Activity Summary
Tuesday 13th September - Day 12
Coach travel from Sukhothai to Chiang Mai
Wednesday 14th September - Day 13
Elephant freedom village
Thursday 15th September - Day 14
Wachirathan waterfall
Doi Inthanon peak
King and queen pagodas
Pha Dok Siew nature trail
Friday 16th September - Day 15
Mok Fa waterfall
Jungle hike
Overnight stay at Karen village
Saturday 17th September - Day 16
Jungle (ish) hike
Bamboo rafting
[Pai in between]
Monday 21st September - Day 20
Bus back to Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai night market
Summary
We liked Chiang Mai as it was the first place on our trip where we actually felt like there were other backpackers / tourists around as well as being a nice and chill city to spend time in. Plenty of option for the continuation of cheap Thai food (40/50 THB a meal) while also having other options of Western food available.
Plenty of bars and cafes to keep busy in and bustling night market in a corner of the old city (determined by being inside the old big square walls).
Interestingly we didn’t spend all that much time inside Chiang Mai apart from the evenings. Most of the fun things to do involves taking trips outside the city and hence we didn’t relax at all when here while deciding to share rooms in a hostel that probably backfired somewhat.
Otherwise was an enjoyable place.
Accommodation
The August Hostel - 3 nights - 252THB/n/p
Our first experience of bunk beds in a 4 person shared room. Was pretty easy here to be honest and spent very little time in the room as the hostel had an alright chill area on the first floor. Otherwise not an overly sociable place but did the job.
BB House Budget & Boutique - 2 nights - 113THB/n/p
Small room with bunk beds in the old city but ridiculously cheap and used as our base either side of Pai. Limited time here so could not complain bar the aggressive AC unit freezing us half to death.
Travel
TO
Having struggled with getting to Sukhothai, we learned from the process there and booked our coach straight away once we arrived in Sukhothai coach terminal to Chiang Mai coach terminal.
Sukhothai coach terminal -> Chiang Mai coach terminal -> Sungtheow red Tuk Tuk to hostel
Diary
Our first day in Chiang Mai was particularly uneventful. The coach journey from Sukhothai to Chiang Mai took far longer than we expected and our inability to appropriately feed ourselves on these 7 hour bus/coach journeys seem to be getting worse as time goes on. Thailand doesn’t seem to want to facilitate a simple lunch Tesco meal deal and we never thought we’d be missing a sandwich so much. Therefore the ridiculous amount of sweet sugary things that do travel make for us feeling angsty by the time we get to our destinations and Chiang Mai was particularly bad.
Exhausted and sugared out, by the time we arrived at our hostel we dumped our bags and ran out straight away for food. Fortunately Chiang Mai has an incredible option of restaurants that look appealing (surprising how many don’t in other places we have been to) and also very cheap. Local dish here is Khao Soi, a type of noodle soup topped with crispy noodles and usually accompanied by chicken. It was great and Luke pretty much ate this every night here (no peanuts anywhere near it either).
We walked through Chiang Mai to sort out a few tours we wanted, get cash out (very few places seem to take card), settled on a quick drink in a bar and kicked back to the hostel.
After spending the entire trip in private rooms so far we decided now was a better time to get a hostel, given Chiang Mai is very much a popular tourist place and could have the chance to meet some people. We stayed at The August Hostel, which allowed us to maintain some of our princess qualities and only share in a 4 bed dorm (rather than the potential 10 on offer). It was an ok place to stay in terms of cleanliness and comfort but were pretty pissed about them having only 1 washing machine (which we desperately needed) and were forced to pay for someone to do it, as well as not being an overly sociable place at all. However hearing about the ‘party’ hostels down the road absolutely vindicated any decision about staying away from them.
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As with most backpackers who go to Thailand, today was our epic Elephant day. We had done quite a bit of research in earlier days about Elephant sanctuaries/ parks to see which ones were considered ethical and settled on the Elephant freedom village. The most popular tourist destination is the Elephant Nature Park, which is very much the dominating business in Chiang Mai, so we were very happy to choose one that was also considered to be an ethical experience as well as supporting local tribes (will touch on more of this later).
