Flying into Chiang Mai from Phuket the first thing you notice is the mountains around the city. It’s a pretty place in the centre of the old town where the original walls are all but ruins and the moat now stands testament to history now past.
The city centre has sprawled out beyond the moat and toward the river. However the old city retains it’s charm and history.
Arriving midday we made our way directly to our first hotel Pattara Place. It’s a 30 minute walk to the walled city. But after being on the plane and being served the most crappy meal I’ve ever had on any flight I needed to walk it off.
We had a few hours before meeting with a friend who flew in from Australia the night before. The plan was to meet at Johns Place just along from Thae Pae Gate, one of four of the original entrances to the old city. It’s a great little bar spread ofer three levels and we were to meet on the roof at 7pm.
It’s certainly cooler here than in Phuket. Suddenly it’s all about long selves and long pants, no more board shorts up here in the hills.
Sorting the scooter for tomorrow with the hotel reception was simple enough with a drop off of the scooter at 9am.
As we were strolling we walked straight up to Mr Mechanic, the place Elena had booked the larger bike through for our trip on Thursday – the Mae Hong Son Loop.
The guy here seems really professional and we decided that in order to secure the bike we would give him 1000thb as a deposit. Around here bike get snapped up pretty guick and in an email we received we were told that the pick up time was to be at 11am, if we were more than one hour late he would hire the bike to someone else.
Chiang Mai is an easy city to get your bearings, the old city moat forms a square and each wall length is roughly 1.5km long so being in the centre should you get lost just keep walking until you reach the wall.
Our friendly Mr Mecanic guy suggested a place to buy motorbike helmets at a good price as to be honest the helmets supplies by any of the motorbike hire companies leave much to be desired. Finding the place was easy enough, but getting the right size was a little more difficult. It seems that there are two main sizes when choosing a helmet European, which means you have a large head, or Thai which means you have the head size of a 10 year old child. We fit in neither category so after being in the shop for over an hour trying on millions of different styles and friendly salesman custom modifying one in the process we settled on designs. Now came the bargaining down the price… In the end we forked over 1359thb for the two. That’s about $50AUD.
It seemed a little ridiculous walking up the road with helmets and no bike but by this time Elena was in no mood for me to joke about buying a bike. As we walked back to Johns Place and still having an hour to spare before our meeting we took the opportunity to have a foot massage. If you’ve never done it, it’s one of the top 10 cheapest things to do in Thailand. These ladies knew their trade and had us almost asleep in the chairs, in fact I’m sure Elena dozed off. For 200thb for an hour I’m going to be frequenting the massage place…. (No guys, not what your thinking!!)
Soaking up a Leo Beer on the roof of Johns Place with our friend and his beautiful Thai partner and daughter was a great place to meet before heading just down the road to Tiger Kingdom (in Town). This place is run by the same company that run the Attraction where you can get up close and personal with a real tiger.
Music here is great and with a local band belting out a smooth Latino mix and a few sixties hits it just set the mood. However if the music get a bit loud ask to sit out the back, there’s a big screen there so you can still see the band.
With plans set for meeting up in a couple of days time to possibly take a dinner cruise on the Mae Ping River we parted ways and grabbed a red bus home.
