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March - May 2024
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  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 10

    Sukhothai ➡️ Chiang Mai

    March 20 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Another travel day today. The rain last night has cooled the temperatures down a bit which is very welcome.
    Made a rookie error, didn't have time before my bus this morning to have breakfast or buy snacks, assuming we'd stop somewhere. Nope, we drove for 6 hours straight only stopping to let people on and off the bus. Safe to say by the time we got to Chiang Mai I was STARVING, dropped my stuff off at the hostel and went in immediate search of food. Seems to be lots of vegan and veggie places around which is cool. Had some vegan Vietnamese /Thai food for late lunch and satisfied my greasy food craving with a vegan chicken burger and chips for dinner.
    Was too tired to explore, but from the small areas I've walked around, seems really nice with a lot to do! I would love to visit an elephant sanctuary but need to do some research of the ethics of it all. Would like to go somewhere I can admire them from a far, not sure how moral these places are where you can feed, pet and bathe with them. So we shall see.
    Thinking of doing a hike tomorrow, a lot of people are warning about the air quality here as it's burning season in the north (where farmers burn old crops to cultivate the soil). But I haven't noticed it being any worse than Bangkok.    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    11
    Day 11

    Chiang Mai day 1

    March 21 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    (posting next day)
    Finally put my walking shoes to use and went on a hike today! Got a ride up to the start of the trail and was walking by 9.30. The first was called the Monk's trail up to a temple called Wat Pha Lat, originally used by the monks to walk to Chiang Mai. The temple complex was beautiful with a lush green Forrest backdrop.
    The second trail was longer and more challenging, with a vertical scramble to start off. There was no gaps in the forest for views but some huge butterflies flitting across the trail. This led up to a temple called Wat Doi Suthep, which supposedly has great views of Chiang Mai at the top, but the visibility was poor due to all the smoke.
    Last night I bought another pair of long thin trousers are my others were in the house, I was assured they were very good quality and would fit very well. After two unfortunate incidents of retying my shoes, and squatting down to take a nice photo, my new trousers were beyond repair.
    In the afternoon I made some hostel friends and we hired bikes and drove up through the mountains in hopes of a nice sunset. That did not happen, but we got a nice dinner at a local stall and got a great view of Chiang Mai at night.    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 12

    Chiang Mai day 2

    March 22 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    We had bikes for 24 hours so two off us hopped on one after breakfast and drove to a national park. It was so peaceful, barely anyone was there so we had a wander and found two waterfalls to have a swim under. Haven't been swimming since I got here, so was lovely and refreshing.
    In the afternoon I paid a visit to an artists village called Baan Kan Wat. It was a compound filled with a few cafes and loads of craft stalls selling all different kinds of art from pottery and jewelry, to spoons and skin care. They also had a ton of classes you could take like learning watercolour, making your own pom pom earrings or creating a mosaic. I didn't do any classes but loved looking around, if I wasn't backpacking I would have bought so much stuff!
    Just before sunset I went to a temple nearby the artists village, the temple was cool but what I liked most about the place was that there were chickens and all kind of birds running around the place. As it got dark, the area was filled with sound of chickens cooing and the bugs in the trees humming so loudly, which was bizarre as the temple itself was so calming to look around, but the noise was crazy.
    Later on I finally found the egg salad sandwich in a 7/11 that everybody raves about! ...was sadly very disappointing, the white bread here is very sweet :(    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    11
    Day 13

    Chiang Mai day 3

    March 23 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Slow start to the day today, temperature has crept back up which makes everything a little more tiring.
    Was too hot to walk around the city so I went to the arts and culture centre which had sweet sweet aircon, as well as two cool interactive exhibitions on the history of Chiang Mai and how it is currently.
    In the afternoon I went to a cookery class which was one of my favourite things I've done so far! They picked us up from our hostels, took round a local market and told us about local produce. Then we had a tour around the organic farm the cookery school is based in, got to try herbs, chillis and vegetables they grow picked straight off the plants.
    We then got to choose a three course meal to cook from a set menu and prepped up all the ingredients and spices. Our chef was so lovely and funny, and the helpers would whizz around collecting dirty utensils and bowls as soon as you put them down.
    I made tom yum soup which is a spicy sour soup with mushrooms, tofu and coconut milk. A massaman curry, which was a delicious aromatic peanut and potato dish (my favourite). And then of course, the classic pad Thai. All the food was so delicious and I walked out absolutely stuffed!
    We got dropped off from cooking at the Saturday night market, had a wander then grabbed a beer and found some live music. At the hostel we played go fish, which I am currently having exceptional beginners luck at, and then went out to play beer pong and pool, which went less well.    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 14

