Mistake above - I meant to say that the artist have contributed 10 - 20% of the funding to the overall cost of the temple.

Leigh I'm sorry to distract from your trip report!

Hauman-Not a distraction, but an addition to the TR. Thanks for the information.

No problem at all Hanuman. My knowledge is only gleaned fromavery short visit, what I have read and what our guide told us. So please keep adding your input. The more info the better.
So on to our first full day in C.M.
After taking breakfast at the open air restaurant at Chedi which was freshly cooked to order, we headed up Sri Don Chai Rd to the Chiang Mai gate of the old city.
Right on entering we walked in to Pratu Market. This place was really buzzing, lots of colour noise and wonderful smells from many little cooking stalls. Of course we topped up our breakfast.
Then on to Wat Chedi Luang. Lovely.
There seems to be a Wat round every corner in the old city. We loved it.
Some great shopping to be had here too. We found a. Little. Shop where the entrance was a little pond. You have to. Walk over stepping stones to enter. Great !!
We spent a good few hours walking around the old city but soon started to tire so left via Tha Phae gate and headed back to base for a swim.
That evening we ate at Whole Earth, enjoying a lovely Indian meal.
Then it was an early night in preparation for the long day ahead tomorrow and a day trip to The Golden Triangle.

For those that haven't seen the temple, there is an excellent photo essay about it here... http://www.gobackpacking.com/Blog/20...-rai-thailand/ ...which also makes mention of some of the "controversial" paintings.

Before leaving London, I contacted a local tour organisor. Her name was May and we booked both of our trips from C.M. through her. For each of these trips our guide was a chap called Noppon. He was first class.

I have been struggling with this new gadget that I am using, having lost several posts.....aghh!!, but I think I have the pesky blighter under control now.

How is Phi Phi? Do you have a beachfront bungalow at the Holiday Inn?

I always write longer posts in a word processing program first when I am on the road. It will save you alot of heartache.

If it is an "android" based tablet, it may have "quickoffice" pre-loaded. If not, download the free trial version.

Yes, we have a beachfront bungalow here at Phi Phi. I paced it this morning. 2 paces from our verandah to the beach and a further 5 to the sea.....when the tide is high.....just paradise !

And yes it is an Android thingy and it does have some sort of ''office'' pre-loaded, so I will write there first in future. Thanks for the tip.

I am dying with envy.

Enjoy.

The Golden Triangle.
It was an eary start for us, on the road by 7.00 a.m. After around 1.5 hrs we stopped at a hotspring, mainly just for the restrooms and to stretch our legs. There was a little old lady boiling eggs by lowering them in little wickerbaskets into one of the many little pools next to the main gusher. We passed on the eggs, but she was doing a roaring trade.
Back on the road again then we pulled in for an unexpected stop. This was the White Temple. I've already spoken about this so I'll just say that for us, it was an unexpected bonus.
We knew we had booked a rather touristy trip and that's what it turned out to be.
So we headed off to Sop Ruak and took the usual boat trip to view Paradise Resort, the casino in Myanmar and then landed at another tourist trap in Laos. It was just what it says on the tin, but enjoyable nevertheless.
After a very pleasant buffet lunch on the riverbank we had two choices. Take a trip accross the border into Burma or head for Chiang Saen. Unfortunately, we chose the former. But with hindsight, I think Noppon railroaded us into this as he wanted to get some shopping for his sister. More about that later.
So we headed off to the border crossing which is in a busy little town that may have been worth a look at in it's own right, but we were just focused on getting through border control. I may be mistaken, but I think it cost us 1400THB each for the privilege of crossing over into Burma. This crossing was really quite intimidating. The first guard was quite happy with our passports and sent us on to the next guy who was not !! He sent us back to the first guy who checked our documents again and sent us back to guard No2. What then ensued was a very heated argument between the two of them. Eventually we were allowed through, but only after surrendering our passsports, which we could collect on our way back into Thailand.
We crossed over into Burma and were immediately confronted with numerous beggars and touts. It was very unpleasant. I now realise that our presence in the country was for a shopping trip. I'm not sure what we expected but I think we thought we would be able just to wander round and explore. Not a chance. We walked through a large market constantly being offered contraband goods......particularly 'viagra' and other such pills. At all times we were accompanied by Noppon, thankfully, but as we passed one shop he asked if we would mind if he went inside to get some bits for his sister. Of course we said that's fine. But we had no intention of going anywhere untill he reappeared. Half an hour later still no sign of him and my dear wife getting increasingly tired of the constant harassment we decided to go in and look for him. There he was buying a mountain of dvd's..........counterfeit no doubt.
At which point he paid for his goods, and asked what type of shopping we would like to do. We'd had enough and said no thanks, lets just get back into Thailand. After running the gauntlet of beggars we eventually collected our passports and got back into our van for the trip back to C.M.

We arrived back at The Chedi at around 7.30 and after cleaning up, we were ready for dinner. We had spotted a little Italian restaurant right opposite the hotel and being pretty tired by now we went for that.
Piccola Roma Palace................absolutely brilliant.................fabulous authentic Italian food. Very highly recommended.
For the following day we arranged a half day Hilltribe tour.

