{"id":798,"date":"2016-07-17T04:30:05","date_gmt":"2016-07-17T04:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/?p=798"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:42:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:42:53","slug":"chiang-mai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/chiang-mai\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiang Mai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because w\"13866548_10207034738846313_2126710694_n\"e were so crazy and excited to go to Chiang Mai, we booked a 8.20am flight there. This meant waking up at 4.45am to leave at 6am (at the latest). Thankfully I had done most of my packing the night before so I didn\u2019t have much to do, apart from have a frightfully cold shower and make sure I didn\u2019t put any liquids in my luggage bag. The good thing about it being so early meant I got to talk to some of my friends back in England. We got Aum to call us a taxi, after calling him over Facebook\u00a0to make sure he was awake, to get to the airport. I had asked him how to order a taxi earlier in the week and he just laughed \u2013 it turns out it isn\u2019t as straight forward as I had hoped! He then told the cab driver to not cheat us just because we\u2019re foreigners and told us that it shouldn\u2019t be over 400 baht. I\u2019m not sure how we\u2019ll cope without him in Chiang Mai.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We got \"13900568_10207034667284524_546745121_n\"to the airport and checked in and sat in a coffee shop, eating our cereal bars as a very early breakfast. We chatted until the gate opened and went through security. Somehow I had forgotten to take my phone out of my pocket the first time I passed through. It was far too early for me.<\/p>\n

\"13874704_10207034667324525_2030777406_n\"<\/p>\n

\"13900987_10207034667524530_1632027840_n\"We landed in Chiang Mai around 10am after a flight with no sleep, but with cake. After taking a taxi to the hostel we dumped our luggage and went to a hostel that served food nearby. Pad Thai had never tasted so good.<\/p>\n

We then got to our rooms (Kate and Eilidh were on the bottom bunks, Hannah and I were left to the top) we unpacked and tried to nap a little before going to the Sunday walking market. Unfortunately it\u2019s rather difficult to sleep when it\u2019s too hot and there\u2019s a fan blowing cool air on you with 10 second intervals.<\/p>\n

Before 5pm we got a red bus to the temple (only 20 baht each) which was conveniently situated on the walking street. We were dropped off at the three kings\u2019 monument and walked through the market to get to the temple. The buildings looked amazing; I took a few photos and even got a photo with an elephant!<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2869\"<\/figure>\n

When we were inside the temple we happened to be there just as the monks were gathering for evening prayers or an evening service. There was a voice going through a speaker leading the singing and chanting but you could still hear the rest of the monks clearly. I even thought I heard harmonies at one point.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2876\"<\/figure>\n
\"DSC_2875\"<\/figure>\n
\"DSC_2883\"<\/figure>\n
\"DSC_2867\"<\/figure>\n
\"DSC_2866\"<\/figure>\n

Once we left the temple we walked around the Chiang Mai Sunday Walking Street\u2013 it was so busy. We all ended up buying some fabulous elephant trousers and anklets with bells on (mine is light purple). I also bought a bag, as my current bag was falling apart from the heat, and an elephant vest. As much as I swear I\u2019m not starting a collection, the elephant patterns are really nice.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2890\"<\/figure>\n

That night we had dinner at a cute Thai restaurant and enjoyed a Chang beer with our food. I shared pig stick kebab with chips and spring rolls with Hannah. We then decided to head back to the hostel around 9 and took a tuk-tuk back. We managed to all fit in one tuk-tuk with a bit a reshuffling and squeezing. Chiang Mai tuk-tuks are definitely smaller than the ones in Bangkok.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Because we were so crazy and excited to go to Chiang Mai, we booked a 8.20am flight there. This meant waking up at 4.45am to leave at 6am (at the […]","protected":false},"author":1058,"featured_media":810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[270],"tags":[93,162,160,51,163,99,52,280,161,164,49,165,97,58,18,100,106,120],"class_list":["post-798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-programmes","tag-asia","tag-airport","tag-chiang-mai","tag-culture","tag-flights","tag-food","tag-going-out","tag-internship","tag-local-atmo","tag-market","tag-sightseeing","tag-temple","tag-thailand","tag-travel","tag-travelexperiences","tag-travelling","tag-weekend","tag-work"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-cS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":957,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/back-to-ubon-ratchathai\/","url_meta":{"origin":798,"position":0},"title":"Back to Ubon Ratchathai","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"August 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This was our one sleep-in today, and somehow my body woke me up at 8am. 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Since being in Thailand the idea of teaching abroad after I graduate has become more of a possibility. 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We left the hotel at 7.40am and walked to the bus station which was only a five-minute walk away. Just enough time for the coffee I made in the hotel to cool down. 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As much as it was a sensible idea, I really wish I had set the alarm half an hour later. We got to the bus station (thanks to Aum calling us a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13681901_10157091136690408_639288155_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13681901_10157091136690408_639288155_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13681901_10157091136690408_639288155_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13681901_10157091136690408_639288155_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13681901_10157091136690408_639288155_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":999,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/to-aums\/","url_meta":{"origin":798,"position":5},"title":"To Aum’s","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"August 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I managed to sleep past 8am. 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Some of my friends back home had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"14159131_10207232698635184_1967222165_n","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/14159131_10207232698635184_1967222165_n-450x253.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/DSC_2886-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1058"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions\/2490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}