Holiday Blog: Chiang Mai

When I arrived in Chiang Mai, I had a guesthouse in mind that I wanted to go to, called The Living House. I arrived there early in the morning and it was still closed.

The neighbor across the street then called the owner awake and she came to open the door for me a few minutes later. It was a very friendly Thai, she showed me the room and it cost 150 Baht for 1 night. Somehow I didn't like it and I went back. So I went for a walk through Chiang Mai with my backpack in search of a place to sleep.

After a visit to a much too expensive hotel and a 20 minute walk I found a guesthouse where I wanted to settle. I wanted to book for 1 week at Mini Guesthouse, but I couldn't haggle more than 100 Baht off the price… grr so finally booked for 1 night (200 Baht, single room) so that I had a "house" and a shower. Then I explored the area, had breakfast and looked for a place where I really wanted to stay. After searching for a while, I found a nice hotel called Ginny place, single room 150 Baht and nicely located. Had agreed that I would be there the day after between 10 and 11 to book my room.

Furthermore, the day was completed by walking around and lying in bed for a few hours. In the evening I went to the night Bazaar, which was not much, but the kilometers of markets around it were AMAZING!!! I had a good time and went to sleep around 11 o'clock. The next day we had breakfast at a restaurant that was mentioned in the lonely planet….mwa…. Haha bit spoiled. Then settled me at Ginny place. Then discovered Chiang Mai on foot, after walking around for a few hours and visiting super beautiful temples, I went back to my hotel. Where I went to negotiate a 3 day trekking trip. Normally it costs 1500 Baht (€ 37,50, including 2 nights, 3 days + food) so that is actually not expensive.

But since I had visited several travel agencies during all that walking around, I knew it could be cheaper, at first I thought the cheapest was 1300 baht, but my hotel offered the same for 1200 to me. Then I got into a conversation with a Thai who offered it for 1100. So I told the owner of my hotel and finally I could book it for 1000 Baht .... (so good ..) But there was also a sign that if you book a trip there that you would get a free hotel night, so I went through with that, but I had it sooo cheap that was really no longer possible. Nevertheless, I managed to book the 3 nights after my tour for 100 Baht per night (actually it's 150 Baht so I also got that free night 🙂 ) I was glad I booked it and I looked very much looking forward to it.

That same day I didn't do much more than walk around and went to bed on time again. The next day I was picked up at 09:30 by a pickup, which already contained a number of people from my group. Acquainted and drove on to pick up more. It is a nice cozy group of about 11 people. They were Australians, New Zealanders, Americans and an Englishman, I had to get used to the too fluently running English conversation and gossip, but I managed to hold my own. Our first stop was at a butterfly garden and orchid farm. Once inside everyone was suddenly dead silent, since the butterfly garden was quite disappointing, and that everyone clearly agreed (everyone was silent with surprise at how boring that looked) this was the moment for my first joke. I said AMAZING, well the ice was broken… After walking around a bit we got back in the pickup and drove to a local market. After all our group had bought bottles of Thai rum and peanuts, we were ready for the jungle.

After we were dropped in a small village in the mountains, about 50 kilometers from chiang mai we got our lunch. There we met another 7 people, who also belonged to our group (including 3 Dutch people and 2 Germans). Then we entertained ourselves with home-made wooden play swings (a kind of Ferris wheel, was kicking) and walked through a village where a certain tribe lived in a few bamboo huts. Then our hike continued towards an elephant camp. It was a few hours of climbing but we arrived in one piece.

After meeting the elephants there, we were allowed to go with the elephant. I personally thought it was pathetic, especially knowing that an elephant's weakest spot is its back, so I didn't enjoy the trip. Fortunately, almost everyone shared the opinion. It was super cool that I happened to not have to go on my back (in a bowl) but I was actually allowed to sit on his neck, so that with every step he took, I felt his muscles and was beaten by his flapping ears. So I could really cuddle with him, and that made it a great experience!!!

