Ann & Peter's Travels

 

Our travels after Northern Thailand were mostly to beach resorts and most posts will be brief  and largely photographic  – I’m typing this no less than 6 months in arrears and if I’m not brief I fear I’ll never finish!

After Northern Thailand we had decided to visit the bigger islands in the south that we hadn’t visited before. Apart from anything, Ann was keen to ditch self catering for a while and enjoy being waited on over the Christmas period. Phuket and Samui Islands also Hua Hin on the mainland, are all potential candidates for a future winter retreat for us away from the UK winter and they are all fairly cheap to get to from Chiang Mai so we thought we would visit all 3 places
(and more besides).

We flew from Chiang Mai to Phuket on 19th December .

We had decided to stay at  a couple of different places on Phuket that seemed both popular but quiet. Our first choice, Yanui Beach in the far South of the Island, definitely hit the spot.

Rawai Beach

Rawai Beach is the town nearest to Yanui Beach where we stayed at the Windmill Hotel over Christmas and New Year. Rawai Beach itself is nice enough but it’s not a swimming beach, lined  as it is with speed boats, long tail boats and fishing boats .

I guess you could call Rawai a working beach. At one end stands Rawai Pier with a small scruffy market and several fish restaurants on either side of the beach road with some of those on the beach side nothing more than seafood shacks. At the other end there is a Sea Gypsy Village with maybe ten or a dozen or so fish restaurants on the sea side of the road.

Boat trips to Phi Phi, James Bond and other Islands can be booked at any number of kiosks and Tourist Offices along the beach but we declined the many offers we had. There are hundreds of boats and thousands of tourists descending on these beaches daily and it didn’t sound an attractive proposition to us.

 

The roadside opposite the beach is lined with restaurants, bars and massage parlours some nice but some a tad scruffy but there are also  a number of modern and attractive residential/rental condo developments along the beach. A pleasant stroll of 20 minutes or so would get you from one end of the beach to the other though with temperatures every day in the mid 30s we would usually stop for a drink at some point along the beach.

Yanui Beach

Pretty Yanui Beach is small and secluded. Only 5 minutes drive or 20 minutes walk from Rawai Beach it stands between two promontories, Promthep Cape and the Windmill Lookout which provide stunning views of the beaches below and the islands beyond. There is a Life guard in season but the beach is nicely undeveloped with only a few operators renting beach cushions umbrellas, snorkel gear and other stuff and selling cold drinks and snacks. There are a couple of restaurants across the road .

The beach is apparently a great place to visit out of season when it is usually deserted – but not to swim as there are some difficult currents and no life guard.

Our hotel, the Windmill, is the only one in the immediate area and handily placed only a couple of hundred metres from the beach. A perfect spot.

 

Promthep Cape

This promontary above Yanui gives fabulous views but is always busy with coaches, full of tourists back and forth constantly. Their is a shrine here along with a lighthouse, memorials, shops and cafes.

 

We booked 2 weeks at the Windmill Hotel and were not disappointed. The room was large with cool marble floors and marble bathroom and the bed was comfy. There was a large flat screen TV, good wifi and a full size fridge with an inexpensive minibar. We had a large balcony overlooking the large swimming pool with views otherwise of jungle and the sea beyond with  a small development of half a dozen villas being built beside the hotel.

The service and standard of food served in the hotel’s restaurant was very good indeed. The hotel is owned by an Englishman, Richard and his Thai wife who runs the kitchen – both Thai and Western food is tasty and inexpensive and with a very good breakfast included in the rate, we would survive on 2 meals a day in an attempt to keep the calories down and lose a few pounds, a plan destined to fail due to lack of any significant exercise in the hot sun!

The restaurant food is of such quality and value that there are a number of expats living in the area who seem to use the restaurant for both breakfast and dinner and many of the customers attending an excellent Christmas lunch were expats with Thai Partners.

 

Christmas and New Year at the Windmill

We chose to stay in a hotel rather than an apartment over the Christmas and New Year period to enjoy the  festivities without having to fend for ourselves. We chose well. Christmas lunch was excellent with a traditional meal with all the trimmings and more – all at a very budget friendly price under £20 per head including wine! We enjoyed a lovely afternoon followed by a snooze before waking up to FaceTime with Matthew, Richard and Siobhan who were enjoying Christmas lunch at Matthew’s house.

New Year’s celebrations were a bit of a damp squib. A buffet dinner was on offer but wasn’t really advertised until a day or two before New Year and so numbers were a lot fewer than at Christmas and were mostly families with small children. We enjoyed the meal and then retired to our room seeing the New Year in a deux…

Nai Harn Beach

Nai Harn is a short distance from Yanui Beach as the crow flies but is a walk of about 5km. We walked there from the hotel but caught a taxi back!

The beach is quite a bit bigger than Yanui Beach and more developed with a couple of big hotels nearby and lots of timber built restaurants all selling the same local food and lots of shops selling the same tee shirts and tourist stuff nestled in trees at the back of the beach. A few stalls sit on the  beach itself selling drinks and snacks. On the road leading to the beach there are street vendors selling fruit and snacks and a taxi place.

Although  bigger and busier than Yanui, it is nevertheless a lovely beach.

There is a large ornamental lake overlooked by a temple at the back of the beach which somehow seems  a little out of place in an area which is off the beaten track with no proper town or even village and only a few houses and hotels in the immediate area.

Friday Market

On December 28th we could no longer resist the urge to try the one and only Indian restaurant in the area and decided to walk the 6km from Rawai Beach up to Chalong – we also walked back! The place was quite small but fairly busy with every customer an ex-pat. The food wasn’t quite Indian as we know it but it did the trick for us. En route to the Indian we came across this market which we think is a Friday only market for locals.

We had an excellent 2 week stay in Yanui and Rawai Beach. The hotel and its location were so good that we didn’t often wander too far away except to do some walking or try a few different restaurants – favourites were Coconut Paradise and The Islander which we discovered only a few days before we left – a bar run by ex-pats for ex-pats providing some excellent western and local food and colourful language we hadn’t heard the like since we last went to watch Man City!

