Chiangmai free and easy : Temples and sightseeing

We booked a Chinese speaking tour guide  because my parents only understand Chinese.

We need a driver as my parents are not really good at walking. This is more of trip catering to senior citizens. 

Actually if you book direct which means you call up the guide, the price is cheaper.

We booked kind of late so we could not get a driver cum tour guide directly.

Hence, we booked through an agency. We paid 3000 baht.

My tour guide is quite good but he is not those chatty kind so if you prefer someone who liven up the atmosphere, then is not suitable. We are not really chatty so we don't mind and he can speak chinese quite well as he worked in Taiwan for a couple of years.

His car is a MPV so it is quite comfortable and the car is very clean.

We were lucky that we booked a private guide so the itinerary is flexible. 

It started raining very heavily in the morning.

Instead of visiting temples, we switched to visiting the handicrafts places as that is the only sheltered places. 

He was quite flexible, we asked him to drop us at a market and when we decided not to go shopping near chiangmai university, he bought us to one or two temples to make up for the time difference.

I booked by tour packages through this website. I chatted with them in chinese via QQ.

http://www.fuchiangmaitravel.com/

He drove us to a market selling fresh fruits as my parents are interested in markets and fruits.

We bought some fruits back to try in our hotel.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Can either climb a flight of stairs or take the cable car. The steps are still manageable.

They charge an entrance fee  for foreigners only. My guide explained that is because locals will donate when they entered the temple so that is their entrance fee. For foreigners, sometimes we don't know how to donate so they just charge as the entrance fees.

Beautiful skies. BEautiful photo.

 Can catch the beautiful view of chiangmai at the back of the temple.

Bells, bells, bells...

Look carefully, donation from a Singaporean.

After all the walking, is time to snack. 

If you are not into roadside food, which includes corns, hotdogs and fruits

 can buy chips or icecream from a provision shop.

There are various stalls selling clothes and accessories, remember to bargain.

Near to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is the Chiangmai University. Beautiful lake.

Coffee break at Coffee Man at Chiangmai University. 

He bought us to 2 more temples. I did not get the name but I did get some beautiful photos.

I did enjoy my temple visit because the temples looks very beautiful and also they do not look alike. 

Paris free and easy: Puces de Saint Ouen, Avenue des Champs-Elysees, GAlaries LAfayette

Galaries Lafayette

We walked over from Pritemps. 

Is a beautiful roof top. Quite a view.

But if you are not into shopping and architecture, drop by if it is on the way.

Puces de Saint Ouen

Took a train there.

Personally, I am quite disappointed because it reminds me of Singapore Pasar malam but at a much bigger scale and cost. 

OUr walking tour just ended around here. so We walk over for a snack and a stroll. 

There is Laudree here if anyone is interested

 Hunks outside a shop. What is the brand?

The famous shop. Short queue outside. We went in just we were so curious. But lots of people doing serious shopping.

Performances.

PAris free and easy : RAndom shots and accomodation and some notes on travelling

We chose to stay in a rented apartment rather than a hotel.

Firstly, we realized it was very hard to find a hotel with good reviews or maybe we were picky and we booked quite late. Some were too small, too expensive or location was just not good or there was no free wifi or it was old.

So after doing a lot research, we decided to rent an apartment which has bed room, living room, kitchen and toilet. There is big bed, a big sofa bed, and fully equipped kitchen. We had a lot more space and no my friend say the sofa bed was big and comfortable.

The negative part about staying in an apartment is there is no housekeeping, no fast response as the owner is contactable by phone or email, we had to climb a flight of stairs up. The door was not like the standard Singapore door, we had to ask a neighbor for help to open the door and we practiced to get the hang of it. It was fun. Do not note that some apartment do not have air conditioning.

The plus is the space. We also can eat breakfast in the hotel room which was much cheaper than eating out and sometimes, we were just to lazy to crawl out of bed. Is quite important to have a good breakfast when travelling because sometimes we have to skip lunch or have a late lunch because we are in the midst of travelling or sight seeing that we cant afford the time to sit down for a meal. We only have time for some snacks. We usually just grab any interesting snacks from a supermarket.

Train ride from London to PAris

Paris is a beautiful place. Some of the shots are just taken randomly when we stroll from place to place.

If you are taking the metro, remember the tickets can be bought in set of 10. It will be cheaper, however the tickets tend to be faulty so just go into counter and ask for replacement.

Avoid standing at corners because they are usually for the reason for the stench in train station.

