Chiang Mai

Following a couple of full on days visiting Chiang Rai, it was time for some less intense tourism and a change of scenery before flying out of Chiang Mai. So we decided to dedicate our last 2 days to food tourism and nature in the capital of the North.

Food Tourism

Our food tourism began immediately upon arrival, when we spotted a restaurant called Shabu Buffet. We weren’t sure what this was or how it worked, but after quizzing the waiter we decided to give it a go for lunch – after all, an Asian buffet plus drinks for a fiver can’t be that bad! Basically, this was a Japanese hot pot buffet, where you pick all the ingredients (meat, veg, noodles) and add them to a broth which boils away in the centre of your table. Kind of like a fancy ramen – delicious!

Later we found an exquisite dessert cafe called Cheevit Cheeva, where James had his first chocolate fudge cake since leaving the UK (long overdue and incredibly rich) and Mariya discovered a new favourite type of matcha green tea – with a creme brulee floating on top!

Sunday Night Market

Finally, after checking into our hotel we found the local Sunday night market where we would have dinner. This time, we had a papaya salad (very common in Thailand) and a local Chiang Mai dish named Khao Soi – a very well seasoned noodle soup with a delicious chicken leg inside. It’s fair to say we were stuffed with food by the end of the day.

Doi Inthanon Nationa Park

Not far from Chiang Mai is Thailand’s tallest mountain, Doi Inthanon. Unlike most of the world’s tall mountains, you can drive all the way up this one, making it very accessible. Unfortunately, this means that most day trips involve very little walking and a lot of other tourists! Not really fancying this, we decided to skip the peak and instead explore some of the National Park which surrounds it.

Neither of us have done much jungle trekking before so we weren’t sure what exactly to expect, but thankfully our guide made this very straightforward. He himself is a rice farmer for most of the year, but works as a guide during the dry season and speaks excellent english, so we knew we were in good hands. Though there were no panoramic viewpoints on our walk, it was a novel experience for us to be walking through bamboo forests for part of the way.

Near the beginning of the trek we passed through a local village where we got a glimpse into how the mountain people live. From what our guide told us, most young tribespeople don’t stick around (“there’s no mobile signal in the mountains!”) and prefer to follow a more modern way of life in the city.

At first we thought this exodus was a shame, but the way he described it this actually sounded like a positive thing. To illustrate, he explained how a lot of wild animals (tigers, wolves, bears…) had been more or less hunted to extinction by the tribes, who would then sell them for next to nothing (maybe £50 for a fully grown tiger) to Chinese Herbal Doctors. He went on to explain that another source of their income is taking tourists for elephant rides. During peak season the elephants do not get a single break during the day (they are beaten if they try to sit down while walking) and are malnourished when fed at night (they are given a diet of 100% bananas). So from the sounds of it, the tribespeople are so poorly educated that this way of life is not sustainable and the youth moving to the city is inevitable.

After the bamboo forests, the route became a little treacherous as we skirted along a narrow winding trail halfway up the side of a river valley. Thankfully, our efforts were rewarded with a refreshing lunch at a waterfall, followed by a dip in to cool off.

Otherwise the day wasn’t too challenging, just a little bumpy terrain and heat to contend with. But it was good to get into the countryside, even if only for a day.

And as this was our last day in Thailand, we were determined to find a good massaman curry for our last supper. Apparently 2 on a 5 point scale is still way too spicy for us Westerners, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. And to round off our food tourism, we bought a small assortment of local cakes and some iced fruit smoothies at yet another night market for dessert. A sweet end to a sweet trip.