5 nights Arbors Hostel and Guest House
Day 14 - Monday, Nov 24 (Arrive Chiang Mai) #
- Arrive 14:55 Got a quick grab ride to the hotel
Met owner Gary sitting downstairs with his large black dog. He is from India, he worked in Australia for quite a long time and moved to Thailand with his Thai Wife about 8 years ago.
And the black dog is named Arbors after whom the hotel got named, it’s his house.
After we decided to eat so we went to Nimman area for some food.
เฮือนอุ๊ยผัดเชียงใหม่ -Huen Ui Phat Chiangmai #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9s9Wj6sZ5CA3ekGn7
This looked like a Thai restaurant but mostly catering for foreigners, it seemed fancy. Had 3 dishes and 3 desserts. Durian dessert was amazing
We went back to the hotel to plan our other days here as we needed to decide if we hire a car or a driver to get us to some destinations around Chiang Mai
Found Mr J, who has a fleet of drivers https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293917-d15633108-Reviews-Mr_J_Chiang_Mai_Private_Driver-Chiang_Mai.html
For a full day basically 3200 baht, not bad
Got a driver Mr Charlie.
Day 15 - Tuesday, Nov 25 (First Day) #
We woke up at 7:30 got ready and went to get some breakfast at Cafe Rosemary was abit overpriced and westernised, but still decent breakfast.
Our driver Charlie picked us up at 9 and we set our for our day.
Buatong Waterfall-Chet Si Fountain National Park (อุทยานแห่งชาติน้ำตกบัวตอง-น้ำพุเจ็ดสี) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xKT9rf5BUcE27kfcA
This place had a very cool sticky waterfalls. Which as the name suggests sticky, so you can safely walk on it.
It did feel very stable to walk there, tho you still had to look out for green patches, which were actually slippery, but it was easy to see them.
The whole place had a bunch of ropes to help climb up a more steep surface.
It didn’t look like they had any regulation of how many people get allowed to climb at the same time, so it did mean there was great potential for domino effects if someone falls. I had two girls behind me who just wouldn’t give me any space as is custom when climbing. They should wait until I get to the next flat bit before starting to pull on the rope and climbing right behind me.
The pictures look very dry and it appears that you can stay dry. Not true. We regretted not wearing swimsuits or quick dry clothing. As there were a lot of splashing from the people climbing ahead. So we got very soaked.
I have been sunbathing to help my shorts dry after we climbed up
Wat Den Sali Sri Muang Kaen (Wat Ban Den) วัดเด่นสะหลีศรีเมืองแกน (วัดบ้านเด่น) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fJSXNeCVqEUuFde1A
Next stop was temple
It was not touristy seemed like a fairy tale. You just felt overwhelmed with amount of colourful stuff around you. Very quiet and well maintained, everything looked very new and fresh.
We didn’t think we were going to spend here much time. But we did endup staying here for at least 30 mins
Dan Tewada Land of Angels Waterfall Park (เเดนเทวดา) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/h7keYWxzuZN9fY8KA
Next was the Instagramable place
The water was literally painted blue😄
Meh, just for Instagram pics. It’s pretty don’t get me wrong. But feels hollow as the only thing you can do there is just take cute pictures with the boys. There are plenty of places you can visit in Thailand to see those views and colour naturally.
We didn’t stay here much, tho they had a very good durian ice cream 😋 And some tasty snacks!
Mon Jam ม่อนแจ่ม #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/mHWBCkmZ5iqiQJuu6
Next we went up to a mountain for some spectacular views
We were roughly 1316 meters above the sea level. Whereas Chiang Mai City is at about 310 m
We had some Thai Tea and …a toast cause the place had no more food😄
We walked to Mon Jam garden to take some cheesy pictures in front of hearts
Also the viewing platform on the other side.
It was getting late as the sun was setting, so the pictures came out very nice under the golden hour. But we had to headback as we didn’t want Charlie driving in the dark.
Khao Tom Baht Diao (ข้าวต้มบาทเดียว) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/oLPCukEibahqEteS8
We went to a place that got recommended by Gary.
Seemed that only the locals were in there which was nice. The food was made quickly. We have told them to not make it too spicy, tho forgot to tell them for one dish. So it was very spicy. Both of us struggled
Day 16 - Wednesday, Nov 26 (Old City) #
Khao Soi Khun Yai (ร้านข้าวซอยคุณยาย) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gFM9ntxxrfwSfUa17
First we took grab to get some breakfast
Very nice Khao Soi and fast service. We actually got an Khao Soi as soon as we sat down, before we even ordered it😄😄 (They nearly server us by accident, we still got our order very quickly, just 3ish mins after ordering)
Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre (หอศิลปวัฒนธรรมเมืองเชียงใหม่) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/znu4wrMJYF4vbum69
Then we kept walking through the old city and stumbled into the City Arts & Cultural Centre. Spend here about 1:30 hours, learned about the history of Chiang Mai and had a nice cake and tea.
