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Langkawi Dayang Bunting Loiyumba jumping water

Malaysia 2010: Day 6 — Langkawi (Island hopping tour, Pantai Tengah beach, Night market)

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Mar 18, 2011
/
Malaysia, Travel

Date: 30th September 2010

After a great first day in Langkawi, today morning we were up and ready for our island hopping tour.

Langkawi roti canai — For breakfast, I had ‘roti canai’ which is similar to Kerala parota, but fluffier. To drink, Milo, which is waaaay more popular in Malaysia than it is in India.

We were picked up by the tour operator at 8am and dropped off at a pier where other tourists were gathered as well.

Langkawi island hopping tour private speedboats — These were the kind of boats we were going to be driven around in

Langkawi island hopping cloud sunny skies — It was a lovely sunny day to be out on a boat trip

Langkawi island hopping tour boat steps — All the tourists were divided into groups and we got into our boat

Langkawi island hopping tour wave splash — Given my past experience going on a similar trip in Krabi, I was more careful this time in protecting my camera equipment

Our first stop on the tour was to get a glimpse of the Pregnant Maiden Island, called so because it looks like a lady lying down with a pregnant tummy.

Langkawi island hopping tour Pregnant Maiden island — Took me a while to make out where the ‘pregnant maiden’ was

Langkawi island hopping Pregnant Maiden island panorama — This is a panorama comprised of 6 shots. See if you can find her. (Hint: Head is on the right)

Langkawi island hopping tour tourists speedboat — We moved on

Langkawi Dayang Bunting Marble geoforest park arrival — Soon after, we arrived at our first major stop on the tour

We were at the Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park, which is located inside the Island of the Pregnant Maiden.

Langkawi Dayang Bunting monkey at pier entrance — Our welcoming party. The monkeys, not the old guy.

Langkawi Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest park monkey on tree — Needless to say, there were going to be a lot of monkeys here

The stop was for us to check out a lake inside.

Langkawi Pregnant Maiden island park monkey opening bottle — But I was more amused watching monkeys

Langkawi Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest lake — The lake inside is famous because despite being in an island located in the sea, the lake’s water isn’t as salty

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake — You can also swim here

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake paddle boats — There are also paddle boats for hire

They also have one of those “fish spas” here with small catfish ever ready to nibble away at your feet’s germs.

Langkawi Pregnant Maiden island lake tourists catfish spa — Plus it’s free

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake catfish massage — The water is cool, but the nibbling at your feet can be ticklish… and slimy

Langkawi Pregnant Maiden island lake catfish spa — But when people throw bread crumbs near your feet…. it can get a *little* too much!

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake swimming — We had nearly an hour to spend here

Langkawi Pregnant maiden island changing rooms — They have changing rooms for men and women here itself

Langkawi pregnant maiden island women's changing room — … but it kinda helps to know English

45 minutes in, we made our way back to the pier

Langkawi Geoforest park monkeys on stones — Like I said, lots of monkeys here

You have to be a bit careful though. Yes, they are more afraid of you than your are of the monkeys. But if they see anything enticing in your hands — like juice bottles or food packets — sometimes they will come at you and just grab it. Also, I saw some idiots throw things at them. Please don’t do that.

Langkawi geoforest park monkey coke bottle — 2 seconds ago, that Coke bottle was in that old man’s hands. He didn’t fight for it back… because that would make human race look inferior.

Langkawi geoforest park boats leaving — We got into our boats and moved on

Our next stop was a short trip away.

Langkawi island hopping tour fish feeding farm — Next up was a fish feeding farm…

Langkawi island hopping tour fish feeding farm arriving — … which was also a restaurant. Hmmm.

The thing was, you had to pay to feed the fishes. This isn’t exactly included in the package.

Langkawi fish feeding farm baskets — But we didn’t go for it

We didn’t opt to feed the fishes because, 1) all 3 of us weren’t interested 2) the concept of paying to feed fishes, fatten them up and who then (possibly) end up on the restaurant menu didn’t sound right to me.

