Chiang Mai is one of those places where you hear about it, then you’re like, “Why not go somewhere else in Thailand? We could go Bangkok, or Phuket…” Well, first of all I’ve been to both. Secondly, it’s also one of HK Express’ destinations from Hong Kong. And if you have enough days (we didn’t), you can go to Myanmar or Laos since Chiang Mai is more north.
Believe it or not, I actually had fun in Chiang Mai. Phuket is fun, but it’s those “laid back” places that’s way too touristy. Bangkok is a city. Chiang Mai is more like actually exploring and learning about Thailand and its culture. Hey, it’s also a shorter plane flight from Hong Kong as well.
This trip was done in March 2014, so before I even started blogging, so yet again information may be lacking here or there… I’ll do my best! But there’s lots of pictures to keep you entertained and hopefully interested in going there.
Flight: HK Express
Transportation: Mainly taxis (always negotiate!)
Things To Do:
Eat local Thai breakfast early in the morning on the streets!
In order to enter these sacred temples, you have to dress conservatively. Wearing tank top ladies? Then you gotta put on a robe. Also have to take off your shoes before entering.
Three Kings’ Monument.
A map around the streets of Chiang Mai. Notice the two red streets in the middle and bottom… these are the Saturday and Sunday Night Market Walking Street where everyone congregates to buy cheap stuff, mainly clothes and food. It is packed! Obviously each street has activities only on their respective days.
A house… with a slide to exit. How convenient.
The Chiang Mai Night Safari is one of the top attractions there. The tour, if I remember correctly, is conducted in English.
You have to pay money in order to take picture with this white tiger.
On the way back to hotel, we saw that the Saturday Night Market was still open, so we went there and ate a lot of stuff, including Mango Sticky Rice <- have to get.
So we signed up for guided tours to check out different places. The first place we went to was this flower / butterfly “exhibit”:
Hen and her chicks.
For our guided tour, we also got to ride on elephants as well. Because they are elephants walking on imbalanced roads, the feeling of the ride is rather bumpy.
The legendary, amazing, MANGO STICKY RICE!
We also took another guided tour, where the tour guide led us to trek and there was a small stream that he demonstrated that we can “slide” down on. At first it seemed pretty scary since it was tall and we were afraid that there might be rocks or something that can bruise us, but most of us ended up trying it and it was actually pretty fun!
We also went to a Handicraft village and watched the villagers knit and sew scarves, clothes, and other accessories.
at Doi Inthanon.
The whole place at Doi Inthanon was actually very beautifully decorated with a diversity of flowers.
What is Doi Inthanon? Well, if I told you I would be just be rephrasing its Wikipedia page so just click here instead to be directed there.
At Doi Inthanon, there are two chedis (relics for meditation). One to commensurate the 60th birthday anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 1987, and one to commensurate the 60th birthday anniversary of Queen Sirikit in 1992.
Conclusion
It’s a short trip, but I think 6 days to a week would be sufficient to cover Chiang Mai and the outskirts of Chiang Mai… a week is definitely minimum if you want to do both Myanmar and Laos trips. I went during March 2014… I skipped Bruno Mars concert for this! But it was worth it 🙂 But more days was definitely required. Yes, March is still a t-shirt / shorts kind of weather in Chiang Mai. You can also get away with English there.
