I’ll start this one at the end. We loved Chiang Mai. Properly loved it! It was rather unexpected to be honest. Unlike Bangkok, we’d done less research on the area, on what to do (other than our visit to the sanctuary) and where to go so we hadn’t lined up dozens of exciting excursions and didn’t really have an idea of what it even looked like. What’s more is that I like being coastal: sea air, water, coastlines. I’m not a landlocked-lover, so it came as a surprise to leave this beautifully quaint “city” wanting to definitely come back again. We felt so comfortable and relaxed; the bustling nightlife felt exciting instead of uneasy like we’d come to expect in the Capital.
Our first day in Chiang Mai started still in Bangkok. Our flight was early so it meant a 6am rise. We didn’t have a lot of time to find breakfast so we ate 7-Eleven custard doughnuts that cost a whopping 10THB. It wasn’t nutritious and it didn’t even satisfy us for long but it was cheap and the packaging was colourful! Simple things. The flight was short and sweet to northern Thailand’s largest city. Already we could feel the difference in locality as it was all so green outside, instead of the 50 shades of grey concrete of the capital. I tried to sort another Grab taxi to get us to the hotel but it wasn’t really happening. It transpired that Grab has been HIGHLY controversial since its conception, with local taxis kicking up a stink so it probably worked in our favour anyway, especially as it didn’t cost anymore than the predicted fare to get a taxi from the ranks outside the airport. Our taxi driver was a charming chap, providing us with a guided tour around the roads leading to the hotel and offering suggestions of where to visit and when. He also gave us a breakdown of the recent local weather. Wet. Very, very wet. We thought we’d managed to catch a break in this obviously poor weather- it was bone dry as we touched down. But the closer we got to the hotel, the tiny spits transformed into enormous splats.
We could at least ignore this change in forecast as we rolled up outside the gates of where we’d booked to stay, a little place called Nai Boutique. It was quiet and homely- no tower block that’s for sure. Our room wasn’t quite ready for us when we got there so we kindly requested to leave our bags in a back room and ventured out. Our main focal point for our visit to Chiang Mai was the old city square, given that we were only there for just under 3 days. Each side to the square itself is only about 1.5 kilometres long, with a narrow moat lining the outer edge. The city walls are mostly all crumbled away but small sections around the corners still stand, marking the perimeter. The location of our hotel was pretty much perfect, just two lanes outside of the east gate, Tha Phae, and in our opinion, the best side of the old city square. We hadn’t gotten far before we spotted two fluorescently painted bikes stood at the end of the moat. They honestly looked liked they’d been the victims of vandals because the wheels were missing and they weren’t in great shape. This was not the case. The wheels had been removed to allow the bikes to be fixed permanently, with them hooked up to electric generators to power two small water fountains in the water. It’s one way to get some exercise in and far more interesting than being on the bikes in the gym!
Passing through the gate and into the square itself, I wanted to pop by a small shop that I’d noted on the drive in. Now for anyone who made note of one of my Facebook updates last September, declaring my happiness at starting a job that had finally allowed full, no-waiting access, to grown up bathrooms, may have known that in the 10 months leading up to this trip, I worked for St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth. One of the huge fundraisers for this year that I had the pleasure of having been very, very, very loosely connected with within my role there was the Elmer trail. For those of you residing in and around the PL region, you will have definitely noticed the 40 odd elephants, all painted wildly, hanging around the city during the summer, making it look generally much nicer, in aid of a great charity. Anyway, I had made note of this small shop because outside stood 3 giant painted elephants and I couldn’t help but think of my favourite colleagues who I still miss very much and made me feel so happy that I was no longer working haha! It made me smile indeed.
