Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was our first destination in the Northern part of Thailand.  Since it’s almost impossible to get a straight answer about anything at all in Thailand (I can now say that Laos is the same way), we decided not to risk getting stuck somewhere between Bangkok and Chiang Mai due to flooding, and got on a plane instead of a train, or a bus.  

AirAsia flight was uneventful.  In Chiang Mai airport the 2 competing taxi companies offered us 120 baht ($4) ride to our hostel, which was on par with our expectations.  Once in a cab the driver immediately said: “Oh, you are going there?  It’s an extra 30 baht”. I told the driver to drive by the taxi office since that guy was very specific that 120 was the full price. He didn’t do it and  we did not hear about the extra 30 baht again.

Our hostel Parami was right across the river from the old town, the part where the night market is.  The hostel was clean, and the owner was very helpful.  The only grievance was the nail salon next door where hostel owner’s wife botched Julie’s nails. (Julie got over this fact in a mere 5-6 days).

It appears that the further north you go, the higher the concentration of temples.  Chiang Mai has around 300 of them, and the town is not that large.  We visited the most prominent ones, including the ruins of Wat Phra Sing, and Doi Suthep, situated on a nearby mountain, and featuring a kick-ass view of the town.

It was in Chiang Mai that we got to play around with elephants. (See an earlier post).  We also rented a scooter, and drove the 100Km Samoeng loop in Mae Sa valley north of the town.  It’s a very picturesque ride over the mountainous region with various points of interest along the way.  One of them was Mae Sa waterfall, which did have plenty of water unlike some of the other waterfalls we visited.

After about 1.5 hours of hiking to the top, and back we discovered a view point where all normal tourists start, and enjoy the full view of the waterfall.  As it happened we started, with a “backdoor”.  Maybe it was a good thing, otherwise Julie would not let me drag her up the 10 levels of the waterfall.

At one point of the ride it started to rain, but we were lucky enough to spot a roof on the side of the road, and sheltered there for the next 40 mins.

Unfortunately by then we were really hungry, and somewhat cold.  So as soon as the tropical storm turned to a drizzle, we were on our way down the loop to the next food place.  In about an hour more we were enjoying fried rice with chicken at a local café on a side of the road, but not before bugging some random family with questions about the price of the bbq they were cooking.  See, we find that in Asia it’s hard or downright impossible to tell a difference between someone’s living room, and a store front.   The mother of that family pointed across the road to the place where we ended up eating.  It was not a touristy place by any measure, so the food cost next to nothing.

Overall we liked Chiang Mai. Our next destination was Pai…