Chiang Mai

Storyline: Home to home westward

Chiang Mai has been hyped by many and for years. I had read a lot about it, and Alex had watched several videos of people extolling its virtues. A magnet for 20-something globetrotters, digital nomads flocking there, older folks retiring in an affordable, liveable city, people dealing with major life events and challenges, and the list goes on. All presenting Chiang Mai as a charming and desirable place, which is a “must visit” destination while in Thailand. And so, our expectation meter was set on high. You all know what happens when expectations are higher than reality. (It makes me wonder where else these people have been, and what is their basis for comparison.)

We left the noisy and air-polluted concrete jungle of Bangkok, just to discover that Chiang Mai is even more polluted and just as clogged with traffic, although prettier and not as noisy as Bangkok.

It is much bigger city that I expected. In fact, it is the second biggest city in Thailand. And apparently, its air quality can get worse than Bangkok’s, especially during the dry season when smoke from agricultural burning adds to the haze.

Chiang Mai literally means the new city. As mentioned in a previous post, ‘chiang’ in Thai means city. Chiang Rai (the city of king Mangrai) was the capital of the Lanna Kingdom (the kingdom of the million rice fields) until Chaing Mai was founded in 1296 by the same king, as his new capital.

We flew in the day after Alex’s phone was stolen in Bangkok. Luckily, I had packed his old iPhone as a backup, and it now became our local phone.  We managed to download Grab (the Asian version of Uber). Upon arrival at Chiang Mai airport we checked it. There wasn’t any car available. I asked the information what is the best way to get to the center and she advised us that the cheapest way was an official taxi. She pointed to a taxi desk, where they wrote us a voucher for 150 baht and our location: this is a flat rate to anywhere in the city. This way there was no room for misunderstanding or scam. One takes the voucher and gives it to the taxi driver in line. As simple as that. Later we found out that Grab wasn’t a thing in Chiang Mai nor in Chiang Rai.

There were tuk-tuks and mainly red “buses”, called songthaews. Not all red though, there are yellow and blue “buses” too, but they are for suburban commuters. These were really pickup trucks with two benches along the sides, and a fitted roof over the truck bed. They take from one to 10 or 12 people. We also found that these “buses” have the 30-baht price written on the side (just over 1CAD). This is supposedly their flat rate for the city. Per person that is.

So, don’t ask the driver how much. If you ask, you may be given much higher price. Just tell him where you want to go, then climb up and at the end, pay the 30 baht. If he tells you a different price, you can negotiate or just say no, and flag down the next songthaew. There are hundreds of them.

We arrived at our hotel, Chedi Home, which was Chris and Tim’s (Alex’s nephew) recommendation. It was nicely located for old city walks, just across from the moat and the old city walls at its north-east end. We had a room with a balcony, where I enjoyed my morning coffee before going down for a sumptuous and delicious breakfast.

Did I mentioned that ever since we left New Zealand and Australia, all our breakfasts have been rich on fantastic fruits and vegetables? (Argus Hotel, Darwin I am looking at you).

It was lunch time, and Alex found a small Burmese restaurant, The Cat House, some 70 meters from our hotel. It had great reviews on TripAdvisor, so we decided to give it a try.

Food was good, although there was a very limited selection. It is made from fresh, locally-sourced seasonal ingredients. And beer was cheap. However, we found the staff quite disengaged and indifferent. We were there twice, both times in the afternoon when the place was empty. The second time, waitstaff was two guys, sitting at a table in front of us and playing with their phones. There was one fan pointed at their table. At one point they brought out a second fan and we thought it was for us. We were surprised when they turned it towards them too, completely ignoring us and our calls for attention. And that was that with The Cat House.

We found many great cafes, restaurants and markets in the city, but this was not one of them.

Still digesting our late lunch, we went to check the lay of the land across the moat, stopped by few street food vendors, had some grilled meat, bought fresh fruits and called it a day.

After taking our time over delicious breakfast the next morning, accompanied by a few cappuccinos and watermelon juice for me, and tea for Alex, we decided to walk to the bus station and find out how to get to Chiang Rai in a few days. It was simple, once we found the right terminal – there are two close to each other.

You take the green bus. It runs almost every hour. We bought tickets, with seat selection, and took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel.

It was Sunday, and the city was preparing for the Sunday walking-street – known also as the Sunday Market. We walked to the north-west, then to the south-central area of the old town, looking for a specific restaurant where we had our late lunch.

By the time we finished, the market streets were closed to traffic and the vendors were setting up their tents.

It was quite impressive, although mainly targeting tourists. As day progressed into twilight the crowds got thicker and thicker.

There were many street-food booths in courtyards and with tables,

performance stages,

and beauty (massage) alleys in addition to the main street market. Some cafés and restaurants closed and moved to the streets too, selling their freshly squeezed juices and other products.

It’s a fun, vibrant event with a wide spectrum of food, clothes, souvenirs, art and crafts and lots of music.

Local families were mainly enjoying the food courts and music, while the tourists were flocking to the souvenirs, which were of good quality.

We spent time mingling with the crowds, bought some gifts, had dinner at a food market we liked, took photos and enjoyed the atmosphere.

The sky was clear and the full moon made it for a pretty romantic walk back to the hotel by the walls on the moat sidewalk. Lovely reflections in the water.

The old city is basically a square, surrounded by walls with central gates.

