Six days to visit Chiang Mai, Thailand

Leaving from Krabi, unless you fly direct to visit Chiang Mai, you have to make a stop over in Bangkok. We took the bus there but when we arrived into Bangkok, we’d thought we try out the train from there to Chiang Mai which, in my opinion, is much better than the bus. The buses in Thailand are usually great. They’re clean, have fully reclining seats, are two story with a bathroom and usually will show a movie on long trips. However, on a train, you’re free to move about and with an overnight sleeper cabin, you’ll get much better sleep. Plus, the train we took had a scenic route that probably wouldn’t have been as good from the highway since we were rolling through the back country.

The river that runs along the edge of the 'old city' in Chiang Mai

When I got off the train that morning after arriving into Chiang Mai, I could definitely feel the difference in climate. It was still hot here during the day but it was lacking in humidity and during the evening, it would mark the first time in over a month I’d gone out with jeans on.

As soon as we got off the train, I was headed to the ‘Tourist Information’ office in the train station to pick up a map of the city so we could then head to the area where most of the guesthouses were. Well, as chance would have it, the guys working the “Tourist Office” own a guesthouse. Surprising. Since they were offering a free taxi ride and had everything I needed in terms of price, WiFi, etc, we headed there and ended up staying just on the edge of the ‘Old City’ of Chiang Mai. But how its legal for these guys to run their business and prey on tourists from a tourist info office in a government building I have no idea….

Chiang Mai itself is a city of 150,000 people and it along with much of the rest of northern Thailand, it was once part of Burma (Myanmar). The ‘Old City’ in Chiang Mai is an area in the center of the city that is surround by water (once a moat) and a crumbling wall that was built in 1296. The main entrance (and also the most famous) is Tha Phae Gate. But it’s not just the ‘Old City’ that Chiang Mai is known for as this city has 36 temples in the Old City alone and there are many more scattered about the land.

One of many many temples within the 'Old City'

Out of the six days I spent here, there were only a couple days that passed when I didn’t visit a temple. Some were in the Old City, some just outside of it and others were far from it, such as Doi Suthep which is located about 15 kilometers from the city.

Doi Suthep temple

Doi Suthep is also the most popular temple to experience when you visit Chiang Mai and we spent a morning there after renting a motorbike and tearing up the mountain road with its twists and turns to the top. It was about a thirty minute drive to get to the top and having past bicyclists and hikers on the way up, I honestly don’t know how they were doing it. When we got to the base of the temple, we got sucked into paying for a ‘foreigner entrance ticket’ though just as I had suspected, no one checked for this after we hiked the hundreds of steps up into the temple. I guess I just need to consider it a donation….

To be honest though, by the time I made it to Doi Suthep, I’d already seen dozens of temples in Thailand, both in Chiang Mai as well as in Bangkok, Krabi and other places but this one definitely was worth the 30 Baht we ‘donated’ to get in. From the top of the mountain temple, you have an amazing view on all sides and the construction that must have went into building this temple must have been a feat, especially with it sitting atop this mountain. It was founded back in 1383.
We spent about an hour at the top just walking around and seeing the different areas of the temple and what each was used for. Ironically enough, I actually ran into one of the guys that had done the meditation course with me four weeks ago. He actually sat directly behind me during the course and was the only person out of hundred that seemed to get under my skin. He would sit behind me during the actual meditation and would make strange noises as well as play with the blinds on the window. Maybe you’re thinking this is nothing to be bothered about but when you’re in a room of one hundred people and things are dead silent as you’re trying to concentrate your mind, this can get pretty annoying day after day. Anyway, this guy was obviously not taking the course seriously and would always leave early during meditation times and go to sleep in his room. I figured he was just taking advantage of that free course. Well, when I ran back into him at this temple, he was dressed in all white and told me he had been living here among the monks for the past two weeks, once again back in meditation. In fact, trying to have a conversation with him was challenging as he seemed to be in a meditative state. It was definitely a night and day change from the person he was just a month earlier in our course.

Aside from the dozens of temples you can see while here, you can also visit the night markets. Just outside the Old City, there is a ‘Night Bazaar’ market that takes place every night.

Get it while its hot!! I found this for sale in the market. Apparently, there was only one for sale...