We opted for a half day experience, which in reality was basically a whole day thing anyway starting at 7am and finishing at 3.30pm. This was absolutely plenty enough time in our opinion. We were picked up from our hostel and the two others that formed part of our group. Scott and Ross were from New Zealand and they were great company over the whole day - having a much smaller group seemed to work very well for us but can quite easily see it going the other way should there be a language barrier or, as we would find out the next day, a couple who are just terrible people.
The freedom village was about an hour and half outside of Chiang Mai, much like all the elephant parks, and was run by a very small Karen tribe village. We had to switch vehicles for the last leg to descend up a ridiculously challenging and muddy route to the village, which the guy demolished in the 4x4… quite impressive given us in the UK can’t deal with any weather adversity.
Once there, Luke was very very happy to get a home coffee that in his words was ‘outstanding’. He however, is such a basic bitch with his coffee choices that we don't know how trustworthy that. At this point the guide gave us an introduction to how the village is run, history of people working with and riding elephants and a very opinionated piece on the Elephant nature park and big business. Few takeaways we got from this:
Elephants eat 400kg of food a day
They only sleep for 4-5 hours a day - they also only sleep standing up otherwise they just wouldn’t be able to get back up
The Karen people and their culture is all about care for animals, of which they have many, and have a long long history of working with elephants.
Riding of elephants was used by the villagers in order to work the land, such as timber, with such riders called Mahoots. With modern technology taking over, the need for elephants and Mahoots declined and therefore drove most into tourism in order to survive. It is widely acknowledged that riding elephants in the country is awful, relying on brutal methods to force behaviour that involves breaking an elephants will and the damage done by carrying such a weight on them all day. Based on a local guide we spoke to about 60-70% of the country has stopped this practice, but as we saw in Ayutthaya there is still a big demand from those who clearly don’t give a fuck. The hope is this will change legislatively but is a very complex issue.
Covid was incredibly tough for the local tribes. Without tourism those who had elephants could not feed them and their massive diets, many elephants died as they starved or forced into foraging for food in farmers lands which carries the risk of being poisoned. The tribe we were with were fortunate to be supported through this tough time and it was clear as day how much of an impact this had had on the guide as he explained the situation. We visited a number of local Karen tribes over our stay in Chiang Mai and each time they made a very big point about how happy they were that tourism had started to return to the country in the last 3/4 months.
The guide had very strong views about the Elephant nature park and the big business model vs local tribes. The Elephant nature park is considered to be the most ethical practice in the country but he made some interesting comments about treatment of animals and the impact on local people. This was all taken with a pinch of salt.
Post our briefing we made our way down to the feeding place and meet the elephants. There were 6 in total:
One grandmother- about 65 years old
One big tusker male
Mama elephant
Another female
Two baby elephants; one male and one female
The 4 adults were restricted by a wooden fence post and therefore were feeding bananas through a combination of trunks or if feeling brave, directly into their mouths. Luke preferred the latter option and the feeling of getting right up close to a fully grown male and feeding them was pretty special. Nicola opted for the squeal and run approach as she got mobbed by the two boisterous babies that basically just charged down anyone with food. The whole experience was hilarious and great fun, albeit mucky.
We had a short walk over to another feeding site which had an assortment of bamboo. Basically elephants don’t stop eating. This involved more watching, talking with the guide and asking various questions and getting odd occasional trunk hug thinking we had food. One of the favourite moments was Nicola getting a big ol slurpy trunk kiss to the neck and cheek. More squealing.
The river was just down the bank and we all continued a very slow dawdle down to the water. Elephants use the water and mud to protect themselves from sunburn and the constant attack of mozzies. The baby elephants particularly love to jump in the water as they just fully submerge themselves into the current. The adults are far more reserved and open to getting water thrown over them and a good ol scratch with a brush - personally if Luke was them he’d take the brush all day every day. Nicola got her foot slightly trapped by a trunk at one point which unsettled her slightly so stood back a little at that point whereas Ross was fully in the water with one of the babies to the point one of the tribe told him off. Our first experience of health and safety in Thailand…
Once we had walked back up to the village from the river that was the end of the elephant experience. After having a banging lunch served by the villagers and shooting some rocks at a bottle with a catapult we took off back to Chiang Mai.
