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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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday 4th September, within a little over an hour of booking our flights to Bangkok at Medan Airport we were on the plane and 2 hours later landed at Bangkok. Of course we had taken the flight on impulse and had done no research on Bangkok but we had stayed there for a few days in 2013 and so as soon as we landed at Don Muang Airport we got onto the internet and booked a hotel room in the Sukhumvit area of the city where we had stayed on our previous visit. Sukhumvit is a great area with lots of restaurants and bars but also very handy for the Skyrail and underground systems making it easy to get around the city.

We got a taxi and arrived at the Continent Hotel about an hour later – pretty good going as this was Friday afternoon rush hour and the Bangkok traffic, always heavy, was horrendous. The hotel isn’t big but its fab and all the better as we got a free nights stay using some Hotels.com reward points. The room came with breakfast, access to the hotel’s swanky rooftop bar with free cocktails available until 7pm and late check-out. We were checked in around 6.45pm and quickly up to the bar to grab a couple of free drinks and then a few more. We had been up since 5am and after a busy and stressful day we were well and truly knackered. We decided to eat in the hotel via room service.

 

 

 

 

The Continent is a very nice hotel. The rooms are great and the breakfast superb and we contemplated staying there for at least a couple of nights. However, the best rate we could get was way beyond our budget so we decided to go for somewhere completely different and found a nice hotel, the Navalai River Resort, down by the Chaophraya River and not far from but not too near the Khao San Road, a popular area for backpackers.

 

On Saturday morning, September 5th we checked out of the Continent late morning and took a 40 minute (120 baht) taxi ride to the Navalai arriving soon after noon. This is another nice hotel and we booked in for 6 nights again with special rates courtesy of hotels.com. Our room was ready when we arrived and so we were able to check in immediately.

The room was fine but at the end of our stay we felt the hotel fell short of the rave reviews we had read. However, the hotel is in a great spot literally on the river with access to the river itself with a river taxi stop alongside the hotel restaurant which is open-aired at the rear.
Also, there’s a riverside pathway and its possible to walk along the river north or southwards directly from the back of the hotel or access the Khao San Road area via the front of the hotel.

We dropped our bags, picked up a map from Reception and went straight out to explore. We set up walking southwards along the river and after a couple of kms came to a bridge and took a left turn away from the river and towards the Temple of the Standing Buddha, or so we thought.

After 10 minutes walking someone said hello from behind us and asked us where we were going. This is the usual approach from taxi drivers and so we anticipated a sales pitch but this fellow suspected, quite rightly, that we didn’t know where we were heading – it seems we were walking into a cul de sac occupied by University buildings. He told us that he worked for a Tourist Information Office that we had just walked past and he recommended a few tourist attractions that we should be able to visit in an afternoon tuk tuk tour of the area. He also explained, to our delight, that this day, September 6th, was a special Buddha Day in Bangkok and on this day all tuk tuk rides were limited to a maximum fare of 20 baht (less than 40p) and this essentially meant that we could hire a tuk tuk for the day for the princely sum of 20 baht. This was by decree of the government who compensate the tuk tuk drivers by issuing free gasoline vouchers! Also, on this day each year, there is another government tourist initiative in which the local fashion industry holds a one day promotion in which manufacturers open their doors to foreign tourists selling their made to measure garments at rates usually reserved for Thai wholesalers – I could have a made to measure suit at a rock bottom price!

As luck would have it, a tuk tuk was stopping nearby just as we were having this conversation. Our new friend called the driver over and instructed him to take us on an afternoon tour visiting the Standing Buddha, the Marble Temple and RAM Tailors, an apparently well known quality tailoring company in the fashion district of Bangkok. All this for 20 baht!

 

The Standing Buddha

 

 

 

The Marble Temple

 

So we ended up having a very full afternoon visiting two temples and spending an hour or so at RAM Tailors shop at which I allowed myself to be persuaded to be fitted for a shirt which would be delivered to our hotel 36 hours later. The shirt was indeed delivered on time and fits perfectly but I do consider myself lucky that I only ordered a cheap shirt because I have since read that many western tourists have been badly let down by this same firm failing to deliver or delivering shoddily made suits !

Following a very pleasant tour our tuk tuk dropped us at our hotel and we went for a stroll around the area nearby and enjoyed a couple of beers in a street bar watching the world go with a steady procession of hawkers selling all manner of goods and food including the ubiquitous fried insects on sticks. We then went for our first massage in Bangkok before returning to the hotel for a very average dinner, our first and last meal in the disappointing hotel restaurant.

The following day, Sunday, we decided to visit China Town which we had read was particularly lively on a Sunday. There is also Little India nearby and so we thought we do both and have a curry lunch.

