Day 13
Our thirteenth day on holiday was largely spent travelling through the Thai countryside on a train journey that took us North from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The journey took 10.5 hours and was rather relaxing. We departed Bangkok at 09:05 from the relatively new station, Bang Sue, which is the largest railway station in South East Asia.
It is huge- more like an airport than a train station- however there isn’t much to do there yet- they are currently finishing the third floor which will house food courts and shops. Luckily we preempted this and brought a shed load of snacks and food and drink for our journey yesterday 🙂
The train itself is tiny, just 3 cars and no food car, although an attendant did pop through to take orders for fried rice half way through. It reminded me of the service we used to take from Nottingham to Lincoln. Inside however is clean, and the seats are large with plenty of leg room. Most importantly- we’re in the air conditioned carriage 🙂
We travelled on Train #7, the “Special Express” And the Cost: £40 for 2 people.
£16 of this was an online booking fee. We used 12 Go. The reason it was important to do this was this train books up in advance. You can save the £16 online fee by buying tickets at Bangkok station direct however you need to do this well in advance- this didn’t work for our limited days in Bangkok so we used 12Go and they were excellent.
On arrival into Chiang Mai, we checked into our hotel, the Dechai de deco, which is lovely and a bargain at £40pn before nipping to a local restaurant for dinner. We both enjoyed the local dish of Khao soi, an egg noodle dish with coconut curry base before grabbing an early night.
Day 14
Today we spent a relaxing morning having a bit of lay in before taking some time to embark on a DIY walking tour of the old city of Chiang Mai. The old city is set within historic city walls, of which there are some fine examples, especially around the corners. There is also a complete moat surrounding the old town.
Inside the old town are a series of small lanes and a grid style street pattern with a mix of bars, restaurants, massage parlours and lots of temples! In Chiang Mai alone there are over 300, and the dozen or so that we visited were all unique in their own way.
The one thing we did not know about Chiang Mai before we arrived however was about it HORRENDOUS air pollution. So bad in fact that the city consistently ranks as most polluted air quality .. in the world! March and April are the worst months due to excessive burning of forests and agricultural land in neighbouring countries of Laos and Myanmar. Even the most healthy of society will find the hazardous air quality a challenge, but Keith is a chronic asthmatic and he really really struggled. So we decided to split the temple diy walking tour into two days and did a couple of hours on Friday, then retreated to our air conditioned room for a few hours to escape, and we did the same on Saturday too.
One thing that was super awesome on Friday was the lunch time food! We found a Michelin recommendation for the local dish of Khao Soi, cooked with the most tender beef that has ever passed our lips, from Khao Soi Lung Prakit Kad Kom. At 60baht per portion (approx £1.20) it was just exquisite!
For pudding we got a cab across the city to another Michelin recommendation – tapioca balls at Lung Khajohn Wat Ket which were also nice but the winner was the beef Khao Soi.
After a relax in our hotel room we went out for tea at another Michelin recommended restaurant close to our hotel- Kiti Panit. It’s inside an authentic historic house dating over 100 years old, and we tried the two Michelin recommended dishes- chicken and coriander salad and north Thai pork curry. Sadly we found both underwhelming and the chicken on the salad actually undercooked which aside from being disappointing was quite shocking considering its high accolades! We left feeling a bit grumpy to be honest. The food we’d had at a fraction of the price during the day had completely surpassed this upmarket restaurant.
Day 15
We enjoyed another lay in before catching up on the reminder of temples from our tour yesterday. The air was thick with pollution and the temperature around 45 degrees so it was practically unbearable- however we did really enjoy seeing the variety of temples and old town walls.
For lunch we returned to the Michelin Khao Soo beef again as we’d been dreaming about it! Before another chill in the hotel room to escape the air quality.
Saturday evening we enjoyed a visit to the Old Cultural centre to watch a live performance of music and dance in the traditional Lanna style. It included a large selection of food and we were seated in Thai style on the floor. The dance was slow and hypnotic, the music absolutely delightful and we adored the ladies fingernail extensions!
We’d highly recommend this as an activity if you’re in Chiang Mai and you can save money by booking directly via https://oldchiangmaihantoke.simplybook.asia/v2/
Day 16
We took a day trip out of Chiang Mai today to Chiang Rai. It’s about 2.5 hours drive but the journey was broken up by a stop at some hot springs, a chance for us to dip our feet into the rather hot water – but the star of the show for me was the lady boiling eggs in the water to sell on! Ingenious!
The main reason for our trip was the White temple- which was stunning. It’s much more recent than the other temples we’ve visited, but architecturally magnificent in its own way. In an effort to be forward thinking and encourage the youth in, the inside meditation hall is covered with artwork depicting Buddha’s life with superheroes – no pics allowed inside so I’ve pinched some off google to give an idea!
We continued to the far north border with Laos and Myanmar, to see the golden triangle. I misunderstood the golden triangle term, thinking it was similar to India’s version and full of beautiful architecture. 😂
Actually the golden triangle here refers to when the Brits brought Opium over and it was grown here and sold on. We visited an opium museum which actually was interesting, took a boat trip down the Mekong river and saw Laos and Myanmar
Our evening was spent having a pizza near to the hotel. We fancied a change in cuisine having eaten spicy Thai and Vietnamese now for 2 weeks straight! However, the lure of another Michelin taste was strong, especially when we realised we were passing a Michelin street stall that holds 4 consecutive years of the Bib gourmand recommendation. Roti Pa Day
This 80 year old lady has been cooking these rotis for over 40 years and attracts quite a crowd! My favourite bit was watching her do her business with the tv on next to her. In the middle of a street!
The rotis were delicious and a perfect desert.
Todays day trip
https://www.viator.com/en-GB/search/10775P2?mcid=64243
Day 17
Today we took another trip out of Chiang Mai – out of the horrendous air pollution and into the mountains!
We hiked 4 km in Doi Inthanon National Park, alongside beautiful waterfalls, through the jungle, past very large spiders 🕷️ 😳 and into a local Karen tribe village. We had a nice lunch before making our way to the highest point in Thailand, and then a stop at the King and Queen pagodas
It was lovely to escape the city and breath the fresh air again!
Our dinner was at the local restaurant we went to on our first night in Chiang Mai. It was delicious once more and we had a rather amusing evening people watching as we were sat opposite a massage parlour who specialised in male clientele. I’ll leave that one there!
Today’s day trip
https://my-viator.onelink.me/y0Xw/c4ddd6d9
We’d had a great time in Chiang Mai despite the air quality being so poor. But we were looking forward to our fourth and final segment of the trip and hopefully seeing some blue skies and turquoise seas!
Until next time!
Lx
