Showing posts with label Chiang Mai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chiang Mai. Show all posts
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Chiang Mai pi toute pi toute
Writing this at Julie's amongst 5 people from France. We are all going to go to Paï together for a reggae festival on the 14th.
Everytime I talk they listen with a big smile and I do my best to use every Québécois slang I know.
The day after the visit in the mountain me and Mathilde went for another scooter ride, in the traffic. By that time I was zip-zappin' between cars like the locals. I have never seen anyone have an accident in Thaïland. The lines on the ground are just a suggestion, but people have the best driving skills: sharp reflexes, and are always aware of their surroundings. It rivals the cosmic awarness powers of Adam Warlock and Thanos, really.
We drove for about an hour to a waterfall where I showered and we had our own meditation time - her with reggae music, me with Clash of Kings - and much needed time out of the city.
The same night I went back to Julie's. Good times.
There was still tonnes of things to see in this city but my love for parties overwhelmed it all.
Random moments:
Going to the sunday market with the firm intention to do all my x-mas shopping there, but finding it so crowded that I decide to avoid it instead.
Going to a Muay Thaï fight.
Making friends everywhere you go.
Sneaking in a luxurious hotel to swim in their pool.
There is really no way I can describe the last few days here. Everything lacking at home I found here, but I know that this is not "real life"... Or is it?
I find myself day-dreaming about opening a coffee shop here with a big Habs sign above the door and poutine on the tables.
Opening a wakeboarding business in Sargeio.
Starting a tattoo shop in Montréal with Big Bill, and having guest artists that would bamboo tattoo in our secret room in the back.
All the guys here are going to Paï but there is a lovely ebony jewel from south africa named Spokazi that I met 2 days ago, that made me decide to stay a day longer.
I might talk about her in the future... Let's just say she made me remember something I thought I lost somewhere, somehow along the way - to quote Johnny Cash - and that I found myself looking at information on work visas for Dubai, where she lives...
I realise that I might be a long, long time away from home.
Everytime I talk they listen with a big smile and I do my best to use every Québécois slang I know.
The day after the visit in the mountain me and Mathilde went for another scooter ride, in the traffic. By that time I was zip-zappin' between cars like the locals. I have never seen anyone have an accident in Thaïland. The lines on the ground are just a suggestion, but people have the best driving skills: sharp reflexes, and are always aware of their surroundings. It rivals the cosmic awarness powers of Adam Warlock and Thanos, really.
We drove for about an hour to a waterfall where I showered and we had our own meditation time - her with reggae music, me with Clash of Kings - and much needed time out of the city.
The same night I went back to Julie's. Good times.
There was still tonnes of things to see in this city but my love for parties overwhelmed it all.
Random moments:
Going to the sunday market with the firm intention to do all my x-mas shopping there, but finding it so crowded that I decide to avoid it instead.
Going to a Muay Thaï fight.
Making friends everywhere you go.
Sneaking in a luxurious hotel to swim in their pool.
There is really no way I can describe the last few days here. Everything lacking at home I found here, but I know that this is not "real life"... Or is it?
I find myself day-dreaming about opening a coffee shop here with a big Habs sign above the door and poutine on the tables.
Opening a wakeboarding business in Sargeio.
Starting a tattoo shop in Montréal with Big Bill, and having guest artists that would bamboo tattoo in our secret room in the back.
All the guys here are going to Paï but there is a lovely ebony jewel from south africa named Spokazi that I met 2 days ago, that made me decide to stay a day longer.
I might talk about her in the future... Let's just say she made me remember something I thought I lost somewhere, somehow along the way - to quote Johnny Cash - and that I found myself looking at information on work visas for Dubai, where she lives...
I realise that I might be a long, long time away from home.
Monday, 10 December 2012
Chiang Mai jour je sais plus trop
Thanks to everyone for the kind words, you are the main motivation that pushes me to keep writing.
After a few party nights and technical mistakes from the Blogger app I finally have the time, and mindset to spoil you all with my brain candy. I hope.
I do not have the patience, memory nor battery power to write with as much detail as I wish but I am going to try and recap my days quickly and efficiently, like a ninja that chose the pen rather than the sword.
The 1st day my priority was to book a room because the King's birthday was going on the next day and it was going to be hell, or so I thought.
My first stop, Julie's guesthouse, was fully booked. I did not know however that their commonroom was going to be my meeting point every day, and I would soon meet very cool people there, day in and day out.
I went to the neighbors, J.J's and they had dorms for 100 bhats a night, so I booked 2 nights, ample time to let me find something else. I'm a little bit paranoïd to get stuff stolen from dorms that's why.
