Cycling around Ayutthaya & Chang Mai

Our first stop on our Stray Bus to north Thailand was Ayutthaya - the historic capital of Thailand before Bangkok.

Ayutthaya reminds me of Myanmar - there was a lot of overlap between the two nations with several wars being fought & won or lost by both sides.

To best see the town in the few hours we had, the girls and I decided a cycle tour was in order. Some of the sights we saw included the temples and pagodas including the famous one with the Buddha's head cradled by the tree.

There were elephants too

The phallic monument - not sure which stupa this was...

Pretty white stupa we found whilst getting lost on bikes!

After our brief sightseeing tour we joined the VIP overnight bus to Chang Mai. Arriving the next morning we went for the most enormous breakfast before Cat and I hired some bikes for a tour of Chang Mai.

Chang Mai has an old square city centre surrounded by pieces of the old wall and a moat - so fairly easy to navigate. We headed straight for the Women's prison to book in for a Thai massage to revitalise us, then to kill an hour we cycled around town, finding some of the famous landmarks and the local park with what looked like a Chinese New Years float sitting in the fish pond!

Cycling back for our massages we passed the cultural museum with its statues of the 3 kings of Chang Mai.

Our traditional Thai massage at the women's prison involved changing into seem cotton pyjamas and being alternatively stretched and pummelled - this might not sound too relaxing but you get into it! The women's prison trains those inmates with 6 months left to serve in various vocational activities to support them when they are released. Massage is just one of these activities and probably the most famous.

That evening was the infamous Sunday night market where almost the whole of the old town is transformed into a pedestrian market and you can pretty much buy anything you want. We grabbed some street food including omelettes cooked in banana leaves, noodles and lots of Thai sweets and pastries (we didn't try the insects though!)

The following day we did an all day cooking course - our leader Miw wrote our names on our hands in Thai so she knew who we were. Miw was great fun, a bundle of energy and so enuthiasic! She was even laughing during 'chilli gate' when one of the other participants got chilli in her eye - not sure if that is appropriate but still she said it wouldn't be a normal cooking class if no one got hurt (!)

She then showed us around the market - explaining the different types of rice (normal and sticky, aged and new etc) and the more unusual fruits such as stinky durian, longun, rambutan and dragon fruit.

Back at the house we had a traditional snack - sticky rice steamed around pieces of banana or taro root with a coffee before choosing which of the 6 options we were going to cook.

I choose a Penang curry (sweeter with coconut) which is based on a red curry paste, spicy egg salad, chicken with cashew nuts, a Tom Khao (coconut based soup) and mango with sticky coconut rice for dessert - yum! We all tried each others food and by the end of the day we were stuffed!

That evening our group went out to sample the nightlife of Chang Mai - first up the lady boy cabaret and then out for dancing...

Impressive get up - I grabbed this pic as he/she was getting a pre show snack!