I met some helpful people in Paris. One couple even use their google map to help us locate the shop for duck confit. Not as arrogant as what people rumored but I do have a bit of problem with their accent at times.

Paris free and easy : Food and restaurants

Lot of bakeries and cakes shops. Just walk into anyone and order some cake or bread or a nice breakfast or teatime.

LAudree also serve a lot of other beautiful desserts..

The two famous macroons. Not really a big fan of it, just them for curiosity sake. If you are not a fan, just skip it or buy one or two to try. But we have Laudree In Singapore.

Lots of branches in Paris so just visit one to your convenient. 

But don't try to bring it back to Singapore as it usually can't be kept for long.

We went to two food outlets recommended by Shi shang wan jia (食尚玩家).

The first one is a duck confit shop around 15 minutes walking distance to our place.

I think is closed on Sunday.

The food has slightly above average, we ordered wine as in Paris, wine is quite cheap. It is less than s$10 per glass. I can't remember how much it cost, we each order a duck confit and some wine so it should be around $30-$40 per pax.

Address:

Au Pied de Fouet (duck) Sasa

45 Rue Babylone, 75007 Paris, France

3 Rue St Benoît, 75006 Paris, France

96 Rue Oberkampf, 75011 Paris, France

The second food outlet recommend by Shi shang wan jia (食尚玩家).

There was a small queue of locals and foreigners when we were there so we waited around half an hour to be seated.

This restuarant is famous for serving reasonably priced france food

We ordered quite a bit of stuff, like 3 appetizers, 3 mains, 1 bottle of wine and 2 desserts.

I cant remember the price but should be less than s$50 per pax.

I will not really recommend this place.

The appetizer and desserts was ok but the mains are quite bad.

The chicken was dry.

The steak which my friend ask well done was so tough that we had to help her cut it as it was so tiring and tedious to cut up the meat.

The environment will be a bit of like food court style as it is big but tight and noisy. But furnishing is definitely much much better than a food court.

Le Bouillon Cartier 7 rue du Fauboug Montmartre • 75009 Paris

We actually wanted to try crepes but because the one we researched on was not located so we randomly walked into a restaurant. Food was average so not a need to post an address. 

Paris free and easy : Louvre Museum & Notre Dame Cathedral

If you are going anywhere that you think there will be a lots of people. Try to go as early as possible. By right, you can take a train there. I walked from Republique train station to there as my friend lost track of where we are going and by the time we realise where we are, we are almost there.

The correct way is take the metro to  Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre station

Everyone was doing this pose!!

Please follow the instructions

FAmous famous sculpture

Poor thing. Everyone had been touching her big toe

 Mona Lisa is quite a small photo. But the crowd is enormous. some Squeezing and pushing expected.

The museum is actually a beautiful place. Sometimes the paintings are just above you.

To cover the whole place in the shortest possible time but still need to stop and take a look here and there, I think around 3-4 hours is needed. For people who want to look at everything in details, some people say a day is not enough. The place is quite big and we were a bit lost at times.

Some people say the museum Orsay is not interesting but I have not been there due to time constraints.

Louvre has a very long queue. So it will be good to actually buy the tickets in advance if you are sure when you are going or go very early. 

I remember reading somewhere there is another entrance near the river which few people know about. Can try goggling about it.

Yes, and they have night openings on Wednesday and Friday. I saw some of the night shots, looks so beautiful. Too bad, I was only in PAris for a few days so I did not manage to catch the night view of LOuvre.

We visited Notre Dame CAtheral quite early too because we heard about the swarms of tourists that will pop up at late morning and afternoon.

Afternoon is a bit warm during summer to stay outdoors so we leave the shopping or pop back to our apartment for a afternoon nap.

It is a beautiful cathedral. OUr guide from sandeman tours told us about its history so we were just exploring the place. The cathedral only needs around half an hour to an hour unless you are going up the tower.

We decide against going up the tower because at that timing, there were be a lot of people and our trip in Paris was only a few days so we did not have time to spare.

As we did not explore the tower, we circled the cathedral for a 360 degree view of the architecture. It was worth it because we found a small little park at the back of the cathedral which have beautiful flowers.

Instructions on how to get there.

MÉTRO

Ligne 4 Station Cité or Saint-Michel 

Ligne 1, 11 Station Hôtel de Ville 

Ligne 10 Station Maubert-Mutualité or Cluny – La Sorbonne 

Lignes 7, 11 et 14 Station Châtelet

RER

Ligne B Station Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame 

Ligne C Station Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame