Chiang Mai Day 4, 5 & 6: Second try at Chiang Mai

My first taste of Chiang Mai was not great. Yes, the wat were spectacular, and the nights out entertaining, but I didn’t really enjoy staying or being in the city as I did Bangkok.

It is the same every time I have been travelling. I find places which on paper look amazing, and have attractions I enjoy seeing/experiencing/drinking. But the place as a whole just isn’t me. In South Africa, it was Pretoria. In India, Jaipur. In Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City. And in Thailand, it was Chiang Mai.

But it made no sense to feel this way; Chiang Mai is a historic, walled city filled with monasteries and wats. It’s like Oxford….with Pad Thai and humidity. It sounds very me. It is somewhere I had looked forward to visiting more than anywhere in Thailand.

So, I decided to give the city another chance, and cut my stay in Pai short to return to the city, and give it another day (and an evening) to persuade me of its charms.

And surprisingly, Chiang Mai on the second try was somewhere I enjoyed staying. I am unsure whether it was the change in hostel, or different people, or less temples and less Starbucks sessions, but I loved my brief time in the city.

I arrived fresh queasy off the four hour bus from Pai. The road is full of twists and turns, and the Thai drivers will tackle them as fast as they can without skidding off the side of the mountain. I really need to hunt out some travel sickness tablets, as the roads in this part of the world are really not people-friendly. Laos is reputedly worse, and Cambodia worse still.

Yay! I’ve already got a plastic bag secreted in my day bag in preparation for the inevitable.

The view from outside my dorm :D

Once I had found my hostel and my sea legs had returned, I headed out into the city for a highlight of my stay there; the Sunday Walking Street, which stretches for over a kilometre along the main thoroughfare of the old walled city, Thanon Ratchadamnoen.

It is rather heavy on the tourist souvenirs, but locals frequent the market too, and it is full of alternative clothing stalls; local artists displaying their works; and (as it is Thailand) thousands of delicious food stalls.

I decided to start small, and have a little of everything.

First I had several sticks of sweet barbeque pork chunks.

...Then I found banana spring rolls. I had to have two.

So many banana rolls waiting for me to eat.

...Then there was that street stall full of sushi at 5B per piece (£0.10). I had to have 4 pieces.

At this point all this eating was getting tiring, so I ducked into a cafe, and had some tea to recuperate my strength, before getting right back to it.

...Then I found a stall selling fried squid tentacles for B25, so I had to have a whole bag of them to eat whilst browsing.

...Finally, there was that stall that sold five miniature ice creams for B20 (£0.40). By this point, I was feeling full, so restrained myself to having just one portion...of five ice creams.

This needs to be a thing in the UK.

...By 10.30pm, I was hungry again.

Jokes about overeating aside, the Sunday Walking Market had some of the best food I have eaten in Thailand, and there was so much variety it was hard to choose what to eat. I deliberately avoided the larger meals in favour of picking up snacks and sampling more without filling up too much. I was still so full by the time I left the market.

In addition to the food, the market is just a brilliant place to promenade and chat with friends whilst admiring the merchandise and goods for sale.

The beautiful art of Chiang Mai artists.

There’s something for everything. You can get alcoholic coffees; hand-made lanterns; doggie outfits; Japanese slippers; Pad Thai; miniature bronze gongs; street-side massages; or bobble-head monk figurines. I myself treated myself to a ‘Chiang Mai’ vest top, and also to an unfortunate massage.

I need to STOP getting the male masseurs. They have beefy, sausage fingers which they jam into every bone they can find. I had bruised shins and neck ache after this brute got done with me. Nearly a week after and my shins still hurt. If i ever see him again I will return the favour with a head massage...using a cricket bat.

Sunday Walking Market in Chiang Mai - a definite highlight!

After several hours of eating, shopping and wincing, I staggered back to the hostel and collapsed in bed with a food coma.

The next day, I was ready to see more of Chiang Mai. I had arranged to meet a local friend called Patrick for lunch in the university district of the city, which was conveniently located near the terminus for the sorgnthaew that would take me to my tourist attraction of the day; the hill-temple of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Ratchaworawihan (Doi Suthep from henceforth as I am not typing all that again!)

Whilst waiting to meet Patrick, I spent an amusing thirty minutes in a shopping centre watching a Thai teenager make a mocha I’d ordered. I have never seen any mocha take someone 15 minutes to make. I have never tasted any mocha like what I received from her.

It probably would have helped if she had used the coffee maker sat on the side behind her.

It looked a little like a latte but had no coffee in, and I couldn’t find any chocolate either.

I was basically presented with fancy, frothy, luke-warm UHT milk.

Unimpressed.

Rescued from coffee-ineptitude by Patrick, we headed to eat at a northern Thai restaurant he’d been recommended. We briefly got lost and found this:

Erm....yeah...I just don't know.

I just don’t know what that is. But our restaurant was next door, and it was delicious.

The menu was in Thai but I ended up with a utterly delicious Thai seafood hotpot, and strawberry soda. Patrick had the house special, and definitely got the better meal.

Super-Thai-Japanese-style-seafood-hotpot.

Amazing strawberry soda. Shame the strawberries were canned.

This was followed by an Lemon Mint Smoothie in a nearby cafe. You know it’s fancy when it’s served ironically in a jam jar. Hipsters unfortunately exist everywhere in the world.

At times, you just have to smile and wave at these situations.

Enough Insta-food pics, let’s head on to Doi Suthep.

