The Cube

Chiang Mai Saturday Market, also known as Wu Lai Market as the market runs about 1km down Wu Lai Road. Wu Lai road in turns is located to the south west of the old city opposite the Chiang Mai Gate. In other words, Chiang Mai Saturday Market is at the south west of moat area.

The market is open every Saturday from 4pm till midnight. The road is closed to vehicles making walking worry free of vehicles.

After checking in and dropping off my luggage, I walked out of the hostel and walked towards Wu Lai street. I only had a bite of a bun minutes before boarding the flight and thought I could grab an early dinner. I took my own sweet time and by the time I reached the beginning of the market, the sun has set and it was getting less hot to stroll, despite still muggy.



Pad kra Pow 30 THB

I settled for a plate of Pad kra Pow (Fried Basil Leaves with chicken, on rice). This was awesome! Just right to wash it down with a blended fruit drink. However I decided to hold off the fruit juice, thinking I could be a little thrifty, as my daily budget was rather limited.

Take your pick!

Mango shake 30 THB

 Haha. How am I to kid? I succumb to a mango shake after all. I swear the air around just became cooler as I took a sip of this magic mango shake. Since then, I had a cold drink with every single meal, umm, to re-create this magic so to speak :P
 

Banana wafer stick 7 THB

Technically, it is a little like Malaysia's pasar malam (night market) but things on sale were way different. It's a pretty neat place to purchase some souvenirs to bring home :)

Like this carved soap, they were pretty, but I can't help thinking... if you received this, will you use it or will you not? If not to use, then its a waste to a good soap, no? But if you uses it, then wouldn't it be better to just get a good, big bar of soap? Hmm...





Think my cholesterol just gone up just by looking at them

This, was the first market in Chiang Mai I went to...


Side note: Watching Miyazaki's anime making me wanting to go back to Japan!

Weeee... I can fly!

The initial plan was to go to Beijing but we had to scrap it as suddenly the cost just went high rocket. It doesn't make sense to this little head of mine to spend more than RM 2,000 for a lesser than a week's trip to Beijing. After Beijing went down the drain, there wasn't really another one in the pipeline as I was quite keen to make my first step in the big Asia city. There were talks about Macau (which I have been but sis hasn't), Sri Lanka, Laos (sis not too keen) and Chiang Mai. Long story short, or rather shorter since I have gone pretty long winded by now, due to time constrain, sis decided to also give up on Chiang Mai. Me? I was stubborn, I decided to press on, by myself.

I took an afternoon flight on a Saturday to Chiang Mai and back on the following Wednesday morning, giving me about 4.5 days in Chiang Mai. Not a great deal of time but suffice to placate the stubborn brain. I initially wanted to do a cooking course but didnt really feel like joining one by myself. No ziplining either on the same reason, I don't want I fancy to die when I was in Chiang Mai alone. As for the other popular activity involving elephants, after much contemplation and researching, it just doesn't attract me. It feels like there were a lot of waiting time and time spent to watch some video on elephants. Not exactly my cup of tea.

The main gate, which is locked at night but keys are given for entry

As it was rather a last minute trip, the return ticket ate up a big chunk of the expenses pie. In order to reduce the overall cost and adhere to my small budget, I booked myself a room in a hostel - Gong Kaew Huen Kum. As I travelled in September, it was considered as low peak due to rainy season, I paid 180 THB a night for a bed in a 8 person female dorm.

Entrance to the female dorm

Also, thanks to the low peak season, there was only one other fellow dorm mate in the 4 bunk bed room. ^_^

Once I placed my booking, the owner of the hostel sent me an email asking if I want them to arrange for an airport pick up at a cost of 100 THB. After checking that taking a taxi by myself cost more or less similar, I replied asking for the airport transfer. The person in charge was holding a piece of A4 paper with my name printed, waiting for me at the airport. Haha.

Reception area

Common area

This hostel comes with complimentary free coffee, tea and toasts throughout the day, as well as free wi-fi. :)


Between the reception area to the rooms lies a big piece of garden. I find the hostel cosy and clean. Definitely value for money. :)

I was given a free map upon checked in and the reception person circled the location of the hostel on the map, also told me location of bigger temples to check out. I was also given a name card of the hostel, to show taxi/songthaew driver in case I got lost.


Chiang Mai is located in Northern Thailand, 700km north of Bangkok. It is the second largest city in Thailand.

Chiang Mai was build in 1296 as a walled city surrounded by a moat. This old city was roughly 1.5km square. Chiang means city in northern Thai dialect and mai is new, therefore Chiang Mai is also known as New City.

I think the moat area is the main area of Chiang Mai but modern day Chiang Mai has expanded in all directions, in particular towards the Ping River where one can find the famous Night Bazaar. In fact, there were a couple of big hotels are on the way if you walk towards the Night Bazaar from the moat area. I know, I walked.

And by the way, Gong Kaew Huen Kum is located inside the moat area.


Side note: I should stop imagining that one day I will like Greek yoghurt if I buy it often enough...

Ha. Back in Tokyo, indicating those series of Hokkaido posts are coming to an end. We flew out of Hokkaido via Asahikawa Airport. We took a bus to the airport, 570 yen per person from bus stop number 5, opposite of the train station.

We took a noon-ish flight back to Tokyo but our flight from Tokyo to KL was late at night, which translated to we have some time to spare in Tokyo. We need to take a shuttle from plane to terminal. Saw this cute little boy in his little shirt and an iPhone lookalike toy, telling his mom, "飛行機、格好いい! (loosely translate as, "Aeroplane, cool!" Haha.

We touched down at Haneda Domestic Airport, and took the free shuttle to its International Terminal. We left our bags in the coin locker before heading out. I love those coin locker, KLCC should so have a coin locker or even a left baggage place. Anyway...

