Chiang Mai 4

A couple of people asked me to get hotel contacts, and some info on Chiang Mai, well here goes, but seriously, just skip this whole thing if you’re not going to Chiang Mai!!!!

RM1.00 = about 8.80 – 9.80 baht

1)  Accomodation

Most people would want to stay near the night bazaar for the convenience of shopping and eating.  Some others may choose to stay about 15 mins walk away for the quietness and privacy.

Hotels at night bazaar that we visited:

a) Royal Lanna – Rack rate 1800 baht for single and 2000 baht for double but if you call and ask for their promotion rate, it will be cheaper.  For April after the Songkran festival 1200 baht. In the heart of the night bazaar, swiming pool, IDD facilities, breakfast, gym. Airport transfer to be charged. 119 Loi Kroh Road, T. Changklan, A Muang, Chiangmai. Tel (053) 818773  Email : royal_lanna@yahoo.com

b)  Pornping Tower Hotel – Rack rate 2000 baht for single and 2500 baht for double Promotion rate, for April after the Songkran festival 1299 baht. They have a cheaper superior room for 1099 baht but this is not in the tower block and it is directly above a noisy karaoke. Beside the night bazaar, swiming pool, IDD facilities, breakfast, gym. Airport transfer to be charged. 46-48 Charoenprathet Road, Chiangmai. Tel (053) 270099  Email : cnx@pornpinghotelchiangmai.com

c)  Central Duangtawan Hotel – Promotion rate, for April after the Songkran festival 1900 baht for superior single or twin. Beside the night bazaar, swiming pool, IDD facilities, breakfast, gym. Rooms and hotel are big. Airport transfer to be charged. 132, Loykroh Road, Chang klan, Amphur Muang, Chiangmai. Tel +66 (0) 5390 5000 Email : cdcm@chr.co.th

d)  Suriwongse Hotel – Rack rate 2200 baht for single and 2400 baht for double Promotion rate, for April after the Songkran festival 1700 baht. Beside the night bazaar, swiming pool, IDD facilities, breakfast, gym. Airport transfer to be charged. 110 Changklan road, Amphur Muang, Chiangmai. Tel (053) 270051  Email : swst@suriwongsehotels.com

e)  Royal Princess, Chiang Mai – Rack rate 3400 baht for single and 3800 baht for double Promotion rate, for April after the Songkran festival 2618 and 2941 baht. Very expensive 5 star hotel with all the facilities, next to night bazaar. Airport transfer to be charged. 112 Changklan Road, Chiangmai. Tel +66 (0)53 28 1033 Email : rpc@dusit.com

f)  The Night Bazaar Place – One rate of 600 baht. On the night bazaar road, no frills rooms.  Good for people who will spend most of the time sight seeing and shopping. 41, Changklan Road, Chiangmai. Tel (053) 283250  Email : cmaicentre@hotmail.com

Hotels near old city wall and the warorot market/china town

a)  Amora Hotel – 4 star good hotel . Promotion rate 1800 baht.  Facilities and breakfast. 22 Chaiyaphum Road, Tamboi Changmoi, Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai. Tel : 66 53 251 531. Email : reservations@rydges-chiangmai.com 15 minutes walk to the night bazaar, about 1.5 km away (like from Sri Ukay to Ampang Point/AGC). Tut tut to the night bazaar is about 50 baht. They have a famous spa, Oasis, but it is not cheap.  Apparently they also have cooking classes, but I did not know until I look at their brochure now!

b)  Montri Hotel – Across the street from Amora hotel – probably 2 star no frills hotel but with FREE airport transfer between 8am – 5pm and wi-fi services! We stayed here on our final night, the air cond was bad, but they rectified it immediately. One rate of 750 baht inc of tax and service charges. 2-6 Ratchadamnoen Road, Tha Phae Gate, Muang Chiang Mai. Tel : (66) 53 211 069 Email : montri_hotel@hotmail.com

2)  Motor bike rental at 200 baht for a day 8 am till 6pm including 2 helmets and insurance. They will want to keep your passport but we opted to let them have a copy of it instead and gave them a deposit of 3000 baht.  Much safer that way – NEVER pass your passport to anyone, even if they can be trusted.  You’d never know if a fire breaks out or a robbery happens! Infinity Motor Bike Rental 2-6 Montree Hotel Ratchadamnoen Road, Chiangmai Tel : 086 915 8228. 

