Chiang Mai by night

 Following yesterday's spot of bother, when I may have totally banjaxed Buddhism,  I thought it it best to keep a low profile. 

Accordingly, here's some scenes of Chiang Mai at night.. ...

How I may have ended Buddhism

 We decided to shun the pool today ( partly to avoid pressure sores it's true) .

And by the startlingly early time of 1pm, we were aboard a songthaew headed for The Monk's Trail and Wat Pha Lat.

We paid the obligatory 100Baht fee for using the road that led to the Trail and set forth.

As its name suggests, The Monk's Trail is a path through the jungle, used by monks to get to Wat Pha Lat.

It's a lovely walk, though the monks were conspicuous by their absence. No matter, JB ever-ready for a challenge walked part of the way in monk-like contemplation.

He's a game lad and no mistake....

After about an hour or so of jungle walking/contemplation, we reached Wat Pha Lat.

It was stunning. 

Set in the jungle and alongside waterfalls, it's quite unlike anything we've seen before.

I strolled around the grounds taking in the tranquility and spied a particularly lovely courtyard.

On entering, I was thrilled to see that several monks had risen from their mats and were enthusiastically waving at me.

Slightly humbled, I waved back and it was only then that one of the monks found the courage to shout 'No! No! You're not allowed in here!'

I made my apologies and fled, noticing as I did so the sign on the gate:

JB tried to reassure me that I hadn't actually brought down the whole of Buddhism, only the unfortunate monks defiled by my presence. 

We can only hope......

In other news, we shared a ride home with a Thai hiphop group who are performing tomorrow night, so the day wasn't a total disaster.....

Blessings on you all.

Radio silence

 As it's been a couple of days now since my last post and I've had a few emails from readers concerned/hopeful that this might mean Gullible's is off the air for good, I thought it best to bring you up to date.

We're still hanging around in Chiang Mai, waiting for the weather to pick up in the south.

We've moved hotels and are now the smug residents of a twin-pooled hostelry where our inner hippos have been well and truly released.  (They sleep for up to 20 hours per day and spend the rest of the time eating.)

Our busy days are filled with sleeping, reading, occasional weather watching and quite a bit of eating. 

Its a tough gig......

In other news, I'm still dealing with the (quite literal) fallout from the rashly chosen Pork and River Weed Soup that I ate in Laos.

Colonic chaos, but in no way related to the hotel move........

Chiang Mai Zoo

Today being a Sunday and with no foreseeable prospect of a roast dinner, we settled on a visit to Chiang Mai zoo.

As the remaining regular reader may remember, we visited the zoo 3 years ago when the lack of pandas was a sore point.

Nevertheless, as you'll be aware, I'm not one to bear a grudge and so we handed over our 350 Baht each and stepped inside.

Let me say at the outset that I'm not normally fan of zoos.  Indeed, I'd prepared several cakes with files in to distribute but was thwarted almost immediately by the zoo's policy of not feeding the animals

Disheartened, but not wishing to end up in a Thai prison, I discreetly disposed of the escape cakes in a bin.

As far as zoos go, Chiang Mai is less Alcatraz and more Kirkham Open Prison. ( In fact a kangaroo managed to break out a couple of months ago without my assistance).

It boasts around 400 species of animals, most of which seemed reasonably cheerful or asleep (although we did witness an otter gang war and a frankly horrifying horned tortoise love triangle)

The zoo park is beautifully landscaped, so much so,  that you can imagine yourself transported into a jungle. (Which must have been something of a surprise for the assorted sheep, goats and Shetland ponies on display)

The big draw of course, and widely advertised is the Panda Exhibit.  We were frankly astonished to find it open and scurried through the winding passageway, (complete with plastic bamboo fronds) keen to clap eyes on the monochromed beasts at last.

Once more blogmates, it was a swizz.

There was a panda enclosure, but as the last panda departed this world in 2023, they'd put cardboard cut-outs up instead......

As for our other favourites, well the orangutan went back to Sumatra earlier this year for 're-education' and, hopefully, freedom and the capybaras have moved into his old compound, where they're flourishing ( perhaps a little too freely).

Oh and of course, this lad was pleased to see us.....

Foreign Pie News

 We've got a triple bill for you today pie-fans! 

All three were bought from  the 7-11 shop opposite Wat Chedi Luang, Chiang Mai.

Chicken and salted egg pie:

Pastry: Pasty-shaped, it looked promising, with a very nice golden sheen to it. As ever though with 7-11 pies, it tended towards the flannel in terms of texture. Possibly better hot.