Kata Beach

Next stop after Yanui/Rawai was Kata Beach which runs into Karon Beach with Patong Beach beyond.

We stayed at Mountain Seaview Apartments, a really nice small block of apartments perched  on a hill with views over the sea which is owned and run by a helpful Australian and his Thai Partner. There is no restaurant or pool here but residents have access to the facilities of CC’s Hide Away Hotel across the road which has a nice pool and shaded area for sitting and a bar and restaurant with a Happy Hour that works for both food and drink. Nice food too! The only downside was the challenging hill climb necessary to get up to the place but we soon got used to that and didn’t need to trouble the hotel’s shuttle service to/from town which we could have used had we needed it.

There isn’t a great deal to say about Kata. Its much bigger and much more touristic than Rawai with some very large resorts along the beach road. Its a beach resort which seems to be a very very popular place with Russian holiday makers. The beach was almost always packed and watching the crowds watching the sunset stood on the waters edge was quite amusing.

We spent most days here by the pool as it was just too hot to do any serious walking during the day. We got into a routine of walking into town around 4 or 5pm, jwalk a few kms and then go  for dinner. There is certainly no shortage of restaurants here and we tried Turkish (good) and Indian (so so) as well as local food. Probably our favourite place was a small local place near the apartment where the 2 of us dined for £6 or £7.

Patong Beach – Shopping Malls and a Walking Street of GoGo Bars and Ping Pong Shows

Patong Beach has a reputation as a wild  “Party Central” and as such is definitely not  our scene but it was only a short taxi ride down the coast so we thought we would have a look. We didn’t linger long. After wandering  around the very large and flash Jungceylon Mall, more of an air conditioned street than a mall, we walked down Bangla Road which is the walking street where all the action is and then along the seafront. We found a highly recommended Indian Restaurant, Arabia, but left disappointed after a very average curry. Home to bed!

 

 

We spent  7 nights on Kata Beach and then moved onto our final stop on Phuket, Phuket Old Town.

Phuket Old Town

 

We decided to visit Phuket Town because we had read that it’s quite different from the beach resorts and an interesting place to see because of its restored Old Town area with its Sino-Portugese shophouses and several mansion houses. We had read one review saying the place is reminiscent of George Town, Penang and it is albeit on a much smaller scale as the re-developed part of the Old Town currently covers only 3 or 4 streets although we saw a lot of work going on which hopefully means more is due to be restored. The other reason we visited was to do some shopping – Phuket Town is a big place and has several malls.

This was a nice change after beach resorts. We stayed 3 nights at Baan S, a pleasant enough hotel with all the facilities we needed and with a great location right on the edge of the  Old Town with its shops and restaurants.

Luckily we arrived on Sunday afternoon and so were able to visit the Sunday Market/Walking Street, probably the best one we have visited .

On Monday, after a lie-in, we took a taxi to Central Mall where Ann managed to buy a few bits and pieces over the course of several hours. Dinner was at the excellent Kopitiam restaurant not far from the hotel on Thalang Road in the Old Town

Ann was determined to make the most of the retail opportunities and so on Tuesday we tackled the shops around the Old Town and happily she was able to find a few more bits and pieces  that she “really needed”. Following a late lunch we took a tuk tuk to Robinson’s Department Store for a look around and to escape the heat and where lo and behold we found a Boots The Chemist which added another 2 or 3 kilos to our baggage!

Here are some photos taken around the Old Town area.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Walking Street

This night market takes place in the Old Town on Thalang Road, a beautifully renovated street only a short walk from our hotel. It’s a family orientated market and we visited on what seemed to be a special “Childrens’ Day”  when there was lots of stuff happening for kids with a free trampoline, loads of free entertainment and games with prizes. It’s a very busy place but there’s a great atmosphere and the food is incredibly good and as always incredibly cheap. Definitely our favourite night market so far.

 

 

 

Our final day was spent in similar fashion with a lie-in, followed by shopping with an early night for an early flight to Koh Samui the next day.

This was planned to be a short post but hasn’t worked out that way. Sorry! If anyone is still visiting this blog I promise the rest will be less wordy and more pictures…..

Next stop is Koh Samui.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Golden Triangle is in the far North East of Thailand and is the point at which three countries meet – Myanmar (Burma),Thailand and Laos. It is so named because the area was once the largest area in the world for illegal opium production. Although no longer the largest producer, the trade is still significant and apparently increasing along with the money laundering activities that go with it.

Like Mae Hong Son and Pai, this is another far flung area well away from any large cities which is becoming more popular with travellers who have the inclination to visit. There are any number of travel companies and agencies offering tours to the Golden Triangle but we had  a Guide, Joy, who knows the area intimately.

Driving directly from Chiang Mai to the Golden Triangle takes over four hours and so too far for a day trip. We opted for a an overnight stay in Chiang Rai which is just over an hour from the Triangle. Chiang Rai is the largest city in the far north of Thailand with a population of around 70,000. A standard organised tour would include visits to hill tribe villages, elephant camps and possibly tiger “sanctuaries” but we chose not to visit these places when we came to finalise our itinerary for the trip.

We had spent the first three days of the week commencing 7th December with Joy and his wife Goy travelling the Mae Hong Son Loop. On Thursday 10th we set off for the Golden Triangle. This would be a long day with a lot of driving but no hardship as the scenery for the most part is through a picturesque mountainous region.

After  a coffee break at Thaweesin Hot Springs  (totally underwhelming), our first proper stop was at Baan Dam, the Black House, near Chiang Rai.

 

The Black House is a weird but interesting place. Various buildings with interesting architecture are dotted around quite a large site and contain a large collection of art exhibits created by a single artist.