With my little moment had, we walked up the road to look for food. The persistent spitting rain very briskly turned into a torrential downpour. We’d been so lucky up until now but the luck was wearing thin. We ducked into the closest place we could take shelter in that was serving food and waited, and waited and waited. We sat under the veranda outside as it was still warm out but watched intently to the rising levels of water as it creeped closer and closer towards our table. When we were finally given a reprieve, we made our way back to Nai to check in. To be honest, I wasn’t too sure what took them so long to sort our room out because the room was rather petite. There was just enough room around the edge of our double bed to squeeze our legs in and that was pretty much it, but it was cute and did give us the “rustic, traditional” feel that we had been after so it would suffice. Upstairs was home to a small balcony and bar, with seating overlooking the street and the Jade temple opposite, with it’s bells chiming in the wind, it was very calming!
Post check-in, we spent the afternoon enjoying another a Wat-hunt. The old city is filled with them, you wouldn’t think such a small area would be able to house so many (I think there are around 30 or more!); Chiang Mai itself is home to over 300! We'd have loved to have visited more outside of the walls but we just didn't have time on this occasion. One of the most serene that we stumbled upon was Wat Chedlin. It housed a large pond full of giant green lily-pads, lotus flowers, catfish and asian turtles that popped up for air every now and again. The bamboo bridge that connected the two sides of the Wat creaked and bounced as we walked over it, Kjel wasn’t a fan! The colourful lanterns that lined the edges of the bridge added much needed colour to our grey day, I’m sure it would have looked beautiful lit up at night. The grounds also housed a host of statues, some rather bazaar- the 5 eyed panda isn’t something I’d want to meet in the dark! Each eye is meant to symbolise one of 5 buddhist taboos, while its 4 ears are to represent the 4 virtues. Oh, and its supposed to eat hot coals and poop out gold, there are worse things to find on the bottom of your shoe haha.
Our evening was spent a little differently than what we’re used to. On the way back from our Wat-hunt, we’d passed a shop selling Thai boxing gear, with flyers advertising for the night’s boxing events. I’d only ever heard of Muay Thai as a friend had started attended classes after trying it out on his Thai holidays so we thought we’d try to attend an event during our stay. Now, I’m not really into watching one human beat the living c**p out of another, even in a respectful and disciplined way but these adventures are all about experiencing new things and immersing oneself into the local culture so I felt it should be an experience I have here. The shop was closed when we passed through again so we had to find the sister shop in the markets close to the venue. The tiny Google maps screen shot printed on rain smudged paper was of little use and without wanting to spend a small fortune on 4G, we walked in the rough direction we needed to go. We reached the entrance to the market we were supposed to be at but the place was so confusing to navigate and our limited grasp of the Thai language, mixed with there being a number of shop selling Thai boxing gear, meant we got completely lost, to the point where we nearly gave up as we were running out of time to get in the door. Thankfully, Kjel managed to navigate us in the end- we got there dead on 9pm and still got front row seats.
We didn’t really know what we’d let ourselves in for. The first two boxers prepped themselves with their gloves and sacred headband after almost half an hours delay and climbed in the ring. Cool, it’s ready to star… nope. First comes 10 minutes of the Way Kru Ram Muay. This is the ritual performed by each boxer prior to the start of their match, where they show their respect and gratitude towards their teachers, ancestors and parents, all to traditional music. Given that Ram translates as dancing, it would explain why each competitor was giving us their best moves, it’s essentially a war dance. Headbands removed and respect given to their competitor, the match began. It was fairly slow off the mark, round 1 and 2 seemed easy going (if that’s the right phrase), giving them time to scope each other out. I didn’t really know what I was so worried about really. Round three, and SLAP. Oh my buddha (yes, the actual Thai equivalent to OMG, used by Thais). The match became unexpectedly ferocious! Some hits were so loud, they sent shivers down the spine. And then pretty out of the blue came the kick-punch combo that KOd the loser, it was bloody brutal. The faces of the crowd showed how I felt, completely stunned. It took a while for him to come round.
And that was repeated 4 more times, I spent the next 2 hours wincing constantly. Of the 5 fights held that night, 4 ended early as a result of KOs. The last match hadn’t even made it to the second round before the poor British chap was pummelled to the ground. His arm tassels of power didn’t help him that night. It was an experience. Probably one I won’t do again in a hurry!
