Chiang Mai, Pai and Chiang Rai - Our Last Few Stops Before Laos
After swapping beaches for cities, and heading for the mountains, we fell in love with Chiang Mai, had the most chilled out time in Pai, and checked out Chalermchai Kositpipat’s quirky temple: Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai.
Being seasoned professionals at getting night-buses by now, we decided to take the overnight bus from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai. It would get us to Chiang Mai at around 7am, which was perfect timing to check out Jing Jai Market before checking into our hotel.
Waiting for the bus - you can see the excitement oozing out of me
Jing Jai Market is a relatively small farmer's market that is open every Saturday and Sunday morning, and sells all sorts of homemade crafts and artwork. Some people are even painting new pieces while sitting at their stall waiting for potential buyers to come and have a look at their work. Compared to other markets, this one seemed really well laid out, giving every seller enough space to have plenty of people at their stall without feeling too cramped, and there were a lot of seating areas for us to enjoy a much needed coffee and play some cards. Later in the morning, we were even treated to some live musicians who played all sorts of songs from various genres, adding to the pleasant atmosphere.
After soaking up the great vibes at Jing Jai market for the majority of the morning, it was time to head to our hotel to get checked in. We thought we'd attempt the half an hour walk, but after a measly 10 minutes in the blazing midday sun with our backpacks on and very little sleep on the bus, we jumped at the chance to get a lift when a local TukTuk driver pulled over and his elderly wife hollered out the window at us. Despite us showing both of them the map, saying the name of our hotel, and even some local landmarks near the hotel that we'd be happy to get dropped off at, there was still an overwhelming sense of confusion and the driver called his English-speaking friend to liaise with us and relay the details of our destination onto the driver's wife in Thai.
We had little faith as they both still looked quite confused, and we were driving around just picking other pedestrians up and dropping them off. At one point, we had our hopes built up because they drove over the bridge that was near our place, but then he did a U-turn and drove straight back over it. To be honest, we weren't bothered because we were getting to rest our weary legs, while enjoying an obscure and unplanned tour of the city in a TukTuk. Somehow, we finally arrived at our hotel, much to the driver’s and our relief. Still not check-in time yet, we dumped our bags in the lobby and headed out in search of a cold beverage while checking out our newest neighbourhood.
We immediately felt at home! The narrow, cobbled streets lined with bars, cafes and restaurants offering cooking courses and veggie food made us feel like we could spend weeks here and still not have explored everything on offer. A lot of the roads were meant to be pedestrian-only, but as we were in Thailand, there was the odd scooter or five passing us by every few minutes. We didn't mind though, everything was running at such a beautifully slow pace that we couldn't help but relax.
On the subject of relaxing, we decided to go to one of those spas where you put your feet in the fish tank and the fish nibble the dead skin off your feet. Writing that, I realise how grim it sounds… but we did it anyway. Relaxing it was not! The fish were tickling my feet so bad!! I was laughing hysterically for the whole 15 minutes we were sitting there and no-doubt disturbing all the customers being massaged just inside the building. I couldn't help myself. As soon as I thought I'd gotten used to it, a tiny fish would get in between my toes and I'd be off again! Torture over with, we continued our walk around the city and fell in love more with each step we took.
Our hotel was right in the thick of it - a perfect base - and even better people-watching spot! From our window, we could see a few bars across the road and watch all the punters getting more and more drunk as the evenings went on. We decided to join them, and hit the reggae bar for a game of pool. It turned out that the majority of the people in the bar were locals, and all excellent at pool! They had a whole system going on, where the winner stays on, and if you wanted to play, you had to add your name to the lengthy list on the board and wait your turn. Seeing how good these people were, there was no way I was going to go and embarrass myself, but Tor, feeling brave, added their name to the list.
As we waited, our anticipation grew and grew, and before we knew it, it was Tor's turn to take the cue. We'd just seen this woman annihilate the last 3 or 4 challengers… To my surprise, Tor wasn't going down without a fight and potted ball after ball, as a crowd gathered to watch the game. I was absolutely beaming with pride and my jaw hit the floor when they potted the winning black! Unfortunately for me, it wasn't only my jaw that hit the floor, but my pina colada also did. Remember when I was trying to save myself any embarrassment by not playing? Well, it didn't work. The milkiest cocktail I could have chosen, I was now wearing. Cue embarrassing moment number two.