In their common room I try to connect to their Wi-Fi to look for something to do but it's not working. The girl next to me is on her laptop so I ask if she got it to work. She answered in the frenchiest english I have ever heard and so I switch to french.
She also booked for 2 nights in dorms but prefers rooms, so we decide to go shop for rooms together. She said I have a good vibe and trusts me enough to share a room with 2 single beds that we find at Tawan's Guest House, and reserve for 3 nights.
We then go for a walk. There seems to be a Buddhist temple every few meters. We end up walking 3 hours and visit about 15 "Wats".
I wanted to chill with the people I met on the train and taxi earlier so I went back to Julie's and there I met them all, speaking with Dominic, a guy from London, super laid back and a fellow geek. We end up having many drinks. He is confined to Julie's against his will... A spider bite has morphed his foot into this swollen mess of blue and purple, and pus comes oozing out of a hole the doctors made.
No superpowers yet.
The next days become a mash-up of visits to temples, scooter rides, and drunken wandering, toppled by new aquaintances. I learn that there is a reggae festival on the 11th so I decide to reserve until the 12th.
Notable moments:
Playing a drinking game with germans, dominic, and canadians, as Julie's common room get flooded by people: it's King's birthday and bars can't sell beer until midnight. Julie's does however still sell the beverage, and so it gets very loud very quickly.
We chase all the girls away by having debates on who is the coolest jedi, the most dangerous sith (videogames included), if we would bang a twi'lek, and doing our best immitations of TETSUOOOOO! KANEDAAAAA!
Me and Mathilde rented a scooter for 2 days, a nice little 150cc to be able to go up in the moutain that always looms west of Chiang Mai. the road up is snaking slowly and steepily, but it was very fun to drive. The first day we visited a sacred temple in the mountain, and enjoyed one of the most spectacular mountain views of my life.
We also visited a hilltribe but I felt like I was at a human zoo and wondered if they actually liked people just walking in their village and taking pictures of their kids, and left as soon as I was done playing with 3 puppies.
Going back down the mountain we spotted a sign pointing us to Chiang Mai and took it for a shortcut and were in for a surprise. The road was barely big enough for a car, and was a mess. Mud, sand, water, patches of concrete, rocks... And we figured we had an hour of sunset left.
We made it through in the end, ended up on the side of a beautiful lake with little huts built on the banks. We had a well-deserved beer and went back to Julie's for more chaos.
Ben and Jen want to go for a fruitshake now. They are pretty cool and laid back. I will finish this later.
"Not all who wander are lost"
After a few party nights and technical mistakes from the Blogger app I finally have the time, and mindset to spoil you all with my brain candy. I hope.
I do not have the patience, memory nor battery power to write with as much detail as I wish but I am going to try and recap my days quickly and efficiently, like a ninja that chose the pen rather than the sword.
The 1st day my priority was to book a room because the King's birthday was going on the next day and it was going to be hell, or so I thought.
My first stop, Julie's guesthouse, was fully booked. I did not know however that their commonroom was going to be my meeting point every day, and I would soon meet very cool people there, day in and day out.
I went to the neighbors, J.J's and they had dorms for 100 bhats a night, so I booked 2 nights, ample time to let me find something else. I'm a little bit paranoïd to get stuff stolen from dorms that's why.
In their common room I try to connect to their Wi-Fi to look for something to do but it's not working. The girl next to me is on her laptop so I ask if she got it to work. She answered in the frenchiest english I have ever heard and so I switch to french.
She also booked for 2 nights in dorms but prefers rooms, so we decide to go shop for rooms together. She said I have a good vibe and trusts me enough to share a room with 2 single beds that we find at Tawan's Guest House, and reserve for 3 nights.
We then go for a walk. There seems to be a Buddhist temple every few meters. We end up walking 3 hours and visit about 15 "Wats".
I wanted to chill with the people I met on the train and taxi earlier so I went back to Julie's and there I met them all, speaking with Dominic, a guy from London, super laid back and a fellow geek. We end up having many drinks. He is confined to Julie's against his will... A spider bite has morphed his foot into this swollen mess of blue and purple, and pus comes oozing out of a hole the doctors made.
No superpowers yet.
The next days become a mash-up of visits to temples, scooter rides, and drunken wandering, toppled by new aquaintances. I learn that there is a reggae festival on the 11th so I decide to reserve until the 12th.
Notable moments:
Playing a drinking game with germans, dominic, and canadians, as Julie's common room get flooded by people: it's King's birthday and bars can't sell beer until midnight. Julie's does however still sell the beverage, and so it gets very loud very quickly.
We chase all the girls away by having debates on who is the coolest jedi, the most dangerous sith (videogames included), if we would bang a twi'lek, and doing our best immitations of TETSUOOOOO! KANEDAAAAA!
