47 | Chiang Mai

The flight from Bangkok took just over an hour to Chiang Mai. The baggage claim was a little chaotic but we managed to get through without too much drama. We stayed at Rainforest Boutique Hotel for 3 nights costing £24 per night. The grounds of the hotel were fantastic with two pools and a huge wooden structure in the middle, where we ate our own body weight in the inclusive breakfast buffet. The Thai Green Curry and Paradise Cocktail served in a coconut were my best dinner choices. So far, the food and drink have been so cheap for the quality you get. You can have 3 courses for the equivalent of £12.

We only had one full day to look around the old town, so we headed out relatively early. The sun was beating down on us at 32 degrees by mid-morning. Going inside temples was going to be a welcome relief. We started at Wat Phra Singh (Gold Temple) and walked around the grounds. There were huge golden towers with gold-coated elephants coming out of each side. It definitely had the wow factor. The taxi driver had dropped us off at the side of the grounds which meant we didn’t pay for access, saving us 150 baht each. Nice one! We spent an hour taking in the sights and the life-like sculptures of monks praying in the lotus position. It’s a definite must-see.

We finally got some face masks at the local pharmacy that had not run out of stock. By this point, most locals and a select number of tourists were wearing masks. We wore them for a while then came to realise you can contract COVID-19 through your eyes, so they were not much use.

We stopped at Teng Nueng for lunch; A restaurant not far from the temple which serves stir fry and traditional Thai food. We took a table next to a fish pond that was integrated into one side of the table, that was pretty neat. The food was fresh and well priced given its central location.

We decided to have a walk around the outside of the moat that surrounds the old town. We walked into the courtyard of Wat Chet Lin. A picturesque temple with a lake in the middle. A floating bamboo bridge cuts straight down the middle where large catfish dominate the waters below. Every so often, you can hear them surface with their mouths gaping to try and catch whatever is on the surface. After sitting for a few moments in the peaceful surroundings, a Thai chap walked past and said: “You're tall”. Maybe for South East Asia. I think he just wanted to instigate a conversation (I don’t need much of an invitation to be fair), so we ended up talking for 15 minutes about his job at a bank in Phuket and the cashmere suit he was purchasing on his vacation. I told him I paid 6740 baht for mine plus a shirt and tie; he said that was a good price (my haggling wasn’t for nothing after all).

Just around the corner was Wat Muen Tum. You guessed it, another Buddhist temple. The front gates were different from the rest and sported large mythical creatures such as dragons with red glass eyes. By this point, we didn’t want to step foot in another temple due to seeing so many in a short space of time. So we decided to have a quick look around the outside.

On our walk back to the east of the old town, we saw the streets were cordoned off with stages and stalls being set up. This was the Sunday market. I have never seen a market like it. Local traders completely shut down the centre to sell their goods and local delicacies. Durian fruit was sold whole and by the slice, there were fruits I completely didn’t recognise and food stalls that catered for pretty much every Asian cuisine. I bought a small ornamental elephant for 40 baht while Kristen bought a dress for around 250 baht. There were some real bargains and the locals were willing to drop their mark up prices. There must have been thousands on the streets and the area was open to all, including vendors setting up food halls in temple grounds. You could feel the buzz around the place.

Kristen booked a day trip to the Elephant Nature Park for our final day. An hour and a half drive

outside Chiang Mai, the sanctuary is home to around 80 elephants that have been orphaned or

rescued from landmine explosions and working camps. If you have ridden or intend to ride an

elephant, SHAME ON YOU! We started by getting a brief about the elephants and the park in general that is also home to Water Buffalo and rescued cats and dogs.

The tour began with feeding the elephants bananas and watermelons from a platform. The South East Asian elephant is slightly smaller than the African elephants I saw in Ghana. They have a browner coat and a more rounded head. At this point, I thought that would be it, apart from walking to a viewing platform. I was pleasantly surprised when our guide said, “Ok, follow me” as we walked out into the fields they were living in. Each of the elephants were assigned a keeper and some were put in groups together based on age or disability. We first got up close with two 80-year-old ladies who had been taken from private owners who couldn’t make money off them anymore. They were happy to stand there eating whilst we were able to stand next to them.

We then moved onto three elephants who have grouped together for years. One is blind, another injured from a land mine and the third member is deaf. They were happily chewing on bamboo leaves as we stood by their side patting them. “They all pull together” the keepers were saying to guide each other around. For such large animals, they move so gracefully. There are many disabled dogs at the park too, some requiring wheelchairs to get about with volunteers taking them on runs. I think you can do up to a week's homestay program with the rescued dogs.

My favourite part of the day was seeing the mischievous younger elephants playing in the river then running off like naughty teenagers to grab some sticky rice off their keepers. The project makes a huge difference and is completely worth the cost to go and visit for the day. If you want to find out more, you can visit their website at https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/.

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