Thawan Duchanee, a local Thai artist now regarded as a Thai National Artist, developed a style of work representing the darkness of humanity.The exhibits are mostly coloured black and red and more than a little macabre as the artist is fond of using bits of animals, skulls, skins and other parts in his artwork. The buildings themselves are adorned with animal parts and apparently you can buy products made with animal parts, such as crocodile handbags, in the souvenir shop! We spent an hour and a half or so here but could easily have spent longer – there is a lot to see. Here are some pictures …..

 

Next stop was Mae Sai, the northern most city in Thailand where there is a border crossing  into Myanmar much used by Westerners on a visa run. Not an especially interesting town but there’s a busy market and the town is apparently a shopping paradise for precious stones and jewellery – the wealth perhaps not un-connected to the main trading in this Golden Triangle area. There is an unusual temple high on a hill with views over the border crossing to Myanmar. The Scorpion Temple includes some interesting statues including memorials to King Naresuan famous for beating back several Burmese invasions and killing the Burmese Crown Prince in a duel back in the day. As a reminder to all concerned, a giant scorpion statue stands facing Myanmar in a threatening pose.

 

From Mae Sai our next stop was the Golden Triangle, the point where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos can be seen from a viewpoint over the confluence of the Mekong and Ruak Rivers.

 

After a break here it was on to Chiang Saen, home to a big golden Buddha, actually a rather tacky looking Buddha in a  tacky touristic place packed with Thai and Chinese tourists on the day. From here we took a short boat trip on the Mekong with a brief stop on Don Sao Island Laos – actually a large Laos island on the river – for an opportunity to buy Snake Whisky, luggage, handbags, tee shirts and other Laos souvenirs  and to be badgered by Laotian kids begging for money.

 

 

 

 

 

The constant badgering by stall holders and begging kids was rather tiresome and so we didn’t hang around in Laos for long. We had a short ride upriver where Laos has an economic zone which houses, in an area which is totally rural, the Romans Casino. The casino sits in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone created when Laos agreed a lucrative lease with a chinese gambling operation to build and run the casino.

Chinese love gambling and since casinos are illegal in China, high rollers flood over the border to gamble here in an area which is rife with drug trafficking and other illegal activities. Inevitably the colossal amount of money washing around in the area doesn’t exactly stifle the already high level of corruption in this part of Asia where the Chinese are investing more and more, building dams, rubber plantations and casinos along its borders. The building of dams to generate electricity in the upper Mekong is controversial since the river runs the entire length of this region from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam providing water and food to the people. The impact on the control of the water flow from the upper river by the Chinese will inevitably impact countless people who live on the river.

After our interesting boat ride we hit the road for Chiang Rai, a drive of an hour or so. We had booked a room at Nak Nakara Hotel which was quite a bit over our budget but recommended by Joy and we didn’t really fancy any of the budget alternatives. It was a good choice with a nice room and a very good breakfast.

We arrived in Chiang Rai at dusk dropped our bags and headed out for dinner. This was one of very few occasions where we hadn’t researched eateries in advance. We had Tripadviser to advise us but it was difficult to get our bearings in the darkness and we headed for one and then another restaurant which we failed to find. Thus our only evening in Chiang Rai was spent wandering the streets until after over an hour or so, desperate, we stopped at a burger joint consisting of a few tables and benches and a couple of wooden cabins, one a bar and the other the kitchen. It turned out to be a great pick as we had the best burgers we have ever eaten anywhere! Amazing !

 

After a comfortable night and an excellent breakfast at Nak Nakara, we had quick look around some Chiang Rai temples which, frankly, we found unremarkable – maybe we were getting templed-out! We  then made our way back to Chiang Mai via the famous White Temple , a visit to Doiluang National Park and then a lunch stop  before the final stretch to Chiang Mai.

Wat Rong Khun , more popularly known by Westerners as The White Temple was built in the late 1990’s on the site of an old temple of the same name which had fallen into disrepair due to lack of public funds. A Thai artist agreed to re-build a temple to his own design and at his own expense and the White Temple is the result. The temple was opened to the public unfinished and is still unfinished. An earthquake caused damaged in 2014 but the damage repairs and work carries on and is not expected to be completed for at least 50 years..

This is an awesome place to visit. It’s very big and very white! The white cement render has slivers of mirror set into it so it is ultra shiny in the sunlight – striking to say the least. Each of the buildings and various features, for example the bridge by which the main building is accessed and the “Sea of Hands”, are symbolic. An explanation as to their meaning and significance can be found via google.

The White Temple is really quite extraordinary and is considered to be an outstanding example of modern art.It has become the Artists life work and he believes it will give him immortal life. When it is completed will include a centre for learning and meditation .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a couple of hours at the White Temple, ahead of schedule we drove on  to Doiluang National Park. Joy had never visited this place himself but had heard it was good and was keen  to take a look to see if it was place that he could add to his tours.We agreed and were glad we did as this is a lovely forest park with lots of walking trails including an uphill up-river climb past a series of waterfalls. Unfortunately the walk turned out to be longer and tougher than we had expected and running out of time, we had to give up and turned around half-way (we think) before we reached the end of the track.

Our final brief lunch stop was at Phayao. Joy wanted to drive us around a very large and beautiful lake but for some reason many of the roads had been cordoned off. Joy and Goy went off for lunch but Ann and I didn’t want a big lunch and ended up with a beer and a packet of crisps sat by the water  watching a fisherman work his way around the lake with his net.

As we were sat enjoying our beer, crowds of Bike for Dad bikers started to arrive in numbers apparently getting  ready for the off.

 

Ever since we arrived in Thailand, even for the first time back in September, we had seen hundreds, thousands, of men, women and children wearing yellow tee-shirts emblazoned
” Bike for Dad”. It turned out that this week was the culmination of  the “Bike for Dad” Event,
a mass bicycle ride taking place all over Thailand to celebrate the King’s 88th birthday.
Today, Friday 11th December, the Crown Prince was leading over 100,000 cyclists around Bangkok with hundreds or thousands of other rides taking place in cities, towns and villages all over Thailand. It’s estimated that well over the 600,000 registered cyclists took part! Chiang Mai was grid-locked for hours.

