Traveling with the siblings: Chiang Mai

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I had heard about Chiang Mai (hard not to, considering that is one of the top tourist destinations in Thailand). It's the main city in Northern Thailand and there are several things to do there. With my brother and Sister (José and Vale), we decided to check out that city and see what things to do once we got there.



Out of all the transport options, we opted to take the train from Hua Lomphong, Bangkok's train station. We left at 10pm. Overall, I think it made for a good experience, taking the 18 hour train ride. But I probably wouldn't do it again.

When we got to the station, we found out that all the wagons with sleeping cabins were booked out. On the upside, the wagon we ended up in was nearly empty, so we all had double seats. The problem was the constant noise of the train going along the railway; it was a constant metal against metal clang for the whole duration of the trip. Add that to a bunch of annoying 18 year old drunk and/or high backpackers constantly walking up and down the aisle and opening the doors to go for a smoke. So it was a sleepless night, except for a few hours on and off during the next day.

The best thing about the journey were the landscapes that we had during the daylight hours the next day. The rural and jungle-like landscapes were beautiful and definitely worth the downsides of the trip.

It's recommendable to take one's own food, as the one on the train is expensive.



After arriving at the train station in Chiang Mai we took a Songthaew: a reliable and generally inexpensive means of transportation to get around. I think they can be best described as "back bench seating, red pickup-converted taxis" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songthaew). We got dropped off in the center of the city and then we went to look for accommodation (there are multiple options).

After settling in we got some sleeping time and in the evening we headed out to check the popular night market, get something to eat and see options of things to do for next day. Overall, we spent a lot of time in markets (not my cup of tea), but I followed nonetheless (almost) everytime.



The next morning we decided to look for a Songthaew that would take us to the Tiger Kingdom (http://www.tigerkingdom.com/Home.htm). We had no idea that there was the option of going to see tigers near Chiang Mai; we found that out after getting there. Before, we were actually thinking of going to the Tiger Temple near Bangkok.

Vale was really looking forwards to doing this (it was one of her highlights). We found a person with a Songthaew willing to take us for a very reasonable price and he stayed with us the rest of the day. At the end of the day, the whole thing cost us very cheap (about 700 Baht in total).

When we got to Tiger Kingdom we could choose from several different "packages". There are tigers in big open cages, separated by age groups. Tourists can get in the cages with tigers up to 2 years old (which are already huge).

We opted for a package that included interacting with 2 and 8 month old tigers and 2 year old tigers. It was a lot of fun. we started from smallest to biggest, so we got in first with the 2 month old tigers. Tigers are more active at night, so during the day they're usually sleepy. Between José and I, we got close to 600 photos in the different cages.

Then, it was the turn with the 8 months old, which are already quite impressive in sight. More photos. And then the 2 year olds. It's not comfortable at first being that close to a big, free roaming killer cat. But it was really good fun.

Vale got one of her life-long dreams: touching a tiger's paw (she did that with the 2 month olds). I told Vale that now I have a dream of my own: saddling up a trained adult tigress and go hunting on it with bow and arrow. A bit more ambitious. Someday...



After the awesome tiger experience we got our day chauffeur and went to a temple on top of the Doi Suthep mountain. It's a temple known as "The White Elephant Temple" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Phra_That_Doi_Suthep). It was a temple well worth the visit; it has good views over Chiang Mai city, several buildings and overall very nice golden statues.



That made for a good first day in Chiang Mai. The rest of the day was walking around and more night market visiting. for the next day we decided to book a tour that included elephant riding (one of the things Vale and José really wanted to do), a visit to a local village, going to a "waterfall", lunch and bamboo rafting.

One of those days, in the night market I managed to buy a swim suit, shorts and a couple of T-Shirts. It felt good to have something new to wear. By then all the photos I had from the previous 15 months were more or less all with the same clothes. All I needed now were new sneakers, for the ones I had were falling apart.



