A trip to Chiangmai

It was a very short notice. Daddy had 10 days leave, he decided we should make a short trip to Chiangmai as our yearly honeymoon. We try to go somewhere every year, just 2 of us. Last year was Bangkok, year before was Lang Tengah, so this year is Chiangmai. So I took off on Thurs & Fri and we had a 4D3N trip to Chiangmai. Kids as usual were left with MIL and maid.

Departing from LCCT

We took the skybus to LCCT. Cheap and convenient. When we arrived, the place was like a madhouse. There were so many people, I would say sea of people!!! Mostly Indons, making their wayback to homeland for Raya. The custom gotta scan thru all the cargo luggages, so everyone was like trying to queue up. Daddy went to buy the tickets while I queue up to get our luggage scanned.

And this SINGH fella (the one in blue turban), he was so so rude. He didn’t want to line up and just cut into the line. I exchange words with him prompting him that he should line up, the he gave some excuse that no one is following the line (there were 3 lines) so he dunno what to do (damn sick!!). I told him off and said he should line up and the line is so obvious. But he refused to move, and started cursing me, say I’m young lady and talk so much bla bla bla. Then he say you all should co-operate and don’t make so much noise.

Whoa..make me even more boiling hot, I told him if you want people to co-operate, firstly you better co-operate and go line up. But he still refuse to move. In the end, everyone start moving and moving and nobody allow him to cut in haha…serves him right.

I told Daddy bout this when he got his ticket, he just looked at me and laugh. This wife of his so fierce 😛

On the plane

So we departed on time. I slept a bit in the plane then woke up. So bored nothing to do, started snapping photos. Daddy bumped into his friend in the flight. Apparently their company was organising a trip to Chiangmai, so he asked us if he wants to join him. He’s the boss mah..so he can say that lah. We looked at the itinery, 2nd day looks interesting. So we decided to join him for 2nd day tour. He later confirmed with the local tour guide for us. That’s really nice of him :).

Chiangmai – Day 1

We arrived there at 1130am KL time. We followed our friend and tag along for lunch. We are on free and easy, so anything goes. After that the tour guide told us to follow them for 1 day, we gotta pay Rm100 each. That was quite reasonable, including 2 meals. So we agreed. They stay just behind our hotel, so it was really convenient for us too.

After lunch, they went ahead with their own activities. We checked in to our hotel. We booked the hotel via Internet after going thru some review. It’s a 3 star, lobby looks pretty rundown, but the rooms are very well maintained. Most important clean!! So we settle down and decided to walk around the town. By the way, we were staying near night bazaar.

The map we got is not as comprehensive as the Bangkok one, so we decide to just walk and explore. Then we came to this Low Yat look alike place. They sell all sorts of electronic gadgets there. We were trying to locate the shopping mall, the locals told us there’s only 1, Robinson. So we took a tuk tuk there (100 bhat). It’s a mini mall, something like 1/2 of Sunway Pyramid. Nothing much to shout about.

They had food bazaar at ground floor, selling all sorts of food. We took some food from there. Daddy also bought some fried exotic food to eat (worms, crabs, grasshopper). But in the end never eat cause tummy upset hahaha…

We went back to hotel and then headed to night bazaar. It’s very weird, by 6pm, the skies is already getting dark. We walked around doing survey. We managed to get some cotton clothes for Faythe and Gabriel (our nephew). Then we went back to hotel to rest.

Chiangmai – Day 2

We started the day early following the tour. Our first stop is the Elephant Camp. The tourguide yak alot bout the elephant. He was speaking in Mandarin most of the time, so I had to do translation for Daddy throughout his yakking.

The entrance free is FOC to the camp. For people that wants to take the elephant ride, they need to pay RM40/person. It was a 30mins ride around the jungle. I would say it’s a good deal and worth the money. Most of us went on to the elephants. We had a lot of fun shouting at each other and taking photo for each other.

The place was pretty stinkco..cause the elephants *pang sai* as they walk (roll eyes). I managed to took a pic of the elephant *pang sai*. The *sai* was round haha and we were told that the *sai* is actually recyclable!! They collect and dry it and use it to make something (can’t recall). After that we proceeded to the elephant show where they made the elephants to go around, do some tricks. The elephants are so cute, they can even kick the ball. Then they also showed how the elephants draw. Yes!! They can draw (or rather I would say pat on the paper) with their trunk. The masterpiece they put on for sale and most of it were grabbed by the ang mo.

We had a chance to get close to the elephants. They are really a bunch of greedy elephants. They grabbed 2 bunch of bananas from me!! And ee…it was pushing me and trying to curl me up while Daddy tries to take photo. As usual, this scary cat Mommy screaming away LOL.

We left the elephant camp and head for the Orchid and Butterfly Farm. The orchids are beautiful, with so many colours. But the butterfly, really a far cry from KL’s butterfly park. There weren’t any butterfly at all!!

Next we had lunch at one of the restaurant. Food was OK. Nothing to complain.

After lunch, we went on a series of stop and go factories.

