Friday, March 16, 2012

Chiang Mai - March 2012 : Day 01

It's been a long time i so wanted to travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I bought a promo flight from Air Asia to Chiang Mai and finally i flew to Chiang Mai exactly on my Birthday in March 2012. ( It was my birthday gift for my own self :P )

My friend and I , just the two of us first time travelling to Chiang Mai, have no idea where exactly we want to go. I just did a simple research getting to know a little bit more about Chiang Mai and that's all. 
It was a 5 days 4 nights trip to Chiang Mai. We arrived at the Airport in the morning and the first thing we did was finding a taxi to the guest house we have booked before our trip. 

The Guest House we were staying for our entire trip is called All in 1 Guest House. Very interesting name and indeed a lovely and cosy guest house. This guest house is ideally located in the heart of the Chiang Mai old city. Very near to all the night bazaar and markets. It cost about 695THB for twin sharing room with AC. The room is clean and cosy and the staff are very friendly and helpful too. Highly recommended by me! ^_^

All in 1 Guest House , Chiang Mai

The Room
We rented a motorbike from the guest house which cost only 200THB per day and start touring around the town. We got a map from the guest house and the staff gave some recommendations where we should visit so there we go listen to the advise and our destination began.

Our first destination in fact was actually hunting for food. We had yet to have our very first meal of the day after landing Chiang Mai. I know there is a famous noodle called Khao Soi, which i wanted to give it a try. We saw a little eatery shop and they served Khao Soi,so we just stopped and took our meal there. I quite like this fried noodle and the gravy was yummy too.

Khao Soi

After filling up our tummy, we decided to visit all the temples in town. The first temple we visited was Wat Phan Tao. One of the old temple in town.




Next to Wat Phan Tao is Wat Chedi Luang. Wat Chedi Luang is one of the historical Buddhist temple. The front you will see a modern built temple facing the main road. when you walk to the back of the modern temple , there is where you will see the ancient structure building that is still maintained there. I couldn't really remember the history behind but i am sure you will be able to search from the internet knowing more about this temple. Here i am just sharing with you some of the pictures taken by myself showing the architecture of the ancient building.( but of course it is not as great or as big as Angkor Wat in Siem Reap or Borobudur in Yogyakarta)

Wat Chedi Luang - Front

Wat Chedi Luang - the surroundings

Wat Chedi Luang - Historical Site

You will see this Buddhist Manuscript Library & Museum while walking around Wat Chedi Luang

Something we need to take note when visiting a Buddhist Temple.
Another view of Wat Chedi Luang

The next temple we visited is about 5 mins bike ride away from Wat Chedi Luang - Wat Pra Singh.
Wat Pra Singh is about 700 years old and was constructed by King Phayoo of Mengrai Dynasty.

Wat Pra Singh

Wat Chiang Man was the last temple we visited. This is another temple at the other end of the Chiang Mai Old City but very near to the guest house we stayed. This made our last destination of temple visit and give ourselves a good rest before heading to the Night Market Bazaar for dinner.

Wat Chiang Man
Well since it was my birthday, my friend promised to treat me a good dinner, so we did some survey on all the brochures we got either from the airport or from the guest house. Finally we decided to try this western restaurant near the Night Market Bazaar called The Duke's Grill & Bar. Please take note, if you are a small eater, please share the food, the portion is really big. Both of us were having hard time to finish the food but overall the food is really yummy! worth to try! 

The Dukes Grill & Bar. It is just opposite Royal Princess Hotel

My Yummy Birthday Dinner Treat! Their Ribs and Lagsana are really good!
Since we were so full after a super heavy dinner, we decided to take a walk at the night market. There are all sorts of things selling in the market: Clothing, handicrafts, leather items, souvenirs etc..
Chiang Mai Night Bazaar
After a long walk , we ended the day by sitting down a cosy place near Night Bazaar for a drink. I had a glass of orange juice and my friend had a Singha Beer. 

Our Drinks before ending our Day 1 in Chiang Mai

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