North Thailand Trip

It's a new year once again, why does time fly by so fast?

Didn't manage to get far last year except for 2 trips to Bangkok and some staycations in Phuket, and of course the usual pilgrimage home. The big trip for the year was my end of year trip to North Thailand with some colleagues, people whom I never thought I would travel with. It all started at lunch when they were discussing the trip to Chiang Mai and I promptly invited myself.

It's the part of Thailand which I am most unfamiliar with. I have friends from the E-san part of Thailand and their nature and vivid description of life and food there kinda made it easy for me to understand that part of the country, though I definitely do want to visit - Loei, Nong Khai, Korat, Udon and all the way to Laos.

But North Thailand is the mythical part of Thailand to me, it's life and culture is totally different from the Thai people of the Central plains or the South. North Thailand was a separate kingdom that was under Lanna rule, they had their own history and their own culture, occasionally absorbed into the Siam kingdom or occupaied by the Burmese Khmer kingdom in their history, so they have influences from many parts. Their proximity to so many borders meant it was a melting pot of cultures, from the hilltribes to the Chinese immigrants from Yunnan. Their forested mountains meant a different way of life, remote villages obscured from civilisation.


Personally I had not much expectations of the destination except that the weather is cool and there are hilltribes and whatever I know from my history of the Golden Triangle. The trip turned out to be an experience of a lifetime, an eye-opener and an inspiration. The north has definitely captivated me.


At first I thought we were only covering Chiang Mai, but our 6 days there covered 3 provinces and many kilometres of mountain road and 

6 mountain tops including Thailand's tallest peak.

We started off in Chiangmai, headed off to the famous backpacker city of Pai, made famous from numerous Thai movies, then off to Doi Ang Khang for some spectacular mountain scenery, then up to Doi Tung, and through Chiang Rai, back to Chiang Mai.
*Doi means mountain

We rented our own car, a trusty Toyota Wish that guzzled petrol like crazy esp on the mountain roads but was large and spacious for our party of 4.

First day arrived, great weather, nice cool, sunny and most essentially, dry. We were treated to lunch by my colleague's ex-classmate, they went to university the year I was born (LOL, oops). We visited her at her home and she made the traditional northern noodles Khao Soy for us. It's a little like laksa to me, yellow egg noodles in curry, eatern with raw onions and fried flour strips.

Aroy zhao!

Then of course a visit to the famous city of Chiang Mai umbrellas. 

Frankly it was quite a waste of precious time since my utmost interest was to absorb the city's culture and history, but you never know that until you get there. It was very touristy and basic part was for you to buy souvenirs. Bo Sang is the most famous city, it was ok, but time is precious so didn't spend much time there. If they gave guided tours and an explanation why umbrellas became so famous, then maybe it was worth the time.

Got an umbrella for my mummy. Artist writing her name.

Colourful umbrellas drying in the sun

Then being the history enthusiasts that we are, we headed to a tour of the historical city of Wiang Kum Kam, 
a city of King Mengrai, the capital city of the Lanna Kingdom before it was moved to Chiang Mai 700 years ago as it was prone to floods from River Ping. The recent flood in Thailand also affected the ancient city, with parts of it muddy and still under water. 

Parts of the old city under water

It was an interesting tour as the city was actually buried under several layers of dirt and local villagers have already built over these relics. It was discovered by accident and then slowly excavated bit by bit, with parts of the village being moved out for excavation. So as we were driving around, there were local houses sitting right next to the ancient ruins. Ayutthaya is grander but history is always fascinating. I'm sure there is more to the story except that i could not understand the Northern dialect of our tour guide. They just end their sentences with a lot of "zhao!" which is the same as the "krup" or "ka" ending as normal thai. But the Nothern language is very sing-song and melodic. 


Then we ended the evening on the weekend walking street in Chiang Mai city area itself. Chiang Mai itself has a lot of old ruins of the former fortress walls. The city centre where the palace would be is very small, a practical square shape with a moat around it. 

See the square city centre with the moat around it

I am embarrassed to say that I did  not make it to the famous night bazaar but the walking street was pretty comprehensive enough. Lots of cute souvenirs (fridge magnets, pouches, postcards etc) and T-shirts, cheaper than it would be in Phuket. I got my souvenirs at one shot so I don't have to think about it anymore for the rest of the trip. Beware that it's a super super long walk from one end to the other. We started at 5 pm where is was nice and balmy with an average crowd, till 8 pm when it was shoulder to shoulder packed with people and our feet were aching like crazy. 

