Further North: Chiang Mai

Our next stop was Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand.  I've heard it called the second largest city in the country on several occasions, but after a little reference check that's actually wrong - big surprise that a random word of mouth fact is incorrect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Largest_cities_of_Thailand).  It's hard though to say exactly how big a city is; do you use just the city limits or the metro area?  And what constitutes a metro?

This topic is probably boring or too technical for many, so I'll try not to drag it out.  It's caught my attention because I like statistics and I've seen widely different numbers for a city's population.  For example: in my guide book the population of Bangkok is 7 million. On Wikipedia the population of the city proper is 8.3 million, the metro over 14.6!  Anyway, back to Chiang Mai: the metro area has close to a million people.

The old city is surrounded by a moat, but there aren't
really any skyscrapers in Chiang Mai, just a few tall hotels

Chiang Mai is 700 kilometers north of Bangkok, and we considered taking a plane, bus, or train.  We settled on the last option, a compromise between comfort and cost.  A flight was too pricey on short notice (still less than $100 though).  The bus was cheap but required a whopping 11+ hour journey in a crammed seat.  Trains took even longer, but there were sleeper options.  Ours left Bangkok at 10 pm and didn't arrive until after 1 pm the next day!  But we each had our own bead and the car had AC, so the trip was much more relaxing than the bus.

the sleeper train was much nicer than our
first journey from Hua Hin to Bangkok

One of the first things we noticed - really that we had noticed since arriving in Bangkok - was how cheap things were compared to the south.  The touristy islands in southern Thailand are cheap for many Western tourists, but they seem expensive after traveling north.  Even Bangkok has some great deals; smoothies for a dollar, delicious street pad thai with chicken and egg for less than $1.50, and hour long foot massages for $7 (but I never tried it)!  Cabs were ridiculously cheap - as long as you got them to turn on the meter (some will refuse, so we just moved on to the next one).  A 20 minute drive across the city cost us all of 3 dollars!

Chiang Mai was even cheaper than Bangkok.  Our hostel was only 100 Baht (just over $3).  On the downside it didn't have AC.  And although Chiang Mai is further north, it is still extremely hot.  We also ended up coming during the hottest time of the year.  Nights were slightly cooler than Bangkok but it got close to 100 Fahrenheit several days.  The third and fourth day in the city we ditched the hostel for a room with AC.  The extra cost was worth it!

While in Chiang Mai we went on a one day jungle trek.  There were seven other travelers in our group, five of whom were from Germany and two from Switzerland.  After an unimpressive orchid and butterfly garden our next activity was elephant riding!  I got to sit on the neck while two people sat on a bench behind me.  Either I didn't sit correctly or elephant riding is not very comfortable!  Plus our elephant wasn't well behaved and would march on the correct path if bribed with bananas.  It kept wandering off and eating the forest vegetation; several times when it bent down I felt like I was going to fall off!  Now I can say I rode an elephant but once is enough!

Chiang Mai has many temples and ruins from various dynasties that ruled the area, and the sites were within walking distance of our hotel.  The inner city is surrounded by a moat and sections of the old fortification remain.  Traffic on main roads can be bad, but wander around and you can easily find quiet side streets.  It was nice to just wander around the central area and check out the temples I found.  After a few hours I felt like I'd seen enough temples - they can start to look the same.

surprisingly good camouflage

In addition to the temples and ruins the city has decent night life and lots of backpackers if you want to meet other people.  We considered going to another town in northern Thailand, but Mike's visa was running out so we made our arrangements for the trip to Laos!