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Published: January 13th 2011
Back on a new travel adventure, this time with Jorn 😊
On the 6th of January we flew directly from Amsterdam to Bangkok with EVA Air and after a 3 hour layover there, we flew to Chiang Mai with AirAsia. We decided to avoid the chaos of Bangkok and opted for an easier start. We had booked a hostel that morning so it was an easy transfer to our hostel in the Old Town (MD House). It was located set back from a nice street with a couple of shops and cafe's so we chose one that looked busiest. After ordering a small meal and a drink we noticed the people around us were also Dutch and seeing an 'FC Utrecht' flag on the wall, we realised it must be a Dutch cafe. After flying 1000s of miles we still end up in a Dutch cafe.....
After sleeping about 10 hours we were somewhat refuelled and decided to explore the town. We walked to one of the nearest temples, Wat Phan An, and got chatting to one of the men there. He asked us where we were from and told us he had visited the Netherlands as part of
a government tourism programme, promoting Thai culture. He gave us a few suggestions on what to do around the city, of course also promoting a tour agency and asking Jorn whether he really didn't want to get a suit tailor-made (Jorn: "I don't wear a suit for my job, I'm in games design"). He also advised us not to buy at the night market, it is too touristy and expensive ("kijken kijken, niet kopen").
At this point our first priority was finding an electronics store. Despite packing and re-packing my bag and completely emptying my room, I managed to forget quite an essential item: my camera charger. We walked along the city moat to a big electronics store and eventually found a charger for 540 baht, but after testing it once it didn't recharge my battery so I'm hoping it wasn't plugged in right otherwise I won't be uploading many photos!
We then found an agency that offered a trekking tour that we liked (everyone offers the same ones, the price might differ a little) so we were ready for the next two days. That night we headed to the night market to have a look (not to
buy 😊 and had a delicious dinner at Le Spice, an Indian restaurant. We decided to get an early night and pack our bags for the next days.
We were picked up the next morning and we met our trekking group: a Dutch couple in their 40-50s, an American couple from California (this prompted Jorn to sing 'California knows how to party' several times...), a couple from London and 4 Canadian nurses. Our guide was 'Abba' who had a grey squirrel on his shoulder, chained to his shirt. Very cute at first, but then you realise he is pissing and pooing on him. Still, very entertaining.
We started at the Butterfly and Orchid farm for a 20 minute stop, then we went on to the Longneck village. Some of our group had this in their package, we didn't, so we waited outside. Then on to the village market where we could buy some supplies for that night (candles, water, snacks). Finally, at about midday we headed for the mountains to start our walk. But, we first got our lunch so we had to walk with filled bellies.
The trek was pretty intense to start with (this may
also have had something to do with the fact we just ate and we're not in great shape...), we were walking mostly uphill and it was pretty warm. After about 2,5 hours we stopped in Lahu hilltribe village where we stopped for tea which we drank from some nifty bamboo cups and sat among the chickens. After 4 hours of trekking we reached our overnight destination: a few huts alongside a stream where we could wash off the dirt and sweat from hiking. Refreshed we made a campfire, had a few beers and had a good time chatting to the rest of our group. It was also interesting (attempting to) speak with the local people, some of whom spoke relatively good English (he called himself Mike). We then had a delicious dinner (rice, lots of cabbage, tofu, and a sort of sweet and sour chicken) by candlelight. The local pets, a few kittens and a mischievous puppy called Dip-Dip, were lucky enough to get some too.
Trips to the bathroom were quite an adventure, not just because it was very dark but also because there were gigantic spiders everywhere. Luckily, our 'beds' for the night had a mosquito net
(with holes, but whatever, it made you feel safer). Nonetheless, we didn't sleep that much. This was partly due to the fact we were sleeping on very thin straw mats with thin covers, but also thanks to our neighbour Carlos the Mexican from California who was quite the snorer. He heard about it the next day.
The next morning we had breakfast - including a local Lahu snack, a type of rice cake baked in the campfire ashes - and a tasty local tea. We then walked for about 15 minutes to the Elephant park. We got assigned an elephant and we got the mommy elephant with a little baby walking next to it (aaaw). This also meant she was protective so she growled as soon as another elephant got close to her. Halfway down we bought some bananas to feed our elephant and the baby. This also attracted the attention of the elephant behind us and before Jorn knew it, he had an elephant trunk tapping his shoulder for bananas! So we had 3 trunks to feed, very entertaining! It was a short ride back to the main camp, but a nice experience. Hopefully the experience wasn't too
bad for the elephants either...though it seems they are cared for well.
Next we went on a bamboo float along the MaeTang river. Our float set off with the 5 of us on it, the rest of the group went on another float. After a few minutes it unfortunately started raining, which meant it was pretty cold and less relaxing. When we arrived at our destination, we didn't see the others anywhere. After joking they must have got off at the wrong point, after about 20 minutes they finally arrived. Turns out their float had sunk when they got on and they needed to get a new one. It became the running joke that wherever the Canadian girls went, something would go wrong!
After a lunch we drove up the MaeTang river for white water rafting. Me and Jorn got split up into different boats and I was with the 4 Canadian girls. This promised adventure! After the very brief safety instructions - "When I say Forward, paddle forward, when I say Backward, paddle Backward. Don't fall out. OK have fun!", we got in our boats. The water was pretty shallow and it is dry season so the
water wasn't too rough, but the start was quite bumpy. For some reason our guide let us board the boat in the rough part so we all got pretty soaked from the start. Jorn's boat had a run in with the two Korean boats, who were not happy that they were being overtaken, so a water fight followed.
After the rafting we had an hour drive back to Chiang Mai. We wanted to switch hostels as we wanted to pay a bit less than at MD House (700baht a night), so we went with the Canadian girls to their hostel (SK Junior house, 300 baht a night). The staff here was super friendly and our room was really comfortable. I had a cold shower, as I hadn't figured out how to reset it (oops) but Jorn, technical as he is, had a nice warm one. Refreshed we headed out into the city for a dinner and went to a beergarden restaurant (Pop Cafe) along the moat. They played classics on TV all night, Tom Jones being the highlight. Even the grumpy restaurant owner cheered up when his song came on.
The next day was our last day in
Chiang Mai. We slept in to catch up on lack of sleep during the trek and then got a taxi to Doi Suthep (we chartered a red truck taxi for 400 baht total, there and back). The weather wasn't great so it was probably a slow day for them. It was so cloudy at the top, it was hard to see the tip of the temple! Still, it was pretty impressive. As we were standing at the lookout point which is supposed to give a great view of Chiang Mai, the clouds started to open up and we could see the city. The sun even came out for a bit, so we went back into the temple and took a few photos. We went back to the city and had a quick drink before getting ready for our evening cooking class at Baan Thai.
We were picked up by Baan Thai and with our group of 9 we walked to the local market to learn about typical Thai ingredients. After that we headed back to the school and chose our 4 meals that we were going to make. The preparing of the meals was fast and very efficient, some
things had been prepared already, i.e. chicken. We made a stir fry, a soup, a curry and spring rolls. After two meals we thought we were full, but even our third meal went in fine. By the fourth we were full but as this was the main course, we kept eating and it was delicious! With our round bellies we went back to the hostel to pack up for the next part of the trip, a long bus ride to Luang Prabang, Laos...where we are now! More about that in our next blog.
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Champie
non-member comment
Sounds pretty darn good :)
Hey U2 :) Start of the trip sounds already like a mighty fun time, but be aware you don't overdo it huh all that walking you need to relax as well some times. LOL. Enjoy the rest of your trip (which is btw going to........ ??? please enlighten me) and have fun !! Later gaters, Champie