The Thailand Chronicles: Part 6

Bang Saen – Chiang mai

My experience thus far after my arrival in Chiang Mai was of aspiration and desire to finally escape the hold of salt and sandy beaches, and make my way to a greener environment in the mountains of Chiangmai.

Arriving at 4am on July 2nd, 2023, I stepped off of the platform from the train from Bangkok to the “New City” (Chiang Mai). The stop at 4am left me in a haze of confusion as what to do next, as I hadn’t booked a place to stay once I arrived. Considering it was so early, check-ins typically are not until the 2pm for hotels and hostels. As I searched under a hotel patio, I found a place that was well worth the money. L’NER ChiangMai was a perfect place to stay. For approximately $10 per night, a solo room with service and “breakfast” was provided. (Breakfast in quotations because it was a self serve breakfast consisting of bread, a toaster, types of jam, and dissolvable powder coffee and hot chocolate cocoa powder. For $10 can you really complain?

It was just as cheap as staying in a hostel with 8 other people in a room, but the luxury of your own space for the price was unbeatable. I stayed in that room for the entirety of my time while in Chiangmai. I could have chosen a cheaper option, but of course I’d sacrifice my solitude and peace of mind sharing the space with potential strangers.

I was in desperate need of a shower. The 13 hour train ride from Bangkok without a shower the night before made my skin feel thick. I bet I could stick to wallpaper if I through myself against it. Since I needed to get my mind off of the humidity, I looked for some comfort through the wait. With some ingenuity, I strung my hammock between some pillars under the awning as it began to rain. I caught some sleep between the patters of rain against the metal roof and sprays of water from the road.

The time came around for Honey and I to finally check in, shower, and rest for a bit before we made our rounds to complete the next task on the itinerary- finding a motorbike.

After a quick Google search, we came across a place with wonderful reviews called “Like Home”, run by a sweet Thai woman named Nuy, that provides travelers a sense of appreciation and love. The hostel here covers breakfast and dinner for free for its guests, and it’s always random. Nuy and the Thais working at the hostel made the food with a mixture of Thai spice and love that definitely brought a “Like Home” experience to life through meals and conversations with travelers. Her hospitality made her one of the most well-known business-owners and caretakers within the Chiang Mai area, with connections to foreigners all over Thailand from staying with her.

She also rented motorbikes from her hostel as well. I rented a 150CC scooter for 4 days, averaging around 1200 baht, approximately $34.15. That bike brought me around the city and up the mountains to travel along the grand roads and beautiful green scenery with ease. The roads here also were more relaxed than that of Phuket, which was a massive relief considering Honey was my passenger wherever I went. Safety of course was our priority.

In Chiangmai, the night markets are alive with bustling owners of assorted goods with prices that in some areas, can be haggled to quite an affordable price, but in others, owners are very strict about their prices and are unwilling to negotiate much, if at all. It really beat my previous expectation that ALL Thais love to negotiate, but I was met with very hard learned lessons after being shooed away from a lowball offer in the hopes we could negotiate.

From July 2nd until the July 7th, Honey and I rode the motorbikes around Chiangmai like hooligans in search of adventure. On particular day, we decided to head to the waterfalls- which should have only taken 45 minutes or so, but I had stopped at every attraction along the way to Mae Sa and Tat Mok Waterfalls.

We had run into the Zombie Cafe, Adventure Park, shooting ranges, X-Treme Sports park, the base of the Thai 7th Infantry Battalion, and right along the bank of the opening of the mountain were these stone slabs with old Thai writing. Out of curiosity, I rode down a dirt road to satisfy my craving for adventure. I rolled up on my motorbike to an old woman hoeing her garden which was full of edible foods all maintained by her wrinkled hands. There she was, smoking a traditionally rolled Chiangmai cigar, made from dried banana leaves rolled with loose tobacco and sprinkled with tamarin to keep the smell sweet. She was smoking like an old school coal locomotive and I envied her compassion for her work in the brutal Thai heat. Honey was my translator in attempting to communicate and understanding her timely Chiangmai northern dialect.

“How is the tobacco?” I asked intrigued.

“It tastes like chocolate!” She eagerly replied with a wry grin on her face.

I was not only impressed with her nonchalant attitude with a random Farang rolling up on her and speaking to her about questions of life in the mountains of Chiangmai. She offered me cigars and asked if I wanted to learn how to roll them. Of course I said yes. We sat around in a circle and rolled cigars and I offered to buy them from her. She asked “how much do you want to pay for them?” And I gave her 500 baht generously due to the memorable experience and her conviction in being so kind. Come to find out, her name is Menang, and she is 89 years old.

The land she worked on was bought by a man looking to turn it into a resort, but plans fell through, and allowed her and her family stay on the land to live and grow their garden out of kindness for them in order to take care of the land.

After meeting her grandson and learning more about the family history, we thanked them for their time and generosity and parted ways with my inventory of two brand new fresh rolled Chiangmai cigars and an experience I’ll remember forever. As we made our way further down the winding roads we rolled into the gates of the waterfall at Mae Sa, only to find that it was 4:31pm, and the park closed at 4:30pm. There was no entry and there was a man and a woman that were groundskeepers cooking dinner at the top of the hill. We conversed with them for a while until a fellow couple on a bike rolled up on us and we talked about our next waterfall destination that might be open. After some debate we turned around and headed back down to the other waterfall, only this time the gates were guarded by armed security! So we knew the adventure of waterfalls today was impossible.

We didn’t care, we drove everywhere and came up against more roaming cattle in the streets that I just had to pet, as well as beautiful scenery and mountainous views along the way.

In this roadside shop, I said hello to some locals on this mountain village, but they ignored Honey and I when trying to communicate with them. That was until I noticed that the man that had ignored us pulled out this small Chiangmai cigar similar to what Menang gave me. It was only after I pulled out a cigar 5 times bigger than his did he have a grin that spread across his entire face, and he broke into a deep laugh with the other locals there in the shop with him. They thought it was hilarious that a Farang was out smoking a native Thai at their own game, and so did I. That was on the way back, and I rolled into Chiangmai proud of my adventure for the day.

When I arrived, I found it had already rained, as it did before we reached the waterfalls as well. We strategically missed all rainfall for the day, thank God because we were on the motorbike.

I made the joke, “The rain can’t catch us if it doesn’t know where we’re going to be.” And that became the theme of our trip.

We spent a few more days in Chiangmai, shopping and fulfilling our food desires until we became ready to explore some further options.

I was ready to head to Pai, a city two hours north of Chiangmai that Friday, so with as we rounded out the week, our bags were packed and ready to hit the road.