Diary - Thailand Day 3

Day 3 – 25^th June 2010

My friend, Ping is taking a flight from Malaysia and joining me for the rest of my backpacking journey to Bangkok. Upon arrival, both of us start touring the old town of Chiang Mai, the temples or wats. I think we have visited almost 80% of all temples in Chiang Mai city. Before the touring ends, I have my favorite fruit juice, dragon fruit juice for only 20baht or RM2, so cheap.

We take local bus to Sukhothai which the journey take around 6 hours to reach and though it will be very tiring but I think it is worthy. We arrived Sukhothai around 700pm and the guesthouse that I have booked early has forgot about our reservation. This Baan Thai Guesthouse will be in my ban-list forever. Luckily there are few options around. We head to this TR Guesthouse run by Chinese thais family and the room was not bad at all, better that that Baan Thai. 

We have a very funny dinner today. The stall owner can not understand English nor chinses only thais. We can not speak thais and it was like a chicken talking with a duck (Chinese phrase). We managed to order soup mee and soup noodle. I really need to improve my thais if planning to come to rural area in future.

Diary - Thailand Day 2

Day 2 – 24^th June 2010

What a great day as I woke up naturally without the alarm like ordinary working days… but I starting to be a bit lazy to write everything in my diary. After late breakfast, I started my journey by taking local bus and go to Phrae and Lampang and maybe Lamphun. Phrae is 4 hours journey from Chiang Mai and Lampang and Lamphun is 2 hours away from Chiang Mai. 

Nothing much in both places, Phrae has few old temples that influenced by the Myanmar or Bugmis instead of Thais. Lampang was a city –liked-town and the only attraction mainly the local super market, store etc. I was a bit disappointed with today’s journey. Because I started the day late, now it is almost 500pm and I have to take last bus back to Chiang Mai.

Just 10 minutes walk from the bus station is the Chinese night market or China town of Chiang Mai. It was a night market and I settled my dinner here as well. But Chinese here, especially the younger one did not learn Chinese language. The grows up in Thailand also did not communicate in chinese nor the dialect of their clan. On my way back to guesthouse, I saw this McDonald and I just can not stop thinking about the pork burger. And so I brought one for supper.  Before going back to my room, I have little chat with the owner, Olaf and his wife Fong about Chiang Mai and my trip later.

Diary - Thailand Day 1

Day 1 – 23^rd June 2010

Arrived at LCC Terminal and is raining in Malaysia. The sky is still full with grey colour but with little sunlight. This is my first time travel alone and first time doing this backpacking adventure thing. What I have with me is my bag, myself, little self confidence venture the unknow adventure, scary with a bit anxious feeling and God’s blessing so that all will be fine. And suddenly, it is a small world, I met Thivina at LCCT (my classmate) whom on her way for her company’s trip to Bangkok.

Arrived at Chiang Mai, get a tuk-tuk and check in to the guesthouse, Thapae Gate Lodge, run by a Germany guy with Thai’s wife.  I start my journey by visiting the famous temple, Doi Suthep or Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. The air is cold, moist but clean, the temple is very nice but I arrived at a wrong time as the local people are doing major renovation on the wall structure, roof and the statue. I can see whole Chiang Mai from this temple but because it was very cloudy and less sunlight, my camera can not take a good photo of the view. 

Then I visit northern valley, Mae-Sa valley to this Baan Tong Luang, the Eco-Agricultural area of the Hill Tribes people. There are 11 tribes at this place and of course the famous yet is the minority tribe is the long neck tribe. At the time of arrival, there are only 5 tourists visiting the place because this month is considered as low peak season.  After that, my tour guide brought me to Mae-Sa Elephant Camp for the elephant show. I managed to take few photos of the elephants because I was forgotten to re-charge the battery, too bad.

I started my journey around noon time and now is getting dark, 600pm or 700pm in Malaysia. So, I head back to the guesthouse, have a shower and going for dinner. Before dinner, there is a massage shop just 4 minutes away from my guesthouse. I tried the thai massage for 1 hour with only 200baht or RM20 only.  It was almost 800pm and I am hungry. There is a night market just 10 minutes walk. 

So, what else, food eating time, and I start with papaya salad, BBQ things, rice balls, northern tom yam (with chicken and not the prawns) and end with fruit juice. After that…. Good night. 

Day 7 Long Shan Temple

On our last day here, we visited Long Shan Temple. A little bit of the history of this place. In 1738, settlers from Fujian, China constructed a temple in Wanhua, Taipei on the site where a man left an amulet of Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) hanging from a tree. Legend has it that the amulet gave off a bright light, even in the darkness and so, a temple was built. That temple is the Longshan temple.

In East Asian Buddism, Guanyin is depicted as a female diety. Her origins however are from the Buddha of Compassion, known in Sanskrit as Avolokitesvara, who takes the male form. The Tibetan name for the Buddha of Compassion is Chenrezig, and Tibetan Buddhists look to the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of Chenrezig. While I won’t go into any more detail about Guanyin, I will mention an interesting aside. In Japanese, Guanyin is pronounced Kannon and this is where the name for the Canon company first came from, although the spelling was changed a few years after the company was formed. So to those who shoot with Canon equipment, you’re shooting with a Buddha.

