Changwat Chiang Mai Travel Blogs, Travelogues and Travel Journals

Doi Inthanon National Park, 90 km southwest of Chiang Mai, is home to numerous waterfalls, hiking trails, and the highest point in Thailand. Our plan for the day was to see the highlights and do some hiking. Our driver, Deer (same guy as two days ago), came for us at 10am. But Steve had a surprise work issue to take care of, and couldn’t leave! He didn’t know how long it would take, so I decided to do a mini trip in the meantime. I hoped that he would be able to go later, and didn't want …

Day 6 : sunnyIt's my last day in Chiang Mai. I love it here so much that I didn't want to leave. Seriously!!We didn't wake up til around noon. So lazy that morning. Had brunch and went to a lake. It's about 20 minutes away from tuk tuk. We asked him to take us there and wait us for a few hours. It's a really nice quiet lake. I loved it as soon as I saw it. There were tons of tables/chairs with a shade. About 20 minutes after we arrived, 6 American teeange boys and girls came to the same area.…

It's nice to be back in Chiang Mai. Although it's raining quit hard now. We book a hotel for a change, because my husband still has some trouble sleeping of the sunburn we caught in Soppong. He has blisters on his shoulders and the cold compresses don't seem to work. So, we need a sleeping place with a fine bed, airco and a swimming pool.  We found one booked it and then we also booked a flight for tommorow back to Bangkok. We bought two tickets at the desk of 1,2,GO for 1750 baht e…

So, where did we leave off? Oh, yeah - I was contemplating going out for a drink or two.  I got back to my guest house at 7am.  I've had one hours sleep, because I had to take the damned motorbike back to the rental place.  When I got back, all my stuff was strewn around the room - it took me a full hour to repack my backpack.I feel terrible.  Nothing I do seems to fix it.  I've tried eating breakfast.  I've tried drinking lots of water.  I'm listening to Ni…

5.30 A.M.  the light is turn on..hurrr..Lamphun!! I see the plant outside. Then the bus hostress start to surve us a millk,snack and cold towel.  Then i start to wake my eye 100%...and not so far...we arrive Chiang Mai!!  Hello Chiang Mai !!! The schedule: Someone (Ay cousin) will pick us at the bus station and bring us to Tha Pae Gate (Central of Chiang Mai to offer the food to the monk). Before i continue to discrip my trip..i wo…

After getting ready, I decided to walk around and find breakfast rather than settling on the guest house's overpriced mediocre selection. I couldn't find anything open other than Mc Donalds or US style coffee shops and I wasn't in the mood for that. I turned on the side street and ended up in a Muslim part of town. I found a woman working at a little stand selling cheap coffee and pastries. I sat down in the modest dining room which appeared to be part of a home. She brought me a cake and a s…

Today being Sunday we thought we would take it easy!  After breakfast and a read of the Bangkok Post we got in a tuk tuk to the bus station to purchase our ticket for tomorrow to the Laos border.  Our friendly tuk tuk driver then dropped us back off where we wanted to be - no weird diversions!  He told us that there was the Sunday Markets today so we went to have a look.  We soon discovered that Sunday Market day was a huge thing in Chiang Mai.  Many stalls were just …

As we rolled into town in the early evening on our tuk-tuk it my first impression of Chiang Mai was that it was much cleaner and a little quieter than Bangkok.  It was a bit difficult to find a room which seems to be a common theme during the high season.  Locals tell me that it is not even as busy this year as it had been in the past because of some political issues that have scared some half committed touristed away. Bree loves the markets so I tagged along for the night…

Thailand still has large ethnic hill-tribe communities thriving in their villages throughout the north.  They live off the land and their bizarre religion (mixing Buddhism and Animism) is largely based on the seasons and the elements that our world provides.  They openly believe in spirits and ghosts.  A little money is important, but textile making and trading is largely how they survive in our developing world.  They are still hunters and gatherers an…

Chiang Mai tiene mas de 350 templos. Visita a una aldea en la montaña y subida al Wat Doi Suthep. Desde este templo se tiene muy buenas vistas de la ciudad y sus alrededores.

For our second night of trekking we were staying in a large bamboo hut situated right on the river facing the water. The sound of the rapids was pretty loud but not quite loud enough to keep you awake after a hard day of trekking. When morning came the group grabbed some breakfast in the form of scrambled eggs and more toast than you could shake a stick at served up once again by our guide. Once we could eat no more we boarded several elephants of varying sizes for a trek along the river. I m…

... you've visited Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Or so the saying goes. Well it only took me about 2 years and 4 months to get there, but I finally made it. At least I can say that I've been to Chiang Mai before I leave. Wat Phrathat sits on Doi Suthep (doi means mountain in Thai), overlooking the city. Doi Suthep is one of the mountains in the mountain ridge that runs west of the city. Next to Doi Suthep is Doi Pui, Chiang Mai city's tallest mountain. The wat is a common sight of pilgramage for t…

I stayed in bed until 8:30 am, then got up to catch breakfast before the buffet closes. Next up was the swimming pool on the roof, where I am right now, enjoying the hot sun and the cool water. The pool isn't that special really, but the sun is amazingly high in the sky and temperature, even this early, is amazing. Things couldn't be much better. Just order a cocktail and relax, for the first day since long. I don't like wasting all days on a beach chair but just ones in a while it pleases me…

The flight back to Chiang Mai was quick but very hot - the entire plane was busy fanning themselves for most of the flight.  We are staying another night at our favorite guesthouse, Baan Orapin, which we can’t say enough about.  The place is absolutely fabulous and Opas the owner is the most friendly and helpful man in Thailand.  If you are ever in Chiang Mai, you have to stay here!  Tomorrow we are off to Chiang Khong, the border town across the river from Laos. …

I got to see the Hill Tribes who I have herd som much about on Documentary's in Australia, getting to this part of Northern Thailand was a mission in itself, we left the city of chiang Mai by mini van on our tour, we drove through some of the most steep, and small roads I'v ever been on in my life, i thought the roads in the country areas of New Zealand were small but these roads could just fit us and another car on the otherside of the road, tight fit at times. We met a wonderful couple from…