On reflection, we don’t think that anything about the elephant tourism trade can be truly ethical. These are huge and magnificent creatures that ultimately have been raised in an unnatural environment with humans, which has lead to them being very tame to the point that feeding and bathing is pretty safe to do. How this in practice is achieved is still an unknown, it could quite easily be through violence or the far preferable ‘this is what we know’ and one that I’m sure we won’t find out until more light is shed in future years. However it was an amazing experience where we feel we supported a local village who were all very nice and the elephants absolutely seemed to be enjoying themselves by doing what they wanted to do - aka eat and jump in a river. Many of the elephants we met would have been bred for manual work in the past, which is no longer required, and as they live for 80 years they do need to be looked after - tourism is the best way to do that, however I think we both agreed that maybe they shouldn't be breeding the elephants- but then again unless you give them contraception, babies are inevitable in a mixed gender herd. All in all we're not sure where we stand!
Post the elephant experience, we spent the evening chilling at the hostel and out for a cheap dinner with a girl from the UK who was sharing our room with us to round off our day.
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Keeping with the early start trend, we arranged for a day tour to the highest mountain in Thailand and the surrounding areas which set off again at 7am. We were picked up by a minibus and pretty much filled it with people, the only English speakers being an English guy and Icelandic girl so barely spoke to anyone during the day but after the day before we really couldn't be bothered anyway.
The first stop on the drive was Wachirathan waterfall, which was great fun for the quick 30 minutes we were there. There was a footpath right by the bottom of the waterfall car park so we started from this point and effectively walked up the river bank to the top, rather than straight to the viewing point. In turn we got absolutely soaked but were really able to take in the power of the waterfall and turned out to be the best part of the day.
We continued on the long drive to Doi Inthanon, which at 2,565m is the tallest mountain in Thailand. Now our expectation was this would be a very enjoyable view of the rainforest, maybe some towns etc. but in actual fact was probably the most underwhelming mountain point we will ever experience. The only way we knew we were there was a big ol' sign saying that was the case, as we were surrounded by trees and forest everywhere we looked. Apparently in high season, people queue for ages for a picture with the sign. We basically thought fuck it why not, and had it done in 10 seconds. Worst part - we didn’t even walk there so absolutely zero achievement. All in all, if deciding, wouldn’t recommend.
The main attraction in the area is the King and Queen pagoda’s, which are burial grounds for the previous King Rama IX and his wife (who is still alive). The pagoda's are impressive but the garden grounds next to one of them was sensational. Fortunately for us, the mist settled just as we arrived so got some great views of the place as we walked around.
Prior to a walk we stopped off for some average lunch, basically rice and fried chicken, with a table of people who barely conversed which was awkward and funny at the same time. The main afternoon activity was a ‘hike’ through the Pha Dok Siew nature trail which, to our interest, required a local guide to take us through rather than being able to complete ourselves. We say hike loosely as this was probably the slowest group walk we have ever been on and was very easy, however there were some in converse and they aren’t exactly the most idyllic shoes for wet mud but half the fun is laughing at these unprepared people. The walk itself however was pretty nice (minus the golf ball sized bite on the back of Luke’s knee), as we experienced high views of the tree canopy, rice paddies and walked next to rivers and waterfalls.
At the end of the hike we stopped off at a local Karen tribe for coffee and tea, the coffee was like rocket fuel so Luke had 3.