Filling:  Salted egg is quite a big thing in SE Asia and we were intrigued to see how it would work with chicken. Disappointingly, the shortsighted chef appeared to have reached for the sugar, not the salt. The resultant sweetish chicken with no discernible trace of egg was as unpleasant as you may be imagining.

A poor effort.

Carbonara pie:

Pastry: Displaying not quite as much flannel as the previous pie, it still lacked any basic pastry quality such as crispness, and  there was rather too much of it as well.

Filling: Conversely, there was too little filling, although as it contained what I suspect was 'chopped and processed pork byproduct' perhaps that was for the best. The smear of carbonara sauce was reasonable, but nowhere near good enough to raise the overall standard.

With a bit less pastry and a lot more filling, it could have been a contender...

Spinach pie:

Pastry: Exactly the same as the previous pie and once again, too much of it.

Filling: Definitely spinach with a hint of creaminess and dare I say it, nutmeg?

Bold. (Although, once more pastry to filling ratio seriously out of whack)

Probably the best of the trio.

 

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai. Second largest city in Thailand, and one of my favourite places.

The old city sits behind the remnants of 700 year old walls and a moat (a good place for spotting rats in  the evening)

It's also home to over 300 Buddhist temples, which made me realise that it's been quite a while since you were subjected/ treated to a Temple Day.

So blogmates, join me as we enjoy/endure an abundance of Buddhas, a wealth of Wats and indeed, a smorgasbord of stupas.

And before any of you write in to complain, think on. You only need to scroll through these. We had to visit them. It's been shoes off/shoes on all day, and at our age let me tell you it plays merry hell with your joints after a while.

Anyway then, for your viewing pleasure (or otherwise) :

 

These wax monks were frighteningly realistic. JB claimed to have seen ear wax in one of them.....

The Governor's House

Back in the relative tranquility (and lack of dust) that is Thailand, we're spending a couple of nights in Nakhon Phanom before moving on 'up North'.

Today's outing was to see the former Governor's House, built between 1912 and 1914.

In 1955 the late King and Queen paid an  overnight visit to Nakhon Phanom and stayed at the Governor's House.

  In preparation for the visit, the governor at the time gave the place a full makeover. 

Once the Royal Couple had left the building though,  it dawned on the governor that it would be completely unacceptable and very disrespectful to sleep in the place where the King ( a living god after all) had once slept and so the place was abandoned until 2008 when it was restored and is now a museum.

As regular readers will know, here at Gullible's we love a museum and particularly one with desperate exhibits.

In that respect, the Governor's House was like a dream come true. 

As the only thing of note to happen was the visit by the King and Queen in 1955 there can't have been much for the aspiring museum curator to work with.

How else to explain the following?

And perhaps most baffling of all.....

The Royal Bedroom was, quite rightly, protected by velvet ropes and the rest of the upper floor was out of bounds.

Disappointing. 

(Although to be fair, there was evidence of renovation being carried out)....

Change of plan

Our original plan was to move south from Thakhek, stopping off at a couple of likely places before ending our journey in the fabled 4000 islands.

However..........

 Following our recent derriere discomfort traversing the unmade paths around Thakhek, we were in no hurry to sign up for a 6-8 hour minivan trip.

Add to that the fact that the only way out from Laos after that is by many more  horrible hours of hammering of the haunches or by selling a kidney to  enable us to fly out from Vientiane (and we now only have 2 functioning kidneys between us), and you'll see that we had few options.

So there we are. Tomorrow we head back across the Friendship Bridge Number Three and into Thailand again.

See you there tomorrow 

Rock Climbing Day

 This morning, JB declared that today was the day he'd make good on his promise/threat to release his inner ape.

We managed once again to coerce the cheery Mr Fong and set off on another buttock battering 16km journey.

Eventually, with jarred spines, dust-laden sinuses and pulverised posteriors, we arrived at the Green Climbers Home, our venue for the day.

It's in a really nice setting. Surrounded by towering cliffs with some good jungle bits in between.

Basically, it's Butlins for climbers. There's all manner of rockfaces to scamper up/ plummet down from. Plus there are huts to rent so you can fully immerse yourself in the experience that is climbing.

Each to their own. Whatever.

When we arrived, the sign on the gate boasted proudly that the venue was closed. Then it began to rain.

Plucky JB pooh-poohed these obstacles and forged on.

From the range and calibre of expletives drifting down from the rock face, I think he enjoyed himself.

Now I know that you're probably asking the question: Did he release the Naked Ape?

Discretion (and decency laws, plus his mum reads this) doesn't permit me to comment.

However:

Don't have nightmares..........