3)  Currency Exchange – Best place to change currency is at the Kasikornbank.  I saw at least 2 branches.  Their rate was RM1 = 9.83 baht as opposed to others which gave RM1 = 8.80 baht.  The money changers were no better.  The one we went to was along Tha Phae Road and near to china town and warorot market. Most places require cash except hotels and certain shops at the mall.

4)  Stuff worth buying - Fabrics are really cheap here. For example, Thai silk (double ply) retails for about RM50 – RM55 in KL but I got it for 250 baht per metre, about half the price.  Of course, if you are one for souvenirs, then the night bazaar and the warorot market is good.  I noticed that you can’t really bargain at the market area, probably because they do not jack the price up.  For the night bazaaar, go down at least 60% and then work back up to 50% or maybe less, depending if the vendor had given you a really high strating price. Two shops with clothes that are “ok” at the night bazaar building were room no 199 -202 underground Chiangmai night bazaar (tel 053 818626 and no 27 at the same place (tel 01 8836014).

5)  Shopping Mall - The Central Airport Plaza is a great place to shop.  For authentic Thai stuff, go into the “Northern Village”, on the 1st and 2nd floors of the mall. Look for bargains, I found some clothes selling at 199 baht which were originally going for 1000+ baht!

6) Eating places – The night bazaar has a few eating spots which you will not miss.  We went to roadside hawkers though because Allan preferred them.  At the Central Airport Plaza, we found 2 food courts and personally prefer the one at the basement, especially the stall located at the far end.  This stall has its own little section.  The noodles cost 10 baht.  They are small, but good if you want to try the different varieties.

7)  Sight seeing – There are plenty of places which you can easily find on the internet.  We opted for the Chiang Rai tour but it can be very tiring if you have children.  Tour is from 7am – 8pm.  The elephant tour is shorter and probably more amusing for children. 

8)  Cooking classes – I personally did not look at this in depth, but went ahead to find some contacts as Cat was interested.  The first one shares an office with the motor bike rental people and their contact is Miss Pui 089 755 3141 Email : mrthaifood@yahoo.com They offer free transport to and from your hotel and the course includes a market shopping spree, 7 dishes, participants limited to 9 people from 9.30 am – 3.30 pm at 800 baht.  The second place was a sign board I saw which boasted of a famous TV chef. Email nabnian@laxinfo.co.th website : www.thaicookeryschool.com

PHEW! I’m tired from all this typing, but its better than telling the same story to 5 other people!

Chiang Mai 3

We were in for a looooonnng drive home back to Chiang Mai (3.5 hours) after leaving the Thai-Burma border and stopped for a toilet break at some kind of a reserve which is the Thai King’s project.  We saw this sign…… “Thai style”????

Then I saw another sign board further up … what on earth?

I didn’t want to waste time, this was the first toilet stop after travelling for 1.5 hours…. but after using the toilet, I just could not resist looking at the other toilet and ….

Ta-da ….. western style!

Wow! They are really so thoughtful, aren’t they????

The next day, Allan and I re-lived our younger days, rented a motor bike and went around Chiang Mai town.  We went to Central Airport Plaza and looked for somewhere to park the bike.  We were looking for maybe a couple of kerbside motor parking area until we came to 3 HUGE “Motor-Parking” areas! I was so amused, imagine going to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital outdoor parking area and seeing all motor bikes instead of cars!!! Well, that’s exactly what it looked like.  All the bikes had to go through a booth, collect a ticket and then look for a drawn parking space to leave the bike… but the beauty of it, you don’t have to pay for the parking! The ticket is just to prevent theft! Great, ain’t it? And there I was, digging out money to pay for the parking when we left, really funny!

OK, got to go now, but more tomorrow – as promised, tips for those who want to visit Chiang Mai.  I’ll be posting the hotel names, tel nos and rates as well as places you can visit…….

