Part #1: Chiang Mai, Tha Ton and Chiang Rai
My flights were smooth as room temperature butter. From Denver to Dallas, I was upgraded to “first” on my United flight, which is always a nice little touch. The plane had just been redone with the new configuration, so all new leather seats and such. Our flight took a tad longer than expected, and I was not sure why until I checked out our route on Flight Aware.
After a visit to the Centurion, it was off to Frankfurt, which contained one of the better LH crews that I have ever had, and a nice newly upgraded cabin which included some decent IFE. Arriving into Frankfurt, I went straight to the Sky Lounge via my Priority Pass for a bite to eat and to caffeinate myself so that I did not fall to the powers of jet lag. Now, some people think it is strange that I have a Platinum card, but in reality, it is something that makes traveling a touch easier in my opinion, so I have one. Last year I flew 83k miles, and having a decent meal before you do the double red eye is not a bad way to go.
The lounge had everything you needed and a decent array of German breakfast fare. The WiFi was fast in between Delta flights to the US (this seemed to be a Sky Team centric lounge), but it did not have a good view. Anyways, it was a nice place to burn 4 hours.
My Thai flight was on an A380, something that I intentionally planned since I have never been on one before. I loved it. Sitting in the second row from the front, I immediately noticed that the noise was minimized to nearly nonexistent on take off. The load was at about 40%, which meant the Y class bed was in full effect. The crew was nice, but nothing special, and the food was pretty darn good, some of the better food I have had on a plane. It included beef goulash for dinner and a pancake of some sort (I think it had mushrooms) for breakfast. When we parked at the gate, we sat on the plane for a good 20 minutes for all of the jet bridges to get to the plane.
I did not go directly to my connecting flight to Chiang Mai, but instead waited for my dad to come in on his Finnair flight, which arrived about 45 minutes after mine. He was coming from Oslo, visiting his cousin, who I will see in about 2 months while I cruise through Oslo. Immigration, checking his bag, getting money and the works were all a breeze.
Our final flight was onboard an A320, which got us into the slightly Central American feeling Chiang Mai airport on time.
From the airport, we took a 150 Baht ride to the Le Meridian, where we would spend our first night. We stayed at the Le Meridian because I was targeted for a free night after your first stay, and then an additional free night after your second stay. Going to Thailand warranted some of the cheapest hotels in the SPG portfolio, and I expect to use the free nights in San Francisco for a surprise weekend with my mom. Makes sense to pay $100/night for a place that will cost $300 per night later. Throw in the fact that it is a nice place to take a shower and such right after landing and you had both my dad and I sold.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
View from the 15th floor.
Our room was not ready on arrival, so they had us go over to the bar and have a soft drink while we waited. Once it was ready, they let us know and took us to the room. After a shower and a bit of a nap, we walked around the night bazaar, which was right outside the hotel. It was an excellent way to get outside but also stay close to the hotel for when you were tired. We found a little street food gathering where one of the places sold pad thai for 60 Baht, so we ate there for the evening, where we sampled some meat on a stick and fruit drinks as well. Meat on a stick is one component to the solution on world peace, in my opinion. We cruised around a bit more, then called it a night.
Thai food court around the corner from the hotel.
Night bazaar.
Why this loacation isn't working, so lets move business down the road a bit.
In the morning, I found via Trip Advisor the Dada Kafe, which we walked to for breakfast. The food was truly exceptional, and had some really great shakes. It was a great place and is strongly recommended.
After that, we walked around the old city a tad, checking out some of the temples, then sauntered back to the hotel. You will find that pretty much any city we visit is full of “walking around” without any clear destination. Once back at the hotel, we visited the pool for a bit, which was a nice way to get out of the sun. After exploiting the amenities, we checked out around 16:00 and moved to our new hostel, Aoi Hostel, located in the northeast part of the old city.
Apologies for not posting more pics of downtown. They are mostly on my phone, which I did not upload any photos from before crossing the border. My patience to upload them is not nearly high enough as I need it to be to start such a task, so i'll throw some more up here when I get a better internet connection.
This place did not look like much initially, but Boyz, the person who ran the hostel was an exceptional resource for the areas around Chiang Mai, and overall a great guy to talk to. We spent a while chatting about stuff, before dad and I walked to the river. Enroute, we found Muang Mai Market, which was noted for tomorrow mornings walk.
River.
Dinner tonight was green curry at some random place, for the ongoing price of 60 Baht each...gotta love Thailand.
In the morning, I woke up at around 4 due to unknown reasons, and was off the the market at 6:00. This was a true gem, in my opinion. The constant controlled chaos of motorbikes whizzing through with hundreds of people buying their fare was a great experience. We actually went to the market the next morning as well.
