Chiang mai – catsgreatadventure

Back to where I started a month ago, in a nice hotel with a rooftop bar and pool in the heart of Bangkok’s Chinatown. I had 4 nights here which is the longest I’d been in one place since the cricket in Adelaide before Christmas, almost 6 weeks ago. I didn’t have many plans here as I’d already been to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho on my previous visit (and I’ll get to go to Wat Pho again when I join my next trip heading south).

I made it to Lumphini Park (using the metro) and spent time wandering around the streets of Chinatown. I particularly enjoyed meandering through the arty neighbourhood of Talat Noi. I also went to an enormous mall at Siam Center and despite not being in the market for anything being sold there (mostly designer stores and, for some reason, cars), it filled a couple of hours wandering round. I also did another street food tour, this time in the evening, which was a different experience as Chinatown was much busier.

We’ve reached the part of the trip which I hadn’t actually booked when I left the UK. I’d left a couple of weeks here and a couple of weeks in the middle of March for a bit of flexibility. In the run up to Christmas I started looking at options and knowing that on the G Adventure trip we were going straight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on the train, I thought it would be interesting to take a slower route north so I found this trip on TourRadar which helpfully started at the same hotel that the G Adventures trip finished at.

The guided part of the trip started on day 3, bright and early as we left Bangkok at 7am to travel north to Ayutthaya, at one time the capital of Thailand. It is essentially an island surrounded by rivers and we saw 3 temples and had a boat cruise on the river.

The first temple, Wat Phananchoeng, contained the biggest Buddha I have ever seen indoors, it was so big it actually caused me to gasp when I saw it.

People included for size context, at Wat Phananchoeng, Ayutthaya

We also went to Wat Yai Chaimongkhol which has a Buddha head embedded into a tree and finally to Wat Mahathat before getting on the boat for about an hour’s cruise around the city.

We continued to head north and ended the day in Kamphaeng Phet. This was a nice riverside location but felt fairly off the beaten track and not sure there were many other westerners apart from me and the 2 French ladies on my trip. Their English was as good as my French so we were all very thankful for Google Translate as we enjoyed a drink together in the evening.

The next day we went to Lampang, visiting Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, with another glistening pagoda and naga staircase. After lunch we visited San Kamphaeng Road, outside of Chiang Mai, which is home to a number of shops selling various locally produced wares including gems and jewellery, lacquerware and silk. All of the places we stopped were receiving bus loads of tourists.

We then arrived in Chiang Mai for a 2 night stay. I headed off to the night markets for food and a bit of shopping – a replacement skirt and a fan!

The following morning we had an early start (7.30am) to head out to Doi Suthep, which we visited on my previous visit. As this was early on a Saturday morning rather than the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, it was a much quieter experience, and there was a slight chill in the air which I found very pleasant but the locals all had their jumpers and coats on!

It was so peaceful walking around with hardly anyone else there. We were back at the hotel by mid morning and had the rest of the day free. As we didn’t have much free time in Chiang Mai on my last visit, I headed into the old city and to some of the Wats that had been recommended. It had become quite a hot day by this point so it was a fairly slow meander punctuated by lunch.

Another trip to the night market for dinner and a relaxing evening before heading off early the next morning back south to Sukhothai. On the way we stopped in Lamphun, to visit Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, another gleaming gold structure which is a thousand years old.

We continued south and arrived in Sukhothai in the mid afternoon. Sukhothai was the first capital of Siam, and is now a historical park with the ruins of hundreds of temples. It’s possible to cycle between the ruins (motor vehicles are not allowed within the park) but I was not quite dressed for cycling (I had a long skirt on suitable for the temple in Lamphun) so took a golf buggy instead, definitely a better option in the heat! The temples here, some ruined, some having been restored, are in the Khmer style and again I could see some similarities to Angkor.

After overnighting in Sukhothai, we had a long drive back to Bangkok the following day, broken up with a visit to Lopburi, previously famous for the macaques roaming the streets, they’ve now been rehoused just outside the city. We also saw a couple more temples to round off the trip.

We arrived back in Bangkok in the early evening. I’m really glad I decided to this short trip. Whilst I am now a little templed-out, it was very interesting to visit these historic places, which had far fewer tourists at them than the temples in Bangkok. I enjoyed Sukhothai in particular and would recommend anyone coming to northern Thailand to include it in your itinerary.