The 'compulsory' landmark shot. this marks the distance to somewhere

early evening where there is no crowd

selling cute knick knacks at the weekend market

 The next day we started early for our drive to the idyllic mountain retreat of Pai, Mae Hong Son province. The city has in recent years became more popular with tourists, especially the domestic tourists, due to several romantic films filmed there. International tourist wise there are more backpackers with the raggae beard and loose khakis than your average rich Germans or honeymooning koreans. And apparently there are the famous 762 bends up the mountain road from Chiang Mai to Pai. I was the official navigator since 1. I don't get carsick that easily 2. I can read maps pretty well 3. I can read maps while riding in a moving car. unfortunately quite a lot of signages are in Thai so it's quite a challenge, but I'm fantastic at looking out for landmarks and marking out where we are on the map. Along the way up there are many pretty little cafes like this one, where we stop and took photos and used their free toilets and didn't even buy a cup of coffee. Oops. 

 We reached the Huai Nam Dang National Park by noon so the mist and famous sea of clouds were gone by then. But it was still nice and cool and we openly snacked on our roasted chicken with sticky rice right there. It was a memorable picnic. 

Along the way we stopped at this viewpoint where they filmed the Thai movie "Ruk Jang"

The little hut for the movie "Ruk Jang"

The dizzying heights of Huai Nam Dang

Nice pose here but my soles were actually coming off. It did come off 10 minutes later

Strange vegetable flower i kept encountering in the north

The valleys of Pai just before we reach the mountain top. It's a long far expanse of farmland, it's super idyllic and you feel so peaceful just being there and watching the scenery. 

The valley plains

Pai bridge

Another quirky cafe on the way

At Coffee In Love, another place made famous by a movie "Pai in Love"

So we passed this place on the first day and it was super crowded. To get a shot like this where no one else is around, you have to wake up at 5am and drive down. It was dreamy, with a cloud of mist as background

We reached Pai at about 3pm and checked into our humble abode "Rim Pai Cottage". It's extremely well located as just outside is the weekend walking street. Unfortunately that also means that the car cannot come in after 5pm when the street is closed. Almost got lost getting back to the resort the next day. 


Headed for a cheap head, shoulder and foot massage, THB 250 (SGD 10) for 1 hour's worth. Strolled around the walking street, had a cheap wash and blow dry at a local salon for THB 100 (SGD 4). Didn't get much shopping done there as they were mainly selling touristy souvenirs, but the hit thing there was to scrap-book your own postcard and send them. Lots of little cafes selling postcards of picturesque scenery of the area, and they setup colour pencils, cute stamps and stickers and you can make ur own personalised postcards. Lots of fridge magnets, keychains and T-shirts on sale too. It's almost a mandatory thing to buy a T-shirt that proclaims Pai there. 

Met eccentric locals like Jack Sparrow - apparently now he sells postcards featuring himself

Cute cafe selling postcards for you to personalise and send

The streets of Pai - reminds me of Phi Phi island

Ending the night with cold cocktails

Misty early morning - view of river Pai from our resort

Next day was spent driving around Pai and the local attractions - a few temples (North Thailand is FULL of temples), a waterfall, a Chinese village right on the hilltop and getting lost in a Lisu village (which looks no different from any Thai village). After the Yunnan village, there was a sign stating that the Lisu (a hilltribe) village was just 200 m in front so we drove ahead. Didn't see anything "lisu-ish" in the village so we stopped and asked a little boy where the Lisu village was. He looked puzzled and said "here." So we asked "Are you Lisu?" He said "Yes". And he was dressed in a red Man-U jersey and shorts. Great, now I need to rethink my version of "hilltribe" people. 

You make a wish by tossing a coin towards the stone and if it stays on your wish comes true. 

At the top of Yunnan village

View from Yunnan Village

The Great WAll of Yunnan Village

It was after taking this photo that we saw the sign that we have to pay to take a photo, and a little box for you to drop money in. We didn't. Who pays to take photos like this on our own camera?!

The Yunnan village (山地村), from what i gathered, started when the people in Yunnan migrated/ fled the country during the Revolution. The migrants were mostly former army people and they settled in North Thailand. During the opium hey-days, they were actively involved in planting and trading opium through the Golden Triangle. 


The story of North Thailand sort of plays out the same way for everyone living there. The Lanna kingdom was never fully Thai to begin with, they had their own culture and history, and they were made up of various hilltribes and indigenous people. When it became part of Siam, its remoteness and loose border control made it a haven for migrants and refugees from Myanmar and China to escape into. Because of the fringe status of the people there, as hilltribes and refugees with no access to education or proper work tools, and its difficult mountainous terrain, they were largely ignored while the rest of Thailand grew and thrived. To survive, the people got involved with the opium industry, by planting and trading it.  It was with foresight and intervention by the king that the area managed to "rehab" itself, moving away from the opium industry into self-sustaining agriculture and tourism programs. Today they are famous for planting teas (as well as the Mae Salong area, where former Kuo Min Tang members escaped to) like Oolong and offering traditional Chinese herbal treatments. Yes I got suckered into buying "healthy" Chinese tea. 