More photos of Chiang Mai

Allan & I at the Golden Triangle, a small strip of land formed at the centre of the Mekong river and separating Burma (Myanmar), Laos and Thailand.  Historically used as a black market for opium and other stuff. 

That’s the golden triangle, smack right in the middle of the Mekong river.

 

On the other side of the river lies Laos.  We didn’t need a visa to go into this village.  Makes me wonder why….. Anyway, in one hour, we visited Thailand, Burma and Laos!

Guess what you can buy here?  These are bottles of whisky filled with snakes and insects.  Why would you want to drink this concoction?  Apparently …… its viagra!

After the Golden triangle, we went on to visit the tribal villages and met this van …. can you count how many people there are?  I’d say close to 20!

The Karen (long-necked) people are gentle and most of them are quite good looking.  They are hard working and one thing about the woman – they can’t talk very loudly or too much because of the restrictions caused by the brass coils around their neck.  I’d think their husbands are only too glad for that!!!

The brass coils weigh at least a few kilos!

Another pretty Karen woman and her good looking son!

This little girl was having her lunch behind her mother’s stall - I asked her if I could take a picture and she happily smiled for me!

Beauty of another kind.  This lady thinks black teeth are beautiful… they get this colour because of something they chew on

Trip to Chiang Mai (1)

“Air Asia having free tickets again lah!”

“Hah?! Yes, ah? Quickly book lah”

“But go where? Try Macau lah, or Bali”

“Aiyah, those places so popular, very hard to get lah”

And so this went on for a while until we settled on Chiang Mai.  Then came the next difficult decision – when to go! Finally we decided to go in April, to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary, courtesy of Mr Tony Fernandez, CEO of Air Asia!  To digress a bit, I’d like to say a big “Thank you” to Air Asia…. seriously, you people have really churned up the economy, I mean, I don’t think we’d think of going to all these places in South East Asia if not for Air Asia’s cheap and once in a while, free air tickets! And if Air Asia sends 100 people a day to, say, Chiang Mai, there’d be at least another 100 tourists in Chiang Mai!

Ok, back to our story, well, we went to Chiang Mai last monday and just returned this afternoon.  It was a GREAT trip!

I decided to post this so that all the people who asked me to get name cards and contact tel numbers for them can just read our blog and get all the info they need!

Day 1 – 23rd April 2007

Arrive Chiang Mai 10.50am – heavy discussion with Thailand tour company – decided on hotel and itinerary for the next 3 days – transfer to Hotel Amora – walk in the HOT, HOT sun to China town – spent almost half our cash – back to hotel – to night bazaar in the evening for shopping and massage.

Day 2 – 24th April 2007

Wake up at 6am - Complementary breakfast at hotel – Hop on to tour van for trip to Chiang Rai at 7am – Stop at Hot Spring – Stop at famous temple – Pass by Chiang Rai city – Arrive at Golden Triangle - Speed boat to Laos village – shopping at village – Lunch – Visit to Northernmost part of Thailand, ie, Myanmar-Thai border – Visit to Karen (long-neck) village – Arrive Chiang Mai 8.30pm – Dinner at hawker stalls opposite Amora hotel.

Day 3 – 25th April 2007

Checked out of 4 star Amora Hotel, leave luggage in hotel – Rent motorbike at RM20 (200 baht) per day – Warorat market for more shopping – Move to 1 star Montri Hotel across the street – Go around town on bike – Visit Central Airport Plaza for more shopping – Back to hotel, watch bad TV show about aliens – To Night bazaar on Tuk Tuk for some more shopping and massage again – Dinner at 9.30pm – Back to hotel.

Day 4 – 26th April 2007

Breakfast – to airport with free transfer arranged by hotel, forgot to give tip to driver – Arrived KL 2.50pm

Here are some photos …….

 Saw this old artist at work in the blazing heat (we got sun burned just walking around!) along the way to China town.

This must be the biggest durian we have ever seen!

Fried Grasshoppers, bamboo worms, etc – Allan bought some and tried them all. I had one bite of the grasshopper!

Chiang Mai old city was surrounded by a wall with a moat outside the wall. The gates, corners of the wall and the moat still remains to this day.  This is part of the moat.  The Amora hotel which we stayed in is just in front of this moat.

Veron inside Warorot market

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