Langkawi fish feeding farm tourist — Boring huh?

Langkawi fish feeding farm teal water — Fortunately it was only a 30 minute stop, so I continued clicking

Langkawi geoforest islands blue sky huge cloud — We moved on

Langkawi island hopping tour guide smoking — Our boat driver, smoking

We rode up to what looked like a mangrove forest, where we would witness an eagle feeding session.

Langkawi eagles grey sky — Langkawi gets its name from eagles. Malay word ‘lang’ = eagle, kawi = reddish brown colour

Langkawi island hopping tour eagle feeding mangrove — The island is inhabited with a lot of eagles of that colour

The eagle feeding session works as such. The boats all float apart from each other and the drivers/guides throw some eagle feed (bread bits or some meat) into the waters, and the birds of prey come sweeping in with their beaks ready to eat.

Problem was, I didn’t have the right lens for this part of the tour. The most zoom I had was with my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8, which as a macro lens is great, but isn’t much when it comes to photographing fast moving birds.

Here are a few shots Ramesh got using his Canon 55-250mm telephoto lens.

Langkawi white breast eagle Photograph by Ramesh — (Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)

Langkawi brown eagle Photograph by Ramesh — (Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)

After the eagle feeding session, we moved on to our next and final stop on this tour.

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island — Beras Basah island

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island sign — If you wanted to swim in the sea or just hang around on the beach, here is where you are allowed to do it

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island beach — We were all keen to hit the water!

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island swimming — But I didn’t feel like leaving my camera on the beach

Langkawi Beras Basah island sea level — So I took it with me into the water! But I trod very carefully so as not to get a drop of water on the lens.

Langkawi Beras Basah island Loiyumba coral reef — Loi and Ramesh found broken corals

Langkawi Beras Basah island Ramesh Loiyumba corals — So I asked them to make use of them and pretend to be reindeers!

Langkawi Beras Basah island Mithun corals — Because you know, reindeers in water are… ermm… 🙂

Langkawi island Loiyumba Davidoff ad — Couldn’t help but turn this into an ad 🙂

Langkawi Beras Basah island Mithun floating head — Attempting the ‘head floating in water’ shot

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island hotel — After some time, we made our way back to shore

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island overcast skies — Overcast skies in the distance

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah private property — Not sure if this was a hotel or not

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island dock — After drying ourselves up, we headed back to the pier

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island monkeys — Monkeys inhabit this island too

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island monkey — Amazing how they survive on the island, considering there are no human residents here.

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island forest — We left Beras Basah island

Langkawi island Malaysia yacht — We got a bit of rain as we neared the pier from where we set off in the morning

Langkawi island resort hotel — Pretty cool looking resort

The rain was mostly a drizzle once we got back. They were selling memorabilia plates of everybody who went for these boat trips and since they were only RM10, we all picked up our respective plates.

This was a half-day island hopping tour and it only cost us RM30 (Rs. 450 approx.) per person. I’ve done a similar tour like this last year in South Thailand. Of course, that trip didn’t start of well, with my camera getting wet and all, but I doubt I’ll ever get sick of seeing clear blue water and less crowded beaches far away from civilization.

As we were walking to our vans, Ramesh and I were talking about visiting the Langkawi Underwater World, just when one of the Sri Lankans who was on our boat overheard us. He turned back and advised us against it, saying that the Aquaria KLCC in Kuala Lumpur is “much better”. So we decided to take his word for it and dropped the idea of going to Langkawi Underwater World.

The tour company dropped us back to our hotel.

Langkawi Sweet Inn Motel chairs lobby — The lobby downstairs at Sweet Inn Motel

Langkawi motel cat licking — One of the many cats that visit Sweet Inn

Langkawi Pantai Cenang village — It had just finished raining

We stepped out again, this time for lunch.

