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Published: March 6th 2011
HE SAID... We boarded the train and settled into our seats which converted into bunk beds. We took stock of our travels to-date and caught up on our notes as the train slowly pulled out of Ayuthaya bound for
Chiang Mai. This train was very comfortable! After having our beds made for us, I climbed in and went out like a light. I didn’t even have time to pull the blanket up before I was asleep. It had been a long, fantastic day.
I slept well, although the air conditioning was a little cold (which I’d definitely prefer to having no air conditioning). I had dreams all night of being in earthquakes and trying to get out of houses as they shook from side to side - I absolutely love sleeping on trains! We woke at 7am and arrived at Chiang Mai at 8am. The guy who helped me onto the train, made up my bed, dismantled my bed in the morning and helped me off the train, saluted me as I thanked him. The Thai people are so friendly.
We jumped into a
songthaew (small pickup truck/ute with seats in the tray) and headed straight for our hotel.
Our bike tour of Chiang Mai was due to start at 9.30am, so I gobbled a quick breakfast of toast, jam and coffee and prepared for the four hour bike ride ahead. Ren decided against the bike tour and opted for a Thai massage.
We had forwarded our details the night before, so the mountain bikes were perfectly suited to our height. Five of us set out at 9.30am with our guide, riding through the bustling heart of Chiang Mai to the outskirts of this fantastic city. We visited temples, an OXFAM factory outlet, an old leprosy hospital, local farming plots, rice fields and a Buddhist crematorium site before pulling into a small street café for lunch at 12.15pm. A table awaited us with cold drinks, rice crackers and banana cake. I ordered the local speciality dish
khao soi gai (chicken and yellow noodle coconut curry soup). It was fantastic, and possibly heightened by the fact that I’d been riding for almost three hours in the intense heat of a Chiang Mai morning. We finished lunch and continued our ride until we eventually arrived back at the hotel at 2.15pm.
Ren had already finished her massage when I
returned. I headed straight for the shower - it was the first time I’d experienced warm water and soap for two and a half days! We relaxed in our room until 4pm before jumping into a minibus for the drive up to Wat Doi Suthep, an incredible hilltop temple overlooking Chiang Mai. We traversed the 306 steps and wandered around the temple with the sound of chanting monks surrounding us. On the basis of my birth date and year, I discovered that I am a Sunday child, which apparently according to popular Buddhist iconology means I am satisfied and grateful with everything I have. However our further readings on Buddhism suggest that Buddhism and astrology are not the best of bedfellows, so I doubt this take on populist religion has any real relevance.
We jumped back into the minibus and headed back down into Chiang Mai to visit the trekking shop, where we hired our backpacks, sleeping bags and rehydration salts for the days ahead. Happy with our trekking gear, we mini-bussed back to the hotel to drop the gear off, picked up our laundry (the first time we’d had a chance to wash clothes since arriving in Thailand)
and headed out to dinner at a local street restaurant. We ordered spring rolls,
talae pad prik sod (stir fried seafood with chilli paste) and
pad pak boon moo sap (stir fried morning glory with minced pork). It was sensational! We walked back through the local Night Bazaar and had no choice but to retire at 10pm.
We woke late (7am), caught up on notes and left the hotel at 9.15am. We walked to the old city to buy postcards and explore three temples - Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phan Tao and Wat Phra Singh. The morning heat was intense, so just before arriving at Wat Phra Singh we slipped down a laneway and found a small street restaurant selling food and drinks. We ordered iced coffees and sat on the small plastic seats while we waited (much to the amusement of all the locals eating there - we’re still not sure why). On the way back from Wat Phra Singh we bought a few steamed dumplings from a street stall and sat at a table in the shade at Wat Si Koet for lunch. With the heat intensifying we decided it was time to retreat and arrived back
at the hotel at 1.15pm. We freshened up and headed out in the afternoon to a wifi café to upload our blog and catch up on email while we sipped Thai iced tea. Ren opted for her second massage while I decided to head back to the hotel to catch up on my writing.
We then set about packing for the next five days. We needed a day pack for the first two days, a trek pack for the following three days and a balance pack for whatever was left. This was strategic stuff, and it took a lot of planning to prepare three packs. We finished at 7.30pm, quickly dressed and headed out for a meal at the
Good View Restaurant on the river at 8pm. The meal was fantastic and so was the view (as the name suggested). We shared two dishes – an assortment of northern snacks with green chilli/tomato chilli paste, and
gaeng phed pet yang (roast duck with longan in red curry) - it was amazing. Ren ordered a few cocktails and I went in on a beer tower with the other guys. We jumped into a
songthaew and headed back to the Night Bazaar, where
Ren picked up a pair of baggy travel pants for trekking. It had been a long day (as always), so we retreated to our room, finished packing and crashed at 11pm.
