Chiang Mai (Thailand)

Earlier this year I decided that I wanted to spend some time abroad in the summer to do some voluntary work and after looking around at different countries and places I settled upon Chiang Mai. I spent the whole of the month of June living and volunteering in Chiang Mai so think I have a reasonable amount to say about this lovely city. I have written about the various aspects that I feel are useful to know about when considering going somewhere but have not written about them in too much detail as this is a general review.

Some basic info

Chiang Mai is the second largest largest city in Thailand (Bangkok being the largest) and is situated around 700km north of Bangkok. I didn’t want to go to Bangkok and thought that Chiang Mai would be easier going, and while I have never been to Bangkok and therefore can’t comment, Chiang Mai is certainly a very laid back city. The city is not particularly built up and I saw very few skyscrapers. Personally I liked this as I am not a fan of huge built up large busy cities.

Chiang Mai consists of two parts – the old part surrounded by the moat, and the newer part which is where the majority of restaurants are. Chiang Mai was founded in 1926, and as with the rest of Thailand the majority religion is Buddhism which explains the huge array of temples (otherwise known as wats) around the city. These temples are just amazing. The detail on some of them is so intricate it is breath taking. As soon as you arrive into Chiang Mai you will see mountains across the landscape which is just beautiful. There is also a river that runs through the city known as the river ping, but personally I just think this river looks a bit grubby and nasty! Monks are everywhere! They all wear some kind of orange robes and personally I was amazed to see them go everywhere that ‘normal’ people go – including phone shops etc.

The traffic here takes a while to get used to – the amount of traffic is ridiculous and you tend to have to just walk out and hope for the best when you want to cross the road. Considering the lack of driving skills I often saw I am impressed that I never saw any road accidents!

Chiang Mai is very patriotic ( I assume it is the same of Thailand in general?) and the king is everywhere! There are posters of him everywhere and if you disrespect him or the royals then you could find yourself in a Thai prison! The currency here is Thai baht with a rough exchange rate of 45-50 baht per pound at time of writing. You will often be required to take your shoes off so you might want to make sure that your feet look nice before you go!

Thai people greet each other with what is known as a ‘wai’ where you press your hands together (almost like you’re praying) and bow your head to your hands. The position of the hands also changes varying upon levels of respect needed – e.g. hands in front of chest for an ‘equal’ and thumbs by forehead for monks.

Weather

I arrived at the very beginning of June and as soon as I walked out of the airport I could feel the heat and humidity. It was rarely all that sunny but equally it never rained too much either. Although if it rained – it rained! After torrential rain, crossing the road was like crossing a river. I found the heat itself was fine, it was the humidity that I found hard to deal with. It is not a pleasant feeling to feel as though you need about 5 showers a day! I believe the humidity around the time I was in Chiang Mai was at 80%! Very different to my nice fresh air near the sea.

There are 3 key seasons here which are:

• The cool season (approx November to February)
• The hot season (approx March to June)
• The rainy season (approx July to October)

I think that the names of the seasons makes them pretty much self-explanatory but if you want to know more then I suggest you look on this website: http://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Travel-g29​3917-s208/Chiang-Mai:Thailand:Weather.An​d.When.To.Go.html

How to get there and costs

I flew from London (heathrow) to go to Chiang Mai but this was not a direct flight and had to change at Bangkok. The flight time from London to Bangkok is around 12 hours (can’t say this part was much fun!) and the flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai at just over 1 hour. If you want to make this slightly cheaper you can get a train or a bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I believe a bus takes around 12 hours. I would assume the train time is similar but as I have only flown I cannot comment too much on other methods of travel. The price of flights of course depends on how far in advance you book and who you fly with. I booked my flights around 5 months in advance and the price for them all was around £620. On my return flight the gentleman next to me paid £1600 for just the return flight as he had booked less than a week prior to departure so I definitely recommend booking as early as you can. I flew with Thai airways who were the cheapest that I could find, and I would definitely recommend flying with them if you can get it at a good price.

Cost of living

Although it costs a little to actually get to Chiang Mai, once you are there it is incredibly cheap. If you are willing to eat Thai street food (unfortunately I am not a fan of the food) then you could quite easily eat a good meal for 50p-£1. If I ate at western restaurants then I could have a meal and a drink (soft drink) for around £3. Public transport is cheap (but more on that later) and I frequently passed hostels/guest houses that advertised beds/rooms for sometimes as little as 100baht a night – around £2-£2.50 dependent on exchange rates. If you want to travel/go somewhere cheap then this is definitely a good place to go! Thailand seems a little poorer (not sure if that’s politically correct??) than I was expecting and wondered if this was linked to the cost of living. However I have also visited the Gambia which is unmistakably a developing country yet the cost of living there was higher. Either way I am really not complaining and was incredibly happy about how far my money would stretch! I would say that almost no day trip would cost more than £20 and considering some of the ones that I went on, that this got you a lot for your money.

