Chiang Mai - Elephant country

Not sure what happened but we got to Chiang Mai 2 hours late so instead of arriving at 09:45 I got there at almost mid-day which meant I already lost half a day... but I wasn't to worry about it... I still had the other half of the day and a bunch of ideas about what to do.

I decided to book a room in the SKHouse 2 guest house (a recommendation from Alex from when he and Skeve were in Chiang Mai). Good value for money (I wouldn't expect less from Alex, anything less would be against his nature) ;-)

It's got a swimming pool, free locker at reception, although you need to have your own lock (I always carry a couple with me so that wasn't a problem). It's fairly central although the hotels area is about 20 minutes walk from here, but tuk-tuks are very reasonable.

It has a feel of a typical relax back-packer accomodation. The price was also very good, about 400 bath (9-10€) a night for a fan room, 700 (15€) with air-con. It's not very hot at this time of the year perhaps  25C so air-con is really not necessary (and after experiencing the full blast air-con they tend to use in this country I'd rather stick to the old fashion fan).

There are hundreds of activities you can do in Chiang Mai from spending a day with the elephants in a local elephant sanctuary where you get to feed them, bath them and ride them, walks through the jungle, a tiger park if you want to have your picture taken with some tiger cubs, flying over the jungle through a cable and many others.

As it was already quite late to attempt any of the above, I opted for a leisure walk with the intention of familiarise myself with the surronding areas and find a place to eat as I was starving... no breakfast on the train and it was lunch time already.

The guest house was quite centric as you can see below

No matter were you go right or left, there is a temple there. Chiang Mai is full of them as you can see on the map above.

The first two photos are from an official building

Thailand is a Buddhist country so all the temples are Buddhist temples usually dedicated to different Buddhas. Yes, there are different Buddhas! :-) I also got surprised the first time I heard it back when I was visiting Ankor Wat a couple of years ago and you can tell they are different by their posture and the objects they may be holding in their hands.

This temple had a nice garden on the back

And the last temple I've managed to see before I went to an unscheduled trip...

OK... I know... I shouldn't be talking to strangers but I just can't help it!

So I was holding my map to get my bearings and I was about to go inside when someone leaning against a car called me out, "no talking to strangers" I reminded myself but after the third time I just turned around, who knows perhaps he can tell me of a good place to eat (I still hadn't eaten anything).

It turned out the guy was from Bangkok, a University history teacher no less. Very good English. He just came with the family for some shopping in the "umbrella village" (a small village not far from Chiang Mai) and was waiting for his wife (a nurse in Bangkok) who had gone inside the temple. He recommended me to go there (the "umbrella village"), apparently people from all over Thailand (Thai people that is) come to Chiang Mai to buy silk, he even told me how to ask (in thai) to a tuk-tuk driver to take me there and wait for me to bring me back. 

All I can say is that it was a very long sentence in thai and although I wouldn't go there just to buy silk I wanted to go just to see how they make it.  

After he finished telling me what I would have to say in thai in order to book the tuk-tuk and faced with my hesitation to even start repeating what he had just told me he realised that negotiating the price in thai wasn't a possibility. I mean, I could repeat what he told me like a monkey but what happens when the driver answers me back... So very kindly he stopped a tuk-tuk and did the negotiation for me and he managed to get me a tuk-tuk to take me there and wait for me to drive me back, all for 100 bath (about 2.5€)

All good! I thought, unfortunately the driver had other plans for me...

There is a scam they practice in almost every country, in Egypt is almost compulsory to go through it, there is no way to avoid it. It's kind of expected.

The scam goes like this. They offer you a cheap excursion somewhere and on the way there they stop in some "selected shops" with prices adjusted to tourists (i.e. 200%-500% the normal price) and they get a good commission from anything you buy there.  

So my cheeky driver found himself with a "farang" (that's how Thai people call foreigners) on the back seat and saw his chance to make some extra money.

I have to give him some credit at least he was nice, taught me some basic Thai and took me to have lunch to the best place in this village, which turned out to be a take away shop by the road... the place was full of buses and it was also packed with locals, despite the initial impression I have to say that the food was really good.

The first shop he took me to, had a factory where they were making silk.

Warning to the squirmiest!!
Worm pictures below!

The three phases: Worm - Cocoon - Moth  

They stick the cocoons in semi-boiling water and with that they extract the silk thread

The yellow thread is untreated, the purple one is after "washing" the silk, not sure whether they add some dye to the mix or whether by simply washing it it becomes purple, the guide's English wasn't very good and my Thai even worse so I couldn't figure it out but if I understood correctly it was only washed.

Finally they make the fabric from the thread

Then they took me to the shop with the "adjusted" prices. 45€ for a tie!! I can find it in London for that price! Needless to say I didn't buy anything and I told the driver off, but he tried again with another shop and when I came out of it I told him to take me back home I didn't want to waste any more time.

That erased the smile of his face, he tried to convince me to go to yet another shop but I wasn't having any of it.

Back at the guest house I got a ticket for muay thai (thai boxing). I've never seen it before and I had been told that Chiang Mai was the best place for it, you are so close to the ring that you get to wipe the blood from your face (not my words...just repeating what I was told back in the UK) :-)

I went to the hotels area (where the Muay Thai stadium was), it wasn't too far (about 15-20 minutes walk). They have the leftovers from a city wall.

and had a walk about the market...it is huge!

They have these shops where you pick the fruit and they make the juice

And let's not forget the typical and very popular fish tank for your feet

 Finally, I made my way to the stadium

I tried to take pictures but it was too difficult and they were all a bit blurry so I made videos instead. :-)

The first thing that drew my attention was the music, they kinda move with the music


The crowd was almost as spectacular as the fight itself


The warming up was kinda weird


There was a KO!


and this was the last combat, the big fight of the night


The town takes a life of its own at night. It's full of people everywhere...tourists of course...and performers...


I don't think I'll be able to post anything tomorrow as I'll be catching another train back to Bangkok and there's no internet on the train... But as always, I'll save the entry for when I get to Bangkok.



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