SHE SAID... We arrived in slightly cooler and mountainous
Chiang Mai at 8am. Even though we had managed to get a good few hours of sleep on the overnight train, we still felt a bit ragged…a shower and breakfast went a long way with the re-humanisation process. Chiang Mai is a complete world away from Bangkok. This is the land of the old Lanna Kingdom, and is still called 'The Rose of the North' for its utter loveliness and friendly people.
That morning we had the option of going on a cycling tour that took in parts of the city and then to the surrounding countryside. Andrew took this on, but I wanted a quiet morning. I had a long breakfast at our hotel -
People Place Hotel, and then made finding a laundry and good Thai massage place a priority. The hotel is well located near the fabulous Night Bazaar, and also only metres from streets and streets of restaurants. Every single restaurant we tried was
outstanding. We were also within walking distance of the old town and near enough to rush back from sightseeing to cool down in the air conditioning.
Golf has been slowly introducing us to more and more traditional Thai food, but he wants us to ease into it as he believes it takes our stomachs about a week to get used to new microbes in water and food that may be in street carts and more rustic eateries. I’ve started having
khao pad gai (chicken fried rice) for breakfast when it is on offer at the hotel. Apparently I can soon move on to pork sausage and sticky rice from the vendors outside the hotel who do a roaring take way trade for commuters who eat breakfast in the car on the way to work.
A little later that day as I settled in for a long traditional Thai massage, I realised that for me this was the only civilised way to spend a morning after a night on the overnight train. It was the perfect way to begin a beautiful day in a beautiful city. 😊
That evening we headed off to the famous temple complex of
Wat Doi Suthep, one of the most revered religious destinations in Thailand. After a 45 minute minibus drive from our guesthouse past the Chiang Mai University and along a scenic winding mountain road, we ended at the impressive Naga guarded 306 step stairway to Wat Doi Suthep. I initially baulked at the idea of climbing 306 steps after all the exercise we’d had in the last couple of days, but I’m glad I did it instead of taking the cable car option. At the top we were rewarded with a temple gateway with two giant stick holding
Yaksha(mythical giant guardians) who protect the entering pilgrims from evil spirits. The gateway leads to beautiful temple grounds. There are many sections with decorative golden pillars, row upon row of large metal bells, oversized gongs and even references to the Hindu god Ganesh. In the middle of it all is a sacred square cloister where we took our shoes off and walked up into the very top of the complex. Here sits the holiest of the holy - a Lanna-style cooper
chedi (stupa) topped by a golden umbrella that houses a bone relic of Buddha. The pilgrims walk around the
chedi three times
anti-clockwise with offerings of lotus flowers, incense or candles to pay their respects. There are also four
viharn (sermon halls) where monks sprinkle holy water and tie sacred wrist cords on the pilgrims. We had beautiful dusky panoramic views of Chiang Mai and its winding Ping River; and all this while listening to the hypnotic evening chants by the resident Buddhist monks in evening prayer. If some of you are wondering why there are so many steps leading to the temples we visit, this is because it is thought that the higher the temple, the closer to God it is. The steps are also apparently meant to assist the climber get into a meditative state of mind before entering the temple.
Golf consulted our birthday charts to find out the day we were born on so that we could find out which was our Buddha ‘day’ image. I learnt that as a Saturday child, my Buddha image is the meditation pose with the
naga (mythical serpent) hooded over Buddha’s head. Apparently this represents overcoming temptation and being focused. I thought this as well as Andrew’s Buddha image depiction of satisfaction were quite close to the truth in some sense.
Golf took the group to the
Sila-aat Restaurant at the Kalare Night Market for dinner, and as with every meal Golf has recommended so far, the food was superb. It is fabulous to have Golf’s local food knowledge and to share his love for Thai food. The
talae pad prik sod (stir fried seafood with chilli paste) and
pad pak boon moo sap (stir fried morning glory with minced pork) were outstanding. Golf reckons that of all the trips he does, he never fails to put on weight on this northern Thailand one. I can see how that happens! 😉
The next day we wanted to wake up early to do a walking tour of the old city, but our bodies clearly had other ideas and we couldn’t get ourselves organised until 9am. Considering Chiang Mai is a large city, it was relatively easy to navigate and get to know once we got our bearings. The old town of Chiang Mai is a square area that once had a city wall, of which only the ornate gates still stand. I love the down to earth feel of this place, and there is a friendly benevolence here that is
lacking in Bangkok. I think this place has the highest temple to person ratio of any city/town I've ever visited!
