, in the heart of the shopping district. After checking into our hotel room, which was number 524, we immediately changed so that we could meet our friends Nikki and Mr. Noom, her boyfriend. They were at a night market at this place called Wualai, a long street that was closed off on that Saturday to cater to shoppers. It was filled with various road-side stalls selling every manner of things you can imagine from handicrafts to T-shirts. We called Nikki several times on her phone to ask her where she was but it was very difficult to find them. Nikki told us that she was located right at the end of the walking street. We eventually found her and Mr Noom. They were selling some beautiful arts and crafts. After a while, we said that we would go and eat some dinner and so we went to this stall that was selling Pad Thai. It was really delicious and we thought that we would carry on walking and see the rest of the stalls but it started to rain! So we ran back to Nikki's stall and took shelter underneath a huge umbrella that they had there. After a while, it seemed that there were no more tourists as it was raining so we helped Nikki and Noom pack up. They gave us a lift back to our hotel and even lent us an umbrella so that we could carry on shopping. So shopping is what we did, buying T-shirts and the like until we returned to the confines of the lovely Royal Princess Hotel for a good nights sleep.
Sunday, 27th August 2006
Today was a very eventful day. One of our friends named Chacha, whom we had met on our previous trip to Chiangmai, was ill after going through quite a serious operation. So today, we decided to visit her. But first, I went down to Pantip Plaza after our lovely and huge buffet breakfast (and I mean it!) at the Royal Princess Hotel. I went to Pantip Plaza to get myself one of those top-up SIM cards for my spare phone. The card cost about 199 Baht and came with 50 baht of credit. After that, we walked back to the hotel and proceeded to get the maps and her address. We were told by the hotel staff that her home was quite close to the YMCA and so that is where we told the taxi driver to go. After we reached the YMCA, Sabrina bought some food for Chacha while I went to ask directions to her house. The people at the YMCA were very helpful, even taking out a map to show where the street her house was on. That is where the adventure started. We went to the street that was pointed out to us and it was a long street! Finally, we enlisted the help of a man who ran a dilapidated village phone shop and asked for his help. We called up Nikki and asked her to talk to the man so that he could give us directions. Thanks to Nikki's help (as well as the phone guy) we at last managed to find Chacha's house or rather, apartment. When Chacha saw us, she gave out a whoop of joy and immediately started crying as she was so happy to see us. The poor girl could hardly walk as she was in great pain. Sabrina forced her to eat the food that she had bought for her and that whole afternoon it was nothing but talk and talk as Chacha regaled us with what she had been doing since we last saw her. I got out my notebook computer and designed a webpage for her as I had promised to do so for her the last time we met. After a few attempts, it was done. After talking non-stop for almost 5 hours, we decided that Chacha should rest and we decided to go to s shopping mall very near her house. At the shopping mall, we had a late lunch of fried chicken rice, washed down with lemon-grass water. After that, we decided to explore the shopping center. Sabrina made a bee-line for the Watson's supermarket there as she need to get some cosmetics and I needed to get some dental floss. After that, Sabrina went to buy some t-shirts at the Body Glove while I waited for her. Since today was a Sunday, we decided to go and join Nikki and Noom who were peddling their wares at the Sunday Market next to the Three Kings in the old city. So we bought some donuts for them and attempted to get a tuk-tuk back to the hotel but it started raining and raining heavily too! Finally we made it back to the hotel, freshened up and proceeded to the Sunday market. While looking for Nikki and Noom, all of a sudden it was 6PM and suddenly, people all stood still as the Thai national anthem was played. After the anthem, everyone continued as if nothing had happened. I bought some stuff as did Sabrina and together we went to look for Noom and Nikki but it started raining again! So Sabrina and myself bought some flimsy raincoats (mine was too small for me, making me look comical) and we finally found Nikki and Noom! We gave them the donuts but it looked as if their whole day of sales was spoilt by the rain! We packed up shortly after that and Nikki brought us to this restaurant that was simply fantastic, in spite of the rain! We feasted on something that was from the same family as the famous tom yam soup, fried rice and vegetables. Noom and myself had a bottle of Singha beer and after that, those two kind souls drove us back to our hotel! Nikki said that she would be at the hotel the next morning to bring Sabrina and myself down to the elephant camp so after dropping us off, Sabrina and myself decided to shop some more (rain or no rain!) and we bought more things before going back to the Royal Princess Hotel and slept like logs.
