tou go. Doi suthep had a great view of the city, but was not my cup of tea. Around noon we packed our bags and got on the bus to Phayou. We rode three hours to get there and it was winding mountainous roads the whole way. We arrived a the bus station and a relative of my friend picked us up and we headed to the house where we are now. Its a nice place and a beautiful view. Tomorrow we head to Chiang Rai to ride elephants ...without our interpreter. Should be interesting. Photos are of: 1 Bangkok train atation 2 Antique rail buggy 3 BKK train ready to go 4 train station 5 window view on way to Chiang Mai 6 inside of passenger car 7 another rail car at train station 8 view from hotel 9 where hotel was located on map 10 hotel sign and name 11 ivy plant growing down from balcony 12 typical wat in Chiang Mai 13 Chiang Mai business 14 typical street in city 15 famous hand made ice cream cups 16 seabeans and pod, large cup for reference 17 more ice cream 18 Thai tea with milk 19 putting chicken balls on a stick 20 grilled chicken balls on a string 21 chicken ball griller guy 22 Thai feet eating fish 23 people getting there feet eaten by fish 24 Bhubing palace of queen 25 Bhubing palace 26 Bhubing palace 27 Huge Buñion tree 28 palace official 29 palace official 30 rose garden 31 view of Doi Suthep from above 32 palace guard shack 33 stairs to palace 34 golden statue 35 bike riders rode all the way up 36 soengthou 37 huge gong 38 huge statue 39 Doi Suthep 40 Doi Suthep 41 Doi Suthep 42 Doi Suthep 43 Doi Suthep 44 Doi Suthep 45 Doi Suthep 46 Doi Suthep 47 food noodles and curry 48 red curry Doi Sutep bought smoothy 49 house where I am staying Phayou 50 8 inch gecko called a docktoe 51 same same house

House where I am staying in Phayou.