Mrs. ItchyFeet Chiang Mai, Thailand, has a ton of fun touristy things to do in and around the massive city. The Sky Lantern Festival is over, but there are still loads of decorations everywhere. There are temples galore, a sticky waterfall, fun shopping, elephant sanctuaries, snake shows, cabaret, cooking classes, food tours, and so many Thai dishes to taste. I can’t do them all before I get on that train to Bangkok. But the absolute must do while in Chiang Mai is to head up the mountain to the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep for the sunrise!
Sunrise?
Here’s the thing… it’s been rainy. It’s not supposed to be rainy, but it is. There is no point in getting up all early to go see a sunrise if your view is going to be obscured by clouds! The other thing is that I really want to do the mountain hike because it is supposed to be spectacular. But with the recent rain, we are talking about some serious mud. With my neck and back issues, that is actually more dangerous than just unpleasant. On top of that, I accidentally ate a bite of cake hidden in an icy dessert, which caused my stomach to hurt pretty badly. I wait!
So then I was at the Sunday Night Market (which is another absolute must do while in Chiang Mai as they close off a good chunk of the Old City for pedestrians!) in the food section, when I offered to share my table with a couple of guys from the US. They started telling me all about the hike to the gorgeous Buddhist Temple on the mountain. I had been planning on taking a songthaew (shared red pickup-truck) up to the temple for sunrise and hiking down.
They suggested doing the opposite because of all the mud. It’s safer to hike up and drive back than slip and slide down the mountain. Plus, it’s much cooler in the morning, so the hike will be more pleasant. Smart! Then they told me all about Wat Pha Lat, which is an ancient Buddhist Temple built in the woods, that many people ignore, that is free to explore on the way up to the more popular Wat Doi Suthep. They liked the rustic one better.
I’m in!
So I get up all early and eat a quick spicy salmon onigiri breakfast from 7-Eleven (don’t get me started on how weird this sounds, but they are delicious!), and head out to find a songthaew. Once I find one that looks promising, the driver tells me there aren’t any going that way, so I should take a tuk-tuk. It’s on my list of things to do in Thailand, so I fork over the overpriced 300 baht (the songthaew are only 100 baht) and jump in.
Once I realize how horrible the traffic is and how far we are going, I feel better about the $10 USD price tag. The highway is at a complete standstill, so we take a bunch of back roads (with one stop to ask for directions). However, as we start the long, steep, climb up the mountain, it becomes increasingly clear that this little tuk-tuk is just not going to make it. Should I get out and push!?!
The driver finally gives up and tells me to walk the rest of the way because the trailhead is just around the corner. Ha! You know what’s just around the corner? The Chiang Mai Zoo… not the trailhead. It is a hike up past the zoo until I finally make it to the ticket booth… which is empty. You know what that means!?! Free! It does actually. I’m not trespassing. There is a gate that is closed if the trail is closed. It’s just free if there isn’t anyone at the booth to take your 100 baht.
Mud
The trail is slightly muddy but not too bad, and the weather is gorgeous. Not hot at all. It is overcast, so I’m not getting the amazing overlooks I was promised, but there is still time. Once I finally make it up the side of the mountain to the waterfall and bridge, I put on my shoulder and knee covers that I brought because there is a dress code to enter any Buddhist Temple and Wat Pha Lat is no different.
The old temple grounds are spectacular! And free! Well worth the hike up. This is not a very popular Wat, so there are very few people around. It’s still an active temple, with monks coming and going and guided tours. It’s just beautiful. You can tell there will be some pretty marvelous views once the clouds clear. I’m just glad it’s not raining. Time for a snack, water, and then find a toilet.
Here’s the thing… you have to take your shoes off to go into the bathroom… gross. You can tell not everyone does this because the tile floor is muddy and wet. Sigh. And no toilet paper (I brought some but forgot it in my bag outside!) and no soap. At least there is a bathroom available, free, and women can use it. And I have hand sanitizer.
What now?
At this point, I can continue hiking up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep or take a songthaew back to Chiang Mai. I had heard that the trail continuing from here is brutal and currently very muddy. Nope. I found a red truck offering a good price, but only if two more people join me. So I waited… and waited. After about 30 minutes, I was about to give up and pay more to go now when this lady walks up. She’s going up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep instead of down to the city. The driver asks if I would like to join her for 100 baht. Sure! Why not? And we pile into the back of the truck.
