January 2, 2008
The five of us + Nah Noke left Khao Yai right after breakfast. Dad took the role as our driver with P'Yai taking over only for a mere 200 kilometers. We took Route 2 back from Khao Yai to Saraburee and then continued onto Route 1 up north. Making a few brief stops, we reached Lampang not too late in the afternoon.
In Lampang, we went to Indra Outlet, a home to clay potteries, where we met up with a few family friends (P'Pum's mom and Dr.Oui~) there. After a little while chit-chat, we head onward to Chiang Mai. With dad's driving, we reached the hotel where we stayed at around 5 p.m. (a total of 9 hours with those stops along the way!! - approx. 700 km.)
After checking in the hotel, we walked to Nimmarnhemin Rd., a famous street in Chiang Mai where many nice shops, cafes and restaurants are located. We were advised to go to this restaurant called "Tuai (ต่วย)" for local food. We got to eat all those Nam Prik (Thai curry paste, the northern style, i.e. Nam Prik Ong' and Nam Prik Noom'), also Northern Thai sausage (Sai~ Ua' ไส้อั่ว), Papaya Salad with pork rinds (pork scratchings) หรือส้มตำแคปหมูนี่เอง and other good stuff. Yum! :-9
After meal came our dessert time. We picked Mon Nom Sod (มนต์นมสด), a famous sweet shop for milk and bread originally from Bangkok. I know, we came all the way from Bangkok, but oh well, we don't get to have Mon Nom Sod that often there (though I always had when I was still in college - it's the place where my friends and I always hung out! haha)
As one of the must-do things in Chiang Mai, we definitely had to take a ride on what-so-called the "Red Car". The Red card is a kind of public transportation in which you hail like a cab, but need to negotiate the price as well as destinations. Upon your agreement, the red car can be pooled by other passengers heading in the same directions. So you need to ask the drivers whether they will go where you want to go every time you hail them. The price, depends on your destination and your status too (e.g. students get cheaper rates). Our destination for the night? Of course, to Chiang Mai Night Bazaar (@20 Baht or 60 yen/person).
Night bazaar is one of the places I vaguely remember about in Chiang Mai. I don't know how much it has changed, but the one thing I felt was that it was rather quiet and less crowded than what I had in my memory.
We slept early today, preparing for our long day ahead.
2 comments:
The last time was 2005 ja! Vancouver-Washington-Oregon Coast ngai! right after my wedding.
Also check out my entries at gotoknow/growthrings
er... jing duay~~. forgot pai dai ngai neah. But well, the last time we were in two cars and so didn't ride together the whole time ni na ner~. I should dig out the photos na neah.
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