After the elephant ride, I went swimming in the river with about 6 men (the guide advised us not to do it because the water was murky, but there was not much to do) Fortunately, we went swimming anyway, the water was wonderful (but only half a meter deep, and a very strong current) and we really recovered from it. We had just climbed out of the river to go back to the camp, when suddenly 2 elephants with their handlers came walking, the elephants went to take a bath in the river and the handlers asked if we wanted to wash them, oooo that was awesome! such a massive beast, playing, rolling in the river when we're actually up against it, washing it by hand and splashing it wet. This cannot be described in words…

Delicious real Thai food in the evening. Brought out the booze, a guitar, drums and other instruments. It was a noise in the middle of the jungle… But what a party. Until a gigantic scorpion really came walking (yes… very deadly) but the mahou (local) speared it and immediately fried it in our campfire. With 3 men we had dared to eat really super fresh scorpion. It gave me butterflies in my stomach, but it didn't taste bad and I am once again a whole experience richer. By the way, we also enjoyed an incredibly beautiful sunset….WOW

After an amazingly good night's sleep I got up to see the sunrise, again spectacular. After breakfast, toast with egg and jam and finally unlimited coffee (for the 1st x) we said goodbye to the people who did the 2-day trip. So with 11 men in the pickup and again dropped somewhere. After an hour of walking arrived at a waterfall, if you could call it that.. It was a rock with a trickle of water, but it was nevertheless super fun because you could slide off it. It looked super scary, but I'm Dutch so didn't let me know and went first, then everyone followed 🙂

After having a good time we had lunch again. After which we had another long walk of about 2 hours to our new residence. The walk was easy, and we arrived around 3 o'clock in a tiny village in the mountains (1100 meters altitude) great view but there was really nothing to do here, so most of them also went to sleep. I myself went up the mountain with 4 others, hiked again for 2 hours and returned at a fairly high point (1370 meters) to be back in time before dark. Picked a spot along the way to watch the sunset. Saw the sunset around 18:30 PM, speechless again…

Then sat together in the bamboo hut, ate and did nothing. Very early to bed, with the result that I woke up at 01:30… NO… Thank goodness I fell asleep again and woke up around a normal time in the morning. With back pain, but I couldn't complain because I had slept well. To think that we were lying on wooden bamboo poles, well with a towel on top….. That made the difference….Not!

It is a great experience to be in such a place and to spend the night!!!

Descended the mountain the next day, in a 2-hour trip, with incredibly beautiful nature, very difficult passable paths and slippery dangerous descents arrived at a super beautiful waterfall. Had a lovely swim and played with a baby monkey, so cool…. Then we hiked further towards the river, where we went rafting.

Once there, got some instructions and then started our rafting trip. Super cool, in a very nice environment. During the rafting, 2 elephants also crossed the river right in front of us. We really had to be careful not to crash into it, so super cool…

After being stuck on a rock twice, after diving from the raft into the water, after swimming in the river and after we had splashed water on the boat with Japanese people, we arrived at a number of bamboo rafts, on which we continued our journey. would prosecute. With 2 men on that raft it didn't seem like a good idea, the raft now also looked more like a submarine. But after we had chased away a giant spider from our raft we continued the journey. Not Spectacular, but very funny. Once we arrived at the destination we had lunch, you could also buy the pictures of the rafting there. We left that to the Germans, but of course exchanged email addresses)!

Then we all sat down in the pickup, which, after a 100-kilometer drive, dropped us 1 by 1 neatly at the hotel where we needed to be. It was 3 unforgettable days. That same evening we agreed to have a drink together at the roof top bar! After I had a shower I went to eat with the 2 Germans and the Japanese boy at a restaurant where the locals eat (on the advice of a Thai). The food was incredibly good, so much taste….we really enjoyed it. Then went to the roof top bar, had a quiet drink and in no time the whole group was back together from the draw, this ended in a very pleasant evening and a lot of dancing in a club nearby.

Now it's the day after, had a hard few hours but the hangover has gone. Tonight I have an appointment with a boy from Oss, we don't know yet what we're going to do.

Many greetings from Chiang Mai from Stefan

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