If you want to see the pictures of this trip, take a look at this Google Photos album that I created for this trip!
I am now sitting on the flight back to Singapore. It is Thursday 21st of December, and tomorrow I will come back home to Sweden. Four and a half months of living abroad has at last come to an end, and I feel ready to see my family, my friends, my home and speak in my native language again. It feels a little bit surreal and quite big, and that is why I wanted to start this post with sharing this unique moment with you.
Poetic words aside, I have now finished my last trip in Asia, and this time I went to Chiang Mai (Thailand), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Da Lat (Vietnam), Hanoi (Vietnam) and Ha Long Bay (Vietnam). I did the Chiang Mai trip with my cousin’s boyfriend Leo, that has been backpacking in Southeast Asia this semester, and an exchange buddy Kristian the tyrant (yes, I wrote about this in my last post). Having finished all my trips in Asia now, I can say that Chiang Mai was my favorite location out of all the trips, and I will tell you why below. First, however, a list of tips for Chiang Mai:
- Stay at Green Sleep Hostel. It is cheap, and they serve great breakfast (the best hostel breakfast I have had in Asia), everything is very clean (they clean every day), the beds are big and comfortable and you get a locker for a 100 THB (ca 2.5 EUR) deposit. The hostel also has a social atmosphere, and they can easily set you up for scooter rentals and different activities for a good price.
- Do a cooking class through the hostel. We booked the Pra Nang cooking class through the hostel on the day we arrived, and we got set up for a great newly started course from a young woman who had quite recently moved to Chiang Mai to create this business. She gave us both a certificate and a cooking book after the class, so that we could make these foods when we get back home.
- Rent a scooter for one or more days. We rented scooters for two days in a row for 200 THB (ca 5 EUR) per day. We got to see Doi Suthep (30 THB if I remember correctly (ca 0.8 EUR)), The sticky waterfalls (free entrance), the grand canyon (there are two different parks in grand canyon (100 THB (ca 2.5 EUR) or 350 THB (ca 9 EUR) entrance fees respectively if I remember correctly), be sure to first look at which one you want to go to before paying for the entrance), and a cool road bar for beer. It felt like there are many more things to do by bike if you spend more time there. There is also a meditation class you can take at some nearby temple.
- Visit the Sunday night market. The central streets of the old town turns into a giant street market, and trust me - this is the best street market I have visited in Asia. The merchandise they sell here is high quality, and for the first time in my travels abroad, I saw things that I actually wanted to buy. It is a great market if you are looking for Christmas gifts, or if you want to decorate your home, or if you simply want to try out some street food. I ended up getting a drawn portrait of myself for 300 THB (ca 8 EUR).
- Taxi from the airport should be around 100 THB (ca 2.5 EUR).
- The museums in old town are not that special. You can skip visiting these.
Now that we are done with the tips, let us go into details:
Me and Kristian started out with a flight from Singapore to Yangon airport, Myanmar. From there we took another flight to Chiang Mai, and in total, it took about 7 hours from Changi Airport to Chiang Mai airport. Over here, we shared a cab with a fellow traveller into our hostel for half an hour, and then split up, as he lived in another hostel. We checked in, paid the stay, went upstairs, put the stuff on our beds, and all of a sudden I saw a familiar face I had not seen for a few months. Leo said hi from the bed below mine in a very casual way, and it felt a bit weird to suddenly see someone you know on the other side of the world.
Our group had finally formed, and we quickly went out to grab some food at a nearby restaurant 92 Rachadamneon that Leo had gotten recommended (that I also recommend you to visit, as the food was quite good here). We then joined up with the fellow cab traveller Jasper as mentioned previously, to get him some dinner as well, and us some mango sticky rice. We walked around a little bit, noticed that Jasper did not belong, grabbed some beer, noticed that Jasper did not belong and finally walked back to our hostel to welcome Jasper’s excuse that he had to sleep tomorrow, so he could not join us. I guess he felt like he did not belong, for some odd reason…
Next day, we loaned some sad excuses for bikes from the hostel to explore the old town. First, we stopped by a temple accross the street where we talked to a monk for half an hour and ended with a five minute meditation session, followed by donating 20 THB (ca 0.5 EUR) each upon his request. You can see the monk in a light blue shirt below, with Kristian’s creepy smile behind him!
We then headed to the history museum, followed by the arts museum, where we paid a total of 80 THB (ca 2 EUR) per person for both museums, after we realized that we could get student prices. In my opinion, however, the museums were a waste of time, as the local history was very boring, and none of the museums seemed to offer anything special. You can skip this if you decide to go in the future. We did, however, have a nice coffee break here!
Next up, we had some lunch at Its Good Kitchen where I had teddy bear shaped rice (and quite good thai food), and then went to the Wat Chedi Luang Worawihan temple area. The main temple here was a very nice stone temple that had once been partially destroyed by an earthquake and left as-is without repair work. The temple was on the same esthetic level as the ones I visited in Bangkok, so I highly recommend going here!
Wrapping up the temple trip, we went back to the hostel, waited for half an hour until we got picked up for our cooking class that evening. We had booked the cooking class through the hostel, and it turned out to be a quite newly started course with a woman just a few years older than me teaching us how to cook traditional thai food from scratch. We hopped into here small truck outside the hostel, drove a bit to pick up an american guy who was also joining the class, and then we drove to their local streetfood market near Maharaj Nakom Chiang Mai Hospital, west of the wall (yes, the old town is surrounded by an ancient wall). On the way, we chose which dishes we wanted to learn to cook through a menu. At the street food market, they served fresh ingredients ranging from saffron to green tea to dragon fruits to cooked food, and it was one of the most fresh markets I had seen in Asia. Our teacher bought ingredients for us, and we then drove to her home/restaurant, where we cooked our four course meals.