It was a wonderful day of lazy meandering through the city, grazing on street cart food, sipping fruit shakes and local iced coffee and absorbing the culture. We spent considerable time in Wat Chedi Luang. The original
chedi (stupa) here dates back to 1480, was 98 meters high and 54 meters wide. Unfortunately the structure collapsed during an earthquake in 1545, but you can still see echoes of its grandeur. Our main reason to visit Wat Chedi Luang was to take part in the Monk Chat Program. As the name suggests, the program allows you to chat with monks, and ask questions about Thai culture or their way of life, and it gives the monks a chance to practice their English. Unfortunately we didn’t know that the program didn’t run on Saturdays.
We also visited Wat Phantao and Wat Phra Singh. Wat Phantao has beautiful old wooden architecture and has a very old world quiet feel about it; while Wat Phra Singh was bustling with pilgrims and monks. We got there just as a ceremony had ended and
we sat in a quiet corner and watched the novice monks cleaning up and interacting with each other. We were also loving the shade and cool interior of the temple, and only grudgingly moved outside when the cleaning came with a few feet of where we were sitting. We couldn’t decide on what to have for lunch, but walking past a Chinese street stall with dumplings made the decision for us. So with a variety of steamed pork dumplings in hand, we wandered into Wat Si Koet and ate in its shady grounds. This was one of those luxurious days were time had no meaning and we floated along come what may. However we eventually got quite hot and tired and were forced to retreat to the hotel after lunch.
Cafe de L’Amour two or so blocks from the hotel on Sri Donchai Road offered brilliant drinks and free wifi, so it was a lovely way to have some afternoon drinks and check our emails. I wanted to squeeze in a massage before dinner, so I had a quick shower and then settled in for another massage around the corner from our hotel also on Sri Donchai Road. This
time I opted for the leg, shoulder and back reflexology massage. I got a head massage thrown in for free because of repeat custom. This was the perfect way to bridge a beautiful day into a beautiful night. 😄
We headed down to the famous Chiang Mai Night Bazaar in the evenings. As dusk encroached in Chiang Mai, the unmistakable spectacle of the Night Market began. Mostly we just wandered around looking at the multitude of stands, but I also had my eye on a few very comfortable looking cotton shirts and pants that looked fabulous for trekking in. Kim and I made a fairly successful purchase of baggy travel pants for the trek, and we did quite well for two people not-so-comfortable with haggling. If you wish to buy anything at the Night Bazaar, all you have to do is glance at the item and the stall owner will be at your side in a jiffy, a calculator in hand ready to punch in the first offer, while manifestly singing its praises the whole time.
We also had a group dinner at
Good View Restaurant in the posh riverside restaurant precinct along the Ping River. It is a large
set up with live music, good food and better cocktails; and the riverside setting is gorgeous. Andrew and I shared a tasting platter of northern specialties (served with sticky rice) that was as exquisite as it was fiery hot! We also shared
gaeng phed pet yang (roast duck with longan in red curry soup) with steamed rice which was lovely. 😊
At the crack of the next dawn, we left Chiang Mai for our journeys further north in minibuses; we have left our big packs at the hotel here and have had to go on with a smaller trekking pack for the next six days. We had already visited the Trekking Shop to hire trekking packs and sleeping bags, and purchase re-hydration salts. By this stage the upcoming hill tribe trek in a few days had started playing on my mind, and the thought of climbing mountains in this heat and humidity was beginning to make me somewhat nervous...but before then we have two more lovely relaxing days.
See you in the Chinese settlement of Doi Mae Salong! And we will be playing with elephants!!
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Yvonne & Damian
non-member comment
Loving it!
Hi Guys, Enjoying reading the travel blogs. Great to hear both your perspectives. I would have chosen the massage any day over the bike ride, sorry Andrew! I'm waiting to hear how you go with the elephants. It's certainly was one of my best memories of Thailand. I do remember our elephant finding a rock in the river to have a scratch on the belly while we sat on his back wondering what was going on!!! Only negative comment is the descriptions of the food makes me HUNGRY. xxx.