As my gang went to the various temples, I had fun taking shots of the setting sun filtering through the clouds.

The fourth day was a long drive for us. We started out at 5 am for the long drive from Pai (Mae Hong Son) to Doi Ang Khang (Chiang Mai) and then to Doi Tung (Chiang Rai). The early mornings gave us spectacular views of cold mist and sea of clouds below us. We got so excited we just stopped the car on the mountainside to take photos. 

Clouds beneath us, it's so Avatar

The recent floods in North Thailand left its mark, there were parts of the road which has collapsed so need to be cautious when driving. There was a part where the road collapsed and it was a sheer drop down the mountain. Brr...

The drive down from Pai was pretty fast as there were no cars at 6 am in the morning. To get to Doi Ang Khang there are 2 ways, one from the highway 107 up to Fang where the road up is this super winding 30 degree turns up 60 degree slopes. Would have killed my car-sick proned friends. We chose the other way up on highway 1178 up to Arunothai (near the border of Myanmar). We even got checked by border patrol cos that area sees a large share of illegal immigrants. I was worried since I have such a Chinese face and that area is largely populated with Chinese immigrants. The typical rosy full cheeks slitty eyes look. The scenery up to Doi Ang Khang was dramatic. Sheer mountain drops, lush forests at one turn, and barren rocky hillsides at another turn. Villages built onto the mountain side. Apparently these Chinese villages are a community of former KMT troops.

Lake near the border to Myanmar

Chinese Village

Majestic mountain range

Picturesque valley and impressive mountain ranges

I only wished I had time to stop by one of the local villages, they seem so surreal and so "movie-like". Like a set built for a movie set in a faraway land. It didn't feel like Thailand at all, like some mountains in China. I kept having this inexplicable deja-vu feeling like I've been here before, and I was exhilarated and enthralled. 

Reaching Doi Ang Khang - best if you can spend a night here as the sunrise is apparently super spectacular. They have campsites located right on the cliff so you get a panoramic view of the land beneath you. The main attraction here is the Doi Ang Khang Royal Agricultural Station. The hilltribes previously adopted a slash-and-burn agricultural approach, moving on as the land loses its fertility. Over time much of the land became infertile and people suffered. The Agricultural Research Station started as a program to help the land regain its fertility and to find out which plants thrive on the lands. 

The place is an amazing collection of plants and flowers, but sadly as we could not book accommodations at Ang Khang, we had limited time to explore the place fully before driving another 3-4 hours to our destination for the night at Doi Tung. 

There is a garden dedicated to the 80th birthday of the King, full of flowers in bloom. I've never seen so many colours and breeds of flowers. 

Driving up we saw sakuras in bloom too!!!

never seen bird of paradise in this colour before

There also a restaurant there which serves only vegetables and fruits produced at the agricultural centre so the food is fresh and amazingly tasty. I had so much vegetables, fruits (strawberries and oranges galore1!!) I actually felt super healthy. And the cold country meant lots of fresh mushrooms - battered, roasted, grilled, sauteed - yummy!!! And did I mention strawberries, I must have had them by the kilos!!

Another picturesque drive down Fang and through the peaceful farmland of Tha Ton, then pass Mae Salong (famous for its tea plantations - no time this trip but it's a must-see next trip!!) up to Doi Tung.  

We spent the evening at Doi Tung, another famous mountain retreat. Doi Tung's history is tied explicitly with the King's mother. She was inspired by her son's work for his country that she took Doi Tung on as her personal project. The area was poverty stricken as the land around Doi Tung became barren and infertile due to the slash-and-burn approach taken by the locals. It became even more intense when opium farming took over all the agriculture that took place on the land, hastening the destruction of the land. People's lives got hard and soon opium became a way of life too. The King's mother saw the poverty and the hardship faced by the people, and she started the Doi Tung project to help the people. What impressed me most was that she didn't just help give people food and money, she changed their entire mindset and got them working for themselves again. Charity work can be so easy sometimes, you turn up, you hand over some money, take some photo ops and then go home and never care again to these people. Like her son, she became concerned about the long-term goals of her projects. Here she taught the people to love their land, to not take it for granted, just use it and leave it, but to cultivate it for longer use. Due to the climate, they could not grow typical farmland plants like rice or fruits, so she taught them to plant macadamias and coffee trees. THe land thrived, the products grew famous and demand grew, people are now self-sufficient. Doi Tung also features the royal villa of the late Princess Mother, and her famous gardens (she loved gardening) and also the Hall of Inspiration where the stories of the Mahidol family is told to inspire the generations. They are a very hardworking family, particularly the King and his parents, with a real heart to work for the people. THe love story of the king's father and his choice to marry a commoner instead of royalty because he saw the true heart of the woman he loved, not knowing one day she would be the mother of a king. Her legacy sees parallels with Princess Diana, in which she chose to raise her children not as royalty but as normal children with a normal childhood, refusing to spoil them but rather with strict discipline. I am genuinely impressed with the morals and values she instilled in her children, so much so that the king today is the most industrious and so beloved by his people. 