    Chiang Mai day 4

    March 24 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    I surprised myself with organisation today. I put a message out into a Hostelworld group chat yesterday (app I've been using to book my accommodation) to see if anyone wanted to get a car to some waterfalls as the tours were expensive.
    This morning at 8.45, 9 other girls met me outside my hostel and we got in a taxi to go to the sticky waterfalls! It was over an hour drive, but so worth it. They are called sticky waterfalls as the limestone deposits on the rock make them easy to climb up, even with water cascading down. There were four levels of waterfalls, we had to walk down hundreds of steps to get to the bottom, so we could start climbing the waterfall. The area was surrounded by lush green forest which made the experience even more magical. We climbed it twice because it was just so fun.
    Had a lazy afternoon and then met some of the girls for drinks and ventured into the Sunday night market. It was so much bigger than the night before, streets upon streets full of stalls selling all sorts. The temples were lit up and surrounded by food stalls and live music, was fab.    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    221
    Day 15

    Chiang Mai day 5

    March 25 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Highlight of the day was visiting the Elephant Nature Park! I did some research and pretty much everyone I talked to about it recommended this sanctuary. It was opened in the 1990's by a lady called Lek, and since then she's won lots of awards for her charity work and has opened up other sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laos.
    We got driven from their office in Chiang Mai for about 1 hour 20 up into the mountains. I felt like a giddy kid, as we got into denser forest I had my face pressed up against the window hoping to be the first to see an elephant.
    The santuary also rescues lots of other animals, including over 700 dogs, 1600 cats, 100 water buffalo, rabbits, cows, goats, pigs, the lot! So as we arrived, we were greated by lots of cute dogs.
    We weren't allowed to touch or feed the elephants during the visit, but all but 6 of the 100+ elephants were rescued from some form of work, so they were used to humans.
    Our guide Aey was so funny, and knowledgeable, she knew every elephant by name and would tell us quirks about their personalities or funny stories about them. Older elephants or injured ones, were kept separate so workers could keep a closer eye on them. They had 7 blind elephants and many had permanently broken legs or hips from working in logging or circuses which was really sad to see. There are 300 people employed at the sanctuary, lots of the elephant keepers sat in small huts keeping an eye on the elephants and also feeding or keeping them out of trouble aha. Aey said they can tell when an elephant is grumpy, so they'll give them space and keep them away from people, then certain elephants generally don't like people so they get to chill out away from visitors. There were a few baby elephants that we were told to keep our distance from, not because they were dangerous but they want to play but don't know how to play with humans haha. The youngest elephant who was 1 and 1/2 is best friends with the water buffalo which I thought was so sweet. She pointed out certain elephants we could take photos next to, they were pretty uninterested in us as we had no bananas but it was so cool to be so close.
    We saw one elephant steal some leaves from the garden, when she got caught by a keeper she threw it on her back. She then spent the next 5 mins trynna shake them off, grab them with her trunk or flap her ears to get it off, was very entertaining. Observing the elephants you could really tell how intelligent they were, so made me really sad to hear about how they were all treated previously to coming here.
    We walked through the park for about 90 mins before having late lunch. Just before our bus left, we got to watch the keepers bring back 11 elephants who are kept further away in the day, walk down the river from a bridge. The keepers basically carry bananas or papayas and the elephants follow, they are very food motivated just like me aha.
    For dinner I had a really delicious Kao Soi (curry vegetable noodle soup topped with crispy noodles). The first one I tried wasn't amazing so I didn't get the hype around the dish, but after last night's I absolutely do now! In the evening we had a few beers and went to a cool bar with a reggae bar, a nice way to end a lovely day!    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 16

