Thai New Year in the Magical North

We left Laos to cross the border (river) over to Thailand about 3 weeks ago. The border crossing itself was easy and hassle-free, the only down side was that we only got 15 visa-free days, which meant we’d have to extend this somehow later on. Nevertheless, we started our Thailand adventure in Chiang Mai, as it seems to be a bit of a must-see if you want to explore the country outside the tourist islands in the South.  And who would have known we would happen to be there perfectly to experience the famous water festival known as Songkran (Thai new year) This meant that the city was PACKED with Westerners as well as Thai people who had come to Chiang Mai to take part in the biggest street water fight in the world.

Badass warriors with an Angry birds gun 

Casual bubble bath in a pick-up

Yes, we sinned. But damn it felt good!

One of the hundreds (thousands?) of temples in Chiang Mai

Cookie shop

The tom yam that blew our heads off

Late night take-away, pad thai true Thai style

So our highlight in Chiang Mai was obviously the water fight on New Year’s Day. It was pretty damn mental, with ten of thousands of people soaking each other on the street and partying.  But after just one day of water fighting we had enough of it (its that hectic) so we decided to escape the mania a few hours north, to an awesome little town of Pai. Although the water stuff continued there too for the next 3 days, it was nothing on the scale to Chiang Mai.

In Pai we found ourselves probably the best accommodation option during this trip in Asia. We stayed in a brand-new, barely opened bungalow hostel on top of a hill, a bit further away from the town center. This place was perfect for the ultimate relaxation, and dirt-cheap. Overall we found the North extremely cheap, in terms of accommodation, food and transport (not so much shopping though). We ended up having dinner every night for less than $2/person and drinking the cheapest local rum for a guaranteed cheerful and cheap night out. Since it was Songkran, celebrations could not have been avoided. We were lucky to meet awesome new people in Pai as its definitely one of those places where you’ll make the best travel friends, and were also reunited with our friends who we had met in Chiang Mai.

Our cosy bungalow on the hill

Tony chilling 

In terms of activities, there was a lot to see and do in Pai, considering the town is pretty tiny. We rented a moped, as you do to get around, for 2 days and went exploring the surrounding areas. Again, this was so cheap you would be silly not to do it; we only paid about $4 a day for this cool form of transport. Unfortunately we were not too lucky on this scooter, as an accident was waiting to happen when we pretty much went off-roading to a ‘’secret’’ hot spring as recommended by a fellow traveller. One thing they forgot to mention was how ridiculous the ‘road’ leading up to it was, so of course coming down a steep downhill full of loose rocks on a city scooter, my usually amazing skills failed and we fell. Tony survived without any injuries but my leg got fu*ked. Hence my appreciation for this pretty cool natural spring was rather wasted as I moaned in it in agony.

Our crew at a waterfall

at the Pai Canyon, this place was so cool!

Love lock garden?

Alpha male in a hot spring

A random view point 

The day after we headed back to Chiang Mai to catch a night bus to Bangkok. We were very lucky to find any buses available, as it seemed that every single Songkran celebrator was heading there the same day. The next morning after we finally got to check into our hostel, I found my foot swollen double its size and unable to walk on, so we were left with no choice than to spend our one day in Bangkok sitting in a hospital getting my ’hiking injury’ examined. As figured, it turned out to be infected, so I was again put on antibiotics. The next day we did what we came to Bangkok to do, which was a visa run to the Cambodian border. This ‘adventure’ was literally straight from hell so I am not even going to go there. We have only one piece of advice to give to those who think about doing the same:  Do not think you’re being smart and do it independently to save money, DO it with a legitimate visa run service company! (Unless you enjoy standing in line in 42-degree heat with 8000 other people for 6 hours, with 30kg of weight on your back, enough said!)

In conclusion, Chiang Mai is worth seeing, nothing too amazing about it though. Definitely a must if you're into temples! Its also not too expensive, especially for us since we stayed a bit further away from the main backpacker area. The markets (read: the Night Bazaar) were super expensive though. Pai on the other hand, is probably our favorite place we've been to in Asia! This town was so very chilled and cool, and its got a huge hipster vibe, which was unexpected in Thailand. Nightlife was also definitely our cup of tea; jazz bars, cocktail bars, random porch parties and reggae bars that stay open until about 6am. 

Stay tuned, in the next post TONY will be writing about our crazy island adventures in the South.

Accommodation suggestions:
Bungalows in Pai
Cheap local guesthouse in Chiang Mai