Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the centre of Northern Thailand and for a vast number of travellers, it is their favourite place in Thailand. Maybe it was the expectation, because although it was a nice, relaxed place – for me it did not have that wow factor. That something that makes you fall in love with a place.

It started off really well. My bus arrived on time and I successfully avoided all the tuk-tuks and taxi’s trying to get an inflated price from the tourists. I headed over to the red songthaew’s. Songthaew are like mini pick up trucks with two planks / seats in the back. They are a shared public taxi. I climbed in the back with the locals and got dropped off in the middle of the city, exactly where I wanted to be. Another helpful Thai gave me precise directions to my guest house, a 5 min walk away. The guesthouse was run by a chap from Marseille and alot of French ex pats hung out there. That first evening I was bought a number of beers (wasn’t allowed to buy any back) given chocolate and promised a discount on the cheese platter if I went to Jean’s French restaurant. The next day I simply pottered about getting my bearings. There are two parts to Chiang Mai. The old city and the new. The old city is surrounded by a moat and has some sections of the city wall remaining. Only tiny sections though – its not York! It is only a mile square though it is crammed with hundreds of tiny streets, so walking around is very time and energy consuming. Over 20 temples are inside the old city with even more in the new city. That afternoon a tremendous downpour flooded the streets in a matter of minutes. An hour later – all that surface water had vanished. (York could certainly learn some lessons here) Unfortunately sudden heavy downpours were to become a regular feature of my time here. The rain is that ferocious that everything comes to a stop. Wearing rainmacs and carrying umbrellas doesn’t help because the roads so quickly become ankle deep – then walking becomes tricky. Its best to wait the “showers” out.

Chiang Mai is used as a hub for those who want to go trekking in the mountains and visit the hill tribes. I only have flipflops at the mo and thought it would be easy to find trainers or the like here, as it is the trekking hub. I even got friends looking out for sturdy footwear but none was to be found – not even in one of the worlds largest market (more of that later). So with no footwear, trekking was out of the question. As were the adventure activities. There are some amazing zip-line courses in the vicinity but at £75 per person for a 3 hour max session – well its cheaper to go to Alton Towers for the day. There are elephant sanctuary nearby too but these cost between £75 - £150 for the day, It is a once in a lifetime experience but its equivalent of a week budget for me. There may be opportunities for elephants elsewhere, hopefully. Overall I have found Thailand very expensive when it comes to tours and excursions and activities nearly double the price of Cambodia and Vietnam.
My Australian friends Alvena and Tanya who I met in Halong Bay are also in Chiang Mai so a few evenings have been spent very pleasantly imbibing the odd drink or two and eating lots of food. The two things that Chiang Mai is outstanding at are markets and food. There are lots of little day markets selling fresh food, plus a daily night market that takes over a large swathe of the new city. The night market is primarily aimed at tourists, the day markets are for locals. I found a woman selling maggots, grubs, fried cockroaches, spit roasted frogs not to mention live bees. These were not caged or under wraps but buzzing about near her. She had a bag with honeycomb in, so they stayed more or less around this bag.

On Friday night a local lady introduced me to red snapper which had been covered in salt than baked. Peel off the skin to discover the nicest fish I have ever tasted whilst at the Saturday market I gorged on bbq squid and heaps of mussels with a spicy sauce. I joined Alvo and Tanya to explore the gigantic Sunday walking market. They close off over half the old city to traffic and line the streets with stalls selling everything you can think off, from delicate lighting for your home, to stone statues, to touristy clothes and paintings, even outfits for your cats and dogs. The great thing about being three people instead of one is that we could try and share more dishes. We tried northern fish curry, fried quails egg with spicy sauce, potato twists with paprika, steamed pumpkin, mussel and seafood thai omelette followed by coconut corn pancakes and fresh coconut juice. The others also tried various meats on a stick, Alvena declaring the pork crackling that the thai’s are very fond of “food of the gods”. Its a shame I have no space in my backpack because even a reluctant shopper like me could find so many things to buy. The photo above is of omelet cooked in banana leaves on a grill - not to be confused with a thai omelet which is practically deep fried.

To try and counter the effects of all that food I hired a bicycle for the day. My plan was to cycle by the river and out into the countryside. Chiang Mai however had other plans. It is mainly a one way city so trying to get to your destination can be quite a circular route. Once I had managed to find my way to a bridge across the river I was very disappointed to find out that there was no river path. Only large roads and none with a river view. It is here after being back in Thailand for 10 days that I realised that Thai’s drive on the left, I had been cycling on the right as in Cambodia and Vietnam. In my defence, up until this point I had only been on dual carriageways and one way systems! I also realised that you couldn’t easily get into the countryside. After an hours cycling I was still in an urban sprall. Worse, I had also a couple of times ended up on the super highway. The motorway that rings outer Chiang Mai with cars and lorries hurtling past me at 100km an hour. Luckily there was a huge hard shoulder – I came nowhere near the cars, but still, it was a little disconcerting. I had not intended to join the highway but some of the roads merge onto it with no warning and no chance of getting off it. Rather frustrated at my lack of green scenery I handed the bike back.

I spent my remaining time visiting some of the many temples in the old city. They are very impressive. From the ruins of Chedi Luang built in 1441 (top photo) to the gold and glitter of the pagoda temples. Wat Phra Singh has the most revered Buddha but it was two of its side temples that most impressive me. As I climbed the stairs to the temple (barefoot of course), I noticed some monks inside. There were no other tourists about and I did not know if I should enter or not – I did not want to disturb the monks. As I stood outside I realised that all 4 monks were uncommonly still. I gingerly made by way inside. It was not until I got sideways on to the monks that I realised that they were not real – they were waxwork dummies! The photo does not do them justice because in reality there are the most lifelike dummies I have ever seen. Madame Tussard should come here for tips. Speaking to fellow travellers later, it transpires I am not the only one to mistake the dummies for real monks. Wat Phra Singh had a third temple which had original murals painted on the walls. They had faded and peeled off in some areas but were beautiful to look at. What makes the temples in Chiang Mai different to others is the ‘Monk Chat’ program they run. You can sit in the grounds and ask the monks questions on Buddhism and their way of live. It is a chance for the monks to improve their English whilst imparting knowledge. They were a number of people taking up this opportunity whilst I was there. On the day I visited I had no unanswered questions in my mind so I left the monks alone. Despite the vast array of amazing food on offer and the healthy juices to be had in the numerous vegetarian cafes, I was pleased to be leaving Chiang Mai, venturing onwards to somewhere that may be more 'me'!