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Wat Chedi Luang
We arrived just before sunset and had a beautiful view of the Wat. I was talking to Michael and looked up just in time to get this photo with the monk walking in the foreground.The last week has been awesome! Chiang Mai is such a beautiful city with so much to see and do. It was such a refreshing change after the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. This is not to say that Chiang Mai is a small quiet city, on the contrary it is quite large and doesn't seem to sleep, but it has certain qualities that Bangkok lacks, such as personality and charm. If I was ever to come back to Thailand, and I'm sure that I will, I would definitely put aside a large proportion of my time to explore the area around Chiang Mai more thoroughly. Now that I've built it up so much I hope that if any of you do have the opportunity to visit it, it will meet your expectations.
We arrived by train from Bangkok after a 13 hour trip at about 9.30 pm. We hadn't booked any accommodation so thought that we'd walk to the main tourist area from the train station. Half an hour later we arrived hot and tired and started to look for a place to crash. After an hour of unsuccessful enquiries (everywhere seemed to be full) we found a small
At the Muay Thai Fight
Glenn with one of the waitresses hotel behind a restaurant and promptly went to sleep.
The next few days were packed full of trips in and around Chiang Mai. I'll just list a few of the more interesting trips we made.
On one of our first nights in Chiang Mai we went to see a Muay Thai fight. It was a "special night" as the main fight was between a foreigner (Joe from America) and a Thai guy (Lakdan from Chiang Mai). It was mainly set up for tourists and although it didn't have that authentic feel about it, it was still a lot of fun. There were 10 fights in total starting with kids aged about 6 or 7. Before each fight the contestents would dance around the ring to traditional music. Every fighter had a slightly different dance and these were very interesting to watch. The first few fights mainly involved a lot of grappling but as the night went on the fighters in each fight were slightly older. The 9th fight was particularly good with a great fight between two Thai guys. I'm sure that any one of the hits that they were taking and giving would have flattened me.
During
The 10th Fight
This is the American doing his dance before the fight. He lost his balance several times and looked quite out of his depth... the night Glenn had a large Chang (a type of beer) for every small one that Michael and I had, amounting to a quite substantial amount. He also had his eye on a certain serving girl and tipped her quite highly. Suggestively highly you might say... :P From then on he has been know as the Chang Shark!
At about 12pm we got to the main and last fight of the night. We were all quite excited and I stood up close to the ring to get a better look. The fight however didn't live up to expectations. The American came out with a boxer's stance and used his arms mostly. Fair enough he was a very stocky guy but we had come to see Muay Thai, not boxing. He did try a bit of Muay Thai in the last few rounds but lost his balance and fell over to our great delight. He ended up winning the fight but we thought it was a pretty cheap win.
As I was standing watching the last fight a small Thai boy, probably only about 5 or 6, came up behind me and tugged on my shirt. He had a bunch of
Hills north of Chiang Mai
From the back of the ute as we made our way up into the jungle. roses and wanted me to buy one. I smiled and gestured with my hand that I didn't want any to which he promptly started kicking me using Muay Thai moves. 😊 It was classic!
A few days later we signed up for a 2 day 1 night trek into the hills north of the city. The trek started at a geyser about 2 hours drive from the city and we walked most of the first day. We passed through a few villages on the way and we able to see how the local Karen tribe lived and worked. The Karen people are one of many tribal groups found in the north of Thailand. Our guide, Joe, told us that the Karen are Christian because they come from Burma which was originally Communist. We took his word for it but didn't see a clear connection. Joe was a real character. He had a very large knife ,that didn't seem to serve any purpose, and wore a leather vest which he frequently took off. He spoke in bursts with a very macho/gruff voice and sung a lot of John Denver songs. At one drink stop he cut the top clear off
Jungle Elephants
These were the elephants that we rode on. a water bottle and then downed it in one gulp. His justifcation was that it was too hard to take the plastic seal off the lid... I know it sounds like he was "playing up for the tourists" but after 2 days with him I'm almost certain he was serious.