    Chiang Mai ➡️ Pai

    March 26 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Quite sad to be leaving Chiang Mai today, it's such a cool city, I feel like I only scratched the surface, definitely my favourite stop so far. Plus I loved my hostel and met some really nice people. But unfortunately on to the next place, I know I can always come back and don't want to get stuck in places too long.
    After breakfast and packing up my bag, I went to a few second hand stores in hope of finding another pair of trousers. I'm not great at clothes shopping at the best of times but with the heat, a lack of concentration and such a huge selection of clothes with tiny sizing, I didn't succeed.
    I got picked up in a mini bus from my hostel and had a 3 hour drive to Pai. The roads for the second half of the journey were so windy as we drove up and down through the mountains, some of the corners were so sharp we were doing over 180° turns.
    I had purposely skipped lunch as I knew the journey would be winding and I didn't want to feel ill, so by the time I arrived in Pai I was STARVING. By some happy accident I walked in the opposite direction from where the minibus dropped us to where my hostel was, (poor sense of direction even with Google maps) but I came across a tiny Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) stand. And omg was one of the biggest sandwiches I've ever had and was so damn delicious!
    I'm not sure what I'm doing in Pai for the next couple days. The place has a bit of bohemian feel to it, and because of it's location I think there's lots of nature things to explore.    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 17

    Pai day 1

    March 27 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    First day in Pai! Was pretty lively down the main street yesterday afternoon and evening but it's like a ghost town this morning. It's definitely a place aimed at tourists, so think most people were recovering from the night before.
    I found a girl with a spare seat on her scooter on hostelworld and we drove up through the mountains to the Nam Lod caves. It was over 1 & 1/2 hours drive, but we had beautiful views. We met another guy when got there and got a tour around the three caves, led by our guide who was leading the way with a gas lamp. The first caves was so huge, even when shining your phone flashlight, you couldn't see the bats at the top of the cave. There was a lot more stair climbing than expected, but the stalactites and other rock formations were stunning. There were 30 wooden coffins that were discovered in the caves, estimated to be 1000 years old, and even some ancient carving in one dating back 3000 years!
    The highlight of the tour was going through the final cave on a small bamboo raft, with only the light from the lamp illuminating the fish in the water, and drift wood washed up along the rock wall. As the cave mouth opened up, the sunlight uncovered hundreds of bats encircling the top of the cave. Was a very very cool experience.
    We met up with two guys we had chatted to on a snack pitstop on the way for lunch. It's honestly so easy to make friends while travelling, everyone I've met is so chill, someone you've just met will ask if you wanna grab some food or go on a day trip, it's crazy but so nice.
    In the evening we checked out a couple live music bars and got to experience a bit of Pai nightlife.    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 18

    Pai day 2

    March 28 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Today I went on a half day tour today to see some of Pai's famous sights. The stops were a little hit or miss, but still fun to see. The smoke meant the view point was a little obsolete and the waterfall we went to was pretty murky.
    We did visit a place called Santichon village which is a village built for tourists replicating the life of Yunnan Chinese people who fled from China to the hill tribes of Thailand. It's not peak tourist season anymore, so most of the food and clothes stalls in the village were closed, but it was cute to look around.
    One of my personal favourites was the bamboo bridge. As it's name suggests, it was a 800m bamboo bridge suspended over rice fields, leading to a very small Buddhist temple. As it's dry season, the rice fields weren't green but still lovely scenery, with cows grazing and the backdrop of hazey mountains.
    Final stop was sunset at Pai canyon. I was just kind of expecting a cliff overlooking some mountains, but it was a proper canyon which had paths snaking in different directions that you could scrabble over to pick a good spot to sit and admire the sunset.
    I realised I hadn't had a night in to myself in over a week, so had dinner then headed back to the hostel to chill (scroll on Instagram).    Read more

  • TravelerSE Asia
    Day 19

    Pai day 3

    March 29 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    First lazy day today. I was tempted to go tipsy tubing today (tubing down a river past bars), but was lacking energy so had a day to myself.
    Had a lie in, got food, watched some TV, had a nap, caught up writing my diary, had a massage. Was a great day recharging.
    Lady who runs the hostel cooked up a big dinner for her friends and anyone who wanted to join, so had a fab homemade meal. One of the reasons Thai homes have a policy where you remove your shoes before entering is because they traditionally sit on the floor to eat. Lots of hostels have this rule too just to keep the place tidier/ more hygienic which I like.
    Grabbed a couple beers and played some pool in the evening to say goodbye to Pai friends, off to Chiang Rai early tomorrow!    Read more

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