TRU TRAVELS NORTHERN THAILAND TOUR DAY 5-9

Abbie Smith
Nov 2, 2017
5 min read

Day 5 - Chiang Mai - Temples, culture & view point

After the night on the sleeper train we all arrived to SK 2 Guesthouse absolutely knackered - we weren't doing anything till 4pm that day so most of us slept, got a massage or made use of the large pool there. We went and grabbed a huge breakfast at 'Blue Diamond - The Breakfast Club' it's on the pricey side (if on a budget) but the breakfast was SO good and they had avocado and real baked beans and sausage! (I am so English RN).

At 4pm we hopped in a taxi and went up the mountains for a temple tour . This was my first time in the open truck taxis, at first I was 100% sure I was going to die but now they are my favourite. They are a really sociable way to get around and we had so many chats, sing a longs and debates in these.

When we arrived at the temple there were ALOT of steps but I wasn't complaining about the extra cardio post 7 days of rice. Steve our tour guide dropped some absolute knowledge bombs as per before we started our climb to the top. At the bottom of the steps there were young girls all dressed up in their local wear. They looked amazing and honestly I need to take some tips from their selfie techniques this little girl was #SASS - the pouts and posing were insane. She earnt her 20 BHT from me that's fo sure.

Once we climbed the steps we went round to the view point which overlooked Chiang Mai, we could see a storm coming in but it was still amazing. We then headed into the temple and were blessed by a monk and given a red string bracelet for luck. Mine unfortunately has fell off which I'm devs about cause I loved it. Top tip: if you've got a bracelet that says 'I love cock' etc from Khoa San Road turn it inside out before going inside the temples. I realised mid the monk tying my new bracelet. That evening we headed to the Chiang Mai night market which I would 100% recommend - just make sure you actually go inside as we spent majority outside by the food hall to realise there was TONS of stalls inside the main bit.

Day 6&7 - Jungle Trekking & Hill tribe home stay Ok, so first of all if you're going in wet season make sure you have good grip on your trainers and a good poncho - it was SUPER slippy. When they said Jungle trek and you'll be fine in trainers I thought it would just be a walk with nice waterfalls, greenery and all flat. This is in fact, a jungle trek. With real life spiders and a lot of downhill and uphill climbs lol. Jarvis our tour guide was like a ninja, he was skilled at walking downhill and uphill (and removing the spiders the size of my hand from our path). They told us the first part of the trek would take 1 hour, due to the bad conditions from the rain it took us 2.5 so you can imagine how happy were to get to our lunch spot and devour pineapple rice presented in banana leaves!

We then started our trek to the hill tribe where we would spend the night. When we arrived the hill tribe welcomed us and began cooking for us. They spoke little Thai and no English but it was so interesting to see how they live. They had no electricity and basic cooking appliances however we would made a lovely dinner. My favourite was a pumpkin dish - SO tasty.

We stayed in a wooden hut with mosquito nets and it is ALOT colder up in the mountains so definitely need a lot of clothing.

It was an interesting night; with no electricity, no toilets and the sound of pigs and bugs right outside your net I did struggle to sleep. However it's made me so grateful for my 3/4 'uncomfortable' mattress back home. We had breakfast (eggs on toast) and then we headed down the mountain. During the night there had been a lot of rain, so much there was a landslide. Walking back through the clay just became comical, I lost a shoe, someone else sunk to the knees - it made the journey back so much more entertaining though! The views were beautiful and the sky brightened up. We got back to the bottom had some incredible Pad Thai and then headed back to our hotel to shower, sleep and reconnect with the world.

That evening we went to a hand made pizza place in Chiang Mai. For anyone who's been to Asia you know wine is redic expensive but this was quite reasonable at 500 BHT a bottle. Day 8 - adventure day - zip lines

Unfortunately my boyfriend was very ill after the pizza - we aren't sure if it was the pizza (he had a meat feast) or he'd just touched too many dogs in the hills. But because of this we missed the day zip lining. However we were lucky enough to go one week later as we had stayed in Chiang Mai post tour. It was called 'Jungle Flight'. If you're an adrenaline junkie - go here. They have s 1000km zip line over the jungle and also a 'roller coaster' zip line which you hung from and I'm not afraid to say I hated every single second of that one LOL but the other 14 zip lines I loved! Just be warned of the drive there and back - it's a single track road that is full of really sharp u-bends so the drivers have to beep to warn people coming down while driving at a speed to make sure they make it up the hill. The drive is so worth it though - just take a motion sickness tablet beforehand. Day 9 - Elephant Sanctuary Even though Josh was still sick this day he powered through for the elephants. We drove up to the sanctuary before having a briefing and heading to meet them. I have to admit when walking out with a bucket of bananas and elephants stampeding towards you at first I was so intimidated. They are enormous! But after a few bananas to the trunk your nerves settle and you realise how friendly and playful they are.

This was one of my favourite days, it was so surreal chilling with elephants. We then had lunch there from the locals and headed back to our hotel to embark on our journey to Pai.