Chok dee (Cheers) to Chiang Mai

Amy: The sound of the rails lulled us to sleep on the overnight train to Chiang Mai. Our top bunks in the second class sleeper were cozy and the 13-hour trip went by relatively quickly. By mid-morning, we hopped off the train and walked to our accommodations at the affordable Rainforest Boutique Hotel. After a number of sleep deprived nights at our hostel in Bangkok and some tossing and turning on the train, a quiet room with a comfy bed was very welcome.

We came to Chiang Mai knowing it was in the mountains in northern Thailand and the second largest city, but not much more. We spent our first full day in Chiang Mai making plans and figuring out how to get around. After driving across South Africa, we decided to take a break from renting a vehicle. Motorbikes are common and easy to rent, but the roads were too busy for novices like us.

With limited freedom in transport and not much pre-planning, we ended up with a few ‘touristy’ experiences including a group tour up Doi Inthanon (Thailand’s highest mountain). We looked into climbing it, but it really isn’t much of a climber’s peak as it is quite forested with a paved highway to the top. We enjoyed stopping at two beautiful waterfalls along the drive to the summit, as well as a hike around the top on our own. A stop at a Hmong market and a visit to a local hill tribe (known as the Karen) added to the day. Group tours that shuttle foreigners to pre-planned stops aren’t really our favorite, but we are pretty easy to please and we enjoyed the day.

The next couple of days took us outside of Chiang Mai toward a nearby town called Doi Saket. We found a local Servas host willing to welcome us for two nights. Recommended to me by a colleague, Servas is an international organization that brings hosts and travelers together. The idea is that hosts offer travelers a place to stay and for friendships to begin, ideas to be exchanged, and cultures to be shared.

Our second Servas experience was in the lovely home of Ralph and Kat. Ralph is from the UK and Kat is from southern Thailand. Our time was filled with tasty home cooked meals, a bike ride through the country side, and lively conversation about politics, world events, movies, and their life in Thailand.

We visited the nearby temple filled with colorful and somewhat peculiar paintings. Biking around the nearby botanical garden made for a nice afternoon. There were only a handful of other visitors, except a large group of school children who were very pleased to spot us “farangs” (foreigners or non-Asians). They smiled widely and shouted “hello, hello, hello” as we passed. Kat also made sure that we didn’t forget to get some Thai sky lanterns and we celebrated our last night with them by sending the glowing lights into the sky.

The next morning, we hopped on a yellow truck called a songthaew (songtail) packed with locals for our first trip to the city center of Chiang Mai. After getting to our room at Baan Jaja, we walked throughout the city, perusing numerous coffee shops, hostels, restaurants of all kinds (we stopped for some interesting chips at a “Mexican” restaurant and had Indian food for dinner), and the ever present 7-11. The city center was interesting to explore with many temples and winding roads that were once surrounded with a large wall and gates. Travelers were in abundance and the Sunday Walking Market near our lodging had some decent goods, but was also so packed it was hard to move and I felt somewhat claustrophobic.

The Chiang Mai area is also known for Asian elephants and has a significant tourist business with elephant riding. As we travel we are trying to be conscious about what types of activities we do and we try to avoid things that might be exploiting or misusing the local people and animals. I had heard that elephant riding is not good for them and that the training they go through can be quite harmful. After some research, we booked a day at Elephant Nature Park. The park is a sanctuary to injured and abused elephants and seemed genuine. We joined a group filled with friendly Canadians and spent the day feeding, bathing, and learning about the elephants. The park is also home to over 400 dogs, hundreds of cats, and numerous buffalo. I so wanted to grab a pup or kitten to take along with us on our journey!

 

Prior to our departure, we spent time in Minnesota and visited Jon’s sister (also named Amy) at the Hmong charter school where she teaches. We shared our travel plans and we put stars on a world map with our potential stops. As Thailand has a few Hmong tribes, we wanted to visit and send some photos for Amy to share with her class. I set up a tour of the nearby Hmong village (with a plan to visit the school) and the Wat Phra That temple that sits above Chiang Mai on Doi Suthep.

We arrived to the Hmong village and it was buzzing with visitors. I had read that the village would have tourists, but this was more than I anticipated. Luckily, our guide took us beyond the “market” area so we could experience the actual village. It turned out that school was closed for a long weekend to celebrate the King’s birthday. However, children were all around dressed in their traditional Hmong clothes (which was cute, even if it was mostly for photo opportunities). Happy to have the day off, children played games in the street and a group giggled at Thai movie stars in a magazine. We stopped by the school, which looked nice and fairly modern. It appears that tourism has brought in good resources to the community, however, I wonder if the traditions of their culture are becoming somewhat lost in selling mass produced goods to visitors.

As we wrapped up our time, we checked out the modern conveniences at the Night Bazaar and had a blast at Boy Blues Bar seeing our charming Servas host, Ralph, perform a few songs. We also were able to stroll around my favorite temple, Wat Chedi Luang (it wasn’t busy and very beautiful), and we stopped into a local school for a walk around to see the cafeteria and students outside for physical education class nearby our affordable hostel called Coffee in Narrow Guesthouse.

Our time in Chiang Mai was interesting. We enjoyed the booming fireworks to celebrate the King’s Birthday, some authentic northern Thailand food, biking past the local rice fields, and visiting some gentle and friendly elephants. More good times in Thailand to come. Off to the island of Koh Chang next.

Please share any thoughts or comments. We love to hear from you!

(Dates: November 29-December 9)