mickan in world

Fully recovered and with the nose full of polluted motorbike fumes she looked back at her decition to stay in Chiang Mai and she saw that it was good. She had overcome the decease that threatened to bring her down into a well of despare and she had spent her two days of health on a motorbike with a Frenchman called Malik.

It is easy to meet people here. This time all it took was a worried consultation with a trecherous stomach, pondering on what to order for lunch, when Mr Malik stepped in and explained exactly what dish I should endulge in. Following his advice I understood that this was a man who new his Thai dishes and as it turned out he had lived in Chiang Mai for a year. Seeing that I was a natural ambivalent concering food he offered to take me out for the night and so he did. Cruising through the Chiang Mai traffic on the back of a motorbike is an enjoyable experience, be sure, but it got better. Starting the evening with a Thai orange tea at a cosy little riverside cafe we had a nice chat about life, the universe and everything. Continuing to The Drunken Flower (probably the best named bar in the whole of SE Asia) treating our ears to some fine, live music presented to us by an American and an Englis woman in perfect harmony (except for some highly amusing accent differences). Me being on antibiotics exploring the different juices and teas (I love being on penecillin; excellent excuse to trade the beer for a tea) we both had a delightful "white" evening. The evening continued at a very quaint little student hang-out in centre ville; Thais only, and ended at an excellent reggea bar in the turist area, fantastic live music! An evening well spent (and I didn´t have to spend a nickel).

The three days following this evening continued in the same sense. By back of motorbike I saw most of Chiang Mai´s sights, restaurants and bars (still on tea). One highlight was the Thai milkbar we visited, we indulged in an Alaska (a giant ice cream mountain tasting of milk and honey) and a gummy gummy (for anyone who likes gummy bears; my mum would have loved it!). Another peak was the Thai buffe, with a bbq and a steamer in the centre of the table. Picking meat and giant prawns at the 'all you can eat' - counter and "chucking them on the bobby" as the aussies would say. Delicious. We went to a fancy pants hotel but it gave me the creaps so we went for a fruit shake at an Asian restaurant instead. We also went up to the temple on the big hill; very holy and a beautiful view of the city. On the way down we had us some nice ice-cream straight from the dairy factory.
Also we had us a nice little insident at the 'ghost town'; we fell over with the bike (one and only time according to Malik), we were going at around 2,3 km/ hour so we didn't suffer any serious injuries but when we got up the bike wouldn't start. It was about my funniest moment seing Malik being more and more freaked out by the 'ghost town', all along me making scary sounds and then pretending it rained. I guess I'm just plain mean, or maybe a bit of a black witch (would it surprise anybody?).

In my decition to stay in Chiang Mai lay another smaller decition. Being ill had defenitely saved me some cash; laying in my bed only eating some bread doesn't make the coins roll. I decided that since I had a bad time saving it I should have a good time spending it. I should go for a tour and be damned if I shouldn't see some elephants in the go (I've had an embarrassingly  small amount of elephants on this trip!).
I was well prepared before the tour, I was set on making the most of it. I have not been on many tours on my jerney (mostly because they are pricy and frankly I don't like them very much) but I must give them one plus; they are truly relaxing- for one day I did not have to use my brain once and I didn't have to make one decition (not even what I wanted for lunch; oh glorious buffe!). So before the bus picked me up at the guesthouse I had relaxed my jaw, dulled my eyes, let my back get crocked and basically threw all will power and independent behaviour out the window. I became a true tourist. It was a nice day but at the end of it I was pretty content with going back to the independent travellers scene. I rode a big elephant (and even got to 'drive' it), I saw an elephant show where the elephants drew paintings and played football (soccer), I went on a raft ride and on an ox cart, I had a poorly made Asian buffe, I went to an orchid farm and a butterfly farm. Good day, glad it's over. Later that evening I went to the night market and that was the end of my stay in Chiang Mai; and in Thailand for that sake, because early Sunday morning I set off for a new adventure. This time Singapore.