We arrived in Chiang Mai early Sunday morning, to find ourselves in a location that I was not familiar with as I had been in Chiang Mai over eight years ago for school. The weather was surprisingly cool as we felt somewhat cold for the first time in months – AN ABSOLUTE WONDERFUL FEELING to say the least. Unfortunately, that did not last long. The sun was starting to rise as we tried to orient ourselves and to try and make our way to the old city. We were told to look for the red pick up trucks (a variation of the tuk tuk that we had been accustomed to in Bangkok) and bargain with them for the fare to the old city. It did not take long before one stopped to asked if we needed a lift to town. We got to our guest house, Wiriyan House, by 7:00 am where a king size bed with a fridge and a TV on the 4th floor over looking the old city awaited us. The guest house was very clean, staff were friendly and very reasonably priced as our room only cost 300 bhat a night (approx $9 CDN/night). We napped for a couple of hours before heading to the old part of town that I was familiar with.
Chiang Mai for the most part has not changed much from my last visit, as the shops, guesthouses and travel agent places were all still there and all in relatively the same state of affairs. We visited the White House Guesthouse (place I had stayed during my last visit) to find that an extension had been added, more trees were planted, but the staff were the same – friendly and helpful. It was nice to talk to them again, the owner still remembered me and my school mates and told me he had slowed downed as he sold his bar and the other guest house. His wife had taken their daughter back to England to go to school.
One thing I really noticed was the number of cooking schools that had cropped up. They are everywhere. There are a lot of outdoor activities here in the north; as small minority tribes are close by, over night trekking trips through the forest are readily available, there are trips up to the Burmese border, elephant trekking, white water rafting, bamboo rafting, hot springs, along with over 500 wats to see. We had to decide carefully as to what to do as time and money were the main limiting factors.
The second day in Chiang Mai we decided to rent a motorbike, and that we did. 200 km later we were exhausted but here are some of the things we saw:
We spent the entire day biking all around town and were exhausted by night fall, and ate at the local night market that night.
The next day was perhaps the best day as we went on a tour to two nearby minority tribes – the Hmong and the Karen tribes. We then went to see a water fall, elephant trek, and bamboo rafting. Now that is a great day in the office, wouldn’t you all agree?
The mini bus picked us up early that day, as we then made our way around town picking up 4 others. 2 were from Canada (Amanda from Edmonton – a nurse who is traveling for 6 weeks through Thailand and New Zealand and Cindy from Toronto - a financial adviser on a 3 week holiday) and 2 New Zealanders who now call Australia their home. We all got along quite well, as we swapped travel stories with one another.
We drove for about an hour and then trekked through the dry and very HOT forest for about 45 minutes to the first tribe, a small Hmong village.
There was not much to the village, but our guide a Thai man who calls himself Charlie spoke English well and was quite funny which made up for it. On the way to this village, he told us about some of the local customs, like the fact that the locals would burn the forest floor this time of year to allow new growths for the coming year and that is why Chiang Mai appears to be hazy. He pointed out scorpion holes, snake and rat holes, spiders, bees’ nests, and termite mounds. He would refer to wind as air conditioning and would tease us of having baby elephant soup for lunch and fried scorpions for appetizers.
Hmong people were originally from Burma and have immigrated to Thailand when the Burmese government forced them to leave. They found refuge in places like Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, where they live off the land in small villages, with simple huts and little to no formal schooling. They used to plant poppy for the opium trade, but since the Thai government had put a ban on this 15 years ago, they now plant such cash crops as Logan, mangoes, other local fruits, and lots of vegetables to take to the local market. Kids now do attend school but school is always some distance away from the village. The Thai government does give them financial aid as well as the land that they farm on.
We visited a Karen tribe nearby as well. These people are of Tibet descent, which have migrated down to Thailand in search of better land to farm. They, like the Hmong, are considered to be minority peoples of Thailand with full citizenship and the right to vote. They live in small villages in groups of 60 to 200 and the men tend the fields while the women are home with the children and weave to try and help make some money. During our visit we saw a woman weaving a scarf which takes up to three days to make, it seemed very laborious and a lot of effort. They live in large huts that are on stilts. The raised houses provide the people a place to take shelter in the shade during the day and place for their domesticated animals to inhabit during the night.
We then had a very good vegetarian lunch before visiting a nearby waterfall. It was not that exciting as we were all looking forward to the elephant trek through the forest.
The ride was quite memorable with a few very funny moments that were not caught on camera, like the time when our elephant decided to stop by a tree to scratch his ass. Or the time our elephant sprayed us with water when we crossed the stream, cheeky elephant. Or going down hill, where Rav almost slipped out of her seat and was holding on for deal life. The hour went by too quickly and we were heading for the next event…
The bamboo rafting was quite fun and relaxing. We rode for about a hour and ten minutes, where splashing and trying to stay on the raft at times was a bite of a challenge. Our guide was very good as we only got stuck between the rocks a few times through the rapids. At the end of the ride a bunch of locals wading around in the water fully clothed splashed us all. The tour guide told us about this so we had left our cameras behind which was a good thing but also bad as we were unable to take many great shots along the way.
I ended the wonderful day with a headache, while Rav’s stomach was not doing too well. We spent that night trying to recover from the day’s adventures, me with a fever (heatstroke) and Rav with a sore belly. I was burning up and it was the only time on this trip thus far when I thought of home and my cool, clean bed under my duvet staring outside the window watching the rain fall slowly down. I must have been hallucinating then as the last thing I recall was hearing Aron strumming on his guitar singing me to sleep. Although, my fever had subsided some what the next day, Rav was not feeling well at all and was having problems keeping anything down, it seemed everything wanted to come right back out BOTH WAYS, so we decided to take it easy and not do anything for the day. So the cooking class that we were planning to attend, I guess will just have to wait.
Our last day in Chiang Mai was spent visiting some of the local wats, and visiting the night bazaar one last time before we headed to Sukhothai… the ancient Royal City.
For those travelers out there who are planning a trip to Thailand, Chiang Mai, in our eyes, is definitely a city worth visiting if you have a few extra days to spare. Not only is quiet and relaxing, but the best part is that one day you can visit the wats in town and the nightly bazaar and the next day you could be riding an elephant, bungee jumping or rock climbing. Overall, everyday costs in Chiang Mai (accommodation, food, internet) are cheaper than in Bangkok and most other places we have been which gives you some extra money to partake in the fun outdoor activities. The costs of some of these outdoor activities and tours can add up but are definitely worth it if you want to have a great and memorable time in Chiang Mai. A definite MUST see in our view.