Langkawi Skol beer Chang beer — We stopped by a restaurant to quench our throats first with some chilled beer. I tried SKOL which I never had before. It was average in taste.

Unfortunately, looking at the menu, it offered very little in terms of vegetarian for Ramesh. So after beer, we sought some other restaurant.

Langkawi Pantai Cenang lane — So we went further down Pantai Cenang road to check out other restaurants

Langkawi Underwater World Malaysia — This is Underwater World Langkawi

Langkawi restaurant soda pop iced tea — We sat down at a restaurant in front of Underwater World after Ramesh found something he could eat

Langkawi Malaysian chicken curry rice — But the food wasn’t particularly good. I didn’t like my chicken curry rice.

Post lunch, we checked out some Duty Free stores. Langkawi is a Duty Free shopping destination, so one would assume you would find some great bargains. But as we hopped from one shop to another, that wasn’t the case. Especially with electronics. We walked into the Canon store at a mall adjacent to Underwater World and found the prices to be far higher than that of Singapore. We were aware Malaysia isn’t as cheap as Singapore when it comes to electronics, but still, the prices we came across were a bit exorbitant. Some even higher than prices back in India.

I feel Langkawi businesses were taking advantage of the “Duty Free” label and jacking up the prices because you never know, some less-informed tourist would buy into the whole gimmick and assume they got a good deal here.

At this point, Ramesh and Loiyumba wanted to head back to our hotel in Langkawi for some rest. This being our last day on Langkawi, I didn’t feel like resting, so I told them I wanted to roam around a bit more.

I was contemplating heading to Kuah, Langkawi’s main town, just to see what that side of the island had to offer. But since we had already walked quite a bit, I decided to head further on and visit Pantai Tengah beach. In the process, also share some more beachfront hotel options on Pantai Cenang in case you wanted to know where to stay (I highlighted some places in the previous post).

Langkapuri Inn hotel Langkawi — Langkapuri Inn to the left; the yellow building is a BBQ restaurant

Sugary Sands Motel Langkawi — Sugary Sands Motel

Tanjung Malie Beach Motel Langkawi Malaysia — Tanjung Malie Beach Motel

Green Hill Beach motel Mali Perdana Resort Langkawi — Green Hill Beach motel is the one with the green sign

Sunset Beach Resort Langkawi Malaysia — Sunset Beach Resort (http://www.sungroup-langkawi.com/sunset/)

The Cabin Langkawi budget hotel — The Cabin Langkawi (http://www.thecabin.com.my/)

Aseania Resort Langkawi Malaysia — Aseania Resort, not on the beach though (http://www.aseanialangkawi.com/index.html)

Langkawi Durian fruit melons stall — Durian (similar to Jackfruit), is the national fruit of Malaysia (I think)

Langkawi way to Pantai Tengah beach — Head straight down this road to get to Pantai Tengah beach

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach Malaysia — This is Pantai Tengah beach

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach grey skies — It isn’t as big as Pantai Cenang… and the sand isn’t as soft either

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach sand Malaysia — In fact, the sand was mostly broken shells. Not the best for walking barefoot then.

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach shore rain — At this point, it began to rain

Langkawi Pantai Tengah field — Fortunately, I had my umbrella in my backpack. So I walked back instead of taking cover.

Langkawi Sri Kijang Bank Negara resort — This nice looking resort isn’t open to public

Langkawi Sri Kijang Bank Negara resort Pantai Cenang — Upon research, it belongs to a bank and is meant only for its employees. Posh.

Debbie's Place Irish pub bar in Langkawi — Debbie’s Place Irish pub on Pantai Cenang

Langkawi Sweet Inn Shida Laundrette — There’s a laundry shop very close to Sweet Inn, very reasonable rates for service

I went back to the room to drop off my laundry, and to see what the other two were up to. Ramesh and Loi were taking a nap and so, I decided to step out again.

