Chiang Mai

Posted by Andy Geoghegan, on September 21st, 2009 1 comment

15 September – 19 September

Chiang Mai was another of the ‘must visit’ cities on the itinerary; it’s another place where people wax lyrical about and many say it’s their favourite place in Thailand. As ever, we were not 100% sure what to expect, I suppose I thought we’d get a mini-Bangkok but it really isn’t – I think one of the reasons people like this place so much is because it’s calmer and cleaner than Bangkok. It’s quite hard for me to compare because since we were in Bangkok we’ve been to Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos where there are no 7 Elevens or Burger Kings; not that a comparison is important.

Night Bazaar, Chiang Mai

Our original plan was to hang around here for around three nights and then go somewhere where we can laze on a beach for a couple of weeks. We ended up spending four nights here as there’s plenty to keep you occupied here. Inner Chiang Mai is easily walked and there’s no shortage of areas to spend an evening whether it’s by the river, around the inner moat or comparing travel stories in the backpacker haunts.

The most popular place to spend an evening is around the Night Bazaar – most Asian cities will have some sort of market selling bags and wooden ornaments and Chiang Mai’s is no different save for the sheer size of it that makes the area light up with the colours of the stalls and the secondary businesses that benefit from it such as bars, restaurants and massage parlours. We spent our final evening here choosing to eat in one of the restaurants buried within the market. We noticed a large pool in the middle that was full of huge live shrimp. We had to try them and sure enough the chef scooped a load out and within five minutes they were barbecued to perfection and staring back at us from our table and were delicious. We finished off by getting a relaxing yet bone-crunching foot massage where I screamed like a girl.

I’ll be doing another post on Chiang Mai concentrating on our day-long jungle trek, depending on the internet connection in our next place I hope to have this up in a day or so [UPDATE: now posted - link]. All I’ll say for now is that it was a brilliant day made better by our guide who went under the English name of Don. He was so good that, along with the five Aussies who were also on the trip, he invited us on a night out. We met at the Riverside Restaurant for one of the best meals of our trip so far, there were nine of us in total and we all ordered a selection of stuff and tucked in giving us the opportunity to try many dishes we otherwise wouldn’t have tried. After here Don said he would take us to a rooftop bar. You know my thoughts on rooftop bars, they’re expensive but I love them, they are a great way to get a great view of the city, especially at night when everything is bubbling underneath.

This rooftop bar was on the third floor so my dream of getting a good night shot of Chiang Mai was scuppered. We soon realised that the Aussie lads were not seasoned drinkers (although there were a great laugh) but compared to poor Don they were like George Best. We were chugging back the 6.4%abv Chang Beer and Don got to the point where he was voluntarily throwing himself on the floor and screaming. We thought this was fun, especially as he had to be up at 6:00am the next day. Pezza & I decided to pull the chord around then and let the others go to the clubs; we saw the Aussies in the shrimp place last night and they said poor Don decided to drive his motorbike to the club and was last seen being scooped into an ambulance.

I bet he still made it into work.

We didn’t bother temple-hopping here as we are all ‘Watted Out’ but I’ll do another post all about our jungle trek, the tigers and the boring German couple but to sum up: if Bangkok is a bit too ‘Bangkoky’ for you then Chiang Mai is a good step back from it – the sounds and smells are not as vibrant and it’s more sanitised. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it if you’re in Thailand, but I think I’m more of a Bangkok man.

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