I caught
the overnight sleeper train from Bangkok
to Chiang Mai. It’s not that cheap, but if you take into account that you’re
saving a hotel room, it makes it worth it. The train is incredibly slow and
rocks around like crazy, the single track railway has probably not had a lot of
maintenance since it was first laid. It takes about 10 hours by bus and nearly
14 by train, however at least you can stretch out a bit more on the train.
I arrived
in Chiang Mai for the second and third day of the annual water festival. It was
fantastic. The town was really buzzing. People came from far and wide to join
in the fun. At night we flew burning lanterns from the bridge over the river
and floated flower lanterns down the river. The fireworks were a little
frightening. There is little regard for health and safety in these parts and it
was quite common to have loud bangs and rockets going off right next to you. I
retreated to one of the local bars at one point to get away from the loud bangs
only to find people letting them off in the open air bar area.
The town of
Chiang Mai is
quite laid back and much less pushy in terms of trying to make you buy things the
whole time. I really enjoyed the feel of the town. There are magnificent Buddhist
temples all over the town and all were decorated beautifully for the festival.
I visited
the Hill Tribe Museum
which was quite interesting. It appears that some of the hill tribes still grow
opium poppies quite openly as part of their culture. The long necked Karen people
are from these parts as well. You’ve probably seen pictures of the women with
stretched necks covered in large brass rings. I suspect it’s more about tourism
than culture these days as apparently you have to pay a sizable sum to visit
them.
One of the
popular activities is trekking to the hill tribes and staying overnight.
Unfortunately I was a little pressed for time so I arranged a one day trip into
the countryside. We packed a lot into that day – an orchid and butterfly farm,
an elephant trek, the highlight for me was being picked up by an elephant by
his trunk. This was followed by lunch and a trek up to a waterfall, followed by
some relatively tame white water rafting and a bamboo rafting trip down the
river. We were exhausted at the end of it all.
I caught
the night train back down to Bangkok
and spent the last two nights back in Pattaya. I’d been there before and while
it’s not my favorite destination in Thailand, it is the nearest decent beach to
Bangkok and I felt like a bit of sea would be good before heading back to
Scotland in the grip of winter.
After Pattaya
it was time to head home. The tenant who had been renting my house had moved
out so I thought it would be a good opportunity to go home for a while, take
stock and decide what to do next. There are many places in South
East Asia that I’d still like to see and a few places I wouldn’t
mind going back to. I will definitely be back!
