Last night in Chiang Mai (19th November 2011)

I didn’t get up very early again, sorry Mick, too engrossed in a good book last night to be honest. So after breakfast I hired what I think was most probably the ricketiest push bike available in Chiang Mai and made my was the 3 km to the train station to get my train ticket.

The whole experience was probably one of the easiest ticket buying experiences I’ve ever had. I guess they’re just so used to tourists.

So with my own transport at my fingertips (!), as long as the wheels don’t fall off, I decided to go for a ride around town glimpsing my last sights of Chiang Mai.

The sights of Chiang Mai

On my cycle ‘tour’ I stumbled upon the womens prison where I had heard they offer massages. The women who are due for release within the next 6 months have been trained and then work here as masseurs in those 6 months in order to be able to find work when they are released as well as be able to earn some money for when they’re released.

I opted for a foot massage and I have to say I’m still not really getting the whole massage thing. Yes it was nice but that was it to be honest, it’s not something I would have a burning desire to do again in a tremendous hurry.

Yoga this evening is at 6pm so after a little more of a tour around the city I made my way back for a shower before preparing for the rest of my ‘do not a lot’ day. Now that couldn’t be further from the truth either.

The yoga class was an hour and a half and was amazing, but the hardest, no really the hardest, class I’ve ever done.

I’ve done yoga a few times before and I know I’m really not flexible at all and don’t bend very well but this just highlighted it a million times over. I can’t believe how little I was able to properly do. I think this is something I may have to try and pick up more when I’m home.

Last stop for my last night in Chiang Mai is the Saturday walking market, similar to the Sunday one in that it’s the people who walk not the market, but you get the idea.

Clearly not on my menu!

Again it was huge but I don’t think it was had quite the same things as the Sunday one, I would have said the Sunday one was more touristy although my thoughts on this could have been clouded due to the jet lag!

It was a fun market though which was once again jam packed with people, mainly loads of local teenagers buying some really great crazy stuff.

The Saturday night market