Christmas in Chiang Mai

Day 48 - 04/01/2016
Phu Chi Fa - Rom Fa Thai - Close to Laotian border

The longer we travel, the less time we have for writing.

Days past faster than in cold office and suddenly we’ve entered year 2016 :)

We haven’t posted anything about our mission in Thailand and I’d like to go back in our memories to the beginning - How did we get out of Myanmar ?

Our original plan was to go east direction deep into Shan state and cross border to Thailand by land in Tachileik, unfortunately this option was not feasible as Shan and Burmese Armies were giving each other bit of hard time for a change and only option would be to fly with one of domestic airlines - which would 1. be more expensive than to fly to Bangkok, 2. mean supporting one of the generals as all domestic airlines are own by military chiefs.

So we flew to Bangkok with AirAsia instead and took sleeper train directly to Chiang Mai. For those who’ve tried sleeper class in India, Thai trains are a bit of disappointment - less crowdy, no chai, no food vendors, only Thai railway owned restaurant coach which is bit overpriced and mainly being used by Thai police members. Light was on all night and in general it’s missing the Indian sleeper atmosphere - most of the passengers in cheapest sleeper were other white faces ;(. Another strange fact met first time on the train - You can’t drink beer but you can smoke cigarettes ?

Monkey business on Thai train

Anyway scenery was beautiful and we’ve enjoyed morning with reading and staring out of the window. By midday we’ve reached Chiang Mai - 2nd largest city in Thailand. Train station is some 20 mins east out of the town. We got dropped by Somphet market which is the centre of backpackers life. Within 10 mins we’ve found really quiet guest house hidden in a mix of concrete and garden and they still had one double bedroom available. We’ve checked in on 23rd of December for very reasonable 300 Bahts.

For next 5 nights it was our home. Old teak house with huge room on the 1st floor.

First day we didn’t get to do much, I was still tired from sickness so we’ve just chilled in the garden, read a bit and overdosed ourselves on Mango, Lime and Pineapple ice shakes :)

First full day in Chiang Mai we’ve wondered around the town, discovering market areas, few temples and afternoon spent in the shade of our garden, regaining energy. Christmas dinner was in the name of fish soup and Masamang Curry :) followed by early night in bed.

The orchids are almost as beautiful as Tati

On Christmas Day we’ve kicked ourselves to fresh fruit breakfast and rented old school Honda Dream - 125cc for a journey through Mae Sa Valley - so called Samoeng loop. Our first bike riding experience in Thailand, smooth asphalt roads winding through jungle forests are great to get little training on Thai roads!

Mae Sa Waterfall - more a cascade than proper waterfall but beautiful walk

Getting out of Chiang Mai through the road 107 heading north and turning in Mae Rim direction to Mae Sa waterfall and Samoeng. This area is full of tourist attractions - Adrenalin sports related, elephant camps, orchid gardens - Thai Tourism factory perse ...

But there are some lovely spots to be seen ! Mae Sa waterfall, strawberries farms and the road which takes you around Doi Suthep - Pui mountain in 100 km circuit has incredible views from the higher sections and some really good turns. Traffic is not that bad, but don’t expect to be alone on the road - for that you have to head much further north :)

Strawberries selection by RaT !

Our bums were getting square by the time we got back to the town and joined busy dusk traffic. We do it all the time :) ride till the last light of the day and join the crowd who’s doing the same :)

Getting lost in the fields around Samoeng

We kept the bike for next day and this time we went just west out of the town - Doi Suthep Pui national park area. Again most of the road is lined with tourist attractions but this time in different spirit - Hill tribe village - overpriced market and entrance fees to see everything, crowded Wat above the town, viewpoints of Chiang Mai aglomeration - lovely view ...

There were 2 highlights of the day and both had one simple thing in common - being alone in wild nature. Few kms above Zoo, there is Mon Tha Tan waterfall and close to that is 1.6 km long nature trail taking you through the deep jungle on muddy path. If you’re lucky there might be no one to collect the entrance fee and you save yourself some 200 Bahts each ;)

Waiting for the waterfall engineers to turn the tap on :)

Next nature trail is located almost on the top of Doi Pui itself. Park your vehicle in the campsite and within 30 minutes hike you reach the top - 1685 m. Top of the peak is in deep forest, but don’t despair keep going north direction and you’ll reach viewpoint on pretty steep ridge. We carried huge pineapple with us for last 2 days and this was the time to eat it !

View from Doi Pui viewpoint - looking North West direction

Pineapple lunch !

Surrounded by clean air, with just few random Thai guys and one American girl passing by in 40 mins, it didn’t feel like being so close to the city at all.

This time we’ve managed to get back to the town before sunset, returned the bike, did some laundry, had massive dinner and fell dead into our bed :)

Next day was the day of preparation for proper bike mission !

We’ve secured Honda Phantom 200cc, helmets big enough to fit on our hairy brains, bought gloves, Golden Triangle biker map, monocular and did more research about which direction and for how long we should head !

(in the time of writing our 8th day has just passed and we’ve done close to 1000 km)

Historic stupa in Shan temple

In the afternoon we walked around to see some of the most important Wats of Chiang Mai, late but not forgotten proper tourist tour =) and ended up in the famous busy Sunday street market in the centre of the town. A quick walkthrough was enough to understand the purpose - to satisfy white-faces consuming mood and made us return faster to our guest-house and our planing-trip mission !

Old temple built by Myanmar monks

Next morning we had a full western breakfast for a change accompanied by huge rat trying to steal fruit offered to Buddha in little shrine, it tried few times and didn’t care that we’re sitting just meter away from it :)

Architectural centre in Chiang Mai - detailed expositions of traditional Thai housing

By 10 AM we checked out, with one oversize backpack on Tati’s back - the rest of our stuff stayed hidden in storage room of Chok Dee guest house.

But that’s all folks for now!

Next adventures are captured separately with proper map, road descriptions and large photo gallery.