Joy eventually dropped us off around 6pm. For a final time we walked down to Nimmenhaemin for a few beers at the Kamrai bottle shop followed by a curry. Tomorrow we would leave Chiang Mai and move out into the countryside for a few days of R&R at Baanpong Lodge about an hours drive from Chiang Mai.

Baanpong Lodge

Baanpong Lodge is a small hotel on the edge of a tiny village Ontai in the San Kamphaeng area outside Chiang Mai. It’s a rural escape which seems to be popular with Thai and ex-pat families living in Chiang Mai and it’s popular for cycling, walking, climbing and chilling out. We were there to chill and do a bit of walking and thats pretty much what we did.

This is a rural area with small villages nearby but with several surprisingly large Temples. There’s a man-made lake quite close which is popular with the locals for fishing but with a long period of drought the water level was low for the few fishers we saw but adequate enough for the water buffalo. Here are a few photos….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 5 relaxing days at Baanpong, we left on 19th December to fly South to Phuket Island .We had spent 20 days in Northern Thailand and had very much enjoyed our time here but we were now looking forward to spending Christmas by the sea.

 

 

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The Mae Hong Son Loop is approximately 600KM long and is a circular route around the north west of Thailand which starts from Chiang Mai and takes you through Mae Hong Son Province ending back at Chiang Mai. It has been a hippy trail for some years and many do the trip by bus or on motor bikes; we don’t do bikes and the bus journey didn’t sound great travelling up and over mountains on a route that includes 762 curves. We decided that, as for a few other places, we would get the best of this trip by using a local guide. There is no doubt you see and understand a lot more when you have a guide who speaks the language and lives the culture and so we researched the various forums on the area to find some recommendations. We found that a guide named Pronchadin Potiya aka Joy regularly gets rave reviews from his western clients and so we contacted him. Happily he was available at the time we wanted to travel and he helped us develop an itinerary that would suit us – we would visit those places which were “must see ” for us and swerve those places which for us were “mustn’t sees” – touristic hill tribe villages and animal “attractions” – elephant camps and dodgy tiger “sanctuaries.”

At 7am on Monday 7th December Joy picked us up at our apartment in his nice big 4×4 vehicle. The vehicle was spotless and he had thought of everything to ensure our comfort for the day with cold water, refreshments etc. Joy was accompanied by his wife Goy ( yes, a double act, Joy and Goy!) who would act as Driver’s Mate. Joy is a charming bloke, intelligent and very knowledgable with excellent english and a great sense of humour; Goy is equally charming but has virtually no english but we enjoyed her company nevertheless.

Doi Ithanon National Park

Doi Ithanon is in the Chom Thong District of Chiang Mai Province a two hour drive from Chiang Mai. It is the highest mountain in Thailand at 2565m. The park is a popular tourist attraction for Thai and overseas visitors although the cooler weather at this height means that the magnificent views are often shrouded in mist and cloud – as they were when we visited. Nevertheless its a beautiful place and it would have been nice to have had more time to do some exploring. It’s a 2 hour drive from Chiang Mai and most people visit as a day trip and spend several hours here but we had a 200km 4 hour drive on to Mae Hong Son and so our time was limited.

At the foot of the mountain are two impressive chedis (shrines), one built in 1987 in honour of the 60th birthday of the King and the other built in 1992 honouring the 60th birthday of the Queen. The chedis face each other and each is reached by a long flight of steps – very impressive. These chedis are furnished with some magnificent statues and tiled murals on walls and ceilings and they stand in beautiful manicured gardens although even at this lower level mist ruled out any good photos.

The scenery is awesome here and the area is popular for trecking. Here are some pictures of the scenery en route

Mae Hong Son

Mae Hong Son town is the capital of a Province of the same name sitting in the north west corner of Thailand in a remote valley near the Burmese border surrounded by mountains. This was a former staging post for the Japanese in World War II when they carved a road through in preparation for their planned invasion of Burma. The place didn’t become truly acessible until the late 1980s when a sealed road to Chiang Mai was built.

It is a very nice laid back town centred on a lake lined on one side by a street of restaurants which becomes a walking street at night with lots of opportunities to buy street food and clothing and knick knacks made by hill tribe people. On the opposite side of the lake stand several temples built in Burmese style on a large site. Each temple comprises several buildings and chedis and in some cases it’s difficult to fathom out where one temple ends and the next one begins.

The place is pretty enough during the day but becomes magical at night when the walking street comes to life and the temples are lit up along with the over sized plastic water hyacinth floating in the lake.

A few night time snaps

Standing on a hill looking down on the lake and the town stands another temple. We called to have a look as we were leaving town.

 

We stayed only one night at Mae Hong Son, at Point Villa with an OK room but inedible breakfast. It would have been nice to stay longer in the town and we would definitely return if we ever get chance. We really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere in the town and the fact that it isn’t massively geared up for western tourists. We didn’t get much time to interact with the locals but they do seem shyer than Thais we met elsewhere but friendly enough all the same.

On December 8th, after a wander around the market and temples of Mae Hong Son, we set off around noon en route to Pai. It’s a 3 hour drive from Mae Hong Son to Pai and we would travel through some magnificent scenery over a range of mountains quite close to the Burmese border in places – but there would be a few stops along the way and the first stop was only an hour or so after leaving Mae Hong Son.

Tham Pla Ranger Station at Pha Sua National park sits in a mountainous forested area and is a popular attraction for locals with a nature trail which leads to a hollow cave with a connecting pond and streams which hold large numbers of a carp like fish which according to legend belong to the guardian spirit of the forest. The park is set in gorgeous countryside and the teeming numbers of fish in the river, quite large due a constant stream of fish food fed to them by tourists, is impressive. In addition to bags of fish pellets, as always there are opportunities for purchases of fruit, food and drink and souvenirs.