The drive up the mountain is very windy and steep. My ears popped from the high elevation pressure change several times! Once at the Wat, I cover my knees and shoulders once again and start up the 309 steps to the temple. Pretty much immediately after paying the 30 baht to enter the grounds, the clouds clear, and all of us tourists are rewarded with breathtaking views of Chiang Mai! I can see why peeps come up here for the sunrise.
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is really very pretty. Gold everywhere. Marble, wood, and jade Buddhas. Various statues and murals all around. People put coins into the pillars in places, possibly for future prospects? You can enter each building in the temple complex, but you must take off your shoes. I just peaked in because there are humans worshiping in them, and I don’t want to disturb anyone. It’s not my religion, but I want to be respectful.
The views!
I keep going back to the overlooks because they really are pretty. I can see planes landing way down below at the airport! The moat that surrounds Old City (where I’m staying) is visible. I’m still floored how big Chiang Mai is. It feels like a small village in Old City, but clearly it is not. Time to head down and get some lunch. So many stairs!
Once at the bottom of the stairs, I find a songthaew (100 baht, which is just over $3 USD) and wait in the back of a hot covered truck with seven other people for about 30 minutes. What are we waiting for? The truck is clearly full. It is, however, fun chatting with the others. They are all very muddy as they decided to hike the full Monk’s Trail instead of just half, like I did. They thought it was too slippery to attempt to hike back down.
There are people from Colorado (USA), France, Germany, and somewhere else, all chatting with the bridge language of English, which is lucky for me. We finally take off and pick up one more person for the very steep, windy, crawl down the mountain. Please don’t crash or plummet off the side of a cliff! We hit a bit of traffic once back in the city, but nothing like this morning.
The driver drops people off along the way, and I jump out early for one of my favorite lunch spots. Green curry with pork! Red curry with duck! Sticky rice with mango! I’m in heaven! And all for about $8 USD. My dollars don’t go as far here as in Vietnam, but it’s close, and the food is so amazing. It’s worth every penny.
Run!
Another really fun thing I did in Chiang Mai was to go on a run. I belong to this secret (not secret) running group that has chapters (kennels) all over the world, and there just happens to be one here! This is actually the first one that I have found outside of the United States, even though I look for groups in every country I go to. Bali, Indonesia, was an almost, but the run was really far away and there was some flooding on the roads to get there.
It was so great to connect with like-minded people out for a bit of exercise in an area of Chiang Mai that I have never been to. They rented a songthaew for the evening, and we all piled in, filling it to capacity. Once at the run site, they re-iterated that I needed to be back at the start by nightfall as it gets really dark and people have gotten lost in the woods overnight before. Don’t be that human! Um… okay…
So, I definitely got lost during the run. It’s kind of like a scavenger hunt with clues you have to solve along the way with the promise of beer at the end! A group of us tried to take a shortcut because we were running out of time, but lost the trail and had to go back. No worries. I’m just glad I didn’t have to slog through the mud to get to where we started! I’m a princess like that.
At the end, the organizers had an enormous block of ice that we circled around and had to sit on as we were accused of various atrocities on trail. Or just because you were visiting from a different country and they want to get to know you. Or because you didn’t wear any official gear from any of the groups. I packed light… sorry! That ice is painful! I swear this is not a cult. We all had a great time with lots of laughter and ate dinner together after. Thanks, new friends!
To Bangkok… via slow train
You can fly from Chiang Mai to Bangkok in about an hour. Super fast! But why would you do that when you can take a train through the mountains and rice fields between the two largest cities in Thailand? It’s only 14 hours! I’ve actually been looking forward to this train ride as I’ve read all about how gorgeous it is in a Thailand train guide I found.
Here’s the thing… the guide recommends the left-hand side of the number 8 Train… which was completely sold out two weeks ago when I bought tickets (note to future self, buy tickets earlier!). I ended up on the right-hand side of the number 102 train, which is the slow train with no AirCon. It leaves at 6:30am instead of 8:30am. That means I have to get up at 4:45am with a 5:30am pickup time. Sigh.
