Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai  at about 9am. The rail ride was 2 hours longer than expected, a total of 13 hours. This did not concern us but a group of Europeans had tour plans hinging on the train being on time.  That is one thing that we have learned. Keep your plans loose and expect delays, they happen. That being said, we will leave for Sukhothai from Chiang Mai extra early. We have a flight booked there to return us to Bangkok in four days.

The rail ride was quite uneventful. I slept from 7:30pm till 5am-ish. There was nothing to see anyways since it was dark. I noticed that the train did not go all that fast, maybe 60-80kph and it had many stops along the way. When the sun did rise about 6am, we got to see the beautiful, lush countryside and the small rail stations.

 Each rail station was a manicured oasis in the middle of the jungle. When the train pulled into one of these small stations, dogs and chickens would anxiously run to the train. I am assuming they were hoping for scraps of food. Though, I have yet to see anybody feed stray dogs anywhere.

Chiang Mai is a city that is just as busy as Bangkok but with more Thai authenticity. There are no malls or box stores here. Everything is bought at the markets around town. Also, many goods are delivered directly from street vendors. There are still a few Western businesses such as Starbucks, Burger King, and McDonalds to appease the Westerners. These stores are quite expensive when living on the Thai Baht. When the Canadian dollar is converted to Baht, a Starbucks coffee is not that much cheaper than back home. The real money savings is eating at the real Thai food outlets. You can eat a good size lunch for $2 Canadian. A hotel restaurant may cost $8-$10. One thing is for sure; Thais have incredible food and service. I think all people in the service industry from Canada should come to Asia to learn how it’s done before they can work at home.

We have done the un-thinkable. We rented motor scooters to get around Chiang Mai. I was totally intimidated by the traffic and how crazy it is but I have grown used to it. All you need to know is keep on the left, make wide right turns and the rest is “anything goes!” I took everything I know about riding a motorcycle and threw it out the window. Lane splitting back home is considered very dangerous and rarely seen. Here, lane splitting is common practice! It really is a blast bootin’ around a city in this manner.  Besides, we needed to get to the Women’s Prison somehow!

Why did we go the Women’s Prison? Well, we thought a Thai massage would be good.  Yes, we got a massage in a women’s prison! It sounds quite dirty but it was very nice. Apparently, a large portion of the money earned by the prisoners is held for them upon their release. Then I heard from a local that “who knows” how much they really get. Trish and I both had a foot massage which should have been called, “The foot, leg, hand, arm, head, and neck massage”. While we were being massaged, there was an older Japanese gentleman  having the full massage. He was snoring away while the massuesse worked on him.

I could go on much longer about Chiang Mai but I will wrap it up with an observation.  The people were amazing. They had little material possessions but they always had a smile on their face.  They would help you anyway they could. They had monetary motivation on the surface but if you got to know them on a personal level, yes, they were genuine. The people in the north have been the highlight of the trip so far.  We’ll DEFINITELY be back!

PS. Internet here is painfully slow. I couldnt upload pics this time.