Chiang Mai & Pai / Northern Thailand

View South East Asia in a larger map

From Kanchanaburi, I had to return through Bangkok to take an overnight bus into the north of Thailand. The main hub for northern Thailand is a city called Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand but it doesnt feel that big in comparison to Bangkok. The beauty of Chiang Mai isnt the city itself, but all the amazing nature and landscape it has to offer in the surrounding country side.

My bus arrived first thing in the morning and I headed straight for Julie's guesthouse, which was suppose to be the most popular and chill place for backpackers.. i lucked in since i was the first one to arrive i had priority. Upon check-in, I met a cool kiwi and german and we agreed to share a triple... I would end up spending the next several days with these guys, good people.

First day in Chiang Mai we toured the old city and chilled out by the river. We visited a few Wats (buddhist temples). It was pretty low key from the bus-lag most people had from the long overnight bus.

Day two, we rented scooters and headed up the big mountain nearby for a gorgeous view of the city and country side. We stopped off at a nice waterfall on the way and a monk temple as well. We also stopped for lunch at a beautiful lake where they built small huts right over the water for groups to eat. This is where I had my first experience with Jumping Shrimp... they serve it in this little bowl with alot of thai spices and herbs. When you open the bowl all the little baby shrimp are still alive and start jumping out. That's when you're suppose to get your spoon in there and shove them in your mouth alive as they are still jumping around. gross. I had to try it though since everyone in our small group had and didn't want to be the wimpy guy. It was soooo weird to eat something still alive, but kind of tasty.

Day three was early wake up for Greg (the kiwi), Manu (german) and I to leave for Pai, 4 hours north east of Chiang Mai.

I fell in love with Pai. Its worth repeating, I fell absolutely in love with Pai.

Pai is this small little town built along a river with gorgeous unbelievable landscape. During the day, you tour the countryside, visiting waterfalls, tiger temples, elephant camps and hill tribes. In the evening the town transforms into one big lively market, thats all lit up and full of life. There are also relly great chilled out bars and amazing street food. I had my own hut right near the river for 100 bacht ($3) and my own scooter for $1.5/day...

Day 1 I toured around on the scooter. We headed for hot baths to start... as we approached the entrance to the baths we spotted a girl riding a young elephant. Turns out she was also a kiwi and she told us how amazing this little elephant was and how much she recommended the tour.. I told myself I would do it the following day. She ended up on the back of one of our scooters and off we went for a waterfall. This waterfall wasn't particularly big, but deep and you could swim underneath it, which was cool. In the evening, I ran into Gus (swede) and Melvyn (dutch) from previous city. By early evening, we had a possy of about 10 people hitting the town. It was really cool to have a big possy of friends all travelling solo, you sort of build this instant connection you wouldn't normally have being at home with your normal friends.

Day 2 - Was a late start and off I went with Melvyn and Manu for the elephant ride. I shotgunned the little elephant. To get on him, I had to step on his trunk and he would lift me up onto his back, it was really scary and cool. He was the cutest elephant ever! Manu and Melvyn shared an older big guy. Off we went on our hike. My little elephant spent the whole time veering off course to eat and doing as he pleased. Then we got to a small river and thats where the fun started... they told us we could go in the water with our elephants so I expected us to walk through water. Boy was I mistaken... Upon seeing the water, my little elephant got excited and marched full speed ahead into the water while I held on for dear life. Once he got deepp enough, he plunged himself underwater with me on his back. It was incredible! My little elephant was like a little kid in a pool splashing around and rolling over, grabbing me with his trunk and trying to twirl me in the water too. I could even stand and surf on his belly...that little elephant was definately a highlight of my trip so far. In some weird way, he reminded me of TT (tina's dog) in the way he was so playful. It took forever to get him out of the water, he just kept playing!

Day 3 in Pai was spent touring again and just relaxing, enjoying the town and touring to see more waterfalls and countryside.

That evening I left on an evening bus with Greg (kiwi) and Tara (elephant kiwi) for the Laos border, where we would begin a two day slow boat journey on the Maekong River to Luang Prabang. I will give you more of this later!

Hope all is well at home.