During the dinner, the american guy told us that he was going to northern Japan for a few months next stop, in order to work at a ski resort there. Apparently, they have some of the best snow in the world, which makes it possible to ski in more than one meter deep powder. It made me realize that Japan probably would be the most interesting country in Asia to visit.
Japan stories aside, we ended up having a great time, and for the first time in my life, I knew how curry is made, and how to make it myself. Our teacher gave us diplomas for having finished her course, and also a cooking book filled with her own recipes for us to try out when we get back home to our countries. It was a great class, and it felt like we got a very good value for the money we spent! Therefore, if you go to Chiang Mai, try to book the Pra Nang cooking class.
Next day, we rented some scooters from the Hostel for 200 THB (ca 5 EUR) and went to Doi Suthep, which is a really nice temple located high up on a nearby mountain. On the way here, we stopped by an okay waterfall called Monthathan Waterfall (120 THB (ca 3 EUR), not worth it…) and the Wat Sakithaka buddhist temple, that had a nice view and a big spider in it. Oh, and we also got stopped by the Thai police which made us pay 500 THB (ca 13 EUR) for a 3 day scooter driver’s license. Yes, the police is a bit corrupt here.
Anyways, the Doi Suthep temple was a nice sight, as it was both a magnificent temple and a great viewpoint to see the valley and the city. We spent quite some time here and drank some ice coffee and had some banana waffles here.
I also got time to think about life and the meaning of existence and all things.
When finished, we noticed that we did not have much fuel left in our tanks, so we simply rolled down the road (which was practically only downhill) without turning on the engine.
We fuelled at some gas station, bought some rations to eat on the way to our next destination - the sticky waterfalls. These were located a long drive away - ca 2 hours of driving - but they were worth the effort. Why?
Simply because of their extreme uniqueness. You can basically walk up any part of the waterfall without slipping, because the rock that the water flows on has very high friction that repels the slippiness of the water. I could literally walk up on rock that tilted 80 degrees with my mouth wide open in pure amazement. I am still amazed by those waterfalls to this day. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the waterfalls, as I decided to instead spend my time walking up through them. That said, you should definitely Google them!
Moving on, we left an hour and a half before sundown in order to avoid driving in darkness. Unfortunately, we got lost slightly before we made it into the old town, and as a result, me and Leo made it back to the hostel an hour after sundown, whereas Kristian made it back an hour and a half (yes, we lost him on the way…) What was worse was that this was the night of the Sunday night market, which meant that it was nearly impossible to find the way into the hostel. I was very happy that Leo had the Maps.Me offline map app, which made the way back quite easy for us. The Sunday market was, nevertheless, a pain to try to get through, as people were walking 0.00001 km/h, and it was extremely packed.
We somehow managed to get to the ราเมงอร่อยร้องไห้ ramen restaurant (search for Chiang Mai ramen, and it should pop up) though (the american guy thought that this was the best ramen he had had outside of Japan), and forgot about the crowd for a moment because of the good food.
We continued walking through the market, and then ended up in a jazz/sports/thai/western bar (it was quite hard to define it, yes..) called Kafe 1985, to have a beer, relax and talk for half an hour.
After the bar, I walked back to the night market and got myself a drawn portrait of myself for 300 THB (ca 8 EUR). Apparently drawn me looks a lot more Asian and angry!
Kristian left for Bangkok and Hanoi early morning after this, and me and Leo rented our scooters for one more day and went to Grand Canyon thailand version to swim for most of the day. It was an hour drive from the hostel, and when we got there, we thought that there was only one waterpark here, so we paid the entrance fee of 100 THB (ca 2.5 EUR) to the first place and were a little bit disappointed when we saw the place - it did not have many attractions and most tourists were chinese and did not want to swim. It got even worse when we shortly thereafter found out that there was another water park right next to ours that had many more attractions with water forts etc. It cost 350 THB + 100 THB deposit (ca 9 EUR and 2.5 EUR, respectively), if I remember correctly, so it was a bit more expensive, but it was most likely worth it.
This detail aside, though, we were quite happy with the grand canyon as we hung out with some nice people throughout most of the day. We first spoke to some australian guys who were professional divers and gave tips on where to go in Asia (Koh Tau in Thailand, if I remember correctly). Then we spoke to two dutch brothers who bought beer for us while we were in the water. Apparently one of them worked as a shipman and had travelled around quite a lot in Asia already, and this trip to Chiang Mai was a last minute thing, as they had booked everything one week before. We ended up hanging out with these brothers throughout the rest of the day.
We also ended up staying for too long at Grand Canyon. Me and Leo had planned on going to a natural park after the park and then go back home before sunset. However, we left Grand Canyon an hour before sunset and decided on taking a shorter trip around the area instead before going back home.
This was a great idea! Although we got lost and drove into a forest path for a kilometer at one point, we managed to see much of the landscape and - the highlight of the trip - we stopped by one of the most asian things I have ever seen. We stopped by a road bar that served beer to bypassers in the middle of nowhere (if you want to find it, though, it is very close to Albesia Boutique, according to Google Maps). We sat down on haystacks and enjoyed beer together in the night, enjoying the calmness of where we were, knowing full well that we would have to drive back intoxicated; living in the moment. And we did not face any consequences other than a fun ride back! Stupid we were, but lucky we also were!
We got back to old town and enjoyed dinner with the dutch guys and then headed back to the hostel to end the trip. Next day, me and Leo went to the Wat Saen Muang Ma Luang temple, followed by a coffee at the Mountain View Café (very nice setting here, you should try it out).
Soon thereafter, I started my solo trip in Vietnam, with Ho Chi Minh city as the first destination!