Now for a few days R&R on Koh Samet before the next trip starts…

I arrived into Bangkok after a 6 and a half hour flight from Perth around mid afternoon, and after a small queue for immigration, I was granted a 60 day visa. Locating my transfer was a little chaotic, the drive from Suvarnabhumi airport to my hotel in Chinatown took around an hour and a quarter, and as we approached Chinatown, the traffic almost came to a standstill.

After checking in, I went in search of some food. This wasn’t difficult to find as I was staying on Yaowarat Road in the heart of Chinatown and as it was now the early evening, the street food markets were in full force. Being a little careful on my first day in Asia, I opted for some dumplings which were cooked in front of me with some flames thrown in for good measure. I spent a while wandering up and down the markets and absorbing the chaotic atmosphere which was in fairly sharp contrast to what I’d come from in Australia.

The next day I’d booked myself on a half day street food tour of Chinatown (which I’d literally booked in the taxi from the airport), which started in the late morning. We had 15 different dishes, and there was only 1 I wasn’t a fan of (a sort of unripe mango with spicy dipping sauce)!! Also we walked through the back streets of Chinatown which I don’t think I’d have had the courage to do on my own

Delicious street food in Chinatown, Bangkok

After the tour, I went to the Golden Buddha, and also to Wat Mangkon Kamalawat (a Chinese Buddhist temple). Despite it being very busy for the holidays in Bangkok, it was very peaceful in both temples.

Golden Buddha and temples in Chinatown, Bangkok

More food in Chinatown in the evening, Singapore Chicken and Rice, with delicious chicken broth, for 90 baht (about £2.20).

The next day, before my G Adventures tour started in the evening, I went to the Grand Palace, which I’d missed the last time I was in Thailand. I took the metro to the closest station and walked the rest of the way – quite proud of myself for navigating Bangkok public transport, (with the help of Google maps and a google search of how to buy MRT tickets – you can tap Visa/Mastercard cards at the gates, I’ve not yet seen Applepay accepted anywhere here).

As it was very close to New Year, it was very busy. Additionally, as the Queen Mother has recently died, there were lots of mourners at the palace. The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was particularly crowded which was a little overwhelming.

After meeting the group in the evening – only 8 in total for the first part of this trip, 2 weeks to Hanoi through northern Thailand and Laos, the smallest G Adventures group I have been on since Peru in 2015 – we went for dinner in a local restaurant and then drinks in the rooftop bar of the hotel we were staying in.

The next morning started with a longboat tour of the klongs (canals) in Bangkok which ended at Wat Po. I went to Wat Po on my previous visit to Thailand in 2019 but found I’d remembered very little of it beyond the Reclining Buddha, and I’d even forgotten how big that was!

We then had a free afternoon before boarding an overnight train north to Chiang Mai. A new train station in Bangkok has been built in between my visits, the new station is very spacious and easy to navigate around. The train departed shortly after 7pm for the 12 hour journey north. The seats were very quickly changed into beds, one upper (which I was on) and one lower. There were also western style toilets which were a definite improvement on my previous overnight train here! I can’t say I got a good nights sleep though, the carriage lights were on all night and despite individual curtains, it didn’t do much to block the light.

We arrived into Chiang Mai just before 8am and went for breakfast before 4 of us opted for a Thai cooking class. A great experience and some delicious food for us to eat for lunch.

In the afternoon we had a trip to Doi Suthep temple, high on the hillside just outside of Chiang Mai. Even once you’ve driven up the windy hillside to get to it, there are still 300 or so steps to walk up to reach the temple. Again it was busy with people enjoying the holidays but there was a lovely peaceful air there

It was New Year’s Eve and so after visiting the night markets and watching a Ladyboys Cabaret show, we headed to the old town to watch the New Year fireworks. Definitely a different way for me to be celebrating new year!!

After a free morning on New Year’s Day, we set off to the border town of Chiang Khong, stopping at the White Temple in Chiang Rai on the way. A very different style of temple to others seen so far, and much more contemporary, but the contrast of the white with the sky and surroundings is spectacular

We reached Chiang Khong in the early evening and after dinner at a local restaurant, including exchanging some baht for Lao kip, it was a relatively early night ready for the border crossing into Laos and my first new country of this trip…

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Tag: Chiang mai

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