Getting around

There are a few ways of getting around Chiang Mai – personally I found myself walking a lot as particularly in the older area of town nothing is really very far apart. You can rent a bike if you wish for less than a tenner for the day. The main other transport I used was what I thought of as a local taxi – a songthaew. This is basically like a small truck that has been hollowed out so that there are 2 seats which sit sideways and can cram 10-12 people in at the same time. These are red and will go to anywhere in town for 20 baht (around 50p) although they may try to charge you more if you are travelling just on your own, or if they just think you’re a foreigner who doesn’t know any better. Nowhere in the immediate city should cost more than 20baht but if you go out of the city then expect to pay a little more.

Another form of transport which I think is very well known when one thinks of Thailand is the tuk tuk. The drivers of these really irritated me asking me if I wanted one every time I went past one, or indeed just beeping their horns as they drive past in the hope that you might want one. I think it is understandable that they want as much money as they can get but the ‘tuk tuk?’ calls get very annoying after a while. Having said that….riding in a tuk tuk is so much fun! Much more exciting than going in a songthaew but also more expensive. What would cost 20baht in a songthaew will cost 40-50 baht in a tuk tuk. This is still hardly any money but after some time in Thailand does seem expensive compared to the usual local taxis.

There are of course ‘normal’ taxis as well which are metered and more expensive. Personally I never felt the need to use one of these until I needed to go to the airport and so can’t comment too much on prices. A taxi ride from where I was staying to the airport (around a 10 minute drive) was 300 baht (roughly £6), however this was at a very unsociable time in the morning so I am not sure if this is reflective of prices during the day.

Personally I recommend using the songthaews as much as possible as these were the cheapest option and also the way that the Thai people use to get around if they do not drive themselves. You can also rent motorbikes although I never looked into this for pricing etc. personally considering the way that people drive in Chiang Mai, even though they drive on the same side as us, I wouldn’t want to drive/ride a motorbike here as it seems very dangerous.

Shopping

Shopping is a great attraction in Chiang Mai – mainly consisting of various markets and two shopping centres which are slightly out of the city centre. The two shopping centres are called central plaza, and airport plaza. Both are easy to get to by using a songthaew and should cost no more than 20baht. I would say that both have a good range of shops and restaurants but that the airport plaza seems to be much more modern. The shopping centres are good for shopping but in my opinion shopping at the various markets is far more exciting.

There are various markets in Chiang Mai – a Chinese market, Saturday market, Sunday market and the night bazaar. The Chinese market and the night bazaar are available every day. The Chinese market sells pretty much everything – cosmetics, food (including bugs…yum!), clothing (old fashioned), bags, ceramics etc..in addition to there being street food and some people doing nails. The Chinese market is handy for having a wander and a browse throughout the day but in my opinion the Saturday and Sunday markets are far better.

The Sunday market is held in the square in the old town near the moat in front of but also past Thapae gate. There is a HUGE variety of things sold here and vendors are often very friendly. The fantastic thing about markets here is that you can haggle to your heart’s content. This is also the case with the Saturday market and the night bazaar although the night bazaar tends to be more touristy and prices inflated. It would be impossible to list all of the things that you can buy at the markets but here is a brief list to give you an idea: clothing; purses; bags; thai style souvenirs, bedding; food and drink; jewellery – especially silver jewellery, stationary; phone accessories; paintings and artwork and sometimes fake designer goods too. Prices for the same thing vary from vendor to vendor and some seem to really enjoy a bit of bartering whereas some seem to almost appear insulted that you dare offer less than what they have said. The markets are definitely worth a look and bartering is always good fun.

Eating out

One of the main appeals for many tourists coming to Thailand appears to be the cuisine. Personally I am a fussy eater here in England so Thai food was a nightmare for me rather that something to be excited about. Thai food is literally everywhere (why wouldn’t it be?) but there is also a wide range of other tastes to suit all. There is street food which I have heard is delicious (especially the pad Thai) and according to the locals you should be safe to eat it as long as the vendor and the establishment look reasonably keen. There are the usual fast food chains for those wanting to avoid the Thai food although having said that there are also Thai options in MacDonald’s and KFC. There are various speciality restaurants around – e.g. Vietnamese, Indian and Vegetarian. There are also general international restaurants that sell Thai food but also more westernised food. Personally I would recommend the ‘tiger kingdom in town’ as an international restaurant. This restaurant is always clean ( I went here quite a few times!), always has some kind of live music, and is very cheap. I often had a grilled beefsteak with chips and a coke which came to around £3! What a bargain! Although this place is fab the service isn’t brilliant. I’m not sure if it is just here or a general Thai thing but the food comes out bit by bit so it is rare to expect for your whole party to all be eating at the same time. Another restaurant that I would recommend is ‘the river market’. This place was by far the nicest restaurant I went to in Chiang Mai. It looks fairly new and is situated by the river ping. Prices are reasonable and the menu varied – I would suggest that this is more of a Thai restaurant than a western one, but does not serve the traditional Thai dishes. Definitely worth a visit, just for a glass of wine overlooking the river if nothing else. An absolutely beautiful place.