Enroute to the market.
These guys were yummy.
My favorite is the drive thru shopping experience, where someone pulls up to a random stall, under a heavily populated market roof, orders what they need, throws it on the bike, and then drives to their next victim.
Of course, asking for photos is a great way to go, and sometimes you get a nice smile out of the vendors when you do so.
On the way back we cut through a temple where a guy told us about some ceremony and how nice the temple at the top of the hill was. He offered to drive us if we payed for fuel, so after some breakfast at Kanjana, we took him up on his offer.
Kanjana was set on an alley/road away from the main roads. It was surrounded by flowers and some really nice people. I had the fried noodles in red curry, followed by mango with sticky rice. It was pretty darn good, and probably the best meal for this point of our gastronomic adventures in Thailand.
After breakfast, we caught our ride to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, which was an exceptional temple with an exceptional view of the city and airport. The temple was really nice, and had some of the more ornate details that we had seen thus far. I feel that you can only talk so much about temples these days, especially with the sheer number of them that are present in Thailand.
Entrance of 706 steps.
Dragons body all the way to the top.
View of town.
After the temple, it was back home to meet up with my friend Lilly from school. From here, we sauntered some more, got some more food (at Kanjana for round #2), after walking around a bit we retired to the hostel, where the power was out. Not a big deal, we just walked around a bit more, this time towards the north gate. At the north gate is a great jazz club, which is definitely worth a listen for a bit, considering that you are in a place that is very far away from the origins of jazz. It truly was exceptional, and standing on the side of the street with Chang in hand, listening to some groovy tunes is not a bad way to beat a power outage. After the jazz it was off to find the lady with the cowboy hat to see what all the fuss was about.
Temples found during walking around a bit, again.
Basically there is a lady that has a cowboy hat that serves up some divine pork leg with rice (Khao Kha Moo). Boyz said that there is always a line from it, and all the Chinese people always check it out, so when we came across it, it was worth a try. For 30 Baht, you get a plate with some rice, and some pork on it. Take a seat behind the stall and they bring it straight out to you in a few minutes. The stuff was divine, truly, and is probably the best thing that I have eaten since being in Thailand. If I was not full from the 5 other places I had eaten today, I probably would have had 3 of things, I mean who wouldn’t for $1? Turns out the place was on
. These were phone photos, so ill throw them up at a later date. Like the one of cane juice in a bag, which was pretty darn cool.
In the morning, we woke up early to take Lilly to the market again, then packed our things up so we could hit the Freebird Cafe on the way to the bus station. Freebird was a bit more Burmese, but just as good, I had the Khao Soi in more of a non soup form, if that make sense.
Curry Pastes.
Our bus departed from Chang Puak, and cost 90 Baht to get to Thaton, a 4 hour, 180 km ride away. The bus ride was scenic, and had windows that opened fully from the bottom up, which meant that you could easily get some fresh air in the 100+ F outside. I recommend sitting on the left side of the bus for a few reasons: (a) it is shady the whole journey, if you depart in the morning, (b) it is a bit more scenic on the left with more mountains and (c) there are only two seats instead of three. With that, the drive was very nice, and for 3 bucks to go about 100 miles is not a bad gig in my book.
[IMG]Enroute.[/IMG]
Upon arrival, Horm, the owner of the homestay that we stayed at for 3 nights, picked us up at the bus station. Horm was incredibly nice and welcoming, and without doubt will be one of the better hosts we have along our trip. I am that certain of it already.
Dee’s Homestay is where we stayed, about 700 m from the main road to the north. The accommodation is in a traditional Shan style thatch hut, with an interesting history. In short, Horm made the place in memory of her mother who passed away last year.
A blog wrote the whole story, and is a nice little read. The stories from Horm though will keep anyone sitting around in the open living room just waiting for the next one. I would call the place a must stay if visiting Thaton.
There are three thatched huts, each of which is a room. Each room has mosquito nets and a bathroom, located outside, with a wonderful deck overlooking the nearby Thaton Pagoda and the Kok river.
View from the deck.
Outdoor toilet!
Horm also makes breakfasts in the morning, a nice mix of Thai cuisine. Each day was different and wonderful gastronomic adventure into something you did not quite know about before. Personally my favorite was the eggplant green chile. They are incredibly filling, as well. Horm also rented motorbikes to us, ones that I believe were her own, for 300 Baht/day. In all honesty, the motorbike is the only real way to explore the area.