Me and Mathilde rented a scooter for 2 days, a nice little 150cc to be able to go up in the moutain that always looms west of Chiang Mai. the road up is snaking slowly and steepily, but it was very fun to drive. The first day we visited a sacred temple in the mountain, and enjoyed one of the most spectacular mountain views of my life.
We also visited a hilltribe but I felt like I was at a human zoo and wondered if they actually liked people just walking in their village and taking pictures of their kids, and left as soon as I was done playing with 3 puppies.
Going back down the mountain we spotted a sign pointing us to Chiang Mai and took it for a shortcut and were in for a surprise. The road was barely big enough for a car, and was a mess. Mud, sand, water, patches of concrete, rocks... And we figured we had an hour of sunset left.
We made it through in the end, ended up on the side of a beautiful lake with little huts built on the banks. We had a well-deserved beer and went back to Julie's for more chaos.
Ben and Jen want to go for a fruitshake now. They are pretty cool and laid back. I will finish this later.
"Not all who wander are lost"
Friday, 7 December 2012
Lop Buri - Chiang Mai
* je sais que fais des fautes mais mon clavier de iPod me fait chier et ça m'enlève l'envie de les corriger, merci de votre patience *
Après une nuit plutôt merdique je m'offre une douche et un pti dej "western", et apprend que dans 2 jours c'est l'anniversaire du roi et presque tout les commerces ferment, et le service d'autobus et suspendu aujourd'hui et pour les 3 prochains jours.
Petit moment de panique mais on me dit que le train fonctionnera toujours. En me rendant à la station de train pour réserver mon lit sur un voyage nocture je croise la Polonaise chiante. Je prend quand même le temps de lui dire ce qui se passe avec les autobus.
Elle ne me croit pas et fait à sa tête. Tant pis.
Je trouve le fameux temple des singes. C'est une petite ruine au centre de la ville où environ 200 primates ont décidés de s'y installer. J'achète un petit sac de maïs et m'arme de ma caméra et commence à faire le tour. La vendeuse me suggère de cacher mon sac de bouffe et je comprend vite pourquoi...
Quand le sac est dévoilé je dois constamment surveiller mes arrières à cause de sournois poilus qui essayent de venir me le voler en douce. Je trouve aussi nécessaire de me promener avec un bâton, après avoir vu une fille se faire escalader contre son gré par des bébés singes qui utilisèrent ses cheveux comme soie dentaire.
Très cocasses les pti, à faire de la lutte et se battre pour la nourriture (ma faute, et j'ai fait exprès). J'assiste au renforcement de leur hiérarchie: un gros mâle se promène et s'amuse à violer les plus petits que lui.
Les plus vieux sont toujours à l'ombre, tantôt en ligne de 5 à se chercher des poux, tantôt à nettoyer l'anus d'un confrêre, ou à intimider les touristes.
À part les singes y'a pas grand chose à voir, je passe l'après-midi à jaser avec les espagnoles.
Vers les 8pm le train nocturne arrive finalement. J'ai un lit du haut, c'est 100 bhats de moins cher. J'y rencontre (dans le train, pas dans mon lit) un australien dans les 40 ans qui me pique une jasette pendant 2 heures. Je lui montre quelques accords de Ukulele.
Je visite le wagon-resto et c'est plein de voyageurs plus jeunes qui se soulent et crient. Pas ce soir. Je retourne dans mon lit et dévore Game of Thrones tome 2 jusqu'au sommeil.
Je me réveille quelques fois à cause de freinage brusque ou bruits stridents mais pour la plupart du voyage je dors bien.
Le lendemain matin je rencontre ma voisine de cabine. Une ontarienne les yeux dans la graisse de bine. Je l'invite à déjeuner et on discute de nos plans de voyage.
En sortant du train vers 8am on est assiégés par des promoteurs et vendeurs, chauffeurs de taxi et Thaïs qui survivent du tourisme. On trouve un gars pas trop insistant qui offre des voyages gratuits vers Julie's guesthouse. Moi, l'australien et l'ontarienne ont entendus de bonnes critiques donc on embarque dans son mini-bus/taxi.
Lea chauffeurs qui offrent des voyages gratuits recoivent habituellement une comission de l'auberge, donc ils n'ont aucun intérêt à nous arnaquer.
Dans l'autobus on fait la connaissance de 2 autres ontariennes.
Le centre-ville de Chiang Mai est situé à l'intérieur de douves et vestiges d'un mur de fortifications fait de briques oranges. Les rues principales sont quadrillées mais des centaines de ruelles serpentent le tout sans trop de logique. Les auberges sont la plupart du temps dans ses ruelles.