First we visited leather factory. We were given briefing of all the different types of skin. Picture shown here Daddy holding Ostrich skin. After briefing we went to their showroom to look around. Everything so expensive lah, so only took pics haha…They’ve even got pink crocs purse..nice colours :P.

Next we went to jewelry factory. Thai has ruby and sapphire mines. So they are actually pretty cheap there. We bought 2 rings previously when we were at Bangkok, so this trip we didn’t bother much. The first pic is actually a replica of the princess’s ring!! So many stones mannn!!! The tour stopped here for almost an hour cause some of them were buying jewelry. I got so bored, started snapping photos of Daddy’s eyes LOL.

After that, we adjoured to Carpet shop. This Pakistani guy showed us some carpets. The amazing thing bout the carpet is when you see it from diff angle, it gives a diff colour..Cool!! But when he told us the price lagi cool. The one that you see in the pic, that cost USD$650!! No joke mann…Everyone’s jaw dropped. Immediately after he showed us we went to touch and feel it, very nice haha..then all walk away and venture elsewhere LOL. There was also one carpet where they sewn some semi-precious stones on it.

Leaving the carpet behind, we then head to silk factory. We were shown how they actually separate the silk from the err eggs or dunno what lah. Wasn’t paying attention, was busy snapping photos. They even put life worms (pic 2) in the demo!! Ewww…Things are expensive too in silk factory. So all just look see. I bought a Silk bat for Daddy since he wanted it. He has this obsession over bat, cause he says chinese means *Fook*, good luck wohh..

Then we went to birds nest shop. Wah…tonnes and tonnes of birdnest and other food products. We tried a bowl of bird nest (RM15). Nice but different texture from KL.

We went for our 2nd last stop, the umbrella factory. This was the most interesting one. The umbrellas were actually made from either paper or cloth. Then the skilled people will do painting on them, very nice. As you can see in the pic (2nd one), Daddy took off his clothes and pretend he’s naked to take picture (roll eyes). Then the skilled people are also available to draw for us on our clothing. So everyone got so excited and most of us got them to draw motives on our pants. Daddy had a dragon drawn. Myself butterfly.

Our last stop was teak wood factory. I didn’t get down cause very engorged. Was in the bus waiting for dinner time to go express the milk. So no photos. Daddy told me the teak is very nice, but all so big peace lah and so expensive.

After that we went to have dinner by the riverside. Nice view and food was pretty good too. I was really a long day, we reached hotel at 8pm (I think). Took shower then went bazaar again for a walk. This time round we bought some aromatherapy oil.

Chiangmai – Day 3

We wanted to go to Doi Suthep (the temple on top of the hill) in the morning, but the tuk tuk driver told us evening is better. So we went for massage near our hotel. 2 hours massage, 2 people only RM750 haha…good bargain. I took a pic of the pug, the owner’s dog.

Then we had lunch at a restaurant near the bazaar area. The food was good and price reasonable (2 person like RM40-60). We had our dinner there as well.

Then at 3pm, we start our journey to Doi Suthep. It takes about 40mins to drive up the hill to the temple. The road was pretty windy, but not as bad as Genting.

There were a lot of people. This temple is right on top of the hill. Visitors has a choice to climb the 300+ steps or use the cable car. We climbed!! It wasn’t that bad after all. And I discovered that each step was actually donated by one person..Cool eh. There was this girl (wearing traditional tribal costume) sitting on the stairs. So I took a photo of her. After taking, she said, take photo must pay!! Wahh..OK lah, I paid her RM as I didn’t had any Bhat with me.

The view from the temple was OK, not realy great since there was a lil bit of haze. After that we decide to leave the place before it gets dark. On our way back…

Guess what..everyone were stopped by the police. We waited for like 15minutes…and here comes the princess (the white MPV) going up the palace. Apparently, they’ve got a winter palace up hill. So everyone had to stop and give way to the princess..haiyaa..and she never waive at us oso..cheh!!

At night we went to night bazaar for the last time to get some souvenirs. Then we head back to hotel to pack.

Chiangmai – Day 4

We were in the airport early to get the tickets. Daddy went to get it while I waited for him. Took some funny photos.

(1) all the EBM..transporting back to KL
(2) boxes and boxes for donation…
(3) huge baskets of vegetables…for the cargo flights

The duty free shop was really a far cry. Only 3 shops. Daddy had like 300 Bhat left and he didn’t wanna keep it since it’s no value. So he asked me to spend it. Went to one of the shop, and bought some chili padi crackers (yum yum), chocolates and also

(4) & (5) Lays – salmon teriyaki and mayo seafood flavour..nice nice..mayo seafood very nice, how come they don’t have it here??

The plane arrived 15mins early (first time in AirAsia history haha). As I walk to the plane, I saw this cute plane (Nok Air). They painted the plane like a bird, so so cute haha…can’t resist but to take a pic.

We arrived LCCT 30mins earlier than schedule. Went home ASAP to make sure all the EBM didn’t melt.

It was an enjoyable trip. Lots of sighseeing. For shopping nothing much. And who missed the kids most, Daddy lerr…