April 2018
While staying in Bangkok, we took a 3 night trip to one of the old capital cities of Thailand, Chiang Mai(founded in 1296.) The flight was an hour long going north and cost $25-30 each way(found on skyscanner.com) on Vietjet and Nok Air. Never heard of these airlines? I know. But short flights are pretty much all the same around the globe. Chiang Mai Airport is 20-25 minutes southwest of the city center. The Chiang Mai area has a population close to a million, which makes it second only to Bangkok as a metropolitan area. But the city proper has 160,000 inhabitants, and the feeling you get as you enter the city is “manageable.”
Chiang Mai is notorious for bad air in the spring. From late February to early April, the post-harvest rice and maize (corn) fields are set ablaze round-the-clock in order to clear the land and, at the same time, fertilise the soil in preparation for the replanting of crops ahead of the rainy season. Smoke and dust resulting from the burning pollute the air big time. We did notice some of it, but it did not seem too bad. Maybe we arrived right after they finished doing most of the burning.
It was already dark when we checked into the hotel, and we decided to walk to a branch of the restaurant that we liked in Bangkok, May Kaidee. Like many other towns in Thailand, there was a maze of alleyways and narrow streets.
Chiang Mai has lots of small (what they called) “boutique style” hotels and B&B’s. Ours was located between the square area(old town) and the river & called “Chedi Home.” It served a wonderful breakfast, shown above. We looked forward to breakfast every morning. One could find a decent place for $40-60/night.
Our room was rather tight, but it was clean and comfy. There was a small swimming pool at the hotel, too. It was tempting after returning from a walk, but we did not jump in. Five of us were traveling together, thus, we ordered a songthaew( think of it as a big tuktuk) whenever we went somewhere in order to stay together and travel in one car. Can’t remember the price, but it was reasonable.
The first stop on our first morning was the Doi Suthep Mountain and the temple on top of it, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The drive up the mountain lasted only about 15-20 minutes. Gold, gold, gold. Seeing gold in a major temple in Southeast Asia is normal, but this was quite something.
People usually combine a visit to a local village with this trip, but we chose not to do that. Peeking into someone’s house would make us feel we were imposing a bit much. Of course they welcome visitors, and they make a living that way. Still, it was not one of our favorite activities.
We asked the tuktuk driver to let us off at the northwest corner area on this map where there’s a more modern shopping district(Nimman) with lots of shops and restaurants. Our lunch was at a French-Thai restaurant called Leon de Nimman. Great food, not too expensive, fun decorations. After lunch, we walked around the area for a while and went back to the hotel to rest.
Chiang Mai area has over 300 temples. After a break, we were rejuvenated enough to explore the old city area and drop into a couple of them. We used tuktuks to move around within the walled old city area to save our energy for the evening. After a while, all the temples merge into one huge ball of memories, and the ball remains rather fuzzy.
Dinner was at one of the food courts in the Night Bazaar area south of our hotel. The rain was coming and going all day, and it really poured down as we entered the covered food court. Great variety of food at a good price(not too cheap because it was aimed for tourists.)
We decided we all deserved a good massage. There were plenty of massage places in the food court area and along the main street that ran though the night market.
The next morning our songthaew driver took us to Lampang(population: 58,000), a town 10 km southeast of Chiang Mai. We first went to the Dhanabadee Ceramic Museum where the process of making the famous bowls decorated with a chicken is explained. Their store had lots of beautiful but slightly imperfect plates and bowls at really cheap prices.
Lampang is famous for horse drawn carriages because they are still used as ways to get around, unlike other places where only tourists use them.
Some of us took a tour of the city on a horse carriage and saw some old wooden houses in Burmese style.
We had a surprisingly wondeful lunch at Tuk Pak. We were treated to a gourmet meal at a very reasonable price as recommended by the manager/owner who spoke English. As I tried to check the information about the restaurant just now, it seems it is no longer in business. What a loss!
After lunch we walked around and found some bargains in the local market area. We visited the temple below before heading back.
We did not feel like a full dinner so we went back to the food court at the Night Bazaar. Afterdinneralong , we walked to the Ping River and strolled until it began to rain heavily. We quickly got in two taxis and headed back to the hotel.
Our return flight was late in the afternoon, so we would have another full day in Chiang Mai. We visited the old archeological site Wiang Kum Kam, about 5 km south of the city. We hired horse-drwn carriages to look around the area which was once the capital of the Lanna Kingdom before Chinag Mai took over the honor. This area then became submerged under the Ping River. It had become a legend until it was accidentally rediscovered in 1984.
Our lunch was at the Hen Jai Yong Restaurant as we eaded to the airport. The menu was extensive, but we did not know what to order. Luckily, some Thai Americans were sitting next to our table. We copied their order. Great food. Quite reasonable.
There was an art gallery on the restaurant grounds which was perfect for our purpose of killing time. There were several different shops selling ceramics and wooden craft items. We bought a beautiful candle holder that graces our living room now.
Small Wide World 