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After a very odd night last night,(sat around reading at 3am with jet lag, going back to bed at 5am and then sleeping until 2pm!), in the guesthouse that we booked before we left the UK – Julies – which was ok and had a nice outdoor space, apart from the whole of the outside had a faint smell of open drains and if you used the loo you have to put your toilet paper in the bin at the side – really not pretty. I know, call me snobbish, and I’m not sure what I expected for less than a fiver a night, but actually our room was really quite nice. As far as ‘backpackers’ accommodation goes in Chiang Mai, we were actually paying just higher than the odds. Well actually you can get a room for £1.50 a night, but, well, can you imagine.
When we did eventually drag ourselves out of our room today, we managed, after seeing several apartments that looked like prison cells, to find a really nice place. We mostly just wanted a fridge for water. But we also got air con, wifi internet access in our rooms and a balcony, all for, get this £4.80 a night!
We have signed up for our 6 week Thai language course. The building looks really nice, there is a library, and air con, a blessing given that it feels like we have arrived at the sun. It’s so humid here, in fact, even as I type I’m sweating – thank goodness for a waterproof keyboard.
I am, I’m sweating because I’m typing, how shocking is that. And I now have the air con pointed at me!
We’ve just been to the night markets to get some clothes. I think we were done, well kind of, I’m not keen on bartering, it just seems so rude. But we did some of it, and in all the cases we managed to get the stuff for half what they wanted for it. I just think that we could have been harder and got stuff for less, but we didn’t.
Though we fell for the same thing twice; the traders in the nightmarket (which is huge btw) all have calculators and they put in the price, and then when you say no, they pass you the calculator and ask you how much you want to pay, and it goes back and forth like that. But when we’ve decided on our final amount, we put that in and did that fake walking away thing. But then they say ‘ok, ok,’ and then put on 50 baht more (75p) and we just agreed as it seemed easier – it’s baking hot remember and all you want to be doing is sitting down.
So next time we are going to set our final figure 50 baht less, and then walk away at that point.
Though we now have some nice shorts, shirts and diesel sandals to go to our language course in.
Readers have left 2 comments.  1. UntitledBen, Unregisteredi think you are both insane 2. UntitledBen, Unregistered but look - checking out your website - get me!
sounds alright - you guys seem to be settled okay & not in too much culture shock <shock!> - great...
enjoy! WE WANT PHOTOS!!! post some quick!
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