Jill & George's trip: NY in Chiang Mai

George and I arrived back to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok after our relaxing few days on the beach and settled into our hotel in the heart of Chinatown. We spent a couple of days getting to know the city a little better and ventured out of the backpacker haven of Khao San Road, with its endless rows of bars, western restaurants, market stalls and hawkers. Feeling less like tourists, we sampled the local transport systems; the sky train which provides a fantastic aerial view of the city and the MRT subway, and were so impressed. They not only ran on time, but were welcomingly air-conditioned and wonderfully clean, a far cry from the tube! We took in some cultural sites including Jim Thompson’s famous house, which is a beautiful example of a traditional Thai teak house, but with western influences brought over from America, and the magnificent Grand Palace in all its finery.

Bangkok seems to be a city of extremes and I finally succumbed to travel fatigue by our 3^rd evening there. I think it was the culmination of lots of dirty old men with young Thai ladies, the bars on the Khao San Road which display signs like “very strong cocktails. We never check ID” and my personal favourite, the sign at our hotel informing us that it would cost us an extra 100 Baht to take a Thai lady back to our room. I was very happy to board our night bus heading north to Chiang Mai and relax back in my sleeping bag to watch a couple of films as we escaped from the madness.

Chiang Mai was like a breath of fresh air, a lovely old city surrounded by a moat with a Wat on every street. In our quest to photograph as many of the picturesque buildings as we could, we stumbled on what I can only describe as the Buddhist equivalent of a church fete. We got into the spirit of it, sampling the fresh waffles, browsing the stalls and enjoying the Buddhist monk band play a couple of sets.

It was in Chiang Mai that we celebrated New Year in true Thai style. We had been invited to a pool party by the owners of our guest house. We were slightly concerned that it would be a raucous event, especially as our hut directly overlooked the swimming pool, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. We joined the staff and their friends and family (including a few children in their best party wear) for drinks and nibbles around the balloon-filled pool whilst covers of White Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town were played on the guitar. We stayed for a polite amount of time before excusing ourselves and heading off to the main city gate where celebrations were taking place. A stage had been set up where various acts were taking place including traditional Thai dancing and performances from a couple of boy bands. We joined in with the locals lighting Chinese lanterns and sending them off into the sky with our wishes for the new year. Before long the sky was full of orange glowing dots, which were only interrupted by the fireworks set off at midnight as everyone cheered.

2011 began for both of us with pure indulgence – George with a freshly cooked waffle and me with a 90 minute herbal thai massage complete with foot scrub the next morning. It was bliss and I floated my way through the rest of New Years’ day!

I took another cooking course whilst in Chiang Mai and learnt how to make a few of my favourite Thai dishes – Pad Thai, Tom Yum soup and of course a traditional Thai curry. I’m sure I’ll be trying out these dishes on some of you when we get back – it will be a south-east Asian feast with our Laos cuisine expertise already established!

With the new year, I was determined to have a new positive attitude towards Bangkok, so when we arrived back in the capital I decided to join the scores of locals in a sunset run around Lumphini Park in the centre of the city. It was just what I needed and I felt alarmingly pleased with myself when I overtook a group of men. Admittedly they were power walking and most of them were over the age of 60, but still, it was a victory!

Our final port of call before heading south to the islands, was the old capital city of Ayutthaya. We took a local train for the vast sum of 15 Baht (30p) for the 2 hour journey out of Bangkok. The journey was reminiscent of our train journeys in Sri Lanka, with food sellers parading up and down the aisles whilst ceiling fans pushed warm air around the carriages and countryside whizzed past the open windows. We decided to explore the area on bikes and spent the day admiring the many ancient palaces and Wats which were dotted around the world heritage town. They reminded me of the temples of Angkor, but on a much smaller scale. We could tell that we had drifted off the main tourist route when at one of the Wats, a Thai lady came over to ask if her elderly mother could have her photo taken with me. I was slightly bemused and even more so when she thrust her baby son at me to hold for another classic photo – definitely one for the family album.