Good to see that you have returned to the LOS and it will be great to have another "live" report to follow whilst I count down the days until our next trip.

Are you heading back to Phi-Phi for your beach time or have you finally had enough of paradise and decided to try someplace different?

Hopefully you work your new technology aquisition out soon and can give us as much detail as possible, without eating into your vacation time "too" much.

Have a wonderful time! I'll be interested in your review of The Chedi.

I love to read 'live' reports! I'll be following along with you as well.

Shane and Carol, its not quite live as we very busy at C.M., but will soon catch up now we are at the beach, and yes it is Phi Phi !
Chedi report to follow soon Kathie, we loved it. Have you stayed there.
One real unexpected treat for us was The White Temple. Anyone else visited this? I had never heard of it before.

So on our first day we determined to do very little, get some sleep and visit the night bazzar and take dinner.
our hotel was located very close to the night market and the more famous night bazzar.
After our nap we headed straight for the markets. Nothing like a walk around a market to let your senses tell you that you are once again in S.E.A.
Our plan for the following day was to walk around inside the city walls under our own steam, so with no trips planned, we decided we would eat street food. We ate various dishes from different stalls and it was all delicious....and there were no unwanted consequences. We picked out one or two bits of handmade cooking utensils and made mental notes of some other bits we considered buying.
Next day we hoped to be recovered from the travelling and ready for our walk around the old city.

Yes, we also saw the White Temple....incredibly spectaculars, a blend of traditional Thai architecture and modernism. the art, too, was a blend of Thai and Western sensibilities. Visiting here may have been the highlight of our stay in Chiang Rai. Did you also see the Black House? To us it seemed to be the anti Buddhist counterpoint to the White Temple. Recommended.

Enjoy your beach time. Can you send some sunshine to Northern Vietnam???

Hi Leigh, I haven't stayed at the Chedi, so really want to hear about it.

Yes, we visited the White Temple when we went to the Anantara at the Golden Triangle. We enjoyed it, but weren't as wowed by it as others seem to be.

Kathie, i believe that it was a fair few years ago when you visited the Golden Triangle and the White Temple is a pretty new building, and still ongoing, so maybe it was just not very far advanced when you saw it. Even now it is far from finished.
One of our friends here at Phi Phi visited afew years ago and was also underwhelmed.
Maybe have another look when you are in the area again.

I think it may always be a work in progress...

The White temple or Wat Rong Khun was officially finished in 2008 and has been the same since then with no major changes.

The wat, or the artist behind the design does have a web site but it's in Thai: www.วัดร่องขุ่น.com/

IMO the wat is more for display then for worship.

There is very clearly still major work being done at this moment in time. As for official openiñg and completion in 2008, Ajarn Chalermchal Kositpipat, the builder and artist has said that he expects the project to be completed maybe 60 to 90 years after his death. I think this wonderful work is far from completion.

I believe the "major works" being done are more to do with new sculptures the artist is putting in to his wat. The buildings themselves have pretty much remain the same and no major addition has been put in. I first visited the wat in 2007 and then 2008 and then again last month.

I'm glad you like the "wat" but it's a bit controversial for a lot of Buddhist in Thailand.

According to the artist web site, the one in Thai, he is planning to build a total of 9 buildings. So you might be right Leigh and perhaps some new foundation was laid down that I did not notice.

Our guide said that there would be a total of nine buildings and he showed us ones that the structture are built but unadorned to date... Perfectly plain white buildings. He also took us into the workshop where workers are making the many adornments that will affix to the buildings. It defintiely looked to me like a work in progress.
We compared it to Guadi's Sagrada Familia and our guide agreed.

We read about the controversy it has created and that is not surprising given the symbolism of much of it.

Yes, Hanuman, i completely understand your reference to controversy. There are some hard hitting points of view beiñg put over, but nevertheless, we found the place quite beautiful and to say the least, thought provoklng.

When I was in Thailand about 5-6 years ago I visited a newly "finished" wat (where or what the name of it was I can't remember) that was one building, totally white, looked somewhat like a wdding cake and reflected and sparkled beautifully in the sunlight. It was very unusual architecture for Thailand and many Thais were posing for photos in front of it. Is this the white temple you are referring to?

I did not hear of any controversy surrounding the wat when it first opened. Is it controversial now because of it's size and expansion? Do you know who is paying for this project?