The bus journey back was slightly interesting and I will write this from my (Luke’s) perspective. Nicola was oddly quiet and I could tell she was seething with anger but refused to speak me so I assumed she was tired or feeling unwell. I spent the entire bus journey back speaking to the English and Icelandic couple and I quote ‘very loudly in my ear’ … Unfortunately bus journeys are not the easiest to talk on and Nicola is usually forced to sit next to me. I get a stealth text saying ‘don’t give them your number’ so I acknowledge and am a) immediately relieved she’s not going to rip my head off for something I’ve done wrong and b) very intrigued. From my perspective they were alright, pretty loud people I guess but kept me entertained for a couple hours. After parting ways it turns out they were saying some very questionable and pretty horrible things about a lot of people we had met on the day of which I had heard nothing but Nicola had. Goes to show, we will meet a whole host of different people along the way.
For dinner we met up with the lovely Scott and Ross, who we will definitely be meeting up with in New Zealand, for some food and drinks.
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Guess what - 7am start today. Although this time Nicola has a really truly awful sleep as she doubles herself at about 4am. Turns out it only takes 2 cocktails for Nicola these days.
The next two days were planned to be a jungle trek with stay overnight in a Karen village. We got picked up from the hotel by a truck which is a cross between a Tuk Tuk and a truck - essentially a truck with two benches at the back that fits 8 comfortably and 10 at a push. Sadly the 10 person option was taken up. The group itself was quite varied; 2 Dutch girls (Julia & Neele) nearing the end of their university courses, a slightly older Dutch couple probably around our age, a lone Swiss-German traveller on holiday for a few weeks and a group of 5 Flemish lads post uni. Interestingly it was odd to be in the language minority; the Dutch and Flemish can communicate very easily which left Nicola, Avram and myself to speak in English. The two Dutch girls we were very friendly and easy to converse with but their wasn’t a solid group feel to it over the trip - especially when everyone was speaking a Dutch/Flemish hybrid. More awkward was that it was literally impossible to hold a conversation at the back of the truck with the wind and engine roaring.
Once the team was united at the trekking office, we set off on what felt like a particularly long journey to our set off point. The first stop was a local market, the thing of note being deep fried chicken feet and a whole host of deep fried chicken heads. Pretty odd them looking blankly at you when walking past and slightly confused how they are consumed.
The second group stop was Mok Fa waterfall and turned out to be one of the best parts of the 2 day trip. The waterfall was very powerful and were able to swim in it for a little while which was great fun. Luke turned into group photographer for the group (thank you new iPhone 13 prop - worth the money so far) and got a crash course in how to make edgier insta worthy photos from one of the Dutch girls… a skill he didn’t know he would start acquiring.
By now we had spent hours on the windy road between Chiang Mai and Pai (considered to be a wonderful sicky journey for a lot of people) and stopped off for maximum an hour. Lunch was at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere but served a decent platter of rice, vegetables and fruit so were pretty content with this.
Finally by about 2.30pm we were at the hike start point. Fucking finally.
Our expectations going into the hiking part were pretty high. Having had so much temple and city we were really looking forward to the nature element and some decent exercise along the way. The exercise element we certainly got. Straight into a steep hill climb in 30 degree humid heat and straight away there was group separation. This didn’t seem to phase the leading gude who ran off with the boys and occasionally stopped to let everyone catch up. Nicola, Julia, Neele and myself holding the rear. Luke being a gent carried as much weight from Nicola’s bag as possible and generally just made sure everyone got down in one piece. True gent. Once people started finding leeches in their shoes (final count for Nicola, 2, and Luke managed to kill one of the fuckers trying to get in through an air hole in his shoe) everyone become very very edgy. Overall we were walking for about 3.5 hours, saw minimal wildlife apart from leeches and an overly stubborn buffalo that stared us down and didn’t move for 5 minutes. The views were not overly special given we were under tree cover for the most part. Nicola especially felt underwhelmed with the quality of the trip, spending more time focussing on keeping up and not falling over so the floor and potential leech attacks got a lot of attention while having zero faith in our leads. Luke however thoroughly enjoyed the exercise, and his aspirations of getting back into the shape of his 22 year old self…
Finally at the Karen village we would stay overnight at, everyone basically slumped down with beers and just took in the views which Luke thoroughly enjoyed before it got dark. Food served consisted of a shed load of fried chicken, rice and stir fired vegetables which definitely filled the gap. Few more beers later, counted to the penny, (had to pay a premium for these and we were very very short on physical cash to pay for things before an ATM run) and a fun chat with Avram the whole evening we settled down relatively early compared the Europeans. All the beds were in the same scouts type like room, on the floor with mosquito nets which would have been perfectly fine had it not been propped in the air and underneath was essentially the cows beds. Luke snoring can be bad but there is no way in hell of stopping moo cows from penetrating sleep cycles.