The kind person working at the bar came running over with a mop and some paper towels for me as soon as she saw what was occurring… Once I was semi-clean, I waited for her to pass my table again, and called her over to thank her and give her a tip for helping me. It turned out she actually owned the bar and refused my tip. She was very kind about it, but I couldn't help but cringe at the fact I'd just offered the equivalent of about £3 to the owner of the establishment after she'd literally been on the floor cleaning up my mess. I wouldn't care, I wasn't even wasted - this was my first drink of the night!!
Saving what street-cred we had left after that ordeal, Tor continued to play pool and ended up winning the next four games! Everyone was astonished that a foreigner was beating them and (I think) everyone just forgot about my mishap.
The days and nights that followed consisted mainly of us finding new places to eat, doing some gift shopping, and checking out new bars in the evenings. Chiang Mai has an excellent food market every evening and it was located right behind our hotel! There was so much to choose from and it was pretty quiet whenever we were there. There was a band playing one night, but other than that, we just enjoyed the peace and quiet as we tucked into that night's food of choice.
We got chatting to some people in one bar who told us about the Chiang Mai International Tattoo Convention that was happening the next day. Unfortunately Tor was feeling under the weather so didn't fancy it, but I thought it would be a great excuse to get a new tattoo, and learn more about traditional methods of tattooing in Asia. With that, I ordered my Grab Bike, and off I went. There were a lot of stick and poke style tattoos going on, and the artists had come from everywhere around the world - even little old England. I spoke to a few artists about their work, some of which were truly beautiful, and had I known about it earlier, I would have booked myself in for a bigger piece. I found a Malaysian artist who had some small unique designs that they were willing to do for me. I loved the style of the planet-like dots, with a bigger sun and the swirls around them. It was abstract, but with a pretty obvious base - allowing you to put your own meaning behind the art, which I really admired.
I was given a slot one hour from when I spoke to them, so I sprinted off to McDonald's for a healthy portion of fries to line my stomach, and grab some money from the ATM. Made it back in time to see the last person's new tattoo which was truly beautiful and I took my seat for the next hour or so. I didn't opt for the stick and poke method, as this is something both Tor and I want to have done together - that will be more of a special experience than getting a run of the mill machine tattoo. Still, I enjoyed the whole day just wandering around on my own, chatting to the artists, seeing some awards being presented, and for that reason I wanted to come away with some new ink of my own. I was really happy with the result and jumped on another bike to head back and show Tora.
Knowing that we had our trip to Laos booked in the next week, we had to get our passport pictures taken for our visa on arrival. One of the days, we went to the Tourist Information Center to see where we could get this done, and the assistant told us about the shop down the road who does it. Now, call me insane, but I was expecting a little photo booth that I'd slip some money into, pull the curtain and have a few chances at getting a half-decent picture of myself. Wrong. We went into the shop and told the lady we wanted to have our passport pictures taken, to which she responded by shouting for presumably her husband to come and get us. He took us up the stairs in the shop and into this full-on photography studio! I mean, I'm awkward at the best of times, but sitting on that stool with all the white sheets behind me and a whole lighting setup around the massive camera had me on another level of awkward. Completely poker-faced, the photographer told us to come back in 15 minutes to pick up our printed photos. Jesus, what a state. As usual, Tora looks absolutely fine on theirs. Me on the other hand… I'd put my hair up for the occasion, but the camera hadn't picked up my ponytail so I look like an old lady with a tight perm, and for some reason the colour of my skin resembles a porcelain pig ornament! He'd clearly done some colour (in)correction, but hey, at least we had something to show at the border.
The next place on our list was Pai. We were loving Chiang Mai so much though, that we were in two minds as to whether or not to bother with Pai this time. I remember us sitting at the bus stop, literally 5 minutes before our bus was due to leave, and the driver shouting for us to take our bags to the bus, and we were like “hmmmm but should we just stay here??” - In the end we agreed to just get on the bus and see what Pai was all about. We'd heard mixed reviews about the place itself, but the one consistent piece of feedback we had was that the bus ride was absolutely awful as it winds around the mountains for over 3 hours, going round a total of 762 bends! This was one of the main reasons I didn't fancy it. We in the mini-van, and thankfully I had the middle seat in the second row so I could see right through the windscreen (this helps me with motion sickness). I had two people next to me who sufffered from motion sickness, and another girl practically begging me to switch seats with her, as she also suffers from it. Being the person I am, I wanted nothing more than to give up my seat, but the prospect of spewing in a van full of 20-somethings, and having to spend the rest of the trip with my head in a bag just gave me the encouragement I needed to say sorry but no.