After a lengthy wait at the sorgnthaew terminus, and some tense negotiations with the driver over inflating prices we headed on a twisting, winding mountain road up out of the city, and into the nearby national park.

The winding roads up to the temple.

After thirty minutes, we arrived at the base of Doi Suthep, which is another ten minutes climb at the summit of the hill. The staircase to reach the summit was decorated/flanked by tiled, undulating naga reaching down from the temple.

Naga stairs that went on forever - apologies for the head in shot - it was the best shot I had after 5 minutes of waiting...

Pretty nagas at Doi Suthep

Once at the top, I decided to explore the outlying buildings before going into the centre. After a brief thunderstorm, and briefly getting lost in a fake flower garden, I stumbled onto a viewpoint over Chiang Mai and it’s surrounding valley.

Just watching the sheets of rain roll across the valley.

The dramatic clouds perched above the peaceful valley.

I loved watching the rainstorms sweep across the valley, and the power of the tropical storms meant I could actually see the sheets of rain falling onto the city below, followed by piercing rays of sunlight. It was just brilliant to watch weather at work.

And I of course took a seflie.

Looking fly at Doi Suthep. Travelling does my looks wonders :)

With my time running out before I would have to return to the road and catch the sorgnthaew back into the city, I headed into the temple proper. It was very...colourful. Not the most spectacular, but very colourful.

The colourful, beautiful temple of Doi Suthep.

I also learnt where jackfruit come from - they grow out of a trunk of a certain tree. Odd.

This does not make me want to try jackfruit

Finally, I headed into the inner sanctum of the temple, flip-flops discarded at the entrance. There was a golden chedi.

I like photographing golden chedi.

The light was particularly good.

Apologies in advance.

So colourful.

So moody and beautiful.

I am again all about the lens flare.

The temple sanctuary was so peaceful, despite the busloads of Chinese tourists staging impromptu photo shoots in front of the shimmering chedi.

Seriously, why do Chinese women need their friends to take dozens of photos of them in faux-model poses in front of tourist attractions. Yes, I can understand the need to take kick-arse photos to make your friends jealous at home. I appreciate the need to take a couple just in case one comes out strange.

But, I do not understand the bizarre, fake poses. I do not understand how someone can be so ignorant to stand in front of something and get in everyone’s way for several minutes at a time. And I really cannot see the point of taking pictures of yourself when you are swaddled in a large sun hat, sunglasses, and a surgical mask to avoid tanning.

Your friends at home won’t even know it is you! You could just take a photo off the internet and pretend!

You can’t even get on Facebook in China, so what’s the point!

So much rage at Chinese tourists, who did slightly diminish my experience at the temple. I understand that no nationality behaves well in tour groups, which Chinese people inevitably are on. I’m sure I will be far more irritated by British TOT (Twats On Tour) when I reach the southern Thai islands. But in Chiang Mai, Chinese tour groups were exceedingly obnoxious to both locals and fellow tourists. Standing in front of monks, breaking their stride, to photograph them. Throwing rubbish on the floor when bins are fairly frequent (for Thailand). Taking photos across streets and blocking alleys and thoroughfares in doing so. They are not just great to deal with, and should be a little more respectful.

Anyway, rant over.

Despite the bad behaviour of my fellow tourists, I found the temple so peaceful and tranquil that I sat down in a quiet corner for some time just staring at the chedi, soaking up the atmosphere, and laughing internally at the small Chinese men carrying extra-large cameras with unnecessarily long lenses.

Bells were ringing gently above me as I sat peacefully.

Noticing how far the sun had progressed across the sky, I stirred from my quiet reflection, and began slowly making my way down the hill back to the waiting sorgnthaew. I found these colourful fellows on the way that needed photographing.

These colourful, sassy guardians of the wat.

After a long trip back into the city, not aided by the driver’s inability to find my hostel, I spent a couple of hours in my hostel, browsing Facebook whilst intending to write more blog.

I was intending to have an early night as I was due to meet my travel buddy for Laos, Niko, early the following morning when he arrived off the night train from Bangkok. However, my drinking buddies from Pai had arrived at my hostel, and they were very convincing…

Late night hijinks in a sorgnthaew.

Late night hijinks in Zoey's - just an awesome place to spend a night.

At least I finally made it to the famous Zoey’s whilst it was open.

It was worth going. Music was good. Drinks were cheap. ‘Thailand’ bracelets were available and bought. I had fun heading to 7/11 after Zoey’s to buy toasties to sate my drunken munchies.

...

Morning comes and my alarm goes off at 08.30 to meet Niko at 09.30.

I wake up at 09.37.

I make it out of the hostel to meet Niko by 10.00. I feel this was fairly impressive considering how much I had drunk. Oh Long Island Ice Tea buckets, you were so good to me last night, but so bad to me in the morning.

After an iced coffee, we decided to catch the bus to Chiang Khong, the nearest town to Thailand’s border crossing with Laos, that afternoon. But, I had yet to make it to the last major temple in Chiang Mai; Wat Singh. So I head there after packing my bags for a quick peak around the temple.

It was pretty, but nothing spectacular.

Dramatic yet distinctly average Wat Singh.

The many faces of Wat Singh :)

That marked the end of my time in Chiang Mai. In these two(ish) days, I travelled little differently than I did during my first sejour in the city, but the result was a far more experience. I was so, so glad I gave this city another chance, as my memories of it now are far more positive than they would have been otherwise.

Next, Laos!

DSP

PS: Here’s a picture of a gecko that did not quite fit into the blog, but I wanted to include nevertheless.

I am not sure if we could escape from the light, but it made a good photo.