Blogs from Chiang Mai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 5

For today’s adventure, we hired a driver to take us to a few locations around Chiang Mai off the beaten path. The itinerary included “sticky falls”, hiking to a waterfall, and visiting a temple on a hill overlooking the city. Our driver met us at 8:00 AM and we hopped in the back of his pickup. The drive to url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1951349-d1760401-Reviews-Bua_Thong_Waterfalls_Nam_Phu_Chet_Si-Mae_Taeng.htmlBua Thong (“sticky falls”) was a little over an hour. The falls are located in a small national park with some cabins, a small market, and a lot of cyclists. We took the path then the stairs that descended beside the falls all the way to the bottom. We changed into our bathing suits and investigated the falls. The falls have a unique property that the water has a lot of minerals in it that have been ... read more

We woke early to depart Bangkok and fly to Chiang Mai. The domestic flight is only an hour long. We stayed at the Rustic River Boutiquejust outside the old city walls of Chiang Mai. Upon checking in the lady at the front desk was very friendly and helpful. She gave us an overview of the area, food recommendations, and a few activity excursions that we could try. Kristy the planner already had researched a place for lunch. We got settled then headed out for lunch. We walked the narrow streets of the city out to url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293917-d3179026-Reviews-Khao_Soi_Lam_Duan_Fa_Ham-Chiang_Mai.htmlKhao Soi Lam Duan for some lunch. The restaurant is an unassuming roadside greasy spoon, just our kind of spot! The interior was quite modest and reminded us of a Thai Sunshine General Store. The proprietor of Lam ... read more

Like most travellers I’ve blown a third of my budget in the first 2 weeks. We now buy beer cans from the 7/11 and refuse to pay 5 THB to use the toilet. It’s our last day in northern Thailand so we wanted to do something great. We had the option of either hanging out at the Chiang Mai canyon or go to an insect museum. So what do we do? We go to the bloody insect museum. In our defence, there were thunderstorms forecast (which never happened) and it was ranked one of the top attractions in Chiang Mai. I have no idea why. There were at least a million different bugs in there and they were all huge and gross. We managed to enjoy ourselves with some immature humour though. We went to the ... read more

Today began with a tiring hour-long road trip, taking us well outside of Chiang Mai to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. Upon arrival we got dressed in these itchy tribal looking garments making us more recognisable to the elephants, allowing them to feel comfortable around us. We were given sweet treats in the form of a pocket full of mini bananas for the elephants and were sent on our way down the jungle. Dean rightly said it’s the equivalent of a waiter bringing your food to the table. Ensuring we went to an elephant friendly sanctuary, the elephants weren’t ridden by visitors and were happy and free, flapping their ears and swinging their tails. I can’t describe how amazing it was to be with these giants up close. After a period of banana-feeding and selfie-taking, we trekked ... read more

We ended up staying up until 2am last night at the hostel talking to a group of fellow travellers from Canada who have given us a bunch of useful advice. They told us from first hand experience, the ones who con us are mostly European living out here scamming young travellers for a living. The bastards. Today we explored the old town in 36 degree heat. Ice smoothies are a god send out here. They literally chuck a bit of fruit into a blender with ice and charge 30 baht which is around 70p... it’s bloody heavenly. I’ve even managed to get Dean to invest in some colourful Thai pants to cover his knees when visiting the temples. There are just over 300 Buddhist temples in Chiang Mai. We’ve come across one every 50ft that date ... read more