Wat Chedi Luang (วัดเจดีย์หลวงวรวิหาร) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/a3KgbwNi4cNuTTDG7
Then we went into this Lan Na temple built in around 14th century.
Tha Phae Gate (ประตูท่าแพ) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JCHnMtGenNQiTqhv5
Then walked to the famous Phae Gate
Which was full of pigeons.
Decathlon #
Near the Phae Gate we noticed Decathlon, so we have spend a good hour just shopping there as the prices were half of that back in the UK😄 Got too many socks :)
Waroros Market (Kad Luang) (ตลาดวโรรส) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/39mxcceq3TkyaWoZ8
Nothing interesting, mostly locals and most of the stuff is used.
Chiang Mai Night Bazaar (ไนท์บาซาร์เชียงใหม่) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QbmZFQdCQ3m758co9
Was very dead in terms of trinkets and I have noticed through out the trip that most of the markers sell the same stuff you can get on Aliexpress but not any cheaper. Very hard to find something handcrafted.
Ate more khao soi and more Durian. I actually started to really not mind the smell now
Guy was playing some live music where we were sitting. Nice voice, decided to donate to encourage. He sang Wish you were here, I was happy
We wanted to buy a suitcase, to fit all the extra stuff we bought. We went to a place we saw at the Bazaar. The woman there was in her 60s. She came up to as and showed us the calculator with the price for the suitcase we wanted which was 2000 baht, too much we asked if she could do 1000 she said 1800. She had a very dissatisfied face, being almost uncomfortable having to speak to us. This was still too expensive so we found a different place down the road which had a similar suitcase we wanted in yellow.
The lady selling wasn’t there, she run to as. And was like “What” we asked how much is the suitcase. She looked annoyed, like how do we dare asking how much the suitcase is and making her come all the way back to her shop. We should just buy without asking the price😄 she said 1600. We haggled down to 1500. So was visibly annoyed which was probably her strategy to make foreigners buy and not haggle too much 😄
Were trying to add more storage for the flight but airasia has a broken website and bot
Day 17 - Thursday, Nov 27 (Doi Inthanon) #
Left at 7 am. We got picked up by Mr Charlie.
Look around 1h 40m to get all the way to the top
We stopped at the entrance of the National Park where we had to pay 100 baht for each person and 30 baht per car.
Ang Ka Nature Trail (เส้นทางศึกษาธรรมชาติอ่างกาหลวง) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Yp3bq5pBfjQWcqv48 Our first stop was the Ang Ka Nature Trail. Honestly not a Trail, more like a little path that gets you to the sign and to the other side which has toilet and soke cafes.
It is 2,565 meters above sea level. Tho it didn’t feel like we deserved the celebration of that height, as we slept in the car all the way through 😄
It was also chilly (8 Degrees at the top) and it was an interesting contrast to the rest of the trip
We had some milo hot chocolate and a steamed bun and moved on as there wasn’t anything else interesting to do
Kew Mae Pan Nature Trail #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vhx8zuwfV4ZLGYwFA
Next was Kew Mae Pan Trail. That required us to get a local guide to walk with us for 3 or so km for 200 baht per group. I suppose that’s a way to support the locals as well as make sure no one falls off the cliff.
We came up to the counter to pay for the local guide. The guy was a round cheeked and full of energy almost as if he was working at the stocks markets shouting things out and giving out orders.
The guide we got didn’t speak much. The only thing he was able to day was “3 kilometres” and “Up down” describing our route.
It was a bit lower, so it was warmer. Around 11 degrees. The views were very nice you could see very far away and you could see the different shades of the mountains in the distance.
Because we were so high, up the climate was very different to the rest of the Thailand. It did remind us about hiking in UK tho. The temperature was around 11 windy and the plants and trees were actually very similar. If we woke up in the middle of the forest there we would think we were in England.
There was another guide from another group that kept speaking English too much. He asked where I was from, I said England. He started saying English phrases like “innit”, “Wobbly bobbly” and so on. Was funny but started to get annoying as we kept seeing him on the path. He talks and jokes too much.