Sorry you fell for the trip into Burma. As you've noted you saw nothing of Burma, just a bordertown market. Likekwise, Laos. It sounds like you enjoyed the short jaunt to Laos - we hated it, I'm afraid, having been to Laos the previous year. we thought the scenery in that part of Thailand was really lovely. There are some interesting ruins at Chiang Sean as well as a nice archaeological museum.

An authentic Italian restaurant in Chiang Mai - who knew?

Italian in CM? You bet. We used to eat at a lovely place along the river.

Oh yes Kathie, this really was quite a find. Once we were seated and had a drink in front of us, the elderly rather rotund, and very Italian owner, wheeled a trolley over to us and proudly showed us a variety of fresh ingredients which he said he has flown in two or three times a week. It really was an exceptional meal. Finished off with scrummy homemade tiramasu, when the bill came along it was accompanied by two glasses of Lemoncello !
Just what we needed.

I'll have to look for this place. The one along the river (La Gondola was its name, I believe) has changed to a (very nice) Thai restaurant.

Hill Tribe Visit.

Now this trip is exactly what many on this forum advocate avoiding. Again we knew it was going to be very comercialised, but given the short time available to us it was this or nothing. After the long day yesterday we booked this trip to start from our hotel at 10.00 a.m., and being just a four hour trip, we would have some relax time in the afternoon.
So Noppon and our driver were waiting for us at the lobby well ahead of time. It took around 45 minutes to reach the ''village'', which was clearly set up for tourists. But I feel it was pretty well done. Spread over a large area there were little mini villages representing several different tribes. all dressed in traditional attire and many practicing age old skills, making jewellery, fabrics and utensils etc.
This trip certainly isn't for the purists or those who wish to experience the 'real' thing, but we felt it was worthwhile. It was set in lovely countryside and turned out to be a very enjoyable few hours. We stopped at a local restaurant on the way back for lunch, and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of food presented to us.
Back at the hotel, we spent some time in the lovely quiet, peaceful pool.
For our last night in C.M. we headed back to the night bazzar for some serious shopping and once again sampled lots of different street foods. So no regular dinner, but certainly loads of greeat food.
I enjoyed every minute of our time in Chiang Mai, but now the excitement was really kicking in..........tomorrow.......it's off to Phi Phi !

Before I start on the Phi Phi section my full report on The Chedi will appear when we get home and I can use a 'real' computer and for now I'm looking forward to some ideas as to how we can spend our couple of days in Bangkok. We are staying at The Anantara arriving late afternoon on Friday for two nights. We want to visit a night market and we want some dining options for the two nights. We have been to Bangkok many times before but always just for short visits like this one so we are by no means experts on this city. Any and all help will be much appreciated.

Phi Phi.

An early start today, leaving The Chedi at 5.00a.m. for our 7.00 flight to Bangkok and on to Phuket. We walked out of Phuket arrivals
at around midday. Our driver was waiting for us and whisked us off to Rasada Pier to board our speedboat. We were checking in at
around 1.30. This method of transfer is expensive I know, but it's so hassle free and of course we were checked in before the ferry we could have caught, had left phuket.
As ever the welcome was fabulous. So many of the staff here have become our friends over the years and it was great to see them again. We were in our favorite beachfront bungalow in next to no time. I reckon it took us no more than 5 minutes to get our cases opened and head for
the sea. Crystal clear water and a pretty near empty beach..........back to paradise.
When the ferry arrived at 4.00 p.m. we were sitting on our verandah enjoying a drink, having completely unpacked, taken a swim and eaten a snack.
Some weeks before we left for this trip, a fellow Phi Phi addict e-mailed me to tell me about a new eating option at Laem Tong, adjacent to our resort. It's called Chili and Pepper. Now I use the term restaurant loosely. This place is located at the start of the pathway that leads to Island Village. It,s sort of a tree house/cliff house about 30 ft up the side of the cliff. You climb up a very rickety stairway made from rocks and bits of broken paving slabs with a handrail knoked up from old tree branches and driftwood. The eating area is recycled timber wedged between the rockface and some trees. There are four or five tables, all with a spectacular view over the bay. Just jaw dropping. The 'kitchen' area is just next to where we were sitting and loosely behind some curtains. When we were presented with a surprisingly extensive menu, though only Thai, I looked again at the kitchen and wondered just how they were going to do it. Lynda ordered a Royal Thai curry and i plumbed for a good old green chicken curry. The food was amazing. this was to become a regular haunt for us during this stay. More about it later. By the way, we have been here seven nights so far, about, and we have taken dinner in a different restaurant every night. So much for those who say that there are too few dining options at Laem Tong Bay.

It sounds like you are having a wonderful time!

What kind of food are you looking for in Bangkok?

Not really fussed about style of food Kathie, maybe Thai one night and European the other. We're up for anything really, so long as the quality is right. Maybe somewhere special for our last night.

Two Thai places I really like (both in old Thai houses, very atmospheric) are Lana Thai at Face (www.facebars.com) and Ruen Mallika (www.ruenmallika.com/?lang=en).


If you are interested in Molecular cuisine (a la Il Bulli), go to Gaggan. The chef cooked at Il Bulli for a time.

For more traditional European cuisine, Biscotti at the Four Seasons is very good.

Enjoy!