Chiang Mai Thailand

[FlyAway]

Thailand is about 3 hours flight time from both Philippines and Hong Kong.My wife has always liked elephants. This time we wanted to try visiting some place other than Philippines. Thailand does not require any special VISA for Philippine citizens either.Upon arrival in Bangkok, we cleared immigration with no problems or questions of any kind. A sign said simply know how long your stamp is good for or be fined. This time we decided to "Backpack" with no check in baggage. The airport there is huge so be prepared for a bit of walking.We purchased a 4 day 3 night travel package from a place called "Elephant Nature Park". The itinerary was as follows,Day 1, take 2nd class sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang MaiDay 2, Met by Nature Park representative at train station and taken to hotel to freshen up. Afternoon tour of the city. Evening to be spent with cultural dancers and dinner.Day 3, full day tour of the Elephant Nature Park.Day 4, Free time until 12 noon check out.Now for what really happened. It was up to us to get to the train station. Being first time visitors was a bit unsettling. English is not spoken to well there. We showed some people there at help desks the tickets and they all said "Train to city". We had to take 2 different MRT trains to get to the main railway station.The airport has its own express rail with a few stops into Bangkok. We had to get off at the 2nd to the last stop. This ride cost us 35 Bhat each. (70 total). 1 USD = 32 Bhat. Nice smooth ride with a great view of the surrounding areas. Still lots of water from the flooding.After getting off the airport express, we had to walk about a half block to the local MRT station. This ride also cost us 35 Bhat each. This line we rode to the end. Upon exiting the underground station we were surprised to be standing right in front of the overland rail station.We waited until 7:30PM for the train to depart. The 2nd class sleeper consisted of compartments of 4 bunk beds. Each bed was separated by a simple curtain. Good idea not to bring large luggage.The train was supposed to arrive at 9:30AM. Actually arrived at 10:45AM. Sure enough, no one was there to meet us. After waiting 45 minutes we were offered a ride by another travel agency to the agency that booked our tour for 150 Bhat.Obviously we were not happy campers. That train ride felt like the 14 hour plane ride from San Francisco to Hong Kong. You do not get off feeling very well.The travel agency refunded us the 150 Bhat and then took us to the hotel. We were told to be ready by 1:30PM for the tour of the city. 2PM rolls around while we sit in the lobby. Our new best friend in Thailand turns out to be the Hotel's front desk manager. She was great in helping us out. The lady was able to juggle two phones and still able to talk to guests. One time I watched her have one phone to each ear and still fax a letter out.2:30PM a car shows up with a guy and a girl wearing ID badges that said "Trainee". Neither could speak much English. The guy knew how to say "Go to bar". Obvious what his specialty was.The girl was on the cell phone all the time apparently asking where they should take us. Finally ended up going to an umbrella painting facility, a jewelry manufacturing place and a few leather manufacturers. Typical tourist traps I would call them. We got back to the hotel at 4:30PM.Next on the itinerary was the cultural dancers and dinner. A van picked us up from the hotel along with people from other hotels. We were all dropped off at the front of the restaurant. The driver said he will stay parked outside. No one gave us any information about where to go to check in or anything. Kind of find your own way type thing. We discovered we did have reservations for the show and dinner. While dinner and the show were paid for, drinks were not included. Not even plain water. That cost us 30 Bhat for plain drinking water. No big deal.The culteral dance routines were great. We enjoyed it a lot. Finally we were getting some enjoyment out of the trip. We returned to the hotel at around 9PM. On the way back we saw lots of street vendors close to the hotel. Chiang Mai has an excellent street night market. Restaurant food was excellent and reasonable in price. We would spent less than 250 Bhat at restaurants for meals.Day 3 A van is supposed to pick us up at 8AM. It shows up at 9AM. We are getting used to Thai time. It takes one hour to get to the preserve. This was the highlight of the whole trip. These people are more like a rescue organization. Many of the elephants were neglected or injured in the past. Considering how many were treated in the past, they were still gentle giants. Much of the time they are allowed to roam free on the grounds.You are really allowed to get up close to them. We were even allowed to help bath them in the river. All was well supervised with everyone's safety in mind. Very enjoyable experience.4:30PM rolls around and we return to the hotel. Tour is over for us. Rest of the time is to ourselves. We do more walking in the Cities night market. We even came across a few places doing "Fish Foot Therapy". You stick your bare feet in a tank full of these fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet. Ew! not for us.Day 4 late morning we get a ride to the Chiang Mai airport for a local flight to Bangkok. This flight takes about a little over an hour compared to the 14 hour train ride.All in all it was a great trip and learning experience. Thailand is rather easy to get around for the first time visitor not knowing what to expect. Food and transportation I would say is excellent. Everywhere we were was clean and well taken care of. People use the rubbish bins to dispose of trash instead of throwing it on the ground.My wife was very impressed. She wondered why Thailand was so much better than Philippines. We went there with 6,600 Thai Bhat. We got a good exchange rate in Hong Kong for 33 Bhat to 1 USD. So our $200 USD went a long way buying food and other little souvenir nick knacks. We still came back with some left out of that 6,600.

