Happy New Year!
Door: Mirjam
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Mirjam
15 April 2015 | Thailand, Chiang Mai
Happy Songkran! A mischievous smile followed by a bucket of ice-water. There is no way of getting out of the craziness that has captured this city since a few days! Everyone gets the chance to be kids during the three days of new year. Dress code: Hawaii t-shirt; buy yourself a big bright water gun, with a special Hello Kitty rucksack as your water reservoir, get in a car and make sure everyone you meet is getting completely soaked, while you're driving endless circles around the old centre! (Which takers forever as we need time to get people soaked!) Or you just stay closer to your house and aim for all the passing motorcycles and people brave enough to walk by or soaked enough to not care. With 36 degrees it's not too bad to enter a big water fight with the whole town and all the people who come to Chiang Mai just for this occasion. It's just so much fun to look at the scenery of so many colours, water and happy people - it really is a happy Songkran! I'm sorry - I didn't made any pictures, it's just a bit risky to bring your camera. (But it's worth just to look up on google 'Songkran Chiang Mai 2015' to get an impression)
It's been a while since I've written, it's just been a bit busy here! We haven't spend that much time in the hospital, so it's a bit hard to get into a routine. I feel like a part time tourist, but on the other hand also needing to be in the hospital and a deadline drawing closer of finishing a portfolio that contains quite a few assignments over the whole year. So I'm spending quite some time just working on assignments. An advantage of that is to get to experience the coffee places around! There are a lot of coffee bars in a vintage style where you can bring your laptop, and they take care of wifi, sockets and all the coffee you need. This is a good place to be for coffee lovers! (I count myself as one)
So, in the past week we've visited the zoo which is really not too far from our place. It's quite cheap and so worth going! The area is just beautiful, and seems to be quite natural for the place. Just a very peaceful and beautiful area, great way to relax and get out of the city! There is a natural height difference, with plants and birds in their normal habitat. We see them from our window in the apartment also, as a little squirrel that passes by every day hopping from one electricity wire to the other, as they are hanging all over the city.
Last Saturday we went to see Doi Inthanon. (Just a short lesson in Thai: 'Wat' means temple, all the names of the temple start with 'wat'. 'Doi' means something like 'summit' I think.)
Well, halfway there we figured it's the highest mountain of Thailand at a hight of about 2565 meters. This is about 2000 meters higher than Chiang Mai, so there's quite a temperature difference of no less than 20 degrees! But then it is around the 40 degrees in Chiang Mai, so you who are in back in the cold Europe might consider 20 degrees as quite something ;).
This was a longer travel where we went with a few girls from the Antwerp university who are also doing an elective here this month. We stopped by a very big waterfall, called Wachirathan, on the road there, this is quite rare as most waterfalls we see here are a bit dried up as the water levels are low just before the rain season starts in June. The summit was rather tropical, no viewpoint, just a lot of trees! Not quite what I expected. There was some space to walk around, and of course some kind of temple/sacred place on the highest point. A bit lower there were two temples in honour of the King and Queen, I think, where there was a better view with beautiful gardens. Due to the smog there's hardly a good view when you go up in the mountains around this time of the year, but we've had some early rain which can give you quite a good view. Our apartment is not too far from a mountain on the westside of Chiang Mai, but we hardly ever see it because of the smog!
So, tomorrow back to the hospital, back to babies, deliveries and lots of pregnant women!
For next time: Meet the Thai kitchen! Who's joining for dinner?
It's been a while since I've written, it's just been a bit busy here! We haven't spend that much time in the hospital, so it's a bit hard to get into a routine. I feel like a part time tourist, but on the other hand also needing to be in the hospital and a deadline drawing closer of finishing a portfolio that contains quite a few assignments over the whole year. So I'm spending quite some time just working on assignments. An advantage of that is to get to experience the coffee places around! There are a lot of coffee bars in a vintage style where you can bring your laptop, and they take care of wifi, sockets and all the coffee you need. This is a good place to be for coffee lovers! (I count myself as one)
So, in the past week we've visited the zoo which is really not too far from our place. It's quite cheap and so worth going! The area is just beautiful, and seems to be quite natural for the place. Just a very peaceful and beautiful area, great way to relax and get out of the city! There is a natural height difference, with plants and birds in their normal habitat. We see them from our window in the apartment also, as a little squirrel that passes by every day hopping from one electricity wire to the other, as they are hanging all over the city.
Last Saturday we went to see Doi Inthanon. (Just a short lesson in Thai: 'Wat' means temple, all the names of the temple start with 'wat'. 'Doi' means something like 'summit' I think.)
Well, halfway there we figured it's the highest mountain of Thailand at a hight of about 2565 meters. This is about 2000 meters higher than Chiang Mai, so there's quite a temperature difference of no less than 20 degrees! But then it is around the 40 degrees in Chiang Mai, so you who are in back in the cold Europe might consider 20 degrees as quite something ;).
This was a longer travel where we went with a few girls from the Antwerp university who are also doing an elective here this month. We stopped by a very big waterfall, called Wachirathan, on the road there, this is quite rare as most waterfalls we see here are a bit dried up as the water levels are low just before the rain season starts in June. The summit was rather tropical, no viewpoint, just a lot of trees! Not quite what I expected. There was some space to walk around, and of course some kind of temple/sacred place on the highest point. A bit lower there were two temples in honour of the King and Queen, I think, where there was a better view with beautiful gardens. Due to the smog there's hardly a good view when you go up in the mountains around this time of the year, but we've had some early rain which can give you quite a good view. Our apartment is not too far from a mountain on the westside of Chiang Mai, but we hardly ever see it because of the smog!
So, tomorrow back to the hospital, back to babies, deliveries and lots of pregnant women!
For next time: Meet the Thai kitchen! Who's joining for dinner?
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15 April 2015 - 16:28
Judith:
:o koffie en een dierentuin!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