Way to Rasa Eksotika The Palms guesthouse Langkawi — I wanted to explore the area behind the motel

Langkawi Pantai Cenang house lodges — Some of the houses here have been turned into budget accommodation for tourists. Good income for villagers.

Langkawi village field water buffalo — Apparently all water buffaloes do is stare at you

Langkawi Pantai Cenang Malay house — I had reached a main road at this point

Langkawi weekend market fish Malaysia — I saw this market by the main road…

Langkawi weekend market Nasi Beriani Malaysia — … and since there was a lot of food on display, I had to check it out!

Langkawi weekend market fish balls Malaysia — I forget if these were fish balls or cheese balls… or fish balls with cheese powder coating

Langkawi weekend market Apom Balek Malaysia — Apom Balek, sweet stuff. I sampled a few of these. (‘apom’ sounds like India’s “appam”)

Langkawi weekend market Nasi Beriani price Malaysia — ‘Nasi’ is Malay for rice and ‘Beriani’ is well, biriyani (RM 3.50 = Rs. 50)

Langkawi weekend market van vendors — Seemed like this was some sort of weekend market, not a mainstay

Langkawi weekend market sotong kangkung Malaysia — Guess I knew where to bring Loi for dinner

Langkawi weekend market fruit stalls Malaysia — Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables on offer

Langkawi weekend market dried fish — Dried fish… lots of it!

Langkawi weekend market cempedak goreng Malaysia — ‘Cempedak’ is a type of fruit, ‘goreng’ I’m guessing means fried

Langkawi weekend market lychee Malaysia — Not sure what these were

Langkawi weekend market juices Malaysia — All these colourful juices made me thirsty

Langkawi weekend market corn juice Malaysia — So I had corn milk juice. Weird choice, I know. But I didn’t come all the way here to strawberry milkshake.

Langkawi economic rooms village — You got budget accommodation out here as well

After spending some time at the market, I knew I was coming back here for dinner. Great street food at very low prices — who am I to complain? I headed back to let the other two know about my ‘discovery’.

Once I got back to the room at around 6pm, Loi was still napping. So we forced him to get out of bed and get ready. We set out by 7:30pm.

Langkawi Palms guesthouse at night — It was pitch dark and there weren’t any street lights on this route

Langkawi street market orange susu air kelapa — ‘Susu’ is the Malay for milk (yup); ‘kelapa’ means coconut and ‘air’ is water (seriously)

Langkawi street food spring potato — Wondering what this is?

Langkawi night market spring potato — It’s potato

Langkawi night market putu mayong — Keralites, looks familiar?

Langkawi Malay street food putu sign — Puttu! Albeit, a slight variation

Langkawi street food making putu — This is how they make lots of it

Langkawi street market fried fish — This is fish apparently

Langkawi street market pizza vendor — I ordered a seafood mini-pizza from here

Langkawi night market seafood pizza — Mostly crab meat and prawns; RM 5 (Rs. 75) for one

Langkawi street food fried rice noodles — A lot of the food was already sold out

Langkawi night market boiled meat — You take the basket and tongs, pick up whatever you want and you will be charged accordingly

Langkawi street food Loiyumba boiled meat — After you choose, you cook it in boiling water

Langkawi street food baby octopus — … even stuff like this (Yuck)

Langkawi street food spring rolls samosas — Picked up some chicken samosas and vegetable spring rolls (RM 2 = Rs. 30)

Langkawi street food fried chicken bbq — Was tempted to get some fried chicken too but I didn’t want overeat 🙂

Langkawi street food burgers — Picked up a beef burger as well. ‘Daging’ = beef, ‘ayam’ = chicken, ‘benjo’ = egg (RM1 = Rs. 15)

Langkawi weekend market stalls — The night market was a lot more crowded than earlier

Unfortunately, everybody except Ramesh got what we wanted. There was very little in terms of pure vegetarian on offer at the night market. So we headed back to the main road so that Ramesh could pick up his dinner from a proper restaurant.

