Introduction & question

[synthia]

I passed that on from someone who was studying Chinese in Taiwan. I myself am absolutely terrible at languages, and after accumulating over two years of travel in Latin America, I know about two weeks worth of Spanish. I'm just bad. You should see the look on people's faces when I speak my limited French!

I skimmed over the comments about PMs being turned off, and missed the e-mail address. An e-mail address in text llike this is not a good idea because there are robot programs that scan forums hunting for such things. Unless you like spam, of course.

PMs are not available until you have made five posts. Until then there is a visitor messaging system that you reach by clicking on the user name and then on Public Profile.

[Sunshine Gal]

Hi Luke,

How long hv u been staying in Chiang Mai. I'm planning for a holiday to Chiang Mai next yr. Any recommendation for hotel stay, spas & massage? Not too expensive, just finished school so dun hv big budget. Heard that it's better to go during yr end for the cooling weather in Chiang Mai.

Cheers,
Sunshine Gal

Originally Posted by ljkd13

Hello Jason,

I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind. I'm an expat in Chiang Mai who has also lived in Germany and am curious about your company. Your private messages are turned off, so could you drop me an email
Thanks so much,

Luke

[ljkd13]

Hi!

Chiang Mai is a beautiful place, much different from Bangkok. I've been here for 2 months now, and will be for another 5. There are tons of places to stay, and tons of spas for massages etc. There are loads by my place that cost 200B/hr for Thai massage. In town there are some cheaper, and there are always more expensive one. There are lots of good hotels, anywhere from $5-10 per night and up.

As for the timing, the rainy season just ended, so the weather is beautiful. It still gets hot during the days, but it cools off nicely at night.

If you come, try to make it for the Loy Krathong, Yee Peng festival. This is their yearly festival at the end of the rainy season where they, mostly just in Chiang Mai, send off thousands of small hot-air balloons filled with the year's wishes. These flaming balloons all get released at the same time (this year it was Nov. 8 at a University lawn) creating the most spectacular sight. thousands of balloons fill the sky and head off to who-knows-where as far as the eye can see.

Katie in Thailand is my girlfriend's blog of the festival.

When I plan my next trip to Thailand in some years, I will only plan around this festival.

If you have more questions, let me know

Luke

Originally Posted by Sunshine Gal

Hi Luke,

How long hv u been staying in Chiang Mai. I'm planning for a holiday to Chiang Mai next yr. Any recommendation for hotel stay, spas & massage? Not too expensive, just finished school so dun hv big budget. Heard that it's better to go during yr end for the cooling weather in Chiang Mai.

Cheers,
Sunshine Gal

[frogblogger]

It's not really happened yet Luke! Plenty of lanterns released the week before and after, but the main do is on the Ping River on the night of the full moon - Wednesday November 12th - with the 'Krathong' rafts floated down the river, and the release of many thousands of lanterns the same night. Have to get there early, there are so many people. Fantastic experience!

Sunshine Gal - it's a bit on the chilly side right now with loads of people catching coughs and colds, so November has its down side! Plus it's the high season (in theory), so you can't quite get the bargains available through the summer to October (flights, hotels are a bit more expensive from November in a normal credit crisis-free year).

Massage - one place I really recommend is the Hot Stone Massage in Soi 3 off Loi Kroh - quality traditional massage at a fraction of the price of spas (the main difference is that it doesn't provide rose petals for you to walk across, otherwise the quality is the same, or even better in my experience (I'm a trained masseur myself, so I'm pretty choosy!) Plenty of other good places, but bear in mind that the Thais are (obviously) mainly Thai massage specialists, and it's a lot harder to find a good oil massage. Most have little or no training in that specific discipline. An excellent Thai masseuse can be a very average to poor oil masseuse, if you see what I mean...

As for hotels, take your pick - there are all prices. If you are staying for a minimum of a month, you could do worse than take a condo - there are the Night Bazaar Condos, ideally placed, which have reasonable en-suite rooms with air con, sat TV, for about 90 pounds sterling a month, plus electricity. Good value for its location. Minimum 1 month rental though.

Otherwise on a nightly basis you can find rooms from as little as 200 or 300 baht - 3 or 4 pounds - a night up. Some a bit dodgy though.
____________________________________
Peter - FrogBlogging from Chiang Mai Thailand

[ljkd13]

There may be more lanterns to go off, but at Mae Jo University on Saturday night at the Meditation Center there had to be about 10,000 simultaneously let off. I don't know if there are more than that, but I'd be surprised.

We're planning on going down to the river anyway tho, so we should get some more of this tremendous experience.

This is one of those things that everyone should see at least once in their lifetimes.

Originally Posted by frogblogger

It's not really happened yet Luke! Plenty of lanterns released the week before and after, but the main do is on the Ping River on the night of the full moon - Wednesday November 12th - with the 'Krathong' rafts floated down the river, and the release of many thousands of lanterns the same night. Have to get there early, there are so many people. Fantastic experience!


____________________________________
Peter - FrogBlogging from Chiang Mai Thailand

[wolfmisc]

@sunshine gal
lucky you, if you can pick up Thai language very quickly here. I am living more or less in Thailand for the last 8-10 years now. But my Thai knowledges are still very limited.
@cochran
maybe you can borrow me your Thai teacher. I was used of living in Germany for many years and would not have any difficulties to understand her. Alas, Pattaya is too far away for me.