Dogs and Roosters

Any good wandering traveller should be prepared for nearly anything, even if he is only intending on exploring more of his immediate area in a city. Flashlights and water may become necessary. Apparently I have a lot to learn.

After class today I decided to check out abit more of the city, so I started walking. I found myself hiking through a market, then up a waterfall, and then next thing I know I'm hiking up a mountain. I made it up about 3/4 of the way when it started to get dark, so I turned around. It was a good idea, as it was completely dark by the time I got back into the city.

I started my language class yesterday. Surprisingly, at times learning Thai has not been as hard as I expected. At others though, it's just as bad as I thought it would be.

All in all though, everything is going fine so far. Well, except for my not being able to sleep all night. I've yet to see one yet, but every single rooster in the city (and there are apparently alot) decides to crow at 3:30 in the morning. I don't know why they feel that they can wake up every single person just cause they're awake. On a different note, I had chicken for dinner tonight. It was good.

A few other observations of Chiang Mai: There are dogs every where. Some are pets, but it seems that many are strays, and it's impossible to walk a block without running into atleast one.

The Thais also love their motorbikes. I'd say theres more of them then there are cars (and there are lots of those). The traffick is absolutely rediculous, and rules of the road as we know them in Canada do not seem to exist. That being said, I've yet to see one accident, and I know that there would be many in Canada if only a handful of people drove like the Thais do. Either way, I wouldn't want to drive here/ Or nearly die - it took longer for an ambulance to drive two blocks then it did for me to walk because the traffic is so bad.

That's all for now. Heres some pictures of today.

My guesthouse

Entrance to Chiang Mai University

Waterfall

Chiang Mai from a quarter of the way up the mountain

Cool tree

A shrine to the King. Theres alot of these across the city.

The Queen and Christmas

Canada finally has a white Christmas, and I'm no longer there. My Thailand journey has begun. I flew out of Pearson at 6:30pm on Christmas Eve, arriving in London on Christmas morning. I had a 15 hour stopover, so I decided to go into the city and explore a little. The train that usually wasn't running from Heathrow to Paddington Station wasn't running though, so I took the bus to the station, and started hiking from there.

I started in Hyde Park, and hiked across it. There was some polar-dip swim race going on, and there were about 500 people watching it. I don't know what it was for though.

I also met an Australian traveller named Marshall. He just arrived in London from Bangkok, so we hiked the city together for the day.

I covered alot of ground, I saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, Wellington Arch, numerous war memorials, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Parliament Building, Big Ben, The London Eye, the Globe Theatre, HMS Belfast, the Tower Bridge, the London Tower, St. Pauls Kathedral, and alot of other stuff. Unfortunately nothing was open as it was Christmas Day, so I only ever saw the outside of things.

I definately want to go back and actually get to go into alot of those places, especially the London Tower. All the info I read about it has me enthralled.

After six hours of exploring, I went back to the airport and caught my flight. After a short stopover in bangkok, I arrived in Chiang Mai late last night. I grabbed a bite to eat and then went to sleep. I found somewhere with internet access for breakfast, and I am now off to explore the city of Chiang Mai!