I took mom to Asakusa and it means that I found myself in Asakusa every single trip I made to this land of the rising sun. The Skytree is new though, it wasn't there the last 2 times :)


But not enough time to go to the Skytree... that is also getting into my ever growing list of places to go. Someone once said, its okay to always go back to the same place but make sure to include a new place you haven't been. It's easy with Tokyo, I still have heaps of places I haven't been.

Mom bought some souvenirs back, and I bought food. I was hungry but mom wasn't... so I guess I can't say I got the glutton-ness from mom... umm.. it has to be from someone in the family :P

Deep fried manju coated with black sesame

Mom prayed and drawn an omikuji... unfortunately it wasn't great so I told her to tie and leave it at the temple.

I was still hungry after a couple of deep fried manju... of course I didn't stop at just one. We had dinner at a nearby shop.

I had a kakiage soba... can do with one now.. slurpp..

So.. back to the new place in Tokyo this time...


Ginza. Haha.. it wasn't some off the beaten path place but somehow I have not been to Ginza previously.


I read that Ginza is one of the most expensive real estate in Japan. Yup... I brought mom to a shitamachi.. and then to an upmarket place. We were just walking around, no purchase made. In fact, we walked from Ginza to Shimbashi station. :P


So.. that was my long-winded version of a week's holidays to Hokkaido. :P Maybe I'll stretch it further with some post on food.. maybe :)


Side note: We'll see how long my eat healthy snacks thingy last...

Asahidake snack

Asahidake is part of the Daisetsuzan Volcanic Group of the Ishikari Mountain. It is located in the northern part of the Daisetsuzan National Park. When we initially plan this Hokkaido trip, sis asked is there anywhere I specifically want to include in the itinerary. My reply was "Asahidake." :)

Asahidake is one of the bases for exploring Daisetsuzan National Park. The other popular base for would be Sounkyo Onsen, to Mount Kurodake. If you are avid and experience hiker, one can do the 1-2 day tour from Asahidake to Kurodake and descend to Sounkyo Onsen, also vice versa. Asahidake is the first place in Japan to see autumn colours and snow.

Early signs of kouyou

Of course, day trip is also possible. Thanks to the introduction of ropeway. I was initially undecided between the two - Asahidake or Sounkyo as it is rather not possible to do both in a day. I believe most of the group tour travel to Sounkyo and include stopover at the two waterfalls - "Ryuusei no Taki" (shooting star falls) and "Ginga no Taki" (silver river falls). Anyhow I decided on Asahidake, as it was the first that attracted my attention. Maybe Sounkyo the next time :)



There's only 3 scheduled bus each way, don't miss the last bus oh. We took the first bus which departs from bus stand number 4, at 9.25 am. I didn't have the exact change, and thought that 5,000 yen to pay for 2 person wasn't over the top but Mr Bus Driver did not have any change. In fact, I don't think they carry any change with them. The machine next to him was only to break 1,000 yen to coins but not able to break 5,000 yen. He told me that I could try to break 5,000 yen at the shop. I ran down and managed to get smaller notes for the 5,000 yen from the souvenir shop. I then ran back up and paid for our bus fare. Would've got into heaps of trouble elsewhere :/

There isn't much shops there, unlike Lake Toya. There's only a small shop selling snacks and a souvenir shop. We didn't linger but went straight to the ropeway.

2,800 yen per person round trip

So you can see, it is definitely not cheap to get to Asahidake. Just for transportation - bus return trip and ropeway return trip cost 5,440 yen per person. That is approximately RM 210 @_@.



But it is such a beautiful serene place :)


Once we reached the other end of the ropeway station, there was some introduction to the place, in Japanese. We didn't realise and thought it was part of a tour group, hence we just linger outside and clicking away. One of the staff came to usher us in, and realised we were foreigners. She went back in and came back to give me this map. :)


We did the Sugatami Trekking Course which is estimated to be 1.5 hours. The trail is not well paved, rather there were stones and pebbles. However rest assured, many elderly did the same trek as us. There was also a father bringing his son to for a little trek as well. They had a bell each hanging off their backpacks, I reckon it was to act as a bear bell as precaution to scare off bears.

See how beautiful is this place... and we haven't even started the trek!

From the first observatory

Quite a few people brought along some snacks or even just bread, sat down enjoyed their food at this beautiful place. I wished I brought along something to eat too!


Suribachi Pond 摺鉢池 and Kagami Pond 鏡池 are called "Meoto" a married couple 夫婦池. The bigger one is Kagami Pond. I don't know which is "husband" and which is the "wife" though.

Suribachi Pond 摺鉢池

Kagami Pond 鏡池

Walking near us was this elderly couple, the Ojiisan お爺さん would walk in front and assist the Obaasan お婆さん and gave her encouragement. At one time, I could hear him telling her, "もう少し、頑張れ！(Just a little bit more, don't give up!). So sweet :)

On off they would stop and Ojiisan would take photo for Obaasan and vice versa. So, when I was walking behind them, I offered to take a picture for them together. :)


See the fumaroles? Yup, Asahidake is one of the peaks under Daisetsuzan Volcanic Group.

Sugatami Pond 姿見の池

It is said that Sugatami Pond 姿見の池 reflects the image of Asahidake... umm.. didn't seem to though :/



The bell tower near Sugatami Pond

Completing the "circle"... walking back to the Ropeway Sugatami Station.



Back at starting point.


By that time, we were famish. So please do bring some food with you. :)


The timing was just right for us to catch the 2.10 pm bus back to Asahikawa. While we were waiting for the bus, Ojiisan same and gave mom and I some candies... maybe as a token of appreciation for taking a photo for them :)


Side note: It's definitely summer now...