Things to do

I managed to occupy myself with various things during my month stay here and I could have quite easily found some more! There is a huge variety of things to do here, with something I believe for everyone.

Elephants

By far my favourite trip was one that was focussed upon elephants. Myself and a friend went to Ran Tong Elephant Training Camp (not sure of the reasons for the name because it certainly didn’t strike me as a training camp) which cost 1800 baht for a shared elephant for the day. This was around an hour and a half drive from the city centre and you were picked up from where you were staying. After arriving at the camp you get to feed, ride, and wash the elephants. The tour guides provide you with clothing so that you do not get yours dirty and take pictures of you all day which they later put on a cd for you to take home. Fantastic value and the elephants seemed to be very well treated here. This is the place that I would really recommend you to visit for elephants but there are a huge number of elephant trips in Chiang Mai, I just suggest researching before you go if you want to ensure that the elephants are well treated.

Tiger Kingdom

There are a huge number of trips related to animals in Chiang Mai, and one that seems to cause some controversy is the tiger kingdom. I couldn’t seem to decide whether to go or not as there were rumours around whether or not the tigers were sedated which I would be happy with. After researching the place a little bit there seemed to be explanations for why they were not sedated and so I felt ok going to visit. I can’t remember quite how many tigers are housed here but it is a fair number. There are 4 sizes of tigers here - smallest, small, medium, and large. You can either just walk around this place or pay to go in the enclosures with the tigers and the prices vary accordingly. To give an example I went in with 3 different sizes which cost around 1300 baht (roughly £26) and 15 minutes was allowed within each enclosure. You can also get a professional photographer to take 50+ pictures of you which is at a small additional fee. When in the enclosures the tigers were very playful and definitely didn’t seem sedated! The tigers seemed well treated so I didn’t feel as if I was doing something I shouldn’t. I’m really glad I went (when else would you get the opportunity to be that close to a tiger?) and would recommend to others. Located in the same area as the tiger kingdom are a monkey farm and a crocodile farm. Personally I’d heard that they torture the animals here (not sure if that is true or not) and so did not visit these.

Chiang Mai Zoo

In addition to the various animal parks in the city is Chiang Mai Zoo. This cost slightly more to get to in a songthaew as it is a little out of the city – expect to pay around 40baht each. Entry was incredibly cheap – 100baht and the zoo seemed pretty large for such a small price. You can also pay an extra fee if you wish to go into the aquarium (I can’t remember how much this was but it was expensive) or if you wish to see the pandas – another 100 baht. I highly recommend seeing the pandas, especially because they are in a lovely enclosure and there is a baby panda. The zoo is quite hard to get around on foot (don’t think it would be too much fun for anyone with walking difficulties/in a wheelchair) but there are buses that can take you around the zoo for a small fee. The enclosures weren’t the biggest I’ve ever seen and I’m not sure how I feel about the seal show but overall I would say that the animals seemed to be treated well and the zoo is definitely worth a visit.

Temples/Wats

There is a huge number of temples (otherwise known as Wats) throughout Chiang Mai with some more impressive than others. Probably the most well known is Doi Suthep which is up in the mountains just outside of Chiang Mai. You need to climb up around 300 steps (if memory serves me correctly!) or you can take a lift at an extra charge. If you are Thai then there is no entrance fee for Doi Suthep but if you are a foreigner there is a charge of 20baht. This temple is breath taking! The temple itself is magnificent and grand but the views over Chiang Mai are just amazing. I genuinely can’t adequately describe in words just how glorious this place is. You are definitely missing out if you don’t go to Chiang Mai and visit Doi Suthep. Another Wat which is worthy of a visit is Wat Umong (temple of tunnels). Wat Umong is underground and something very different to the majority of other temples. There is a lot more to see here than your typical wat including a large fish lake where you can feed the fish. The scenery here is lovely. These are the 2 temples that I particularly recommend visiting but to be honest all of the temples I ever saw were just fantastic. When visiting temples it is important to remember that you are well covered (no chest, knees, shoulders on show) and shoes must always be removed. If monks are in the temple then it is respectful to keep your head lower than theirs and females must never touch monks. The same applies with men and nuns.

