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Published: September 9th 2017
After a couple of days recovering in Bangkok, we set off for Chiang Mai, a city in mountainous northern Thailand. Five minutes in and we were sold on this relaxed and beautiful city. Most of the action happens within the four ancient city walls and moat, the so-called Old City, which is where we stayed.
Chiang Mai is home to over a hundred beautiful Buddhist temples (wats). We spent a few hours wandering around the city visiting some of the more famous ones. Dressed in traditional orange robes, Buddhist monks are a common sight, be they simply walking the street, cycling around, or at the ATM! The winding streets boast an impressive range of cafes, restaurants and bars. Unfortunately they also boast a large number of rats but such is the charm of Chiang Mai that we were able to overlook this....only because they didn't get too close to us!
The highlight of our stay in Chiang Mai was a day trip to Doi Inthanon National Park. The park is home to Thailand's tallest mountain (part of the Himalayan mountain range) which stands tall at 2565m; waterfalls and lush green rain forests (which unfortunately more than lived up to
their name on the day of our visit).
Trekking through the rain forest and the farmland we were spoiled with Kodak moments. Due to a number of days of heavy rain prior to our visit, the waterfalls were beautiful although not very safe for swimming as one of our travel companions found out the hard way! Despite getting the go ahead from our guide to go for a swim, the fall's current proved too powerful and he had to be pulled to safety for fear that he would be swept over the next waterfall! Our trek came to an end in a local village where we enjoyed some locally grown and roasted coffee (Mau was delusionally hoping for barista style to Donal's amusement).
The Sunday night street market attracted thousands of tourists with stalls full of street food and colourful souvenirs. Having frequented lots of markets on our travels to date, this one was by far the most impressive.
From Chiang Mai, we made the short journey to the neighbouring town of Chiang Rai; a sleepy town but not without its charm. It blends the old (e.g. retro buses) with the new (a cafe where you can
enjoy a drink, a slice of cake and pet one of the 30 in store cats)!! We indulged on some of North Thailand's local delicacies - no not scorpions or other insects.... lemongrass infused sausages was about as brave as we got! The famous White Temple just outside the town looked like it belonged in a Disney movie and was truly breathtaking (although Donal was not impressed with a couple of tourists who ruined his opportunity for a perfect shot by retaking the same photo of themselves a dozen times - in the end we were the ones to be told to move along and not hold up those behind us)!!
And so after a relaxing week in North Thailand, we are booked on an 18 hour bus journey to take us across the border to country number 14 - Laos here we come! We love public transport!
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