Over the course of a couple of centuries, Taipei’s Longshan temple has been destroyed either in full or in part on numerous earthquakes and fires and in the spring of 1945 was even bombed by the US who claimed the Japanese were using the temple as an arms storage facility. As a result, the temple has been rebuilt and restored numerous times.

Day 6 At National Palace Meseum, Dan Shui & Shihlin Market

After the Flora Expo, we head to ShiLi District for the National Palace Museum, where it is an art museum in Taipei, Taiwan. It is the national museum of the Republic of China, and has a permanent collection of over 677,687 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest in the world. The collection encompasses over 8,000 years of Chinese history from the Neolithic age to the late Qing Dynasty. Most of the collections are high quality pieces collected by China's ancient emperors. In 2009, it was the 11th most visited art museum in the world. The National Palace Museum and Palace Museum, located inside the Forbidden City in China, share the same original roots, which was split in two as a result of the Chinese Civil War. We spend quite a little time here and it should be at least half day tour in this museum. There are many famous collection to be seen, like the Jadeite Cabbage and the Meat-shaped Stone length. Shame that camera is not allowed inside the building.

After that, we head to Danshui (Fisherman’s wharf) and stop at Danshui Station淡水捷运站. Here, Danshui station (exit 2) can walk to Old street淡水老街 with all famous foods like 小卷,淡水鱼丸(fish ball) (可口鱼丸才是老店)(350gm NT100),糯米肠 (半屏店), 阿婆的酸梅汤NT35 (sour drink),珍珠奶茶(milk tea)(五十岚较好喝), 许义鱼酥 NT50 (fish biscuit)(味香鱼丸店), 阿婆铁蛋(iron egg), 黑店排骨饭(ribs rice), 沪尾豆花(tauhu hua), 碳烤臭豆腐(tauhubusuk), 烤鱿鱼(sotong bakar) etc. Old building back to late 18’s and early 19’s. There are many almost similar cafes’ at the sea/river bank. We just choose either one that we all feel ok with. There’s also starbucks over here for our sunset scene and bridge view.

Finally, Shihlin Night market and spend the rest of the day here as there are many to explore and to shop. We have separated into two groups and the gal will stay back at the hotel to pack their stuff because they have went to Shihlin a day before. Must try at Shihlin (士林夜市)- 刀削面, 猪肝汤,大头龙鸡蛋蚵仔煎(Booth 200),高雄肉丸,士林老字号大饼包小饼(Booth 501),升记士林大香肠 (Booth 308),蕃茄沾姜汁,东山鸭头,青蛙下蛋,忠诚号生炒花枝 (Booth 440),红油抄手等,生炒花枝羹,士林十全排骨 (Booth 78/310),士林青蛙下蛋 and etc.

Last but not list is the night view of Tower 101 of Taipei, the landmark of Taiwan. 

Day 6 Taipei Flora Expo

The 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition (2010 Flora Expo) opened on November 6, 2010 and will run until April 25, 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. It is garden festival recognized by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH / IAHP) and is categorized as an A2B1 horticulture exposition. It will be the first such internationally recognized exposition to take place in Taiwan, and the seventh of its kind to take place in Asia. It is located near Yuanshan Station.

The expo is divided up between four major areas: Yuanshan Park, Taipei Artist Park, Xinsheng Park and Dajia Riverside Park. It has 14 pavilions and occupies an area of 91.8 ha (0.000918 km3). Each area is also covered with many outdoor gardens, including a Global Garden Area (featuring exhibits from the Malaysia, USA, Greece, the Netherlands, Thailand, Bhutan, Hawaii, Belau, Hong Kong, Japan and more), a Fujian-Style Garden, and a Sea of Flowers. In addition, it features more than 800 varieties of orchids, 329 million locally-developed plant varieties, and award-winning landscape and gardening designs from 22 countries.

Day 5 Chin Jing Farm

Initial plan is to take public bus from Sun Moon Lake to ChinJing Farm, but at the end we ask the taxi driver to drive us to Ching Jing as he charged us only NT1,500 (per car) and we consider it is ok as we not need to waste time and wait for the public transportation.

We start to tour CJ with Green Green Glass land but did not manage to visit Small Swiss Garden, only pass by this garden as it is located some where down the hill side. In brief, CJ has sheep area, cow area, fruit area & flower area to visit. Also, there are 6 trails inside CJ and require a lot of walking. We are going during winter month and able to see snow in some of the area/trail.

Then, before we depart back to Taipei, I wanted to drop by at this starbucks because it was once the highest starbucks in the world at high of 1500m above sea level. While, nothing special about the coffee as it was almost similar like in Malaysia.

We shall depart from CJ to TaiZhong HSR by private van (NT300 per person) and arrived around 620pm. Alternatively, cheaper way is take bus to Taizhong (reached around 640pm) and then take big bus to Taipei cost only NT180 but 2 hours travel and last bus is 12.30pm. Take train from Taichung HSR Station to THSR Taipei Main Station (about 1 hour).