So, the next morning we were picked up "earlish" and got into a van. The other people on the tour that day were a very friendly Malasyan guy in his 50's that we nicknamed "the Prime Minister of Malasya" (it was a joke based on a movie called "Zoolander"). Then there was a couple of Spanish that were on their honeymoon and us. To tell the truth, if I had been on my own, I would't have really enjoyed the tour. But with José and Vale we had several good laughs during the day and it was a lot of fun.

We started by going to an elephant camp to go on an elephant ride. The elephants had seats for 2 people. On the first elephant there were José with the "Prime Minister" (PM), followed by the Spanish couple and then Vale and I.

Vale bought a bundle of sugar cane sticks to feed the elephant. When the elephant heard the words "Bon-Bon", it would raise its trunks above its head and point it at us to get fed the sugar cane. Very cool.

Along the way, the elephant that was taking the Spanish couple, apparently was underfed or it just had an insatiable appetite, because it stopped every 10 meters or so and started ripping the jungle apart and feeding off it, much to the discomfort of its riders. For us it was all very funny. Luckily for Vale and I, our elephant was extremely well behaved.



At one point, the lead elephant carrying José and the "PM", suddenly got out of control and for some seconds seemed to start trotting. The look on José's and the "PM"'s faces was priceless. Vale was grabbing her stomach and laughing so hard I thought she was going to fall off the seat.

After that, we continued our way without further incidents.



The next things on the list were a visit to a local village. This in my opinion was worthless. Barely any interaction with the few local people there. The guide explained some facts about the village and we saw some of the handcrafts that they made (mostly textiles). The interesting thing were the roofs of the houses which were made of dried leaves. Very effective for the heat, they were waterproof and had to be replaced or "repaired" more or less once a year.

The guide then took us for a walk to a waterfall. The guide was a very cheerfull guy, but extremely lazy. Every 5 minutes of walking along different plantations, we would have a "break". especially when it started raining a bit.

When we got to the waterfall, I've got to say I wasn't impressed. We had about 40 minutes to kill time there and most of us got in the natural pool that was formed beneath the - 15 meter or so - waterfall. That part was good fun. We got a good laugh at the PM getting in the water in his striped underwear.



After the waterfall, it was time for lunch. It was a typical, abundant Thai lunch in a local eatery. While we were eating, it started to rain heavily. The next and last activity of the tour was going down a river in bamboo rafts. We weren't really excited about this activity in particular. Not becasue of the rain, but because it seemed a bit dull.

We got to the edge of the river and the rain only got worse. In groups of three, we got on the narrow rafts, made of thick bamboo canes tied together. They didn't look very secure. In the front raft it was Vale, José and myself. The guy guiding the raft was a kid that couldn't have been more then 15 years old. On the other raft were the other 3 with an older guide. The guides steered the rafts from the front.



We had a wrong first impression. This was maybe the best part of the tour. Perhaps because of the incessant downpur that made the river flow considerably fast. It was a blast. The kid steering our raft was pretty good at it and we enjoyed every bit of the 45 or so minute ride.



When we got back we had to wait for about 10 minutes for the others to arrive. When finally we saw the other raft, the "PM" was in the back helping to guide the raft. We found out that their ride had been a lot rougher than ours; their guide wasn't nearly as good as ours and he had grounded the raft on the riverbank a couple of times. Also, in the bottleneck formations in the river, where the water flow was faster, he steered the raft making the front of the raft pass clear of rocks and other obstacles, but the back of the raft kept hitting all the obstacles. The guy in the back was the "PM". finally, it was more than our Malasyan friend could take and he ended up grabbing a long branch one of the times they got grounded and steered the back of the raft himself all the way to the end. Anyway, everyone took it with good humour and it wasn't a big deal. The "PM" actually looked very comfortable steering the raft and looked as if he was really enjoying it.



That was pretty much our short visit to Chiang Mai. There are several small towns nearby, including "Pai", which I had read and heard a lot of good things about.

But time was short and we still wanted to visit the Angkor temple complex in Cambodia and most importantly, José and Vale wanted to spend some time in the islands in the south of Thailand. Hence, after one last night in Chiang Mai of having dinner and more night market shopping, we were off to Cambodia the next morning.

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