Since this was our last night in Langkawi, we hit the beach to the feel wet sand on our feet one last time.

Langkawi Pantai Cenang Rasa restaurant — This is the restaurant from where we had lunch yesterday and breakfast today morning

After checking out a few restaurants, Ramesh ended up picking up a vegetarian pizza from Italian coffee chain illy Cafe, which cost as much as all the food myself and Loi picked up from the night market.

Langkawi stray cat Loiyumba petting — While we waited, Loi petted stray kittens

Langkawi Pantai Cenang Mithun Divakaran — As it is this post has over 200 photos, might as well squeeze in one of me. (Photograph by Ramesh)

Langkawi stray cat fight scar injury — Wonder what animal this cat fought with

Langkawi Sweet Inn Zee Cinema — Back at our motel, this guy was hooked on Hindi movies

Langkawi hotel dinner street food beers — Dinner! 🙂

And just when you thought we had seen enough cats for one day…

Langkawi Sweet Inn cat eating — This came to our door. We had to share our food with it too.

Langkawi Sweet Inn cat Loiyumba — We kept referring to the cat as ‘it’. So, Loi felt the need to check. It was a ‘she’.

Dinner and drinks done, I ended the night satisfied with all that I saw today. Actually, I did want to head to Kuah town after we came back from our island hopping tour. But given that it ended up raining in the afternoon, it’s a good thing I stayed put in Pantai Cenang.

With 208 photos and over 2000 words, this is the largest post I’ve worked on. There were still some more photos I felt like using because they looked good, but in the end decided not to.

It was good day today, but tomorrow onwards, it’s four days in Malaysia’s capital — Kuala Lumpur.

Other posts in this series:

Singapore & Malaysia 2010: Planning and preparing for the trip

Singapore 2010: Day 1 – Little India, CBD, Clarke Quay, China Town… and a lot of walking

Singapore 2010: Day 2 – Orchard Road, mall-hopping… and already shopping

Singapore 2010: Day 3 – Singapore Zoo, Marina Bay Sands; leaving Singapore for Penang

Malaysia 2010: Day 5 — Langkawi (Ferry ride from Penang, Cable car & Sky Bridge)

Malaysia 2010: Day 7 — Kuala Lumpur (Low Yat Plaza, Petronas Towers, Jalan Alor)

Malaysia 2010: Day 8 — Kuala Lumpur (Batu Caves, Petaling Street/China Town)

Malaysia 2010: Day 9 — Kuala Lumpur (KLCC Aquaria, Merdeka Square, KL Tower observation deck)

Malaysia 2010: Leaving Kuala Lumpur… and about going back

Unseen Malaysia | 41 Bucket-list-worthy Destinations. View the interactive version here

Buddha statues at Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai

Thailand 2009: Day 4 – Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai… and back in town

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Jan 04, 2010
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Thailand, Travel

Date: Dec 16th, 2009

The next day, I woke up and checked out of Rux Thai by 8am. I left my bags at their store room as the first thing I needed to do was to get a bus ticket to Phuket. I took a pick-up taxi (unlike Bangkok, few Toyota Corollas here) and headed for the Chiang Mai bus terminal (cost me 50 baht).

Unnnnnfortunately, when I got there, I was informed that the buses to Phuket go via Bangkok — (“Oh crap” moment #4) — which meant a one-and-half day journey.

Disappointed as hell, and it felt like hell given the heat, I went to a internet cafe nearby and tried again for flight tickets. There was the option of train but apparently even that goes via Bangkok — meaning, one really long journey. I would have taken the train if I had the time because I would have loved to see the country side, but time was not on my side. All the budget carriers were full and the only flight that was available from Chiang Mai to Phuket the next day was with Thai Airways. Even though it cost me around 5900 baht (Rs. 8,300), I had no other choice, I had to go for it.

I booked my flight, printed my tickets and headed back to Rux Thai Guesthouse by pickup taxi. In a way, I was kind of happy that I now had another day in Chiang Mai. But now, I had to find another room to stay in.