Monday, 28th August 2006
Today was an exciting day as it was the day that we were going to see the elephants! Sabrina loves elephants and they are cute in a sort of way. Well, we woke up kind of early and then went to have the fabulous breakfast that only the Royal Princess can give us every morning. After breakfast, we went to the hotel lobby to wait for Nikki and Noom. We then proceeded to the elephant camp and went through the show and enjoyed it for the second time in our lives! After the show, Nikki brought us to the Celadon shop where Sabrina bought a lot of Baan Celadon cups and other things. After that, Nikki and Noom brought us to this fantastic place for lunch. You can see it in the pictures below. A bit hard to describe this place. It is like the restaurant is built on a pond and there are drains all around filled with fish. We had a very nice dish that is made up of noodles and so delicious it was, Sabrina and myself decided to order a second helping. After that, we went to Wualai Road again to a furniture shop so that Sabrina could have a look at the furniture and after that, she went to a shop selling Lanna silver. The road so looked so different from the first day when we went there as now it was not closed to traffic. It just looks so different. The problem is that after that, it started to pour down with rain and Nikki brought us to her house. We lazed around there in her beautiful house till the rain stopped. Noom showed us some antiques that he bought and the cupboard where the antiques were stored is an antique in itself. After a while, Noom brought us to his brother's temple. His brother is a monk by the way. We spent some time roaming the grounds of the beautiful temple and spent some time talking to the monk who was eating betel nut. The monk is a very nice, pleasant and simple man who always tells us that when he is invited to Singapore, he feels that it is a pleasant experience, even though he can only speak Thai. After that, we went back to the hotel and Noom and Nikki came with us as I showed Nikki how to upload pictures via the Internet. Later, we went for some food at the Anusan hawker area and after that, walked around to do some shopping. I must say that during our dinner, we were entertained by some mock Thai boxing and also by a performer playing some native Thai instrument. We bought loads of T-shirts and some trinkets from the sellers that thronged the market at Anusan. Soon after that, it started to get late and Nikki and Noom had to make their move. Sabrina and myself continued to shop for a while longer before returning to the hotel and falling into a weary sleep. Who said Mondays were black?
Tuesday, 29th August 2006
Today was our final day in Chiangmai and although we did not say it, we were feeling sad about leaving this beautiful city and returning back to the humdrum life Singapore. Last night, we asked the hotel manager if we could do a late check-out and our request was acceded to. As usual, we went to have the marvelous breakfast at the hotel and after that, even though it was morning, we went to the night bazaar to hopefully see if any shops were open so that we could do some last minute shopping. Sabrina ended up buying some more silver earrings and trinkets. After that, I told Sabrina that I wanted to go to the market a bit further north of the night bazaar. The reason is I had been there before on our last visit but I did not really explore it. So explore it we did with me buying some stuff for Mel my sister and my mum. After that, we had some thing to eat that Sabrina bought from some Muslim roadside hawkers. It looked like a sausage roll and tasted like one too. She also bought some jackfruit and we munched on those before going back to the hotel room to pack everything. Fitting all that we bought into that one suitcase took quite an effort, so we had to break out the foldable bag and Sabrina packed all the celadon in it. We checked out a little before 2PM so that Sabrina could buy some Japanese food for Chacha, whom we were going to visit for one last time before we went to the airport. Noom and Nikki came down to pick us up and we drove to Chacha's house and spent some time with her down there. Chacha as usual squealed with delight and the poor girl was still in pain but recovering nonetheless. After spending lots of time there and taking heaps of pictures, we finally departed for the airport. At the airport, we checked in our bags and Nikki and Noom joined us for a late lunch. After that excellent lunch, we said goodbye to Nikki and Noom for being so nice to us and promised to send them the photos of the trip. Our trip back was relatively uneventful, unless you count this rather loud-talking girl behind us that was traveling with her father and mother and having arguments almost throughout the whole trip. Her father was making noise about the choice of the main course and the daughter was trying to shut him up and well, you get the idea. It was not exactly a fitting end to a lovely trip but it was a trip that we relished and we will definitely go back to Chiangmai next year.