Chiang Mai and being ill
After so many months of such good luck while travelling, I have now been ill. Sunday night/Monday morning I was sick roughly 7 times, and then spent the whole of yesterday feeling awful and only able to eat part of a portion of plain rice. It was one hell of a long day.
We had been planning to do a three day/two night treck starting on Monday morning that is organised by our guesthouse. The second time I was sick I was wondering whether the treck was still a good idea, and the third time Justin agreed with me that it was a bad idea.
This morning I woke up feeling perfectly fine, and easily managed to eat breakfast, but have gradually been feeling ill again. At this very moment I feel perfectly fine, thought that is probably helped by the air conditioning in this internet cafe.
But anyway, we are now in Chiang Mai, and it's great (apart from being ill). The sleeper train was fun too, the bed was really comfy and cosy, and the air conditioning was lovely. I do like waking up in the night and being cold!
We are staying in Lanna Guesthouse which is very cheap (150baht/night) and good. We have our own bathroom for that too. The room was very hot and difficult to sleep in because the way the fan was positioned meant that when lying in bed the air about two feet above is nice and cold, but it doesn't reach you at all. Now I have ingeniously moved the fan and slept really well last night.
We arrived here around 10am on Saturday. We are right next to quite a bit temple so we went to look at that, once we'd checked in. As we walked in a Buddhist Monk started talking to us, asking where we were from etc. He then asked to take our picture with his monk friend (who didn't seem to speak much English). It was pretty funny to have a monk want to take pictures of us!
Since being here we have also found a couple of really nice coffee shops, and the coffee here is really good and fresh.
On Sunday evening they have a big market with lots of streets closed off to traffic, on the street our guesthouse is on, so I did a nice lot of shopping, including some presents :) There were lots of artists, and silver jewellery, and carvings - lots of crafty things. I spoke to a really nice artist called Tuw - it was nice to have someone wanting to talk to you for the sake of it rather than to push you into parting with your money. He was doing portraits for 50baht. They weren't like the sort you usually find on the street in tourist areas, he used watercolours and quite a lot of colour, and the way he painted seemed quite free. I guess his style reminded me a bit of my own. I watched as he sketched a mother and daughter, and then they left while he painted. He invited me to sit down and so we spoke about art. I asked him to do my portrait. Later when I passed by again he asked me do paint his portrait, but I was too embaressed to, and Justin didn't seem intested enough to hang around. He invited me along to his studio and gallery so hopefully I can go visit him while we are still in Chiang Mai.
Instead of doing the treck on Monday, we have arranged to do it tomorrow, but I'm not quite sure yet if I'm up for it. Justin will, but I might just stay here and relax and recouporate. So if I do go then I will be back on Friday, and updating on Saturday, if not then it'll be sooner.
We had been planning to do a three day/two night treck starting on Monday morning that is organised by our guesthouse. The second time I was sick I was wondering whether the treck was still a good idea, and the third time Justin agreed with me that it was a bad idea.
This morning I woke up feeling perfectly fine, and easily managed to eat breakfast, but have gradually been feeling ill again. At this very moment I feel perfectly fine, thought that is probably helped by the air conditioning in this internet cafe.
But anyway, we are now in Chiang Mai, and it's great (apart from being ill). The sleeper train was fun too, the bed was really comfy and cosy, and the air conditioning was lovely. I do like waking up in the night and being cold!
We are staying in Lanna Guesthouse which is very cheap (150baht/night) and good. We have our own bathroom for that too. The room was very hot and difficult to sleep in because the way the fan was positioned meant that when lying in bed the air about two feet above is nice and cold, but it doesn't reach you at all. Now I have ingeniously moved the fan and slept really well last night.
We arrived here around 10am on Saturday. We are right next to quite a bit temple so we went to look at that, once we'd checked in. As we walked in a Buddhist Monk started talking to us, asking where we were from etc. He then asked to take our picture with his monk friend (who didn't seem to speak much English). It was pretty funny to have a monk want to take pictures of us!
Since being here we have also found a couple of really nice coffee shops, and the coffee here is really good and fresh.
On Sunday evening they have a big market with lots of streets closed off to traffic, on the street our guesthouse is on, so I did a nice lot of shopping, including some presents :) There were lots of artists, and silver jewellery, and carvings - lots of crafty things. I spoke to a really nice artist called Tuw - it was nice to have someone wanting to talk to you for the sake of it rather than to push you into parting with your money. He was doing portraits for 50baht. They weren't like the sort you usually find on the street in tourist areas, he used watercolours and quite a lot of colour, and the way he painted seemed quite free. I guess his style reminded me a bit of my own. I watched as he sketched a mother and daughter, and then they left while he painted. He invited me to sit down and so we spoke about art. I asked him to do my portrait. Later when I passed by again he asked me do paint his portrait, but I was too embaressed to, and Justin didn't seem intested enough to hang around. He invited me along to his studio and gallery so hopefully I can go visit him while we are still in Chiang Mai.
Instead of doing the treck on Monday, we have arranged to do it tomorrow, but I'm not quite sure yet if I'm up for it. Justin will, but I might just stay here and relax and recouporate. So if I do go then I will be back on Friday, and updating on Saturday, if not then it'll be sooner.