Chiang
Mai - is Thailand's second city, 700km north of Bangkok, set among
forested hills. It's popular with people who don't like the pace and traffic
jams of Bangkok. Chiang Mai has a a population of about
250,000 - compared with
Bangkok's 9m - and they like to take things a little bit easier than down
south. They'll tell you they even speak slower than the gabbling, snooty and
untrustworthy Bangkokians. The oldest part of town is within the square of
the city walls and moat, and here you'll find plenty of wat (temples), leafy
roads, cafes and tour shops, offering trips into the hills and jungles to
see the hilltribes. Orientation from within the city is easy - the
mountain called Doi Suthep is due west, and the river Ping is due east.
Most of the touristy action, and many of the hotels and guest houses are
located between the river and the Tha Pae Gate, which is set in the moat
on the eastern side of the old square.
How to get there - You
can fly to Chiang Mai airport from Bangkok, and get a taxi into town
without any difficulty. That's the way I've done it in the past.
The
airport is only about 3km south-west of the centre. If you're coming
overland from Bangkok, you'll either end up at the train station 2km east
of the centre on Charoen Muang Road, or at the Arcade bus station a bit
further out, and north-east of the centre on Thanon Kaeo Nawarat. You'll
cross the river Ping in your taxi or tuk-tuk as you head into town, and
you'll see the mountain Doi Suthep rising the other side of the city.
Where to stay - There
are scores of hotels and guest houses in all price brackets, so you're
very unlikely to be sleeping on the streets. The guest houses around
Thanon Tha
Pae are cheap and cheerful, and you're bound to bump into "travellers"
from just about every other western nation sooner or later. The difference
between travellers and tourists, if you're
interested, is just a question of scruffiness. Anyway, the guest houses tend to be run by Thai/Western couples, and the
blackboards and posters outside drop subtle clues: "Brattwurst mit
brott" - probably run by a German; "Roast beef and
Yorkshire pudding served every day" - possibly a Brit; and "Pizza,
pasta, garlic bread" - well, you get the
picture. These are basically places to crawl back to in the dead of night when
you've had your fill of Thai food and Thai beer. They're not generally
recommended for their food. If you want a little more luxury, you can pay
a hundred baht a night more for the posher guest houses, or a small,
clean, no-frills hotel, the larger of which include the Montri
Hotel,
right in the middle of the action at Tha Pae Gate on Thanon Ratchdamnoen.
If
I were you, I'd plonk your bags down somewhere pretty central (like the
Montri), and have a wander around until you find a place that suits you.
Check out your Rough Guide or Lonely Planet for a proper list.
What to do in the day - Inside
the city walls, there are loads of temples, and a pretty little public
park in the south-west corner where you can get an ice cream. There are
also some Thai cookery classes advertised all over the place, and I once
went on one organised by the Chiang Mai Thai
Cookery School, run by Somphon and Elizabeth
Nabnian. Their office was on Thanon Moonmuang near the Tha Pae Gate, and the deal is that a
bunch of you go shopping with Somphon in a typical market, pick up all the
bits and pieces you'll need, and then get transported to his house, where
he'll show you the basics, and let you have a go yourself. Then you all
sit down and scoff the results.
Chiang Mai is also an excellent base
for day and few-day trips around the area, and most guest houses can point
you in the right direction. I went on a two-day trek
(more like a stroll) with two mates and a couple of English girls who'd
signed up for the same tour. Our two Thai guides drove us out into the
hills north-west of Chiang Mai, and we went tramping through the jungle
for a few hours until we reached our lodging house in a hilltribe village.
Our guides cooked us a meal, we cracked a bottle of Thai whisky, and sang
some stupid songs as it got dark, before all going off to bed. In the
morning, we all got on a couple of elephants and went for another trip
through the jungle, until we reached a river, which we rafted down on
bamboo rafts. Then it was back to Chiang Mai in time for a shower and a
few very cold beers. You can get longer treks for up to a week if
you're feeling a lot more adventurous than me.
You might also like to catch a song-tao
up to the temple on Doi
Suthep, the mountain which overlooks Chiang
Mai. You can hang around here, admiring the views, having a bite to eat,
and taking pictures of the blooming trees and the golden temple.
Other outings include trips out to orchid
farms and snake
farms, and there's an elephant
training centre about an hour away on the
road to Lampang.
What to do at night - eat,
drink and shop. Chiang Mai has a great selection of restaurants, including
a few overlooking the river Ping like the Riverside,
and the Good View
with candle-lit tables and (one one occasion) a
gorgeous Thai woman with a guitar singing "Puff the Magic
Dragon" as we slurped our soup. You can also get some good food at
the Anusarn night market,
on Chang Khlan Road, near the Night Bazaar,
where loads of stalls set up amid the larger open-air
seafood restaurants where you can watch your giant prawns swimming around
in large concrete pools before you have them cooked. You can shop for
trinkets, gifts and clothes at the Night Bazaar on the way to Anusarn.
Chiang Mai's drinking holes are pretty low-key compared with the other
tourist ghettos in Thailand. There are a few girly bars (called "bar
beers" in Thailand) clustered around the junction of Loi Khro Road
and the old city walls, but a bit of bawdy chat and a game of pool seems
to satisfy most customers. There's nothing to get too excited or frowny
about.