Shelley, it sounds like the same temple you are talking about. The controversy is around some of the paintings adorning the inside. Many depicting the modern world and it's famous figures. And the modern way of life.
The builder / artist behind the project is able to command high fees for his paintings and I believe this is where the funding comes from.

When we visited the wat, it had been opened for only a few weeks and I don't remember seeing any paintings inside. I guess these were added since my visit.

Some of the controversial paintings or wall murals have been there since the opening and the main buildings have been completed by 2008 so perhaps you overlooked them.

Some of the paintings/murals that I have problems with are those of George W Bush and Bin Laden who were depicted as being evil while arc-angles or those that are good are portrayed as the likes of Keanu Reeves(his character from the Matrix), the Transformers(cartoon) etc. Clearly it's a view of Buddhism from a personal point of view and this is a private temple belonging to the artist.

The artist donate his time for free and have given roughly 10 - 20% of his own money to building the white temple.

You can read the about the artist's interview on his temple which was translated into English here: http://www.tourismchiangrai.com/e-ctmc/index.php?option=rongkhun

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/2009/12/17/photo-essay-white-temple-chiang-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!

There's also a Zuma in the St Regis. Being from the UK you can check out the popularity of their frist branch from London. The Thai Zuma is less expensive, prices still high though, and less crowded. In the London I believe the current waiting time for a reservation is around 3 months but in Bangkok one or two days in advance is OK.

Thanks Kathie and Hanuman. Looks like we are going for Face on Friday night and Zuma on Saturday, (if we can make a reservation.)

I'll be very interested in your review of Zuma. Enjoy!

Cha Bah Beachfront Restaurant.
Last night we dined at the Cha Bah, sitting right in the sand in front of H.I. and enjoying barbecued lobster. Beautiful.
Sitting at our table with the sea gypsy village just to our left, scores of longtails bobbing around at there moorings and with a beautifu clear sky full of stars. Truly memorable.
With our meal finished we were just looking out to sea, watching the bright lights of the squid boats on the horizon and being entertained by the games of the children from the village, when we spotted a group of around three sea gypsies, fully clothed walking around waist deep in the sea. They were all wearing head torches and one was pushing aong a white box in front of him.
They started fishing.......casting out a large circular net, then slowly pullling it together and handing the catch to the guy with the floating white box. They repeated this excercise up and down the beach for over an hour. Brilliant.
That was the evenings cabaret !

I wil be interested too re Zuma. I LOVE the one in London and after Pook went to the one in BKK makes me want to go... Sigh - so many great restaurants in BKK

Anantara Resort, formerly Marriott, ten out of ten. We have previously dismissed this hotel, considering it to be on the wrong side of the river, but now realise this really is not an issue. Beautiful room overlooking the river, wonderful mature grounds and a fàbulous pool. Very friendly, helpful staff. First class all round......we will return here.

Bob will love to hear this!

Yes Kathie, I was fully aware of that as I was typing away. I know how much he loves this place. And once again........we have been completely bowled over with the whole feel of this lovely hotel..........and as much as it hurts.......Bob's right.
Only kidding Bob, I always take note of what you say.

We started this trip at The Chedi in Chiang Mai so it's time I did a review of it.
This hotel gets full marks all round. Good location for all the sights of the city, but a real haven within the grounds, that makes it feel like miles from anywhere. Instantly at check-in, I could feel my shoulders dropping to chill-out mode.
If I were to be ultra critical, the only minor negative for me, was the lack of in-house restaurants.....there's only one. But really, that's not a criticism, just an observation. I don't often gush about hotels, but this place really is top drawer. Absolutely wonderful.
Breakfast starts with a choice of cooked dishes selected from a menu and freshly cooked to order. Served by a waiter. You can then follow up with all the usual stuff and some not so usual stuff from a decent buffet.
I know that the hotel was pretty much full during our stay but it never felt it. There really is such a feeling of calm and serenity throughout the place. We found it really special and would certainly stay again if we return to Chiang Mai.
We stayed in a deluxe room, which was excellent, but if we return I will pay a little bit more for a club suite.
Afternoon tea is served with a choice of savory or sweet. Presented on lovely three tier cake stands and with a huge selection of individual nibbles. All very quaint and civilized.....just lovely.
Yes, we really liked this hotel.