We'd looked at various options for getting to Chiang Mai. We wanted to get a scenic and comfortable overnight sleeper train, but were unable to book tickets for this. We ended up getting a flight, so on the morning of Wednesday 20th, we headed back to Don Muang airport again.

We had the usual airport rigmarole, plus a new one this time . After checking in and dropping off our big bags, we had to wait at the end of the row of check in desks by a TV screen. We were told to wait for five minutes, and, if our names were not called, we could proceed to security. We watched the screen and witnessed both of our bags being scanned. When discussing what this whole thing was about, an airport official told us that as we’d seen our bags, we could proceed. Our best guess was that this was an additional security measure, so that people could be present if their checked baggage contained anything suspicious and needed to be searched.  

We had a little while to kill in the departure lounge, so found our gate and set ourselves up comfortably. When we were due to board, we discovered that our gate had changed. The gate was pretty much as far away as it could be, so we set off quickly to reach it. The new gate was in a small waiting area, with several other gates, and it was massively overcrowded. With no chairs to sit on, all we could do was wait and try not to get barged by fellow passengers . There were no shops or amenities at this end of the airport, so we couldn’t get any lunch while we waited. After half an hour, the gate changed again, and as we realised this before many other passengers, we managed to get a seat by our third gate. We were an hour late in boarding.

The flight was fine, and took an hour. On arriving at Chiang Mai, we tried to figure out the taxi racket that was happening. Though the airport was not far from the centre of Chiang Mai, it was an expensive ride. Eventually, we gave in and had a female taxi driver (unusual) take us directly to our hotel, The Corner Inn. The room was very nice, with everything we needed, and a funky smell from the bathroom that we didn’t. The room rate included free coffee and toast, anytime, and as much of it as we wanted. Ideal.

Chiang Mai is a city surrounded by walls and a moat. Well, it was a city surrounded by walls and a moat. Now, it is a city with a distinct square shape in the middle of it, surrounded by occasional remnants of walls and sanitised waterways with bridges and water fountains . The inside of the square was characterised by small, winding streets off the main concourse, giving rise to quiet homely establishments, just a stones throw away from accessibility to the city. We’d heard much about Chiang Mai, and knew that it offered activities such as city viewing, temple exploring, elephant riding, waterfall viewing, hiking, bungy jumping, canoeing, hill climbing, motorbike riding, tiger petting, massaging, cookery classes, and yoga. Much of which we had done in the not too distant past. We decided to get a feel for the city and get some much needed planning underway.

On arriving, we were struck by three things: the amount of tourists; the amount of mosquitos, and the amount of cockroaches. All were excessive. We arrived in early evening, and headed out for some dinner to one of the masses of vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai. The first, we failed to find in the cockroach filled nearby market, so we headed on to a buffet just down the road . The staff were disorganised, and we had to ask for things like the buffet to be replenished, and for our drinks twice. We did eventually get what we needed, and spent the time doing some reading and planning.

With a month left in our travels, we were trying to make the most of the time available. Ken was set on visiting Laos and Vietnam. We didn’t have a return flight home, but did have a fairly definite date on when we should be at home. Our primary concern was to use the time well, whilst seeing the stuff we really wanted to see. Unfortunately, travel through Laos was not the most efficient. Due to the mountain ranges, winding roads and slow boats, getting around was going to take a while. As we weighed this up - considering options like going to Chiang Rai further north in Thailand, flying, going straight to Vietnam, limiting what we saw in Laos - we simply discovered more that we would like to see and do. We started by contacting an organisation called The Gibbon Experience, an outfit running overnight tree house, ziplining, gibbon and other wildlife spotting opportunities. This was just over the border with Laos, so would be one of our first potential activities. Unfortunately, communication from The Gibbon Experience was ad hoc at best, and it took them three days to answer the question "do you have vegetarian food?"  Whilst we waited for them to get back to us, we did some more planning on routes to take, what else to see, and making the most of the days remaining .

On Thursday 21st, we took some time to go and see the temples in Chiang Mai. After a lazy morning, we walked through the city and saw the most famous or well-known temples. The place was filled with temples, but we opted to stick to the more well known. Starting with Wat Chiang Man, this was an ornate temple, with a marble and a crystal Buddha. It had several buildings dotted around, with one of them the main temple and another containing the marble and crystal Buddhas. There were lots of dogs wearing jumpers, despite the heat.

Next was Wat Phan Tao, a lovely teak temple, supported by massive pillars. Ornate, again, it also had a small bamboo walkway, hanging lanterns, a Buddha reflected in water, flowers (both real and fake) and giant umbrellas. We thought it would be even nicer lit up at night. Next door was Wat Chedi Luang, a large and popular temple. We particularly liked the giant chedi behind the main temple. Unfortunately, in an earthquake in 2008, the top of the chedi fell, leaving an impressive ruin . We could only imagine how tall the chedi would have been, and how it would have dominated the landscape. In one of the alcoves of the chedi, we could see a replica of the emerald Buddha in Bangkok. The original emerald Buddha was housed here in Wat Chedi Luang before being moved to the Royal Palace.

Our final temple was Wat Phra Singh, where we sat in the temple for some peaceful time. Presently, monks started arriving and chanting in earnest. It was meditative, but there’s only so much chanting we can listen to before needing to move on. This temple also housed a well known image of a lion Buddha – but we couldn’t find this, despite exploring all of the outside temples and taking a good wander around.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped into a very cheap vegetarian restaurant and got chatting to a chap from California. The food was good, though ordering was a confusing affair as they didn’t speak English and we definitely didn’t speak Thai. We checked out the Tha Phae Gate on the city walls, and the moat beyond, complete with water fountains.

We had a quiet planning evening and tried to work out our next moves.

This was a similar theme for the following day, Friday 22nd. After much discussion, and prompting of The Gibbon Experience, and online research, we went out for lunch. And did more of the same in the afternoon and evening. After three days, and three attempts, we gave up on The Gibbon Experience. We couldn’t hold off on the rest of our plans any longer, and opted to book a minibus to get across the Thai/ Laos border, to a Laos village on the Mekong river, called Huay Xai. From there, we still had no definite plans, but plenty of ideas.

Next stop – Huay Xai, Laos!