Around Chiang Mai, Thailand

We've spent a few days around Chiang Mai. Its gotten a lots busier since I last came here seven years ago. There are a lot of pretty cool pagodas with monks meditating.

Also, there are some pretty cool street markets. 

There was also a really nice moat around the walled city.

We're going to rent a motorbike and look at some of the attractions just outside the city tomorrow.

Off to Chiang Mai & Pai, Thailand

We're off to Chiang Mai and Pai in Thailand tomorrow. One of the cheap airlines have started direct flights here from Ho Chi Minh City so we're going there for a week. 

We also plan to visit a place called Pai which is a few hundred kilometres from Chiang Mai which I've not visited before. 

I visited Chiang Mai when I was travelling in 2011, it will be nice to go back and see how its changed. Its a walled city with lots of stuff to do. Also, Pai is a place thats been recommened and we're planning on motorbiking there. This will be a nice trip over the mountains to get to.

Escape Room in Ho Chi Minh City

It was my mates birthday and he wanted to do this activity called 'escape room'. As the name suggests, you have to escape from a room. Its a bit like the crystal maze except there are no crystals, no Richard O'Brien and you get one hour to escape.

We chose the toughest one, it was a Sherlock Holmes room. The rooms were very funky! We had to escape a train. Below are pictures from in the room. It was basically number related clues that make you unlock a padlock to get the next clue to the next padlock. 

It was really tough and we didn't' solve any of the clues. They were pretty abstract and on top of that, one of the locks was broken so we'd never have been able to unlock it. The lady told us after that no one had ever got out that room, which is not really a surprise. 

It was good fun and only about a fiver per person. I may go back again and start with the 'Alice in Wonderland' room which is a bit easier.

Around Can Tho, Vietnam

The center of Can Tho is quite nice and it reminds me of Ho Chi Minh City at TET when everyone leaves. It was pretty quite and had a nice river.

The town was nice too. There was a few good restaurants and a big statue of Ho Chi Minh waving.

Back to the city and back to work tomorrow. I think we'll do a similar break to this again.

Can Tho, views from our hotel

We booked into quite a posh hotel and were on one of the high floors. As there are not many big buildings in Can Tho, we got some great views from around the countryside. 

As you can see, it was very nice and this is a hotel we would definitely come back to for a long weekend.

Can Tho's big suspension bridge

Just before you enter Can Tho, you go over this rather impressive suspension bridge. Lots of the bikes stop to take photos. Its not very safe to do so but this is Vietnam. Some people were even having lunch!! Below are some of the shots.

Its a big incline to get up the bridge and you get a nice view at the top.

 

Can Tho by motorbike

We have a long weekend in Vietnam, its basically the equivalent of Easter in the UK. We decided that as I have a newer and more reliable bike, we should do a road trip into the Mekong Delta to a place called Can Tho. This is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta.

 

Although its only 168km, the roads are not that good so we expected it to take between 4 and 5 hours. It was a nice road trip. We stopped for regular breaks. I didn't realize how saw your arse gets from sitting on a bike for so long. The 'service' stations are a bit different to the UK. They are just people house with dusty hammocks on the side of the road. These are shown in the pictures below.

 

The hammocks are very nice and allowed me to admire the view of my bike and the dusty roads. Coconuts are cheap and plentiful. Its about 70p for one!

 I'm sure we will be doing more road trips in the future!!