After an hour or so we got back on the road but soon stopped briefly at what apparently is one of Joy’s favourite eateries in the area. This was quite a large restaurant given we were in a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere and it was really quite busy being one of few stopping places on the road from Mae Hong Son to Pai. It was definitely a locals’ place and definitely not a place that Ann and I would have chosen had we been on our own. The food was “so so” and we didn’t eat much but the entertainment was good and largely provided by a waitress who ran around the place serving at table at 100 miles an hour carrying a baby on her back!

From time to time during our days with Joy and Goy we would come by roadside markets and would invariably stop to buy snacks or fruit. These markets would often be miles from anywhere and often, like this one pictured below, at scenic viewing points high in the mountains. The women and children in the pictures below belong to the local hill tribes many of whom are the descendants of Burmese, Tibetan or Chinese people who left their homes to flee conflicts of one kind or another in their own countries. They are wearing thanaka which is a yellowish paste made from tree bark and worn as a sun screen. When I googled this, it references Burmese women, not too surprising as this area is very near to the border with Burma (Myanmar) but we saw women wearing this stuff in towns and cities in other parts of Thailand. Unlike most Westerners, Thai people don’t like to be exposed to the sun. Indeed many women in the cities use whitening products to give them a fairer complexion and a more western look.

Our final stop of the day was at Lod (or Lot) Cave near a small town Soppong about an hours drive from Pai. This is quite a large and impressive cave system of around 1.5KM long with heights of 50 meters in places. It’s full of interesting limestone stalactites and we quite enjoyed it although we wouldn’t usually bother with visits to caves!

There is a small river flowing into the caves and this provides access via a raft which is pulled in and then punted a short distance. Once inside the cave, you dismount and then climb through the different levels of the caves by timber stairways which would give any Liability Insurer palpitations! In the event we spent about an hour and a half in the caves and escaped unscathed and with lots of photos. Here’s a few:

After a couple of hours at Lod Cave we got back on the road for the final stretch of our journey to Pai. There is nothing in between the two towns other than the odd farm but we stopped once or twice to take snaps and the one hour drive took nearer two.

Pai

Pai is a small town with a population of just over 2,000. It’s 146km north west of Chiang Mai on the Pai River near the Myanmar border. The town is probably the most popular destination for hippies and back-packers in Northern Thailand and there are apparently lots of folk who visit for a day or two but stay for weeks and months or forever as did Connor at the guest house, where we stayed. We have seen it described both as a hippy hell and a hippy heaven and in truth I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it as it sounded very much a kids’ scene but in the event we liked the place although we were there for only a few hours in the evening and a tour of the highlights of the region the next morning.

We stayed at Oasis, a £10 per night Guest House run by a very affable English owner named Connor. At these prices the place is popular with back-packers but the accommodation whilst definitely not fancy was clean and well kitted out with kettle, fridge and mosquito net and we wouldn’t hesitate to use the place again. Connor is the font of all knowledge on matters Pai and gave us plenty of tips on places to visit in the area before kindly driving us the short distance into town for dinner on his motor bike and side car, leaving us with the offer of catching up with him in his favourite bar for a drink and a lift back at the end of the night.

 

 

 

 

The town is full of back-packer accommodation, bars cafes and restaurants with lots of trendy places with stuff geared towards Westerners – organic food stores, chinese medicine practitioners, yoga places and the like. The town apparently does get wild but ours was the briefest of visits and we thankfully missed the excess partying, although I did see illicit substances changing hands albeit discretely, despite the potential death sentence for those caught. In truth, on the evening we were in town it seemed very quiet once we had got away from the walking street and the restaurant/bar where we had dinner, said to be one of the best and most popular places in Pai, was almost empty.

Like Mae Hong Son, Pai is a town that would be good to return to for a longer visit. Usually on our travels we have deliberately travelled slowly to allow the odd day or two or more here and there to do absolutely nothing other than to chill out and get the feel for the place. We didn’t have this luxury of time on our hands to hang around on this tour but the “must sees” of Pai are actually outside of town and we visited them all except some waterfalls which were apparently down to a dribble because of the prevailing drought conditions.

 

SHANDICUN CHINESE VILLAGE

We set off from Pai around 8.30am on the 9th December on the final leg of the Mae Hong Son Loop back to Chiang Mai but first we called at Shandicun, a Chinese village and Cultural Centre on the outskirts of Pai.

Shandicun is a real living and breathing Chinese town whose inhabitants are mostly Yunnanese Chinese whose grandparents crossed the China-Thai border to escape the Communist Party of China back in the days of Mao Tse Tung. Many others came due to involvement in the opium trade that once flourished and it was suggested to us, still exists to some extent.

 

 

The modern generation of these Yunnan people now are Thai citizens and can speak Thai and Chinese fluently. The Thai Government has turned the village into a tourist attraction and its a little like a small Chinese themed Disneyland without the rides. There are a few restaurants in the village selling authentic Yunnanese food and lots of tiny shops mostly selling Chinese tea. A few shops sell traditional Yunnan costumes and if you don’t want to buy you can hire costumes for 100 baht and have your pictures taken in them – see the pictures below.

Shandicun an interesting from the point of view of the history of the place and the local Chinese people. There is a small photographic “museum” recounting the history but it’s cheesy in the extreme. I doubt we will return.

We left Shandicun late morning and after a short drive stopped south of Pai at Pai Canyon. The drive as ever, presented a photo opportunity every few hundred yards but Joy was happy to stop whenever we wanted which we did quite a few times to watch farm workers in the field harvesting the rice or corn.

Pai Canyon is a popular Pai attraction around 10k from Pai on the road to Chiang Mai. The canyon consists of a high narrow path which has been left after thousands of years of erosion have eaten away the land either side of the path. In true Thai style there no railings to be seen anywhere and so its only the bravest of the most surefooted hikers that will walk this trail. Pretty scary!