Once at the train station and on the train, I had a very good time people watching all the seating struggles. The 3rd class tickets don’t come with seat assignments, and they oversell the seats, so it becomes standing room only. So, people run around looking for any open seat available. The problem is that the more expensive 2nd class tickets have assigned seating, so those peeps can mosey onto the train whenever and remove anyone who claimed their seat. I saw some poor souls sitting on the floor of the luggage compartment (this made me nervous as my big bag was back there and I did not want it to wander off).
Right on time!
Per the guide, the train always leaves on time but doesn’t necessarily arrive on time. How does that work? Sometimes the ten-minute stops at a station can turn into one minute because the train is running late but needs to leave that station on time. It’s a game of catch-up. Well, I wasn’t pleased at waking up so freaking early, but the sunrise was gorgeous over the mountains. The guide actually recommends getting on this train for the sunrise and then switching to Train 8 once out of the hills. That gives you an hour-long stop for lunch and still gets you into Bangkok earlier than this train. Or you can head back to Chiang Mai if you are just doing the train as a fun day trip!
The guide is really great because it tells you what to watch out for, like upcoming tunnels and bridges, and what side of the train those sites will be on. Lots of Buddhist Temples and valley views. Plus bends in the track so that you can get a picture of the train on the tracks. There’s even an upside-down bridge that was built to avoid detection from The Allies during WWII! So much history on this train!
Reviews of the train said that sometimes food vendors got on at various points, but nothing is guaranteed. There are station stops, but it might not be enough time to get food. Some folks might sell you food through the open window, but again, it’s not an always thing. With that in mind, I brought lots of food and water for the 14-hour trip, just in case. We ended up having tons of vendors getting on and off, and I had a good time watching all the food purchases.
Is it getting hotter in here?
I was actually quite cold at the beginning of the trip through the mountains with all the windows open. But once we got down to the rice fields, it definitely started getting warm. That’s another reason the left side of the train is better as it doesn’t get full afternoon sun. Add in the incredible amount of dust coming in the windows from the train tracks, and it started to get mighty unpleasant. We right-side people all eventually had to close our wooden blinds to keep from sweltering. At least the fans worked.
But let me tell you about the bathroom! The toilet is the squat type. Put your feet on each side of the hole, squat down, and pee or poo. Which is completely fine when the train isn’t rocking back and forth. It was a challenge, but I managed! I also brought my own soap, which was a good idea. I felt bad for those seated closest to the bathroom. Not the best smells happening in that area. To be fair, I knew to avoid that section when I bought my ticket.
We all opened the blinds once the sun started to set. And let me tell you, that sunset was absolutely gorgeous! And then this massive, several-stories-tall, golden Buddha goes whizzing past on (you guessed it!) the left side of the train! So fast that I wasn’t able to get a picture for you all. Where am I? The rice paddies were amazing in the evening light. I’m unsure if there was flooding going on or that’s just how rice paddies work? Since there were boats present, I’m assuming (hoping) all is as it should be?
It’s an adventure
At one station, the ticket checker looked at a lady and motioned that she was clearly just about to miss her stop. He actually jumped off the train as it started moving and radioed the driver to stop for this mislaid traveler. How nice is that!?! I’m glad people are looking out for each other. Once we finally make it to Bangkok, I get a shared ride to my new apartment.
So fancy! The skyscraper building is beautiful with a rooftop swimming pool and gym. It’s in a neighborhood that is zoned for long-term stays only, so I’m surrounded by lots of wonderful locals (and food!). Plus, it’s very close to the, functionally, tallest building in Bangkok (the “tallest” only got that title by sticking a useless wall to one side of the roof, like a wafer in an ice cream bowl, to get the record), which just happens to be spectacular. I can sit in my building’s rooftop pool and look up at all the tiny humans getting pictures taken way up on the clear sky-walk. How fun is that!?!
The one thing the apartment is missing (and was definitely in the pictures and description) is a washing machine. Oh! And a drinking water source! But luckily for me, there is a coin laundry in the garage along with a serviced water filtration system. It costs about one baht (3 cents USD) per liter of potable water. It means that now I have to start hoarding coins or head to a bank. No worries. I’m very excited about all the markets and food courts and restaurants and Metro transit within walking distance! It’s an adventure!
Too cool