The market is made up of a wide road stretching end to end full of street vendors on each side. For the most part, all these vendors are selling goods but if you want food, there is an area at the halfway point of the market where you can find dozens of food choices. We ended up at the Night Bazaar on two separate nights but the market not to miss is actually the Walking Street market which takes place on Sundays from 4pm till around 11pm. I had originally thought the Night Bazaar was huge since there were hundreds of vendors there touting their products but the Walking Street market was much much larger. In fact, we spent over four hours walking through it and we still didn’t see everything. The one thing that separates it from the Night Bazaar though is the fact the most of the products you’ll find here are more unique, hand made crafts than those you’ll find in the Night Bazaar. There was also more choices of food vendors to choose from. Should you make a Chiang Mai visit, definitely time your visit so that you’re here on Sunday so you can experience this market.

Lunch that day...

On a couple other days spent here, we rented bikes and rode the river that lies just outside the center of town.

First time feeding a hippo...

We also took an afternoon and rode to the Chiang Mai Zoo. At first, the idea of going to a zoo on this trip didn’t seem that it would be worthwhile to me or at least any different than any other zoo I’d been to back home. However, after spending close to five hours in this place, we still didn’t see everything as it was one of the largest zoos I’d ever been to before and I also realized they had many animals here that you will never see in a zoo back home.

Remember a few posts ago when I said 7-Eleven's were everywhere in Thailand? Well, this one is actually inside the Chiang Mai zoo!

They would also allow you to feed almost all the animals too. For less than two dollars, I was able to feed hippos, giraffes, peacocks, ostrich, and an orangutan but if you wanted, you could also feed the elephants, leopards, rhinos, monkeys, bears and many more.

The Gibbon... Definitely the coolest animal in the park!

Yep, you can feed the giraffes too.

The animals that were new to me were the gibbon, squirrel monkeys, a small species of bear and some large, wild looking birds. It was definitely worth the trip here even though I was skeptical at first to come. And the entrance fee to get in was just over a dollar so it was still a cheap way to spend the better part of a day…

Well, at least they are trying...

By the time we rode bikes all the way back into town, between the two days of riding, we probably ridden at least 70 kilometers. We still wanted to visit a few more places that were much further from Chiang Mai so we rented a motorbike instead for the next couple days. The first place we stopped in at was Huay Tung Thao Lake which is just north of the city. Luckily it was the weekend when we visited so there were locals there as well as food vendors. And since this wasn’t a place advertised by tourist offices, we didn’t see but one or two foreigners while we were here as almost everyone was a local Thai. There were about 4 or 5 different coves along the lake where there were small open air huts along the water’s edge with tables set up on top of a mat spread across the bamboo floor. And in one of the coves, the huts actually sit out into the water. You have to walk a small plank of bundled bamboo over the water to get into one. Once there, the food vendors will come by to try and sell you their food and drinks which were surprisingly affordable.

The small huts were all along the waters edge and some were floating on the water and only connected by a narrow bridge made of bamboo

The next day on the motorbike, we rode east of the city to visit the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs. This was definitely the furthest I’d ridden as it took about an hour to get there being 36 kilometers from the Old City.

The center garden area of the hot springs

It was worth the drive though as this hot spring area was much larger and much nicer than the one I’d visited just a week or so earlier while in Krabi. There is a small entrance fee you pay to get in but here, they not only have a hot spring swimming pool and bath area but they also have a stream running through the park area that you can sit beside (or swim in if you’re a kid).

What do you do with these?

But one of the main things you have try while here is boiling quail eggs. Since most hot springs have areas where the water temperature differs, this park took advantage of 105 degree Celcius water to allow visitors to boil eggs. You had the option of buying two different types of eggs for less than a dollar and we chose the smaller, quail eggs. They give you a handy little bamboo basket which you hang on the wall in the 105 degree pool of water. Fifteen to twenty minutes later (depending on how you like your eggs) you pull them from the water, allow them to cool and have yourself a small breakfast. It was definitely a Thai hot spring experience…

Stick the eggs in boiling hot spring water!

Another experience worth mentioning was the time at the cinema we spent one night. If you’ve ever been to Thailand, you know that you will find a picture of the King displayed everywhere.

Definitely the first time I've seen a whole banana tree branch for sale...

Well, after over a month spent in this country, I’d become pretty well accustomed to that but what I wasn’t ready for was the moment when the advertisements ended in the theater to the time before the movie started. They had about a one to two minute segment when the King came on and everybody stands to honor the King. It was similar to the time taken before a sporting event only this time, we were in a movie theater and I didn’t know whether to put my popcorn down, put my hand over my chest or if I was meant to salute so I merely followed the lead of my neighbors . It was an interesting experience to say the least.

After six days visiting Chiang Mai, it was time to move on. I only had about a week before my Visa expired (again) so I’d have to be over the Thai border. Since already in the north of Thailand, we decided to check out the small town of Pai, one of the places that had been highly recommended to me by so many fellow travelers….