Next stop on the route was Wat Phra That Mae Yen a temple set on a hill on the south side of Pai. The temple itself was actually closed but the main attraction here is a huge white Buddha that is reached by over 400 concrete steps. Amazing views to be had here and of course we took a few snaps.

After our visit to the Temple on the Hill, it was time for a refreshment break – coffee and cake at Coffee in Love, a very popular tourist honeypot on the Chiang Mai road. This place is very much geared up to tourists with Coffee in Love T-shirts and mugs and the like with cake and cookies all labelled and packaged with “Coffee in Love” packaging. They were certainly doing a roaring trade when we visited but the attraction for us were the gardens and fabulous views to be seen from the place.

After leaving Coffee in Love, we stopped again within minutes to buy some last minute snacks before getting back on the road. We stopped at Love Pai Strawberry Cafe another very popular stop for tourists which is more than a cafe selling all kinds of strawberry goodies – cake, jams, sweets, wine and of course Love Pai Strawberry memorabilia. And strawberries! All grown on site.

Our final stop before leaving the Pai area for the last leg of our journey back to Chiang Mai was at the Memorial Bridge over the River Pai. It’s quite an impressive bridge but it isn’t the original. The original bridge was timber built by the Japanese using local forced labour and elephants. The bridge was intended to aid their advance towards Burma.

The Japanese burned the bridge at the end of the war and so the present iron bridge isn’t a replica as such but commemorates the history and is now a pedestrian bridge and a favourite attraction of Thai tourists.

The two and a half hour drive back to Chiang Mai was uneventful but unfortunately took over four hours when we found ourselves in horrendous traffic jams on the outskirts of Chiang.

Joy eventually dropped us off some time after 5pm. We were knackered and hungry. Refreshed with a quick shower we walked down to Nimmenhaemin for some street food and a few beers at the Kamrai bottle shop and then returned to the flat for an early night. Tomorrow morning we would continue our travels with Joy and Goy to the Golden triangle in the far north east of Thailand.

 

This temple is 15 km from the city of  Chiang Mai and takes the name of the mountain,
Doi Suthep, on which it stands. It is a sacred site to many Thai people .

The temple is said to have been founded in 1386 but has been extended and extended and  is a substantial collection of buildings. It is an important site for pilgrims and tourists alike and receives huge numbers of visitors each year. Inevitably it is quite a tourist trap with cafes , restaurants and shops galore selling mementos but nevertheless the extravagantly ornate buildings and statues  makes this quite an amazing place and well worth a visit even though there are 300 steps to climb (unless you want to take the lift) and an entrance fee to pay when you get to the top – payable only by foreigners – the only temple we can recall having to pay to enter.

This place has been given its own post simply because of the numbers of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand is regarded as one of the most liveable Thai cities for westerners due its laid back atmosphere, climate and affordability. There are said to be over 40,000 foreigners settled in the city many retired and many are digital nomads or working in tourism or teaching.

The city had always been a “must visit” since we first started planning this trip. Plan A had us travelling by train and bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand stopping off at various places en route and then on to Llaos. In the event, weary of moving from place to place every few days, we cut Laos and Cambodia from the trip and decided to spend a full three months in Thailand starting with 3 weeks in Northern Thailand before travelling to Phuket to spend Christmas and New Year in a hotel and then on from Phuket to Koh Samui, then Bangkok and finally to Hua Hin. Whilst in Northern Thailand we travelled the Mai Hong Son Loop and the Golden Triangle – separate posts for these – and spent 5 nights in a small rural village in the San Kamphaeng area 30km outside Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is the largest and most culturally significant city in Northern Thailand. It is the capital of Chiang Mai Province and was a former capital of the Kingdom of Lanna (aka the Kingdom of One Million Rice Fields, 1296–1768), which became a state of the Kingdom of Chiang Mai from 1774 to 1939. The city flourished as a major religious, cultural and trading centre in its early history until 1556 when the Burmese invaded and ruled the state until 1785 when they were expelled and Lanna again became part of northern Thailand. (All per wiki, of course).

The city is 700 km  north of Bangkok and 300m above sea level and almost 70% of its area is covered in mountains and forest – this area has the highest mountains in the country. The city sits in a fertile valley astride the Ping River, a major tributary of the Chao Phraya River which runs through Bangkok. To the North of Chiang Mai a mountain range separates the country from Myanmar (Burma) although in places the River Kok forms the boundary.

The population of Chiang Mai Province is around 1.5M with less than 200,000 within the Old City. 80% of the residents  are local people with the rest being Thai Nationals and foreigners who have moved to the city to work or retire. The vast majority of the population of CM Province work in agriculture planting fields, raising animals and hunting. In addition, there are estimated to be around 200,000 hill tribe people of several tribes occupying hundreds of hill tribe villages in the mountainous districts surrounding Chiang Mai.

The hilltribe people mostly work in agriculture but some make a living from cottage industries trading and selling “ethnic” goods and many of the villages have become tourist attractions.
We deliberately avoided these villages as we feel uncomfortable in what feels like a human zoo but many of the villagers are seen selling their goods on the markets in the city.

The city was built as a square walled city surrounded by a moat. Quite a bit of the 4 corners of the city wall and some other parts remain intact as does the moat. This city centre, within the moat, is known as the Old City.

There are 4 main gates into the Old City which is crisscrossed by main roads east to west and north to south but then veined by smaller streets and narrow lanes which are fabulous to just wander around and explore. Here you can see Thai families going about their normal daily lives   some still living in old traditional houses built of teakwood. You can also see Temples – the Old City has more than 30!

On November 30th Rob and Ann kindly drove us to Langkawi Airport to set off on our 3 legged  journey to Chiang Mai .We would fly Langkawi to Singapore, Singapore to Bangkok Dom Mueang and finally on to Chiang Mai. We were up and about soon after 5.00 am and it would be a long day even if all our flights left on time as we wouldn’t arrive at Chiang Mai until  8.45pm.