The views looked incredible, but we still felt we didn’t deserve the views as we didn’t hike much. It’s 3.5 km, but honestly felt like we should have climbed higher for those views
Guide was actually struggling to follow us, you could hear him breathing heavily behind us. We set a quick pace going up. I felt getting hot and sweaty. When we came up to a flat terrain there were other tourists with their guides resting, not us, we just walked past it and carried on. I bet our guide was a bit annoyed because we weren’t tired walking. The guy was doing this walking tour the whole day, and we did this in 1:30 where most people spend at least 2-3 hours on this path😄. He has to do it all over again after he drops us off.
The Royal Pagodas of Mount Inthanon Summit #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Uszu8ciE7Dtxvz4S8 Next just a short 3 min drive we went to the Twin Pagodas. Well not exactly 3 mins we had to park where another transport would pick us up and just drive us over the road to the pagodas.
The two pagodas are for Pagoda Noppamethanedon & Pagoda Nopphonphusiri for the King and Queen
They actually lookes like that chess pieces for queen and king.
It was very windy up here as it was pretty open. When getting into the King Pagoda you had to take off your shoes as it’s temple. But one of my shoe actually decided to get blow off, so I had to chase it for a bit😄
The sun was also baking us. As there weren’t many clouds at this hight. We didn’t spend much time here. Off to the next hike.
Pha Dok Sieo Nature Trail (เส้นทางศึกษาธรรมชาติผาดอกเสี้ยว) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/geE6iGcjt39rW2kV9
Here we got another local guide who was from a Karen village to which we were heading.
He unfortunately didn’t speak much English either:(
He did put the effort trying to explain. But it was very difficult to understand. As we heard other groups passing by with their guides speaking better English we felt we were missing out on so much information:(
Again the hike wasn’t very difficult and it only took over an hour. Once we reached the village we were offered free coffee and tea that they were growing. We got a few for my parents.
As we were drinking coffee we turned around to find Mr Charlie waiting for us. He helped us get coffee and we started heading to the car. I saw that he has a banjo at the back of his car on Tuesday and dresses as a native Indian. So I asked if he plays. He was very surprised that I had noticed. He was very happy to talk about how he was told by an American tourist that he looks like a native Indian so he started dressing so. He also plays in the band where they play country music.
He actually played at the wedding the night before.
Wachirathan Waterfall (น้ำตกวชิรธาร) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/DKM3r11DUYRM6K3C9
Next we went to the waterfall as our last stop.
So powerful
We could feel the air being throwed by the weight of water falling.
We had to wear rain coats to stay dry. We had a quick tea with cake and set out home as it was getting late and we felt tired
LS’ Kitchen 李氏茶餐廳 #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/35rwErgkNFzxhj3q9
As we were looking for a place to eat we found Hong Kong Cafe, which was literally 2 mins away from our hotel. It looked very cosy and cute inside. Damn, Hong Kong snacks are interesting. They have Tempo tissues as a snack 😄
As we were eating we met the owner. She said they were open for 2 years now and also had another place in the south of the city but instead it served European style food.
It was sad to see that this place was empty, as it was in the middle of nowhere, so not alot of people could find it or bother to go here.
We will be back, sad we didn’t find it before:(
Day 18 - Friday, Nov 28 (Last Day in Chiang Mai) #
Today we wanted to go to Doi Suthep so we woke up and got a bolt to the beginning of the trail.
Monk’s Trail (เส้นทางศึกษาธรรมชาติผาลาด) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QsK1FzEVGWYi9VLb7
Oops apparently we took the Bolt some of the way up to the trail. We missed out on the first bit of the trail. But that’s fine because it’s just concrete road, not interesting.
The trail wasn’t that well paved.
Wat Pha Lat (วัดผาลาด (สกิทาคามี)) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Tgacrv1T7ehqcvbE8
At the end of the Monk’s Trail we came up to a temple. It is a meditation retreat. The temple looked very cool and looked overgrown, lost in the jungle vibe.
It was next to the waterfall, so you could hear alot of water noise, perfect for meditation.
Doi Suthep Hiking Trail (Wat Pha Lat) (จุดเริ่มเดินป่าดอยสุเทพ (วัดผาลาด)) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HvmFpxdrtrKJRjy59
We continued further to the Doi Suthep. The path has gotten much worse, almost climbing. Reminded us of the Dragon’s Crest.
It was our last day of hiking and we were tired, so we decided that we won’t climb down as it’s too steep.
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (วัดพระธาตุดอยสุเทพราชวรวิหาร) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/MobnY68ZKs8ui9K4A
Once we got to the Temple of Doi Suthep there were many people, too many.
Something that seemed abit sacreligios was the fact that there were alot of photographers offering their services right in the temple annoying you with their plastic alboms with prices on them.