Waterfalls/nature

There are numerous waterfalls in Chiang Mai which are lovely to spend an afternoon at cooling down. They are not the most spectacular things I have seen but they definitely a nice visit for a couple of hours. There is a nature park nearby Chiang Mai called Doi Inthanon national park which is home to various wildlife and also the highest mountain in Thailand. Sadly I didn’t manage to find the time to visit here but it is definitely on my list for next time! If you book with an agency expect to pay around 800-1000 baht to get here/entry etc.

Trekking

Trekking is another appeal of Chiang Mai and I found myself hard pressed to pick one in particular! Many of the treks are very touristy which I am sure appeals to some but not to me personally. These treks tend to include some walking, some elephant riding, some water rafting and also a visit to a hill tribe. I have seen some of the hill tribes and am undecided on how I feel about this. It was incredibly touristy and I couldn’t quite decide if it seemed as though they were being exploited or if they needed the money that tourists donate and so were ok with the change in lifestyle. I only saw them once and I wouldn’t choose to see them again although it was very interesting to learn about them. For example the long neck tribe – the rings are so heavy that it makes their shoulders go lower giving the impression that they have long necks. These kinds of treks that include a bit of everything tend to be cheaper than a non-touristy one and could be a good option if you want to squeeze a lot in a short time. I went on a one day trek (it is easy to find longer treks up to 3 days or so in length) through the jungle (around an hour and a half drive away) which was more challenging than expected. Make sure you’re fit and healthy if you want to do one of these! To give you an idea of pricing, my one day trek cost 800 baht – around £16. And also worth every baht in my opinion! Some of the views you get are incredible.

Massage

Massage here is everywhere! From ones on the backstreets to ones that are far more glamorous. I highly recommend a Thai massage – you are basically bent and stretched and clicked. Thai massage on average is a mere 150baht – roughly £3 for a whole hour! Every other type of massage also seems to be offered with varying prices but usually incredibly reasonable. If you really like Thai massage you can also take up a course for a period of time that suits you. Personally I would just want somebody to massage me rather than me learn to massage someone else!

Cooking schools

In addition to massage schools there are also various cooking schools situated around chiang mai. Personally I never went to one of these as the food doesn’t appeal but from others I have heard they are well worth doing. People staying in the same house as me were picked up from the house, cooked around 7 dishes of their choice and received a recipe book to take away with them which included ingredient substitutions if some could not be found in their home countries. They did this for half a day which cost around 900 baht - £18 or so. There is a huge variety of cooking schools which do both half day and full day courses so if you really like your Thai food then this could be a good way to spend the day.

Thai Boxing

I spent one evening watching some Thai boxing – very different to normal boxing, seems to rely mainly on feet. This was fairly cheap at 400baht and was surrounded with bars so you could enjoy a few drinks as you watched. I didn’t find it particularly violent and I think that this is a good way to spend one evening watching something that is very traditionally thai.

In addition to all of the above that I have mentioned (and I have more than likely forgotten something), there some other towns/cities within close proximity to chiang mai that may be worth a visit if you have time. I especially recommend Chiang Rai where you can see the white temple and the golden triangle, and pai which is well known as a pretty river town.

Nightlife

I didn’t go to Chiang Mai with the intention of going out every night although I did go out a few times during my stay. Nightlife seemed reasonable with different kind of bars/clubs. The rooftop bar is fairly nice and enables you to see over the city. Zoe’s is a more westernised bar/club area. Generally speaking I would say that the nightlife here is ok but quite tame compared to going out in a city in England.

Overall

I could sum this whole review up in just 4 words – I love Chiang Mai. The place is pretty (although not so much at night when the cockroaches and the rats come out to play!) and on the most part seems very safe. I had been expecting to see a lot of drugs, robberies, car crashes and old men with young Thai girls! I saw very few old men with young Thai girls, no car crashes, no drugs and heard of one robbery. The robbery seemed a bit nasty with a bag being cut off a girl (who had it across her body facing away from the road) by 2 men speeding by on a motorbike. This was unfortunate and horrible but for the most part I felt very safe here, even if I was on my own. In general the Thai people are absolutely lovely here (I don’t know if it is similar throughout the rest of the country?) and would help you with anything as best they could. Everything here is cheap, there is a huge amount to see and do…I honestly couldn’t ask for more and will definitely be returning one day!

Sorry if this review seemed a little long but I had a lot to say!

Thanks for reading