Chiang Mai

Sawadeeka!

So I am back at work now (cue sad face and tears). But lucky for me it’s only a 2-day week. Yup, just came back from a six-day weekend! Tristan and I had to take last week Friday off to go fetch our work permits from Chiang Mai and got Monday to Wednesday off because it is Buddhist lent.

The weekend was amazing! Chiang Mai was only a short visit but I still enjoyed my time there. Tristan and I decided to take an overnight bus to Chiang Mai (against our better judgement) and let me tell you it was even worse than the van ride to Laos. We were fortunate enough to be seated behind 2 of the biggest asses. But I’ll get to that later.

We left for the bus station at around 5:30pm and got there at about 6:30/7pm and found that the only available seats were on a non-VIP bus (VIP was the recommended bus to take) and only left at 11pm at night. That meant a lovely four hour wait. So we headed back to future park after purchasing our tickets and got some supper. Tristan opted for subway and I was craving pasta so that lead us to the top floor at the cutest little romantic restaurant where I got my pasta and we shared some pretty amazing chicken drummets. Before we knew it we were back at the bus station for a 2 hour wait. As we waited we noticed a trend among the buses, every single one was 20 minutes to half an hour late. Yay. At 11:45 our bus arrived and it was time for us to sleep. Or so we thought. Which brings us back to the guys sitting in front of us. First they wouldn’t stop talking for a good hour after we got on the bus. Then when I eventually fell asleep, I woke up and the guy in front of me had reclined his seat so far back he was basically lying in my lap. What made matters worse was that he was right in front of the bus so he had so much leg room he was basically lying down without his seat reclined. I said something which his friend clearly heard but he chose to ignore. Eventually my knee started getting stiff and my legs were sore so I tried to move his chair. Being the ass he is he tried to recline his seat further. This was it for me. I held the seat upright for an hour and eventually settled on making his trip as bumpy as possible. It may seem childish but I was grumpy and it was 2 in the morning and I had tried to talk to him about it. The rest of the bus trip dragged by, but eventually we were back in familiar Chiang Mai and one step closer to getting our work permits.

The walk to the TEFL company was nostalgic and brought back many memories (we’d opted to walk as the cab drivers were trying to charge us “tourist” prices). We had to wait around at the TEFL company for a while but thankfully fetching our work permits was a quick process. With the main task complete we headed to the train station to buy tickets for the overnight train to Rangsit, we could then finally get some lunch. Thankfully, star avenue was a close drive from the train station to we could eat some pizza for lunch, yay! The pizza was good but didn’t buy us much time, by the time we had finished eating we still had about 2/3 hours left until the train left. To buy more time we bought a coffee from Toms coffee and watched 1 or 2 episodes of Greys.

The train was a much more pleasant experience than the bus. We’d also been fortunate enough to get a top bunk and a bottom bunk. This was a luck because the bottom bunks were almost double the size of the top so Tristan and I could watch some Greys until we fell asleep. We slept solidly until the next morning and were at the train station before we knew it. With the worst of the weekend over, it was time for us to rest up for our island adventure.

Work permits!

On the train back to Rangsit

Easy Ribs and Wings - 7.5/10

Thin Thin Pizza - 8/10

Tom Tom’s coffee - 7/10

Thanks for reading!

Happy wandering,

Centaine xx

Adulting.

Sawadeeka!

Friday night: Tristan and I were craving nachos, which was not good because there is no Mexican restaurant near us, not even at Future Park. We settled on finding some nacho type chips and cheese. And then realised that our electric fryer just wouldn’t do the job. So we had to just cut our losses and get some subway. Which was still good so all was fine.

The next day (Saturday) Tristan and I procrastinated and had to then do all our tasks on Sunday. But we managed to watch a fair amount of Greys which is never a bad thing, especially as I’d only just started watching and had 12 seasons to catch up on.  

Sunday: First task – Medical exams. To apply for our next extension, Tristan and I needed to go for a medical check-up. I was nervous about the blood tests (it has never been my favourite thing), but it was over soon enough and completely painless. It was quick (perks of being a ‘farang’) and an efficient process, the longest thing was waiting for our blood results which took an hour. Whilst we waited, we enjoyed a really yummy waffle from Mezzo café. The medical exam was also cheap, especially considering it was two of us! Next step – grocery shopping. We’d just bought an electric fryer so now we could actually cook our own food! It was a rather exciting shop, and rather expensive. But a decent price for some home cooked food.

Unfortunately, the more “fun” part was over now and it was time to go home and clean. Team work made the cleaning and grocery unpacking rather quick and so soon we were chilling and preparing for the next week. Even though it hadn’t necessarily been a fun weekend, I did enjoy myself and felt rather proud that I could do all that without any help, other than Tristan of course.

Mezzo cafe

Amazing waffle from Mezzo

Mezzo - 7.5/10: Good food (well waffle and ice cream) and coffee, but on the pricey side.

Thanks for reading!

Happy wandering,

Centaine xx

Laos

LAOS

Saturday: Chatuchak market! Tristan and I spent another day at Chatuchak just exploring a bit and getting a couple things. We also walked through the pets’ part of the market and, if you’re an animal lover like myself, I’d recommend not going through there. It’s all exciting at first, seeing all the puppies and kittens, until you see how they’re treated and how cramped the cages are. Other than that, it was another very enjoyable outing.

Sunday: Sunday saw to Tristan and I basically just relaxing until the afternoon. We had to head back into Bangkok to get a van to Laos to do our visa extension. We ended up running into quite a few people from the course, which was a pleasant surprise. The van ride itself, however, was terrible. The van was made to be more spacious and comfortable than your everyday, “generic” van, but Tristan and I were stuck at the back, which meant we couldn’t recline our seats back in any way, which rather inconvenient.

Monday: we arrived at the border at 4:30am, having gotten very little sleep, an hour and a half before the border would open. Eager to stretch my legs and find the little travellers room, Tristan and I got out the van just in time for the rain. And we soon discovered something even worse than the rain: I’d have to wait almost an hour for the restroom facilities to open. Back to the lovely, cramped, overly stuffy van it was, yay (insert rolling eyes face here).

Tristan and I were applying for our visas and so we got stuck at the immigration offices for quite a while. The agency we were using for the boarder run helped make the process a whole lot quicker for us than it could’ve been though. At about 12/1pm we finally got to the hotel and decided to go get some curry from the Indian restaurant we’d scoped out on the way to the hotel. The curry was incredible and so worth the crap we’d had to endure in the past 15 hours and the walk to the restaurant itself. After filling our bellies, we opted for a nap so we’d be well rested for the evening tour we were to joining. We slept through our alarms and ended up having a 6/7-hour nap. We also missed the evening tour to the market so we just made our way there on our own. Be warned: transport in Laos is crazy expensive. We met up with the others from the course for drinks and karaoke and I made myself a little friend: an adorable little ginger kitty. He loved me and fell asleep with his head in my hand. I tried my best to bring him to my room but SOMEONE *cough cough* Tristan *cough* wouldn’t let me.

Tuesday: More lines and buses and waiting. On the plus side, we stocked up on some chocolate in duty free (chocolate in Thailand is expensive!). At 11pm we arrived back at Future Park and headed home to Rangsit (yes, I now call my apartment in Rangsit ‘home’).

Wednesday: REST DAY. Time to recuperate for work.

On our way to our van to Laos!

Stray kitty I met outside 7/11 

Laos

My kitty friend!

Laos

Laos

The border at Laos

Laos

Cute coffee shop in Laos

Market in Laos

Thank you for reading, keep following the Paisley Firefly blog to read about more of my adventures!

Happy wandering,

Centaine xx