The views were nice. You could see most of the Chiang Mai City. And we felt like we deserved the view after climbing all that way :)
Got Bolt back to the hotel
LS’ Kitchen 李氏茶餐廳 #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/35rwErgkNFzxhj3q9
Back for more, need to use our remaining time wisely 😄
Lila Thai Massage Phra Singh #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/L1XjLuTuVcAPg7jw8
Now after all that Hiking and walking in the past couple of days we felt we deserved Thai massage.
Lilas Massage has ex convicts helping them find a stable job without prejudice to make sure they don’t come back to the life of crime from desperation. http://www.chiangmaithaimassage.com/aboutus.php?lng=th
When we came into the shop we were welcomed warmly and offered slippers.
We chose Lila’s 2 hour package which had a hot compress. My masseuse was Kik. 2 hours flew by, it was really relaxing. Though when it got to the compress, I think I was a bit sensitive as I think my knee got burnt a little. We also had to change into Thai pajamas for the massage. The package cost about 20 pounds per person for 2 hours, very worth the money.
After, we browsed balms in the reception and actually got a few some for ourselves the rest as gifts.
Durianism Cafe’ Phra Singh Chiang Mai ทุเรียนคาเฟ่พร้อมเสิร์ฟ 365 วัน #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/oTGY1uVc1ojF5tfG8
On the way to the Massage we noticed a Durian themed Cafe. We had to check it out.
We got durian each where you could choose the ripenes and size. I think this was the best ones we had in the entire trip.
I was desiring some drinks so I also got Durian milkshake. It was a bit sweet, but I needed it😄
LS’ Kitchen 李氏茶餐廳 #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/35rwErgkNFzxhj3q9
Back for even more
Nearly forgot about Kitchen closing at 8 as we were packing in our hotel nearby. So we run there order what we could enjoyed it also got the Tempo Tissues😄
Day 19 - Saturday, Nov 29 (Return to Bangkok) #
Had to wake up at 4:15 is and get a bold to the airport at 5 am
Suvarnabhumi Ville Airport Hotel #
โรงแรมสุวรรณภูมิ วิลล์ แอร์พอร์ต โฮเทล
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Kb6kQGb7LKwUjimU7
When landed in Bangkok we got our Grab taxi which was meant to take only 15 minutes to get to the hotel.
However the driver we got was abit confused. First it tool him 13mins to get to the airport and then he called me asking “Where are you?” I thought it should be an easy thing as I have literally selected Grab Pickup A, a designed spot for grab drivers.
He spend the next 10 mins trying to find his way to the Pickup, then called again saying he is there, he wasn’t.
At this point I just gave it to the Grab people to talk to him in Thai. They found him nearby, but not at the Pickup A.
When we got into the car, he took 2 wrong turns and accidentally coming back to the airport 😄😄
At this point it has taken more then 30 minutes for us to get to our airport hotel. I started feeling bad for the guy. As he was probably feeling very stressed after making so many mistakes.
We have planned to do some shopping so as it was only 11 am we went into the central Bangkok.
Aunty’s Wok PhayaThai (อาหารตามสั่ง) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pM7mTCUjdhHm7qom8
Got hungry on the way so stopped at an Aunty’s restaurant for a pick me up
centralwOrld (เซ็นทรัลเวิลด์) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/cYUiSNk1NFYoMRaN7
We walked the rest of the way through confusing skywalks to the shopping mall. On the way we got even more socks😜 7-11 socks.
We took a very overcrowded train to the market.
Chatuchak Weekend Market (ตลาดนัดจตุจักร) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/oEtyJFeLWsohZB9i7
We came her on our first week but it was barely alive as it was a weekday. Today it was much more alive with alot of shops open and alot of shoppers.
We didn’t buy much as we have noticed throughout our whole trip when visiting the markets that they all sell the same stuff. As if they are just getting stuff from the same factory. You can literally walk to the next shop and you will see the same wooden elephant that we saw in Krabi and Chiang Mai. The markets seem to have become more commercialised over the years with many vendors selling mass-produced trinkets rather than unique handmade items.
That was quite sad, so we only bought a handful of things that seemed unique.
Having walked over 20k steps today and being extremely sleepy deprived he went back to the hotel.
S64 (Bar & Restaurant) #
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zoPAtQNtKNrARiDM8
The hotel had a sky bar where we ordered our last Thai food. Which we asked not to be spicy. It ended up being too spicy for us. We should have trusted a Google review from a guy who claimed that the carbonara was exceptional 😄
Day 20 - Sunday, Nov 30 (Fly Back to London) #
Had a quick breakfast at the hotel.
And got a shuttle to the airport
We have also played multilayer battleships
Eve air had some very good food on board