Just before I picked up my bags from Rux Thai, I stepped into an adjascent guesthouse called City House. They had rooms from 200 baht, 300 baht and above (!) Since it was already noon and I was going to be checking out by early morning, I opted for the single room w/fan (200 baht/Rs. 270) plus 50 baht (Rs. 69) for their WiFi service.

Small room, but it was clean, had the basic frills and it had a working hot shower (important to me). Overall, a very good deal given the location.

I freshened up, planned where I needed to go next and then headed out for lunch.

Which was at a small family-run restaurant…

A small restaurant in Chiang Mai — Run by what looked liked a mother & daughter duo

… and I had the sea-food curry rice meal. At just 40 baht (Rs. 55), it was filling — and good.

Sea food Thai curry & rice — a staple diet for me while I was there

After lunch, I walked around the area and looked for a specific bike I thought I’d rent to go to Doi Suthep.

Bikes for rent in Chiang Mai — Tempting… but not what I was looking for

A canal that stretches throughout Chiang Mai city

Thapae gate, Chiang Mai — To the left is Thapae gate

I crossed the road and walked to the other side and… just kept walking. The bylanes all housed small hotels and casual bars making it a ‘quieter side’ compared to Loi Kroh road.

Freedom Bar, Chiang Mai — Freedom Bar, a popular reggae joint in Chiang Mai

After having checked out a few rental bike shops, I realized time was going by. I stopped at a travel agent who was renting bikes for 200 baht (Rs. 270) a day. He didn’t have the bike I was looking for (which damn bike? That I shall talk about in a later post) so I opted for a Honda Click — a 110cc regular automatic scooter.

The Honda Click I got

Tip: It’s advisable to take photos of whatever vehicle you rent in Thailand, be it a a bike, car, jet ski etc. There so many cases of scams or renters accusing you of a damage you may not have caused and seeking a lot of money. I’m not saying this agent looked like he was going to pull one on me but you never know. At least having evidence in your hands helps.

I rented a bike because I needed to go to a temple called Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai’s most famous temple. I also knew it was a bit of a drive there and taking a taxi would have cost me 600 baht/Rs. 830 or more (that’s what they were quoting anyway). So renting a bike seemed like a better option.

But what I didn’t know was that it was perched on top of a hill and that it was 17kms away.

So I set off quickly after getting a few directions and filling up a litre of petrol (40 baht/Rs. 55)… and then some more directions after taking a few wrong turns.

Bikky in Chiang Mai — Only a few (mostly family) will get the reference

I was finally on the right path and I drove past Chiang Mai Zoo and the Night Safari to enter the foot of the hill. What I also didn’t know was, how beautiful the drive was going to be!

I absolutely loved it! Tall trees on either side, the sunlight barely making it through the trees, dried leaves on either side of the road, professional cyclists biking their way up hill… it was just lovely. The road was divided into 2 lanes going up and 1 lane going down. There wasn’t much traffic going up as most people were on their way down. I really wished I had stopped to take a few photos but I just couldn’t! It was already 5pm and I had to drive 7kms uphill on a 110cc scooter before it got too dark. (Not taking photos of the uphill drive was one of my biggest regrets of this trip but I’m definitely coming back to Chiang Mai to do it right.)

By 5:20pm I finally reached my destination. Took a left, went a bit downhill to the parking area, then walked back up and then saw I had even more climbing to do.

Chiang Mai Doi Suthrep stairs — (Taken on Nokia E72)

I was quite knackered after I took a few steps with my camera bag and the tripod on either shoulders. Panting for breath, I stopped for a while…

Doi Suthrep, Chiang Mai — Took me a while, even though it wasn’t many steps

… took a few photos, drank some water and then made my way back up.

Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai — Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep (‘wat’ in Thai means temple)

There was a sign board pointing to a ticket counter for tourists, but when I went there, nobody was to be seen at the counter. I didn’t wait as it was already late, so I went inside the temple after leaving my shoes outside (as is the requirement).