Just before sundown we arrived at an isolated village on the banks of a fairly large river. We had a quick swim in the failing light to wash off the sweat and dirt from our fairly arduous trek. It was a bit cold but very refreshing. In the morning I was woken by an ambitious rooster crowing at 3.30am. From then on I slept in 30 minute intervals separated by energetic crows! I got up a bit before everyone else and had a look around the village. Michael joined me soon after and we discovered two elephants at the back of the village. We sat with the mahouts around their fire for a while just watching the elephants.
Once everyone else had got up we had breakfast before heading out on our elephant ride through the jungle. There was a seat strapped onto the back of each elephant for 2
Fording the river
The elephant ride was great! people and one person sat on the neck. We took turns riding on the neck as it was actually the most comfortable seat! :P We crossed the river and walked through the jungle for about an hour, with frequent unplanned stops for the elephants to grab a bite to eat. It was a really great experience and I'm sure it will turn out to be one of the highlights of my trip to Thailand, if not the highlight. After the elephant ride we hopped on some bamboo rafts, which we had watched the villagers make earlier that morning, and rafted down the river for about 2 hours. Then it was a quick lunch and a short stop at a snake farm before we were dropped off back at our guesthouse.
Most of the other days were spent with some family friends of Glenn's. Two Thai brothers called Papa and Eh-gui. They were really great guys and gave up heaps of their time to show us around. We climbed the highest mountain in Thailand with Eh-gui one day and visited a number of amazing waterfalls on the way. Now I should be honest here, when I say climbed I don't
Bamboo Worms
Trying some bamboo worms on the street. These are apparently equivalent to peanuts with beer for us. actually mean climbed hand over hand. There was a road to the very top of the mountain and we only had to walk about 100m to get to the highest point in Thailand!
On our last 2 days in Chiang Mai they took us to their home town. It was about 2 hours drive NE of the city on the way to Chiang Rai. It was called Wiang Papao and we spent the night there with their family. They cooked us a delicious barbeque and we stayed up fairly late drinking rice whisky and singing songs. We sung them Waltzing Matilda and they taught us a Thai song about elephants called Chang. The next morning we visited their uncle's orange farm and had some very fresh oranges. We then went to a smaller village up a winding dirt road where a friend of Eh-gui's was getting married. We didn't see the actual ceremony but were able to join in at the wedding feast. (Everywhere we went the Thai people were so generous and hospitable. Even people in the street are genuinely friendly and helped us out finding different places.) We were able to meet the happy couple and give
One of the waterfalls
Really beautiful places where we chilled and cooled off a bit. them a small gift of money. It was a great experience to get away from the whole " touristy" scene and see the real Thailand. (Although having said that the touristy side is a lot of fun in it's own way too.)
Our train ride back to Bangkok was much better than the ride to Chiang Mai. We managed to get some air conditioned sleeper seats on a night train so were able to get some sleep on the way. Just before we were about to go to sleep we thought we'd visit the dining car to have a quick beer. I was in front and as we passed from one carriage into the dining cart I thought I could hear some pretty loud music. We opened the door to very loud music and a cheer went up from the plethora of drunk german tourists. There were flashing lights everywhere, streamers hanging from the ceiling and banners with "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year". Trust me it was really bizarre! After my initial shock I realised that the cheer was for 2 girls who had entered just before us and I quickly made my way to the bar. An
Mt Inthanon
This is a shot of a peak near Mount Inthanon. hour and a half later, after a few Changs and some interesting chats interrupted by singing songs we said goodbye to our new friends as we were forced out of the dining cart. Under threats of locking us out of our carriage we went to bed and had a great sleep waking up in Bangkok.
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Barbara Meadows
non-member comment
I'm envious!
Hi Joel I really enjoyed your first blog of the trip! The elephant ride sounded fantastic. I hope to do that one day! Some great shots too of the scenery. I especially like the one of you on the elephant's head.Hope the next blog is close!