View from the hotel restaurant

The Princess Mother's royal villa, now a museum showcasing her life.

rare breeds of orchids at the Mae Fah Luang gardens

Mae Fah Luang garden

the Burmese border in the distance

Drove back to Chiang Mai that afternoon after an inspirational morning at the Doi Tung projects. Passed by the now famous Wat Rong Khun - a Thai temple designed in contemporary style - all white and shining glass. Personally, it was rather flashy and grostesque, like a high-class Haw Par Villa. The toilets were in gold. And there are weird designs with pictures of Doraemon, Ultra Man, Jack Sparrow, Matrix painted as murals inside the temple itself. 

Hell

the posh toilet in gold

Last day, we had a late evening flight at 9pm so we squeezed in whatever we can into the itinerary, starting with a 5am morning call again. 

Headed to Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest peak. We were complaining that north Thailand was supposed to be cold, but so far we encountered warm sunny days only (but Thank God for great great weather, no rain at all!!!) However, at 7 am at the peak of Thailand, we were freezing! It was like 5 degree celsius, and i only had a sweater top and scarf and a flimsy cardigan. 

View was spectacular, waking up early meant being able to see the seas of clouds again. The sight always make me happy. Though the waking hours don't. 

Headed to Doi Pui where apparently there is a Hmong village, one of the hilltribes. Boy was I disappointed. THe whole place has turned into a tourist attraction with absolutely no authenticity to the place. Yeah, it looked dilapidated as you would imagine a tribe setting, wooden buildings built around the hillside, but the tons of tour buses, EVERY single household selling souvenirs and I mean EVERY single household, and not even selling traditional handicrafts but what you can get at the local night market in Chiangmai, one hilltribe dude playing internet at one shop. Then paying  20 baht to gain entrance to a measly "museum" which houses dusty pictures and old costumes of hilltribe fashion. Then a garden with a miserable wooden house of which you have to pay money to take picture with the one hilltribe lady dressed in full gear sitting there. As Yoda would say, Not impressed, was I. 

traditional costumes.yeah.

apparently this is morphine poppy

sneakily took a shot of wooden structure with hilltribe woman, I'm not paying for shots like these.

for 20 baht, this is the toilet available for you tourists. Authentic yeah?

2nd final stop, Phu Ping palace, the royal family's northern residence. It's famous for its variety of roses, sourced from around the world and also interbred locally. Unfortunately when I went, it was still too early for the blooms so didn't get the full beauty of the place. It felt a little quiet and lonely there actually. 

double delight rose...sounds like ice cream flavour

Then a quick stop at one of the more impressive waterfalls I've ever seen, Wachirathan Waterfall. 

And final stop, the most famous Doi Suthep, the most "holy" of all the buddha relics are found here. North Thailand has a lot of "phra that" temples, which means a buddha relic is kept there. WHich got me wondering, how many parts of a person can you split him into? He must have parts all over China, India, Thailand, Tibet, Nepal etc!!!! The highlight of Doi Suthep for me was the cable car. The true blue pilgrim would make their way up the how many hundreds of stairs to the temple at the top. We took the cable car. And the highlight wasthe cute cable car opreator!! Finally a sighting of a cute Northern boy!! People keep telling me I'll like the boys from the North if I like Jay Chou that kind of look aka the sickly pale kinda look. 6 days and I finally saw ONE on my last day, and he didn't look like Jay Chou, just pale, skinny and weak-looking. Don't ask me why I'm attracted to these kind. 

Overall it was a FANTASTIC trip. I love the cool dry weather and I begin to think I really belong to the mountaintops, where the air is crisp and clear and fresh. I kept having this sense of familiarity and deja-vu, maybe its the Chinese in me connecting with the Chinese in these parts of Thailand. 

I am definitely planning my second trip back and it has to a week or more!!! Interested parties can apply now!! Best time to go, December to early February.