[MikeB]

Excellent review, thanks!

[Old55]

Very enjoyable story thanks for posting it.

[Jollygoodfellow]

A few years back a workmate was telling me about Chiang Mai,sounded like a good place to visit. Will put it on my list of things to do once I win the lotto. :hystery:

[Mr Lee]

Thank you for the detailed review. :hystery: Sounds like a place my wife and I will take a side trip to one day.

[Lordblacknail]

Chiang Mai is one of my favorite places in the world. Been all over Europe, South America, Canada and the US, and some of Asia, but Chiang Mai remains my favorite. What we did the first time was not go on the tours, like the Butterfly factory, the Elephant farm, the Mother of Pearl factory, but instead rented a motorcycle and went around on our own. Had several suits made, bought tons of gold and jewelry, ate Indian food every day, (don't care for lemon grass), and had the best time of our life. In our travels in the country side, we stopped at a house way out in the country and asked if we could tour his house. He was in the yard working on his pickup and his wife was sitting in a rocker. Took awhile to make him understand, that yes, we really did want to look at his house. Once he understood no problem. His house was just like any house in the US, except no bed frame. Just a mat on the floor. Everything else just like our house. No English of course from him, no Thai for us, but we got along so well, we were invited to stay for dinner, then the night. I like to see how other people live when I travel; I stay away from tourist hotels and spots, preferring to meet the natives so to speak. This resulted in us meeting a real live Duke once in Europe, and being invited to dinner and to stay the night. Love to travel. Alas, now that I am poor, don't get out as much.

[Art2ro]

When I was still in the Air Force, I was fortunate enough to be stationed in Utapao Air Base, Thailand in 1975 to 1976 for 18 months until all the U.S. military bases closed and pulled out and never to reopen again!I lived off base in a little town called Ban Chang near the South Coast, Bangkok and Chang Mai is just up North and Pattaya beach resort is North west from Ban Chang. I really enjoyed myself there, the countryside, food (Phad Thai noodles my favorite dish and seafood spring rolls), the night life & the beautiful women were awesome(no ladyboy toys), but not the climate! Too hot, it can get to 120 deg F in some parts of Thailand!

[volstateguy]

Thanks for the excellent report. I've always wanted to visit Thailand, and have done quite a bit of research on retiring there,...from what I have read Chang mai seems fairly inexpensive and has good infrastructure. However I think Philippines has more advantages...most notably communicating and visa extensions are easier. I will still have to visit Thailand some day though.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Thanks for the trip report from Chiang Mai. Sounds great! I've read a lot about Chiang Mai and it seems to be fairly inexpensive. A lot of expats live there but I think the language barrier would a problem for me. I still want to vacation there one of these days.

[Jake]

Thanks for the trip report from Chiang Mai. Sounds great! I've read a lot about Chiang Mai and it seems to be fairly inexpensive. A lot of expats live there but I think the language barrier would a problem for me. I still want to vacation there one of these days.

Dang shipmate,You do like your port visits. Yeah, I know -- once a sailor, always a sailor. Don't forgetabout the corpsman with the square needle.....he, he.Liberty call -- Jake