 

 

 

China Town and Little India

 

 

 

We caught a water taxi to travel 3 or 4 stops down river to China Town for a paltry fee of a few baht. China Town seems to go on forever and comprises street after street of wooden shophouses, many of them gold shops, with the pavements almost entirely lined with market stalls selling food and all manner of goods. Side streets are full of street markets and eateries and the place was absolutely heaving with people – its very easy to get lost here and we did once or twice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After an hour or two wandering around China Town we set off heading for our curry lunch but even with a decent map it took us ages to find Little India and when we did we found the restaurants were very much rough and ready local sweet centre type eateries and in truth were a tad too rough and ready for us.

We returned to China Town and found Shangri-La restaurant where we enjoyed a very pleasant Chinese meal before catching a water taxi back up river to do some more wandering around the streets near the hotel.

Our week in Bangkok continued in similar vein spending most of our time in the neighbourhood around our hotel and the Khao San Road area – we didn’t even venture into the city centre proper as we had been before and found more than enough to entertain us locally. The only exception was a day trip to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand.

We were pleased to be able to visit Ayutthaya as this was on our original S.E. Asia itinerary which had included Northern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia etc which we had postponed in favour of a more leisurely itinerary which would give us a full 3 months in Thailand. We decided to focus on Thailand on this trip as we saw Thailand as being a more likely spot for us to spend a UK winter month or two each year in retirement. We always hoped that the discovery of a good place to hole up in January and February might be one of the bi-products of our long trip around S.E. Asia. Already we have found several such places!

We booked a one day tour with Tong, a well known Tour Guide who we had used for a city tour on our previous visit to Bangkok. This would be a private tour with an English speaking Guide, a comfortable limousine and Driver. Our trip included a visit to Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, known as the Summer Palace formerly used as such by Thai Kings. It was originally built in 1632 but fell into disuse and was restored in the 1800s and most of the buildings are of that period. It is still used occasionally by the King for banquets.

Ayutthaya, founded in 1350, is one of Thailand’s most important and popular tourist attractions. It was the second capital of the Siamese Kingdom and flourished from the 14th to the 18th centuries, during which time it grew to be one of the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan urban areas and a centre of commerce. Ayutthaya was strategically located on an island surrounded by three rivers connecting the city to the sea. This site was chosen because it was located above the tidal bore of the Gulf of Siam as it existed at that time, thus preventing attack of the city by the sea-going warships of other nations. The location also helped to protect the city from seasonal flooding.

The city was attacked and razed by the Burmese army in 1767 who burned the city to the ground and forced the inhabitants to abandon the city. The city was never rebuilt in the same location and remains known today as an extensive archaeological site – a new capital was built down river at Bangkok about 80 kms away. The Ayutthaya historical park is in part a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a very large site with the ruins of many temples and palaces, some of which have been restored but many clearly showing the destruction caused by the Burmese with, for example, many Buddha statues completely destroyed or heads removed. There are clearly Khmer influences in some of the architecture with features similar to some that can be seen at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Our Guide for the day was Onn and he was excellent. He speaks very good english, has bags of energy, enthusiasm and knowledge which he was bursting to share with us. He also has a great sense of humour and was excellent company on the day. It was a very full day -here are some pictures:

 

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace

A big site with many buildings and extensive gardens but unfortunately we had only an hour to squeeze this in

 

 

 

 

Ayutthaya

This is a huge site and would be better visited over a couple of days. We had only a few hours but got to see plenty including some from the river as we moved from one area to another boat and somehow fitted in a visit to an elephant camp which we really hadn’t expected. There is a rich history to this area and our Guide was the font of all knowledge. I’ll not try to summarise it here – the reader can easily google it if so inclined. Here are just a small selection of our photos:

Wat Yai Chaimongkon

 

 

 

Wat Phra Mahathat

 

Phra Nakhon Si

 

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

 

 

 

 

Phra Nakhon Si

 

 

 

 

Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ban Pom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elephant Camp

 

We made a brief stop at an elephant camp in between temples. We avoid animal “attractions” but were ok with this place where the elephants seemed to be happy and well cared for :

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t visit half of the temples of Ayutthaya but its fair to say we saw enough in 4 hours or so. After a long hot day we returned to the hotel for a shower and then went out for dinner at Ranees Restaurant just off the Khao San Road. Speaking of which, here are a few photos…..

Khao San Road area – by day

 

and at night

 

And a few more photos round about

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our unplanned week in Bangkok turned out to be one of our favourite visits. We will definitely return. The only downside was that our 60 day visa for Indonesia which we had done so well to get so quickly in Penang was now “expired” as we had left the country from Medan for Bangkok. We would now have to re-enter Indonesia on a Visa On Arrival and renew it in-country or do a visa run within 30 days.

We left Bangkok on Friday September 11 to return to Medan for one night before setting off on our Sumatra Tour the following day.

Subsequent to our un-scheduled visit to Bangkok of September 2015 , we subsequently re-visited on 2 or 3 occasions during this same trip whilst travelling firstly to Kanchanaburi and then Hua Hin and for a final stay of few days before we left Thailand for Turkey in February 2016. Some more photos including Chinese New Year Celebrations follow.