We left the apartment at CHOGM Villa at 6.30am to get to the airport in good time for our 9am flight. Rob and Ann were as surprised as us that the airport wasn’t even open when we arrived around 7am but we found that although the building was in darkness and the entrance doors closed, the doors were actually unlocked and other travellers were already waiting inside. The airport gradually came to life over the next hour and our flight left pretty much on time as did, thankfully, our subsequent flights. The journey which we had definitely not looked forward to turned out to be not so bad after all!

We were met at Chiang Mai Airport by Richard Katze an American from whom we had rented an apartment for 2 weeks. Richard has a portfolio of condos and rental houses which are mostly rented by people for a minimum of a month and usually much longer – Chiang Mai is a place that seems to attract people who visit for a week or two and stay for much longer and others who move to the city on a permanent basis to become part of the ex-pat community that has developed over  the years. We were lucky to find an apartment available for only 2 weeks and at a very good rate.

Chiang Mai Airport is quite close to the city centre and we arrived at the apartment which is in a condo building named Sritana2 quite close to the Old City. The building and its reception area aren’t the prettiest but there is good security and we were impressed with the apartment itself which is actually two apartments knocked into one with a very large bedroom, including a sitting area with flat screen TV, a living room/kitchen dining room again with another large flat screen TV, a bathroom with a separate area with a washing machine and a balcony – always a bonus.

Our Chiang Mai Apartment

The apartment is in a great spot with plenty of bars, restaurants, 7/11s and massage places within 100 yards. It is only 15 minutes walk to the moat surrounding the old city and an even shorter walk in the opposite direction into the heart of the Nimmanheiman Road area –  Chiang Mais trendiest neighbourhoods. Chiang Mai is in the most mountainous area of Thailand and the view from our 15th floor apartment was of forest covered Doi Suthep Mountain with its famous Temple, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.

On our first evening, after a long day, we were too tired to go exploring a new city in the dark and so popped out  to look for something to eat nearby .We found what looked to be a decent Mexican restaurant around the corner and after a quick bite and a beer we retired early.

The following morning, our first day in Chiang Mai, we were up and breakfasted at a reasonable time to go exploring. We headed for the Old City knowing that we would pass a shopping mall where we planned to buy SIM cards for our phones. The mall is only 5 minutes walk from the pad and we soon had our SIM cards sorted and then had a brief look around what is the oldest mall in Chiang Mai. In truth its not the smartest mall but it has a good variety of  shops including a department store, restaurants, a pretty good (and cheap)  food court, massage places and a cinema. The basement was a big surprise with a nice (and cheap) food court (cheap as in mains under £1 each) and an excellent supermarket of a quality comparable with Booths or
M&S  at home. There was a big range of fresh produce, meat and fish and lots of premium and imported products with an extensive bakery, brilliant delicatessen and a very good wines at spirits department. Topps Market became a regular stopping off point for shopping en route home from the city.

Several Events of one kind or another took place on the forecourts of the mall during the period of our stay – one week a food festival, the next week a tattoo fest with dozens of  stalls set out each with a tattoo artist or two  tattooing a never ending queue of  folk waiting to be indelibly marked – we had seen something similar during a visit to Ubud, Bali a few months earlier

With SIM cards sorted we carried on our walk to the Old City. We had bought a Nancy Chandler Map of Chiang Mai which is a  large scale (but not to scale) map of the city inside and outside the walls with an even larger map of the Old City inside the moat showing points of interest Temples, markets, restaurants, museums etc in a schematic form. This map is generally regarded as the best tourist map there is of the city and it did indeed serve us well but it didn’t help us achieve the  strategy we devised to ensure we saw every corner of the city. We planned to visit  a different quartile of the map each day and to visit all the “must see” attractions in that part of the city. In the event we walked  into the city most mornings around 10.30 ( unless we called for an excellent breakfast at Amazing Sandwiches on Huay Kaew Rd which we did a couple of times) and walked for several hours each day until the heat got to us (30 degrees plus each day) and/or we got tired and/or hungry when more often than not we called a stop to our walking for the day and sought out somewhere for lunch. In the end we came to the conclusion that it was a pretty tall order to see every nook and cranny of Chiang Mai and we gave up trying. On the plus side, it means there is still plenty to see when we re-visit which I’m sure we will do.

Getting around Chiang Mai

The city is very walkable and its easy to walk your way from one side of the city to the other along the main streets although it’s much more fun to wander along the side streets getting lost as we did frequently. However, if you are in a hurry or if the weather is too hot, a songthaew ride anywhere in the Old City is only 20 baht (around 40 pence).

A songthaew, pictured above, is  a passenger vehicle adapted from a truck fitted with two bench seats good for eight or more passengers with more standing on a little platform at the back hanging on to hand rails. No Health & Safety here! Some songthaews ply a regular route like a bus which stops when you flag it down, others act as taxis and you negotiate a fare and have the vehicle to yourself. You can hire one with a driver for the day for a very reasonable sum.

The tuk tuk in the middle of the picture would be more expensive than the songthaew, nearer to the price of a taxi (of which there seems to be very few in Chiang Mai) but still good value in westerners terms.

 

 

 

There is so much for the tourist in Chiang Mai that it beggars belief. For culture vultures the old city itself and its exterior is full of impressive temples ,museums and historical buildings and it seems that there is always some kind of celebration or festival going on religious or otherwise.

Shopping 

There is everything shopoholics could wish for in Chiang Mai ranging from very trendy high end (local) designer clothing and designer jewellery  to shops selling inexpensive ethnic goods and those selling cheap fake branded clothing. Those so inclined could spend several days  wandering around the Old City and its shops and several more exploring areas outside of the Old City such as the trendy Nimmanheiman area. In addition there are several malls outside the city including the recently opened Maya Mall with nice shops and a wonderful basement supermarket and food hall only 10 minutes walk from our apartment.

 

MARKETS

Markets are without doubt the most popular places to shop for both locals and visitors. In fact markets are central to life in Thailand  – and Chiang Mai has them in spades.