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After a very broken nights sleep, Nicola again woke up at 5am and sat outside for a good few hours before Luke joined her. Breakfast was simple toast, eggs and fruit but Nicola on a good run of having no sleep (and if you have ever had the pleasure of trying to communicate with her early in the morning when she’s had little sleep will know she’s the devil) couldn’t eat anything which didn’t bode well for the rest of the day which would consist of a mini hike, bamboo rafting and an elephant trip.
The hike was again pretty gruelling in the heat. The guides honestly just seemed to making it up as they went along; bridges supposed to be in places were found gone, a mudslide meaning we got knee deep feet cleansing experiences for free and various interesting water crossings. The same group structure pretty much existed as the day before.
Now for what we would consider a ropey activity. Those that have been following will know it absolutely buckets it down on the regs and the evening/night before was no exception. Ergo river levels run pretty high and from our limited experience of kayaking white water, suggests its probably a bad idea to go on a 2 hour trip downriver on a bamboo raft. This had been playing on Nicola’s mind quite a lot and her anxiety was in a pretty bad way so made the very sensible decision to take the truck to lunch.
Luke continued with the rafting so will continue this piece in his words. 7 of us lads packed onto one raft with an oldish dude taking lead at the front and a local with guns the size of my head bringing up the rear. Our raft seemed to be in solid hands. The other raft with the 4 Dutch people - not so much, having the two tour guides who seemed hopeless taking lead there. First half of the trip was pretty easy, no big white water and basically dawdled down (at least for us - the guides were slogging it hard) the river with the biggest complaint being my ass hurt before a quick break.
Next half - absolute fucking carnage.
The white water picked up pretty heavily and was great fun to ride through it. The bamboo rafts worked incredibly well to cut through a whole host of white water given the gaps running along the raft but I got caught out a few times at the front of the group. White water crashed into my face at one point and nearly lost my flip flops while filming. The worst squeaky bum time moment came when the guides really cocked up a turn we really needed to make. Instead we careered through one of the many tree groupings in the water which would have been fine had there not been a great big fuck off rock that said ‘don’t hit me.’ I found myself shouting repeatedly rock, rock, rock, rock… to no avail as the right side of our raft clattered over this thing. All the weight of the raft being the middle where the tourists were sitting, the rock went right under my right ass cheek and split one of the bamboo piece with an almighty crack and again slightly further up the raft before grinding us to a halt. So we are no beached with raging white water around, the guides trying to shuffle us off the rock and after about 5 minutes manage to successfully dislodge us. This ended up being hilarious to the guides but I’m pretty sure a bit of poop came out.
Next problem. The other raft was directed by what seemed like two novices and this was made more evident when they clattered into a tree whose branch subsequently wiped out 4 of the 6 people on the raft into the water. Fortunately we got to see this and it was hilarious (no one was badly hurt thankfully). If you look closely at the video below you will see this in action towards the end of the vid.
Carnage over and Adrenalin pumping, we were reunited with Nicola and then sat down for the worst pad Thai of the trip. At this point everyone is knackered, so the quick stop at a local elephant park was not overly enjoyable for us but was exciting for some of the other group. We did find that this didn’t have anywhere near the same space and care that the freedom village did.
The truck back to Chiang Mai consisted of everyone trying to fall asleep in an incredibly awkward positions before being dropped back at respective hostels. Our evening consisted of feeding ourselves on the cheap and crashing out hella early before taking off to Pai the next morning.
Overall, the trekking trip in Chiang Mai was probably not worth it with rave reviews from travellers we have met saying Khao Sok national park later down the trip is a much better option so will be jumping on that hype as well.
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