Emerald Buddha at Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai — An emerald statue of Lord Buddha at Doi Suthep

By the time I had gone around the temple, the sun had nearly set. After I felt I had clicked enough, I went down, got my shoes and stepped out of the temple.

I was dreading the ride back downhill as it was quite chilly on the way up. And the fact that I was only wearing a T-shirt and shorts, it was only going to get chillier on the way down with the sun all set.

But I braved the chill factor and still made my way down in the dark. Until I saw this…

I drove a bit further down to an observation deck.

It was a hassle setting up the tripod in pitch darkness, not to mention changing lenses too. I played around with the camera’s settings to try and capture the starry sky.

Chiang Mai night sky — This is the best I managed with what I knew of the camera so far

Chiang Mai at night — Playing around with long exposure shots

By the time I slowly packed up all the equipment (it was dark, so I had to be careful) and left the observation point, it was 7:30pm. It was a pain to carry the camera tripod around but I wouldn’t have been able to take these shots had I not used it.

I made my way back down and by then, the evening had come alive with locals thronging the side streets. I stopped on the side when I saw a fairly large ‘food court’. It’s something I saw a lot of in Chiang Mai. Community eating. A stretch of food stalls serving a variety of dishes at very economical prices with enough tables and chairs for the groups of people — from school kids to young adults — who throng to such places.

I saw a ‘dosa’ stall but it was nothing close to the one I’m used to having with curry. These ‘dosas’ (some here even call it ‘roti’) are mostly sweet and can be filled with all sorts of delicious high-calorie stuffing.

Chiang Mai dosa stall — I chose a banana & egg filling

The batter is fried (margarine was used here) and then folded in with the filling, cut into squares and then topped with condensed milk and sugar if you want. I said ‘I want’ 😛

At 20 baht (Rs. 27), there’s enough for two… but I enjoyed having it all. I tried to get back to Loi Kroh road after that but being new to the city, ended up taking a few wrong turns. Not that I was complaining, I loved Chiang Mai. It looked lovely with the lit up fountains in the canals that divided roads. Again, I regret not stopping and taking photos.

As I did near Loi Kroh, I stopped at another road with food stalls lined up by the canal.

Just after I took the above photo, I hastily packed up and set off. And then I hear something fall onto the road. I quickly moved to the side of the road and I knew the tripod bag had fallen off because I had placed the strap on the open hook the Honda Click had below the seat. But just as I was about to turn — “CRRRAACCKK!!”

A car ran over it. I quickly ran towards it as the vehicles slowed down seeing this dark long object on the road. I picked it up and I could already feel pieces move inside the bag.

I reach my hotel room and instantly assessed the damage…

Broken lightweight tripod — Yup, it’s broken alright

… “Oh crap” moment #5

It was beyond repairable. So I just trashed it in the bin.

The irony was, I was thinking about picking up a really good tripod as the Canon 7D is a slightly heavy camera but decided to manage with the one I was carrying for two reasons. One, I had already spent enough and two, it would have definitely been heavier. But now, I had to get one!

It’s like God heard my thoughts and assumed that’s what I wanted. (God, if you are reading this, thanks — but this is not exactly the way I wanted it to happen!)

Instead of dreading over my loss, I went out for dinner. Back to the Night Bazaar it was. I had seen some very tempting fare the previous night so I decided to eat from Anusarn tonight.

Chiang Mai Anusarn market — Anusarn market, near Night Bazaar

Honey baked duck and Chang beer — Dinner: Honey baked duck and a glass of Chang beer

I also had a bit of deep-fried crab cakes. They were okay, nothing exceptional. The duck was nice though.

After dinner, I checked out the Night Bazaar one last time (photos in previous post) and then called it a night as I had to wake up early to first, give back the bike and then, waste precious time looking for a new camera tripod.