Julie's est complet mais à l'adresse voisine chez J.J's je trouve un lit dans un dortoire à 100 bhats, et je fais la rencontre de Mathilde, une francaise mignonne et sympatique, ouverte d'esprit et patiente. On a le même type de visites en tête et donc feront partenariat pour les jours suivants.
Chiang Mai est ma destination préférée en Thaïlande, et seconde seulement après Sargeio aux Philippines.
J'écris ses lignes dans un des deux lits simples qui meublent la chambre que je partage avec Mathilde à Tawan Guest house, et suis un peu fatigué de ma journée de balade en scooter.
Après une nuit plutôt merdique je m'offre une douche et un pti dej "western", et apprend que dans 2 jours c'est l'anniversaire du roi et presque tout les commerces ferment, et le service d'autobus et suspendu aujourd'hui et pour les 3 prochains jours.
Petit moment de panique mais on me dit que le train fonctionnera toujours. En me rendant à la station de train pour réserver mon lit sur un voyage nocture je croise la Polonaise chiante. Je prend quand même le temps de lui dire ce qui se passe avec les autobus.
Elle ne me croit pas et fait à sa tête. Tant pis.
Je trouve le fameux temple des singes. C'est une petite ruine au centre de la ville où environ 200 primates ont décidés de s'y installer. J'achète un petit sac de maïs et m'arme de ma caméra et commence à faire le tour. La vendeuse me suggère de cacher mon sac de bouffe et je comprend vite pourquoi...
Quand le sac est dévoilé je dois constamment surveiller mes arrières à cause de sournois poilus qui essayent de venir me le voler en douce. Je trouve aussi nécessaire de me promener avec un bâton, après avoir vu une fille se faire escalader contre son gré par des bébés singes qui utilisèrent ses cheveux comme soie dentaire.
Très cocasses les pti, à faire de la lutte et se battre pour la nourriture (ma faute, et j'ai fait exprès). J'assiste au renforcement de leur hiérarchie: un gros mâle se promène et s'amuse à violer les plus petits que lui.
Les plus vieux sont toujours à l'ombre, tantôt en ligne de 5 à se chercher des poux, tantôt à nettoyer l'anus d'un confrêre, ou à intimider les touristes.
À part les singes y'a pas grand chose à voir, je passe l'après-midi à jaser avec les espagnoles.
Vers les 8pm le train nocturne arrive finalement. J'ai un lit du haut, c'est 100 bhats de moins cher. J'y rencontre (dans le train, pas dans mon lit) un australien dans les 40 ans qui me pique une jasette pendant 2 heures. Je lui montre quelques accords de Ukulele.
Je visite le wagon-resto et c'est plein de voyageurs plus jeunes qui se soulent et crient. Pas ce soir. Je retourne dans mon lit et dévore Game of Thrones tome 2 jusqu'au sommeil.
Je me réveille quelques fois à cause de freinage brusque ou bruits stridents mais pour la plupart du voyage je dors bien.
Le lendemain matin je rencontre ma voisine de cabine. Une ontarienne les yeux dans la graisse de bine. Je l'invite à déjeuner et on discute de nos plans de voyage.
En sortant du train vers 8am on est assiégés par des promoteurs et vendeurs, chauffeurs de taxi et Thaïs qui survivent du tourisme. On trouve un gars pas trop insistant qui offre des voyages gratuits vers Julie's guesthouse. Moi, l'australien et l'ontarienne ont entendus de bonnes critiques donc on embarque dans son mini-bus/taxi.
Lea chauffeurs qui offrent des voyages gratuits recoivent habituellement une comission de l'auberge, donc ils n'ont aucun intérêt à nous arnaquer.
Dans l'autobus on fait la connaissance de 2 autres ontariennes.
Le centre-ville de Chiang Mai est situé à l'intérieur de douves et vestiges d'un mur de fortifications fait de briques oranges. Les rues principales sont quadrillées mais des centaines de ruelles serpentent le tout sans trop de logique. Les auberges sont la plupart du temps dans ses ruelles.
Julie's est complet mais à l'adresse voisine chez J.J's je trouve un lit dans un dortoire à 100 bhats, et je fais la rencontre de Mathilde, une francaise mignonne et sympatique, ouverte d'esprit et patiente. On a le même type de visites en tête et donc feront partenariat pour les jours suivants.
Chiang Mai est ma destination préférée en Thaïlande, et seconde seulement après Sargeio aux Philippines.
J'écris ses lignes dans un des deux lits simples qui meublent la chambre que je partage avec Mathilde à Tawan Guest house, et suis un peu fatigué de ma journée de balade en scooter.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
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