Big parts of the walls are gone, but the main gates are still standing, although heavy traffic goes through most of them.

There is a busy boulevard around the perimeter, running one way inside the moat and the other outside the moat and walls. Our hotel was just a block away from the latter. Crossing these busy roads was a challenge.

The old city is full with small alleys lined with restaurants and cafes, unfortunately none of the ones we found was pedestrian-only, unless closed for a weekly market.

There are some 300 wats and temples in Chiang Mai.

You can’t visit them all, but we visited quite a few, walking through the old city, often just stumbling onto them.

We have more photos of temples, wats, chedis, elephants, snakes and other ornaments surrounding them than from any other city. After a while they all looked the same to us.

We walked around the entire perimeter of the old city beside the moat; we crisscrossed it within the walls end to end, observing its life.

One of the days we walked to the Nimman area northwest of the old town, through the University and hospital grounds and up north to the Maya mall.

There we observed the digital nomad community workspace, checked some stores,

then had dinner in one of the restaurants on the rooftop, and even danced to the live band before walking back to our north-east corner of the city,

taking another photo series of the moonlight reflections in the moat.

Another day we trekked to the zoo and spend some time around the waterfalls.

Having to shelter from a heavy rain, we ran into a nice restaurant, Krua Sillapacheep,

in a lovely park setting close to the Zoo. Had lunch and drinks there while waiting for the rain to stop and head back to the city.

It was in the old city, in an Irish-Thai pub where I had my first and best Massaman curry. I could never find better. Perhaps it was a western influence to the original recipe, but it had lots of vegetable in addition to the potatoes.

All-in-all we enjoyed our time in Chiang Mai. But we didn’t like the city. There wasn’t anything extraordinary as we were made to believe from all the research we did. Nothing special, nothing tangible and memorable that will stay with us for long.

The traffic was horrendous and crossing busy roads was a huge challenge. It was easier to cross much bigger roads in Bangkok than the narrow roads of old Chiang Mai.

Drivers will not stop even when you put your foot down on a zebra crossing. So one has to wait for a gap in the traffic. Sidewalks, where they exist, are narrow and often blocked by vendor’s carts and booths, or used as parking spaces. There is no respect for humans trying to survive within this motorized world. Bikes can zoom by you even when you think you are safe on a decent sidewalk, by a café or a store.

One thing that caught my eye from the moment of our arrival was huge number of weird looking old Western men paired with young (almost child looking) Thai women. First thing I noticed as we walked in our hotel, was a man, sitting at the breakfast tables by the reception and talking to the reception ladies. There was something in his look that alerted me and made me shudder. Then I could not stop but  notice these men on the streets, in the bars, cafes and restaurants. Often with a young Thai woman next to the guy. Pointing this out to Alex later, he said “yes, and I kept thinking, here is this creepy guy again. But it was a different one”. And this comes from a retired couple. Perhaps this is no different than many other places, but just the sheer number of them was notable.

There was something sad to Chiang Mai’s vibe, despite what all the crowds congregating in the Nimman area tell you.

(Note that we didn’t mention the nightlife, which is often cited as vibrant. We didn’t explore this aspect).

It was sad to see beautiful architecture and old structures, such as city walls, gates, wats, you name it, being destroyed by traffic. Cars driving so close that one touches the walls. And although we walked a lot it is not really a walkable city. On a daily basis one needs to use some form of motorized transportation. In Bangkok one can take public transportation, the air-conditioned sky train or metro, and cover major parts of the city while getting a break from the smog. In Chiang Mai your best bet is tuk-tuk or red bus, both open so you inhale all the pollution at speed.

For the more adventurous, there are lots of inexpensive motorcycle/scooter rentals available – just be aware of the license requirements. One can ignore the pollution for a few days, but for longer? Young people that congregate there in general are not that concerned with health issues, but one can’t ignore the fact that many wear masks.

There is a lot of convenience for those that recommend this city: good wifi, cheap and fresh food, tons of cafés and affordable restaurants, wats galore. But there must be something more than that to make one want to spend a longer time there. And for us that was lacking.

Well, if you are visiting the north of Thailand you’ll probably at least pass through Chiang Mai. Give it a few days, visit some of the top rated temples, take a few tours, enjoy the markets. Just don’t get oversold by the hype.

If you go (travel tips):

1. If you arrive by plane it’s best to take a taxi to your accommodations. There is a flat rate of 150 baht to everywhere in the city. Just ask at the airport’s information desk.
2. Traveling from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai by bus: The Green Bus departs almost hourly from terminal 3 of the Arcade bus station. There you can buy tickets, including seat selection, in advance. It is an easy ride, although ours took more time because of road construction in the mountains.
3. Using the red bus (songthaew) in town: There is a flat fee of 30 baht per person for the city rides. Just tell the driver where you’d like to go, hop in and pay at the end, Look for the sign on the top of the bus that tells you the price. The driver may ask for a different price, and you can accept it, negotiate, or just walk away and flag down the next one.
4. If you are renting a scooter, make sure you have appropriate license from your home country. Otherwise you risk paying a big fine.
5. Thai people love to haggle and Chiang Mai is no exception. Keep this in mind when taking a tuk-tuk or shopping. But there’s no haggling with street food. It is extremely cheap anyway.

Chiang Mai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chiang Mai street art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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