The drive was as expected, but thanks to my view out the front, and episode after episode of the Closet Confessions podcast, I was able to make it to Pai relatively nausea-free.
As soon as we got there, we were chuffed that we'd decided to get on the bus in Chiang Mai. Yes, it was full of wannabe hippies on their gap year, but if you look past that, you can see all the quirky little cafes and bars along the lantern-lined Walking Street. We got to our accommodation, which was a cute wooden bungalow set within a field of other bungalows, and had our own little terrace with a hammock for us to chill out on. After a busy few days in Chiang Mai, it was the perfect place to relax.’
To be honest, we didn't do a great lot in Pai. Everyone was recommending getting a scooter and going out in the mountains to see some of the countryside, but frankly after seeing the amount of white people with bandages on their arms and legs (obviously from renting a scooter and not knowing how to drive one), I didn't fancy my chances of joining them.
Tor did get a tattoo while we were in Pai, though! It was sketched from a photograph of us on the raft in Khao Sok National Park - just the two of us standing with our backs to the camera, on a raft looking out to the water and rocks that surrounded us. It's a special memory and will now live on forever, on Tora's right bicep. While they were in getting their tattoo done, I took myself off to a Jazz bar and enjoyed watching a live band, but more than that, watching all the hippies wildly dancing barefoot without a care in the world.
Each night, we ate at one of the many street food vendors on Walking Street, and two of those nights, I had a jacket potato with cheese and beans - sometimes you just can't beat some basic (Western??) food.
After a few days relaxing and soaking up the chilled out atmosphere of Pai, it was time to get the bus back to Chiang Mai, to then get another bus to Chiang Rai and get close to the Thai/Laos border! The bus journeys were pretty relaxed and uneventful - the first was another mini-van back down and around the 762 bends, then we had a short stopover in Chiang Mai and boarded a local bus to Chiang Rai. The local bus had around 10 desk fans stuck to the ceiling that would provide some kind of A/C, but none of them were switched on so we made do with the fresh air coming in from the glass-less windows.
We only stayed one night in Chiang Rai, so we got a relatively early night. We did, however, need to eat. We found an Indian restaurant just down the road from us (Accha Authentic Indian Cuisine Chiang Rai), and it was absolutely divine from the second we walked in, to the second we left. We opted to sit upstairs and were met with the cutest little authentic tables and cushions to sit on, and the smells coming from the kitchen were incredible. We knew we were in for a treat! The menu was huge and offered a great range of vegan/vegetarian options - so we took full advantage, and ordered a few small bites to share, as well as a dahl between us with some breads and of course, a bottle of red wine. It was so worth the trek out, after a long day of travelling and set us up for a pleasant stay in the town.
We made the most of our short trip in Chiang Rai by visiting the white temple (Wat Rong Khun) on the second day. Everyone we've spoken to has described it as being a bit Disney-like, but we actually went to the art gallery before we went up to the temple, and read about the artist/architect Chalermchai Kositpipat and saw some of his incredible artwork - the majority of which based on Buddhism. Without knowing anything about him prior to our visit, I got the feeling he's quite the eccentric, and loves elaborate colours and materials. His work has been seen as quite controversial over the years, I guess because it's different to the ‘norm’, and Wat Rong Khun is no exception. He started building it in 1997, and it is still not finished. It's no surprise really, because as you get up close to it, you can see the hundreds of thousands of individual pieces of mirrored chips he's used to decorate the temple.
One of the most surprising things, was when I went inside the main temple… As usual, you have to cover your arms and legs, and remove your shoes - all very normal for entering a Buddhist temple - but what wasn't normal was the art painted all over the walls inside! There were images of the twin towers burning, Spiderman, Angry Birds and even Michael Jackson! These were all on the opposite side to the more traditional Buddhist imagery. According to the Travel Photo Report source, this was Kositpipat's way of showing the good and the bad in the world. You can also see some of the images I'm talking about on that link.
After that cultural whirlwind, we jumped in a taxi and caught the bus over to Chiang Khong where we'd stay the night before our two day slow boat trip to Laos would commence!