Warorot Market, was the first market we visited. It is a big market outside the Old City, down by the Ping River. It’s an everyday market for locals but a fascinating place for tourists to wander around and stuff can be bought here more cheaply than on the more touristic markets.

The market is partly covered and partly open and you can find almost anything you could possibly need including clothing, home goods, flowers, herbs, spices and food including some (to us) unusual foods – for example, fried earth worms. We also saw, next to live fish and eels, live terrapins and birds (in bags!)  – apparently some Thais eat them and some are bought to release after prayers to obtain merit from Buddha or from ancestors – we saw this done in Vietnam a few years ago.

 

 

The Chiang Mai Night Market or Night Bazaar is in itself one of the city’s main attractions.
The Market operates very evening of the year in an area which during the day is just a normal street with shops, restaurants etc. The place comes alive around 4pm when hundreds of  stall holders and workers wheel out their metal stalls lining them up side by side on each side of the street. The market covers a wide area outside the old city walls, between the old city and the Ping River and stretches through several blocks, including a small red light district lined with bars and massage parlours with Bar Girls constantly beckoning passers by to come for a drink or “massage massage”.

Quite apart from the usual stalls the Bazaar includes several arcade type buildings specialising in different goods, for example one is dedicated to handicraft goods and antiques whilst another specialises in upmarket clothing. Designer goods can be found here  – some the real thing  (apparently) but mostly fake.

 

And there is certainly no reason to go hungry when shopping in the market, the area includes dozens of restaurants and many many street food stalls, a large Food Court not to mention the nearby Anusurn market which, in addition to its market stalls, contains many restaurants and bars including O’Mally’s Irish Pub!

There is also a very interesting and entertaining Sunday Market (or Walking Street) every Sunday right in the centre of the Old  City. Starting at the Tha Phae Gate at one end, the Sunday Market extends for roughly 1km down the full length of Ratchadamoen Road. Stall holders start to set up their stalls mid afternoon and by 6pm everything is up and running.

The Walking Street attracts thousands of shoppers and becomes absolutely packed with bodies – an interesting experience which some enjoy and some don’t but it’s a market everyone should visit at least once when in Chiang Mai. There is an amazing number of stalls offering an amazing range of products and of course a lot of it is tat but there’s a lot of different stuff to be found here and some of it is actually very good and/or unusual. And as always, there is no need to go hungry – there are food stalls galore offering good food for next to nothing

EATING AND DRINKING 

Foodies are well catered for everywhere in Chiang Mai with even the smallest and most basic looking places offering good local food. Some places specialise in only one dish but there’s something to suit all tastes with hundreds of cafes, bars and restaurants in the Old City.
The restaurant and street food available in Chiang  Mai is generally regarded as some of the best and cheapest in Thailand – we struggled to spend the equivalent of £10 on a main course for 2 with drinks in a downtown restaurant or bar. We didn’t have a bad meal anywhere and many places, even the most unlikely looking, offer cookery classes which are very popular.

Temples

Apparently there are over 300 temples in Chiang Mai with many in the Old City. Some are over 600 years old, as old as the city itself .

There seems to be a temple on almost every corner and indeed there are many which stand next to each other. Some are very large and some quite modest but even some of the very large ones are hidden away in the back streets and need to be sought out.

Here are a few random photos – a small selection (honest) of what can be seen in Chiang Mai – except for the famous Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep which is covered in a separate post.

 

 

Suan Buak Haad Park

For those hankering for some open space in the city, Chiang Mai has only one small public park within the city walls. Suan Buak Haad Park provides a small but nice area of greenery with ponds and a kids playground plus food stalls .

Away from the city, the mountains of rural Northern Thailand are close by with a number of National Parks and botanic gardens to visit and a 200 acre zoo presents opportunities to get up close to animals such as elephants and tigers for those so inclined. There is also serious tracking to be had and an entire travel sector seems to exist to provide travellers with treks and tours to visit the hill tribes living in the highland villages away from the city – often with a return journey which involves, at some point, a ride down a river on a bamboo raft.

NIMMANHAEMIN ROAD (AKA NIMMAN)

Heading out of the apartment in the opposite direction from the old city a 10 minute walk brings you to the lively and trendy Nimmanhaemin Road area. It doesn’t look that fancy at first sight because most of the buildings are rather old but many have been renovated or refurbished with new shop fronts housing boutique shops, restaurants, cafes, galleries and spas. There are specialty shops selling hand crafted goods, housewares, jewellery and artwork and Nimman Road itself  is also known as “Coffee Street” due to its numerous coffee shops many seemingly permanent home to people who make their living on-line. The cafe/coffee culture here is such that there are websites devoted to it.

In addition to the high street shops of Nimman, Maya Mall provides has some nice (and expensive) stores along with a fab supermarket and food court in the basement. Food court prices are only a tad higher than much of  the street food and so its a great place for lunch – or even dinner.

We  loved Nimman and spent quite a few evenings there starting off  with a few drinks at the Kamrai bottle shop which is an off licence with a terrace with chairs and tables in front next to the pavement. The clientele is a mix of locals, expats and travellers and with bottles of beer starting at around £1, you needed to get there early to secure a chair!

There always seems to be something going on in Nimman and on our first weekend in town it was some kind of art and design festival – essentially lots of food stalls and stalls selling clothing, pottery, jewellery and lots of other stuff with live music in the background. A really great and friendly atmosphere here – and the food was excellent. Here are some photos

Whilst we had booked the apartment for 2 weeks, our 2nd week was  largely spent away from Chiang Mai itself with a 3 day/2 night trip to the North West of Thailand  travelling what is known as the Mae Hong Son Loop followed immediately by a 2 day 1 night trip to visit the Golden Triangle in the North East  where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Loas meet.
See separate posts.

Here’s a few more random photographs in case you haven’t seen enough!

Coffee shops

 

Coffee shops aren’t exclusively in Nimman. The Old City has plenty too…

Massage

Street Food