Super Low Season in Thailand
Traveling during the low season has a number of attractive sides. Even in the most touristy places you can view everything at your leisure, always find a nice table at a restaurant and - not unimportantly - the hotel prices are significantly lower.
This time I will fly from Bangkok to Chiangmai in October to visit the beautiful northern part of the country. In years gone by I bridged that distance with the night train that left around 18.00 pm, after the Thai national anthem had sounded on the platform. When I think back on it; a boom ride with many stops in between that kept you awake from a cat's sleep. Early in the morning you arrived half broken in Chiangrai.
Thanks to the low-cost airlines, you can now cover the distance in barely an hour's flight for a very reasonable price.
Given the low season, I didn't make any hotel reservations, so freedom happy. Rent a small car in Chiangmai with of course good insurance for 750 baht per day. I have never paid such a low price before. It is remarkably quiet in Chiangmai and after ten o'clock in the evening you can fire a cannon.
A chaste city
You can't call Changmai particularly lascivious and hardly anything has changed in years. The Spotlight bar where a few ladies, looking bored, move around a pole has been the only a gogo tent in the center for many years. Even the bars around the corner in Loi Kroh Road don't seem to have changed in a decade. Make the well-known round again and visit Bo Sang with the parasol manufacture, climb the steps of Doi Suthep, go to the elephants in Maerim, eat at Anusarn market and at the Riverside on the Ping river. All familiar territory to many.
Tip:
I'm going to reveal a nice opportunity to enjoy a cup of coffee with delicious pastries in a quiet and pleasant place. Walk from the main street (Tapei Road) towards the bridge and cross the Ping River there. Immediately after the bridge turn right and walk into the first small street. On the wall you see the inscription “Love at first bite” (see photo above). A place to enjoy homemade cakes and a good cup of coffee.
My second tip
From the center you can see the high Porn Ping Tower hotel. Less known is that in the evening on the 21th floor on the roof terrace of the hotel and enjoy a beautiful view of the city accompanied by an orchestra that plays music where you can also talk. The name of the roof terrace 'Blue Bat' eludes me completely, but that is otherwise unimportant.
Northbound
After a few days I drive further north on my own via the route Chiandao – Fang and reach Thaton, the place from where you can make an exciting trip by boat to Chiangrai. My favorite hotel near the bridge is shabby and appears to be closed. Very cleverly they have placed a sign stating that the brand new Saranya Riverhouse with swimming pool would like to be of service to me. Beautiful rooms, an equally beautiful swimming pool and a tastefully decorated breakfast room. I don't know if this owner will last long, but I must note that I am the only guest. Even worse is that no one, really no one, leaves for Chiangrai by boat. Normally it is quite busy in this place and the boats are well occupied.
The journey continues
Just outside Thaton is the Thanathon Orchid, a large orange plantation (www.tntorchard.com). A visitor can be seen in fields or roads, but the apples of orange have only recently started to get a little bit of color.
Driving further I arrive at the Hom Pan Din vineyard under construction. Time for a cup of coffee. The coffee machine appears to be defective so we continue. Next coffee stop at a nice looking establishment. Coffee? "Have no power".
Driving further on what I believe is the most beautiful road in the north, I arrive in Doi Mae Salong. It is hard to imagine that I am also the only Westerner here. The various sales stalls are sad and the beautifully dressed hill tribes, which you find there in better times, also let it down.
Finally I arrive in Chiangrai and book a room on the spot in a fairly large hotel.
Hotel booking sites
It is remarkable that booking sites do not anticipate lower prices in the low season. Pay 35 euros for a room with breakfast. On the Agoda and Booking sites, people ask for 46 and 49 euros respectively for the same room. The hotel has a large number of rooms, but in the morning at breakfast I see a lot more staff than guests.
Long Necks
For many years I have been visiting Thailand on a regular basis and have crossed the country from north to south and from east to west. However, I have never visited the population group known as Long Necks. Monkey watching is not my thing. This time I let go of my principles and let a tuk-tuk driver persuade me to go to a Hill Tribe village to visit the Long Neck Karen. The village is 15 kilometers outside the city and for 400 baht round trip he will wait for me there until I've had enough.
When I arrive there, another 300 bath entrance fee has to be paid and if I am to believe it, the money goes to the population. I don't get a ticket and then I wonder to what extent the young man who collects the money is reliable, because there is absolutely no check. Don't imagine ending up in a normal village. It is all rather contrived with a high commercial content. Sales stalls galore. However, here too few visitors.
However, the Thai Tourist Organization will come out with a positive message again, but personally I don't believe it at all.
The owner of the Saranya hotel also has longtail boats. These are equipped with car seats, so very comfortable. You can rent the longtail, 2000 Baht to Chiang Rai about 5 hours or a trip on the river, with a non-commercial visit to a mountain village, highly recommended. You can also have lunch on the way at a hotprong, rent a long tail for 2000 Baht. Duration approximately 4 hours
Last year the Saranya river hotel was fully booked. The owners have been in the business for over 20 years. She as a guide and tour guide..
Stayed a few times in the ping porn hotel vood for several nights. But I think it's going backwards lately. The last time you almost fell into the elevator because of the broken carpet in the elevator. The breakfast is not much anymore. us Europeans at most a toasted slice of bread with an egg.
Indeed the breakfast is nothing, but that small street from the hotel next to the Korean restaurant was a nice cafe / restaurant where they had delicious Dutch bouncers and other Dutch delicacies, the owner had lived in Gouda for years and after the death of her husband returned to Chiang Mai.
Well,
I am also starting to notice that the Thai Tourist Organization is calling for more and more tourists, but myself (as a resident of Thailand) I see fewer and fewer tourists.
I myself live at 800 mtr. from the immigration in Lak Si (Bangkok) and sometimes go to the basement for a coffee and they make delicious “Brussels waffles” but not with cherries, but with raisins and coffee of course.
As if enjoying the goodies, I can look at the Immigration tracking signs and it said number 16.00 at 114 pm. In the past I have seen numbers of 300 and higher. So much less people there too.
Also on this blog, one surprises the other, about the minimal tourists on the beach and bars.
Greetings Nico
Thank you Joseph for sharing your experiences. It's now 5 years ago for me that I stayed in Chiang Mai. So not much seems to have changed, nevertheless there is still a desire to go there again. Call it nostalgia. Visited the Long Neck village years ago as well. There was no admission fee at that time. Recognized a lady from a photo in a Dutch weekly magazine and gave her some Bathjes, had a drink and sailed on again with the longtail boat. That was a wonderful trip through nature. Unfortunately, I suffered a slight sunstroke, it was so stupid not to wear a hat for the few hours on the boat and because of the wind I didn't mind that the sun did its job without mercy. All in all, the North of Thailand has its charms and one of them is the tranquility in contrast to a hectic Bangkok, Phuket Patong or Pattaya.