There are very few days that are truly great from start to end, but our Saturday, as detailed in the last blog, was on of them- if not the best day we’ve ever had. Other than the ‘elephant in the room’, it was the little things that really brightened it. For instance, our group was small and fortunately all very lovely. Our guide for the day, Patrick (who wasn’t Patrick but I really couldn’t tell you his actual name and Patrick was his chosen English one!), was a gentleman and helped us to learn some Thai during the hour long transfer that we did actually use once we’d finished the trip. When we arrived back at the boutique (and being the first people dropped home- this never happens!) and showered off all of the layers of mud caked onto us, Kjel decided to take a punt and ask if we could be relocated to a different room, as we’d had a pretty disturbed night’s sleep. This was kindly granted for us, which we appreciated. No word of a lie, we were moved from the cupboard under the stairs into an entire Hogwarts castle. Our ‘family suite’ was enormous, with loungers in a kind of day room and a bath instead of wet room shower; it was glorious!
We spent the evening trawling around the Saturday night market, which was quirky and surprisingly busy- but not Bangkok busy thankfully. We gave street food a proper go this time, after our failed attempt before.
Our pick of the culinary treats included:
1) Scorpion. Yes, we went there. Your poor man’s lobster?! It wasn’t rank, but there wasn’t much to it and the ‘best bit’ was probably the claws. We can say we ticked that one firmly off the list.
2) Chicken on a stick. We waited a long time to get our chicken skewers and made sure they were hot off the grill to avoid the Jimmy Ritz.
3) Meat in a bag. Whatever the beef and pork was marinated in was delicious!
We marked our experience of the day by purchasing a tiny ‘Happy’ elephant keyring, picked up a very last minute lemonade from Kat’s kitchen before they shut for the night and plodded back, full and content! We even witnessed a brief view of Thai drama with a clearly intoxicated gentleman being bundled into the back of a Thai cop ute! Can’t say I’d want to mess with those guys!
We enjoyed our first lye in of the trip on Sunday. The early mornings, exciting days and miles of walking had caught up with us. We decided to spend the last day visiting the nearby Jade temple and by exploring the rest of the square- which confirmed to us that we had started our trip on the good side of the city. There were a few shops and cafes along each stretch of the road but to felt a lot more quiet than where we’d previously been. Trying to keep hydrated, we made regular stops to pick up cheap drinks. What I picked up in the first stop, thinking it was just lemon and honey flavoured, turned out to be a lemon and honey flavoured green tea drink… a total abomination given I don’t like tea but it tasted nice, so I concluded that it mustn’t have contained much actual tea in it! We also didn’t know where to eat, again, so stopped at a small asian bun shop. The buns were colourful and fluffy; we decided to try a bbq pork flavoured one and a strawberry milkshake one, I don’t think they were Kjel’s thing but I thought they tasted nice anyway. We took a stroll through the greenery of Nong Buak Hard park, which was very nice and headed back into the centre of the square to search of the Three Kings monument, literally a sculpture of three kings who are supposed to be the founding fathers of Chiang Mai. We passed through the streets as they were being set up for the night market, which we went back to later that evening. We opted for more street food again- as much as a love a sit down meal, its nice to be able to just see something tasty, eat it and move on to the next tasty thing. That being said, our choices were somewhat eclectic that night: BBQ squid; some sort of asian spiced pork; cuboid-shaped strawberry ice-cream; a nutella waffle; and some thai sausages, all washed down with slightly disappointing cane juice as we realised we had only liked it with lemon juice!
Our time in Chiang Mai had come somewhat full circle- grabbing some food whilst dodging the rain. We realised that we really rather liked Chiang Mai as we exited the gate. It was chilled out, we felt safe, we enjoyed the vibe and the views. Had we not already planned the rest of our trip to the day, we would have happily stayed a few more days. CM- we’ll be back!
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