Northern Thailand

We decided to travel to Chiang Mai by overnight train so made our way to the Central train station to begin the journey. The train station is quite large and busy...

Notice the monks get a special seating area...

Instead of a first class ticket this time we bought a second class one and it was a lot better trip. We were in an air conditioned car that had seats which turned into beds and were quite comfortable...

There were lower and upper bunks on each side...Don was comfortable in his bunk.

The trip took 12 hours and we arrived in Chiang Mai around 7am and this time weren't mobbed by taxi drivers. We caught a ride in a red taxi which are little pick up trucks.

Our guest house there was lovely, not far to walk to the old part of the city...

Chiang Mai is the largest city in Northern Thailand with a population of 200,000 in the city centre with over 1 million living outside the city. It is a very old city founded in 1296 and fortified with a moat and thick walls, some of which are still visible today...

There are a number of gates on the four sides of the walls as well as a well cared for moat...

 

The city is quite modern with lots of places to eat, drink and stay. Inside the old city there are many interesting alleyways to wander through...

We found an Irish pub on St Patrick's Day with great entertainment and as we sang along the Irish wanted to know where we were from as we knew the words to their music! We told them we were from NL but they didn't know where it was, but a good time was had by all!

Chaing Mai also has over 300 Buddhist wats or temples, they seem to be on every street...

The monk was cleaning up one morning...

This temple had a nice art installation...

However it is quite busy with lots of traffic which we discovered when we took a motorbike tour into the mountains but had to get through the city traffic...

We spent 10 hours on the tour with two young French nurses and our four drivers who were lots of fun. Here we are starting off...

On the way up the mountain...

We passed through lots of beautiful countryside with small farms...

There is also a Royal Agricultural Project in this area that started about 40 years ago when the King decided that the farmers should stop growing opium as it was bad for the country. There was a great deal of research put in to determine new high altitude crops and now it is a huge operation. These greenhouses were growing chrysanthemums...

 

We travelled off road as well through some really dusty roads...

 

This picture was taken before the bike I was on slipped in the sand and the driver, the bike and me went for a tumble. I was so happy it was here and not on the highway! I was a little worse for wear, some scrapes, a burn on my leg and pretty stiff the next day but thankful it wasn't worse. The biggest casualty was my camera which is now just limping along.

Had to get some treatment for the burn...

The young driver was so apologetic and kept saying, " You are a strong woman." I think he was grateful that I didn't freak out at him!

We drove into a little waterfall for a swim and some lunch and I got a chance to clean off some of the dirt!

Part of our drive was through a national park with spectacular views...

And waterfalls...

We also drove through some small villages that were nearly empty as everyone was out in the fields. This man and Don had a great conversation about religion as the man told him he was Catholic which is not the norm for here. He is 63 years old and rolls his tobacco in a tobacco leaf to have a smoke...

There was also rest stops, here Don bought the drivers a cold beer which they really appreciated...

Overall we enjoyed our time in Chiang Mai, there is so much to see in the city and also for day trips, but we needed to move further north so took the bus for three hours to a smaller town called Chiang Rai, the northernmost city in Thailand.

We only spent two nights here as the main reason for coming was to organize our cross border journey into Laos, however we enjoyed the time as it was a smaller city than Chiang Mai and easier to walk around to see the sights. Our guesthouse was lovely,  run by a young man who studied English in London and was extremely helpful in getting us US dollars for our visa and arranging transportation to the border and beyond.

One of the top attractions in Chaing Rai is the White Temple which is located a few Kms outside of town so we took a tuk tuk out and back...

Wat Rong Khun is a unique temple that stands out through the white color and the use of pieces of glass in the plaster, sparkling in the sun. The white color signifies the purity of the Buddha, while the glass symbolizes the Buddha’s wisdom and the Dhamma, the Buddhist teachings.

The Wat Rong Khun was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a famous Thai visual artist at his own cost.  To date the temple is not finished. Eventually there will be nine buildings including an ubosot, a hall to enshrine Buddhist relics, a meditation hall, the monks living quarters and an art gallery.

On May 5^th 2014 a strong earthquake hit Chiang Rai. Although the white temple was badly damaged, Chalermchai Kositpipat decided to restore and further expand the Wat Rong Khun..

One of the things you can do is make a wish and hang it on the wish tree!

This was a very interesting place to visit.

The other good thing here is the Northern Thailand cuisine which is quite different from the South. They use a lot of pork and make their own sausages. This meal is very typical with meat,salad ingredients and lettuce leaves which you roll up with the meat inside, some of the best food we have tasted in Thailand...

And of course street food, didn't like the dumplings in China but like them here...

 

And my favourite roasted corn and vegetarian spring rolls at the market...

And on my last day in Thailand (for now) a foot massage, 60 mins for 200 baht ( 8 dollars).

We have spent almost a month here and like the diversity of the country...beaches, cities, mountains so much to see and do. Since tourists have been coming here for many years there is great infrastructure and travel is easy, the food here is some of the best we have had on our trip so far. The people are friendly but we know many of them see us as money producing machines so that sometimes bothers us, but then we realize they are all trying to make a living.

So early tomorrow morning we make our way over the mountains of Thailand and into Laos for our two day boat trip down the Mekong River, should be an adventure as this is not a cruise ship!