Upon arrival, we hoped on the motorbikes, after a glass of juice and some bananas, and went for a cruise, which resulted in getting lost. A word of advice is to properly know how to pronounce the town in which you are staying before setting out and going 30 km’s past where you thought you were. Regardless, it’s going to be fun to remember asking where the petrol station is and then pulling up to some guys house where 5 liter measuring devices with tubes sticking out of them go straight into your fuel tank, and deciding between red and yellow fuel. A fun cruise it was indeed.
Temple found while lost.
Gong.
The following day we rode 43 kms to Mae Salong, where the tea growing occurs. Along the way there were a few stops, like at the massive Buddhas on the side of the road, and a few more general photo stops. We eventually lost my dad who apparently just kept going past the turn, but all worked out in the end. Good times.
Enroute to Mae Salong. There were 4 of these guys, some still being built but they were very nice.
Mae Salong is a cool place, if a bit touristy, but going around and seeing tea growing is pretty darn cool, and something I have never done before. I would love to have gone and cruised around in the area a bit more, even spend a night or two. A motorbike is a must though, unless you do a rushed 1 day trip from Chiang Rai/ Chiang Mai in an air con mini bus.
Petrol Station.
While in Mae Salong, we got some tea as well, which had an exceptional view and turned out to be free, as in the guy wanted no money, not entirely sure what the reasoning was but that’s fine with me! We also stopped by a place where they were drying the tea, and got to check out the whole process of drying, compressing, drying, compressing and basically the same thing a few times in a row. It is amazing how you can stop on the side of the road, ask to take a photo, and then you get a mini tour of the area from an older gentleman sitting there with a rolled tobacco leaf in his mouth smokin’ away. Images that are vivid in the mind but nearly impossible to put words to.
Tea drying.
Shops downtown.
After heading back home at probably faster than acceptable speeds (what is the speed limit here?), Horm took us to the nearby Shan village where we got to walk around a bit, and she answered a lot of our questions about the way of life in these parts. During our walk, we got to see some looming, where ladies were making clothes, and a nice little tour of everyone’s niche in the community. One guy had the pigs, one the chillies, on the chickens, and so on. It was pretty hard to believe that this entire thing was only 800 m off the side of the road, hidden between the main road and the Burmese border.
Dryin' Fire.
Our walk ended in the temple at the top of the hill, and some monks chanting. One monk came up to us and answered some questions, via translation, at the end. The experience felt really personal. Afterwards, it was off to the homestay, where we then left for dinner.
Our final full day was spent cruising around the countryside on random roads that we found around Thaton. Our thought process was to stay in the lower lands before lunch, get lunch at the marvelous Sunshine Cafe, then head to the higher hills where it would be cooler. The entire day was basically a joyride, so there are no specifics to talk about really, except for wrapping up the day at the Thaton Temple.
Rice seed storage.
Lunch at Sunshine Cafe...Some of our better meals/drinks in Thailand.
The Thaton Temple was really cool, and had a marvelous view of the valley. You could go inside the pagoda (pagoda=hollow, stupa=solid) and ascend to what appeared the heavens via some cool shrines and such. It was a great place to beat the rain, which didn’t really stop before we descended the hill back into town, where Lilly and I got a pancake like thing with a banana and some other stuff thrown in (we had a solid 5 of these over the course of 2 days).
Inside.
On departure day, we hung out, doing nothing much except using the internet and enjoying the homestay. We originally planned to take a longboat to Chiang Rai, but due to the fact that it was low season, they were not running. We could have chartered one, but that would have cost about $70 USD, a tad high in my opinion. With that, we decided to go via a Songthaew to Fang, where we caught a minibus to Chiang Rai. The ride was very scenic in all, but it would have been more convenient to go via the boat.
Dee's Homestay
Songthaew
Regardless, the songthaew took about 30 minutes, and cost 23 Baht. The minibus ran at 2 and 4:30 and cost 120 Baht, taking just over 2 hours. I would recommend sitting on the left side of the bus if possible, since you will get a better view then.
Once we got to Chiang Rai, we bid farewell to Lilly, and caught a tuk tuk to the Le Meridien to complete my second stay for another free night. I have to say, pulling up in the back of a pickup truck was rather interesting, but pulling up in a boat would have been even cooler. Next time.
The hotel was a great one though. Far superior to the one in Chiang Mai because of the resort feel. We were upgraded to a room with river view. Ill leave the description of the resort for the next post, as well as some more about the food (I love food...half the reason to travel, in my opinion) as well as some other phone shots.
Looking back through, some of the pictures seem to be a tad blurry. Not sure why that is, since they are crystal clear on my computer. Oh well.
Next Up: Part #2: Chiang Rai to Kengtung, Myanmar and 4 days in Kengtung