Let me just start by saying that Chiang Mai is a really great city. People told me that Chiang Mai was similar to Cebu in the sense that it is smaller, more laid back, and that the people there are really friendly. I found all this to be true and really enjoyed the three days we spent here. Especially compared to Bangkok, we found that Chiang Mai was super easy to get around in. The main mode of transportation is the Songtao. Songtaos are red pickup trucks that have been converted so that they have two parallel benches in the pickup bed and a protective covering over them so that its passengers are shielded from the elements. The way that a songtao operates is similar to a jeepney, but better. Instead of having a set route, a songtao will basically take you anywhere you want to go for a flat fee. Whenever you want to go somewhere, you flag down a songtao and tell the driver where you want to go. If he agrees to take you, you hop in. If not, you wait 30 seconds for the next one to come by. The key is to get an empty songtao because then the driver will take you directly to your desired destination. If there are other people in the songtao, the driver will just decide the best route to take in order to get all passengers to their intended destinations... unfortunately, your stop could be last on that list. Either way... I thought the songtaos were great and Maria and I rode them around Chiang Mai whenever we didn't feel like walking.
On our first day in Chiang Mai, we took a songtao about 15km out of town to Doi Suthep (also referred to as "the Mountain") and saw Wat Doi Suthep, a Buddhist temple that sits on the mountaintop. Then we walked around the parameter of the old city in the center of Chiang Mai. Got a Thai massage from a massage school. I was a bit nervous about the Thai massage at first because it was described to me as having your arms and legs pulled in different directions - doesn't really sound relaxing. But it wasn't that bad and was actually semi-enjoyable. After the massage, we ended the evening at another night bazaar.
Our second day in Chiang Mai was New Years Eve. We celebrated in style by ziplining through the jungle about an hour north of Chiang Mai with the Flight of the Gibbons. During this three hour adventure, we ziplined from platform to platform, crossed bridges, and at times were lowered from one platform to the next. Of course our instructors thought it would be hilarious to pretend to not catch us at the next platform or to be hooked onto us as they began their zipline, thereby dragging us off the platform with them. And of course, the two American girls were their new "girlfriends" or so they said in Thai, which we couldn't understand. But it was so beautiful... everything was so green - the perfect combination of jungle and tropics.
We spent New Years Eve on Neiman Hamman (I have no idea how to spell that) street, lined with restaurants and coffee shops. After dinner, we went to a club/bar/restaurant called the Warm-Up, which was recommended to us by a friend of mine. As expected, it was pretty crowded and there was no where to sit. We fought our way into the dance club area which was literally packed with people. Consequently, the "dancing" was more like standing shoulder to shoulder with people and being bumped and shoved as people tried to pass by. At midnight, the whole city erupted in fireworks. In fact, the Warm-Up had their own batch of fireworks that the lit in the parking lot which exploded right above our heads. So cool and slightly terrifying. We also went in search of the floating lanterns, wanting to see one up close. As we rounded the corner, we came across a couple who were setting off a few floating lanterns in the street and invited us to join. Maria described the floating lanterns as "mini hot air balloons that you don't get back." They are basically paper cylinders with a small disk soaked in kerosene at the bottom which is lit on fire. Two people then hold on to the lantern until the air inside the cylinder is warm enough to lift the lantern into the air. And off it goes. It is really quite beautiful to watch them float away into the night sky. The sky is littered with dozens of lanterns - Maria calls them changing constallations.
On our third and final day in Chiang Mai, we went to an Elephant Training Camp outside of Chiang Mai. After watching an elephant talent show (where an elephant literally painted a picture of an elephant with his trunk), we went on an elephant ride which was super cool albeit a little bumpy. After the elephant ride, we went on an ox-cart ride. We ended the afternoon rafting down a river on a bamboo raft.
The next morning we got up really early to fly back to Bangkok for just one day. We met up with Matt (one of my friends from Cebu) and Dan (a college friend of my other friends, Amy) for the afternoon. Dan has lived in Bangkok for the past few years and is fluent in Thai, which comes in handy when you are getting around the city. He took us to Chinatown, on a river taxi and the sky train. We eventually headed back to the airport for our evening flight to Siem Reap.
Click here for photos from Chiang Mai.
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