Robin & Karen Living the Dream: Chiang Mai

We had planned our trip so that we would be in Chiang Mai for the Loy Krathong andYi Peng festivals in November. Loy Krathong means floating basket and it is held on the 12th full moon of the Thai lunar calendar usually in November. It refers to “Loy” meaning to float and “Krathong” refers to small baskets made of banana leaves decorated with flowers, candles, and incense sticks. These are then set off floating down the river where they symbolically carry away negative aspects of life. We were happy to be able to participate. The celebration also included fireworks, special decorations & parades.

Krathong

Some made of bread to decrease river pollution

These are made of fish food (looks like colourful cheese puffs)

Our Krathongs

A site to release the - bamboo platforms over the Ping River, with men in the water to help you light the candle & incense

Floats in the Krathong parade

The Yee Peng festival (Lantern Festival) is an ancient tradition in northern Thailand, where there are colourful lanterns decorating the city, parades & the release of paper lanterns into the sky. Unfortunately they now ban release of the lanterns within the city for safety reasons & we did not have tickets for the events outside the city. We did see several lanterns floating by our hotel that had been released near the river. And we listened to fireworks all night long!

A lantern

The specks of light are lanterns floating by

Street food everywhere

The 2nd parade

Pre-parade entertainment

We were told that a visit to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep ( Thailand’s most sacred temple) was a must to complete any trip to Chiang Mai so we joined a half day tour. The temple was started in 1383 & is situated up a mountain. There is a staircase of 306 steps to reach the temple but our tour sent us up the funicular & we took the stairs down. Another amazing temple! And spectacular views of Chiang Mai from an observation deck.

The funicular

Wat Doi Suthep

A wooden carved story of the temple

Very busy place

Chiang Mai

The tour included a visit to a Hmong tribal village further up the mountain (1700m), where they used to grow opium poppies & now they grow coffee. Beautiful gardens, including some huge poinsettia plants & we were able to enjoy their coffee as we admired the view. Of course there were souvenir shops including the chance to rent Hmong traditional costumes - a family graciously allowed photos.

So high up there was mist

Traditional handicrafts - embroidery

Walking thru the market to get to the coffee shop

Opium poppy

Huge poinsettia

We had planned to leave Chiang Mai on the Sunday, November 17 but all the buses north (hourly) were full. Luckily our hotel was able to keep us one more night & we were then happy to visit the Sunday Night Market again. More tasty foods including an avocado smoothie made from ginormous avocados!

Tapae Gate into the Old City

A model of the Old City within the walls, 37 Wats (Temples)

Robin looking manly

Night market

Balloons filled with flour for hand exercises

Soap carving

Coconut lamps

We have mainly walked or taken public transit but we used the occasional Bolt taxi (like Uber which we have never used) - the fare to the bus station was 85 baht, a mere $3.44! We opted for the VIP seats on our trip north to Chiang Rai - wider & an insane amount of legroom! A 3.5 hr journey, cost of $12.70 each & they gave us water & a snack. Windy road, up into the hills passing farms & small towns & a fair amount of road construction.

We did take a tuk tuk

One of the small restaurants we’ve eaten at, that is the cook in the kitchen

The Green VIP bus

More legroom than we knew what to do with!

Our hotel in Chiang Rai, Pimann Place was basic but clean, A/C, a fridge & close to the Night Bazaar & included a choice of breakfasts. We ventured out to the Night Bazaar our first night - crazy busy, countless choices of food stalls & options, live entertainment & of course souvenir shopping. Since we are travelling with our carry on size backpacks we unfortunately have no space for souvenirs except for the occasional clothing piece or some jewelry. Our shopping for souvenirs will happen back in Bangkok before we head home in April ( & we will then purchase a suitcase). We tried a traditional hot pot meal - you choose your meat option (comes raw), you get a basket of raw veggies, noodles & an egg & then you are set up at your table with the hot pot. It’s a clay bowl holding hot charcoal & on top sits another clay pot with soup broth - you then proceed to put some veggies, noodles & meat into the pot, wait only a couple of minutes & voila - you have supper! You eat some & then repeat the process until your ingredients are gone, quite tasty & fun to do, while enjoying cold Chang beer. We then bought a bag of peanuts from a girl walking around - they were soft & looked nasty inside but our table mate explained that they were boiled peanuts. They tasted ok but we won’t be buying more.