Day 134 - Exploration of Chiang Mai and feeling rough

It had to be done!

Day 134 - 04th November

I woke up and was greeted by my roommate, Matt from Montreal. He seemed like a decent guy and was giving me thelow down on Chiang Mai.

I headed down for breakfast and mapped out my routes of temples, markets and the like for the day. I met my first writer, a woman named Kristen from Virginia who was travelling with her sister, Nicole. Basically our plans mirrored each other's - writing, avoiding getting a career and heading to Australia in the near future. I suppose it's not too hard to imagine, being a writer is a tough business. As a fellow writing enthusiast, I wish her luck.

Pretty cool, huh?

Buddha protected by Nagas.

I headed out to see Wat Chedi Luang, an old temple with ruins restored to show its originality. It was stunning. Legend had it that two Indians built it and it was either destroyed by an earthquake in the 1500's or damaged during the war with the Burmese in the 1700's. I like to think only a natural disaster had destroyed it.

The picture does it no justice.

After, I visited Wat Phan Tao, an old team temple next door to Wat Chedi Luang which was beautifully carved and constructed. I'm already beginning to see why people come to Thailand for these magnificent pieces of architecture.

It did the trick.

I strolled down to the old city walls and did the obligatory selfie by one of the gateways before having a teriyaki chicken sandwich and strawberry soda. Very ladeda, but delicious nonetheless.

Seriously, it's easily missed!

My struggle to post my Nanna's postcard was genuine as I past the disguised post office five times in my bid to find it. Seriously, it looked like a souvenir shop, I was expecting something more official. Oh well.

I wandered around, just looking aimlessly around. I must have clocked up 10 miles all told. I practically walked the perimeter of the wall.

A part of the West Old City Wall

The afternoon I spent relaxing in Deejai Gardens with a couple of beers and editing my sitcom. It's such a great way to do what I find to be the tedious bit of writing. I had Oasis, RHCP, Blink 182 and others on the speakers for background noise. All in all, it wasn't bad.

I headed out for dinner after booking my bus ticket which they told me to come back for in a few hours. I went for local Pad Thai at a basic place, which may have been the reason why I felt so ill afterwards that I had to go back to the hostel.

My bus ticket still wasn't ready so I headed to bed. Matt asked if I wanted to go for a few beers but the Pad Thai was exacting it's revenge so I had to pretend to be tired. It was a bad way to end a pretty good day but touch wood, I've only been ill a few times so it's to be expected.

Matt did warn me he was a snorer and to throw stuff at him if needed. Damn, I thought the Chinese were bad -sorry buddy!