Comments for Travel and Life in Thailand
Although we can no longer give you a specific update on rooms available in Chiang Mai, i have decided to keep this section going with our own recommendations of places to stay in Chiang Mai, with links through to booking facilities , if available.
Some of these recommendations will begin to appear over the next few days.
If you run a guest house in or around Chiang Mai and wish to appear in this section ,please get in touch.
CHIANG MAI > CHIANG RAI > DOI TUNG > MAESAI > GOLDEN TRIANGLE >
CHIANG KHONG > CHIANG RAI > CHIANG MAI
5 DAYS ON MOTORCY
So, maybe you are just a little bit crazy, like me, and fancy a tour with the freedom to choose where you go along the way.
Finding a motorcy for rent in Chiang Mai is easy, there are many outlets offering bikes rent, price dependent on what cc you select.
If you do fancy a trip like this one, select a bike of at least 110cc and if you happen to be traveling with a passenger then 125 or higher. These motorcys are great for buzzing around on but the common 100ccs struggle with getting up the mountains.
DAY ONE>>TO CHIANG RAI
Our first leg was Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. We figured just getting to Chiang Rai was good enough for the first day. Its a 3-4 hour journey on the bus, so we knew that it would be maybe double that on the bike. Seeing that they aren’t really built for long distance touring, its advisable to rest the bike as often as possible.
Our first rest stop was at a beautiful spot in the first mountain range, just short of Pong Nam Hot Springs.
Its great fun flying along the superhighway and up and down the winding mountain passes.
The road, on the whole, is very good and for the most part was quite empty.
Still it doesn’t pay to get complacent as coaches and freight trucks often appear from nowhere, traveling at ridiculous speeds and having scant respect for smaller vehicles.
As we reached Fang, the heavens opened and there was monsoon like rain for the next 2 hours, all the way to Chiang Rai. It may have been sensible to have stopped and found somewhere to stop for the night and carry on the next day. But hell, this is the sort of thing that makes me feel alive.
Stopping to buy refuse bags, that we cut and used as some protection against the rain, we pressed on slowly through the downpour, arriving in Chiang Rai at around 6.15pm, looking and feeling like a couple of drowned rats.
We then had a 20 minute ride around town trying to find somewhere to stay, before asking at the market and being directed to a guest house.
The guest house had a very nice friendly feel to it, had a range of accommodation, from dorm beds to air con rooms. We settled on a double room with fan.
Chiang Rai town is a lot smaller than Chiang Mai and much less developed, and in the rain, appears to shut down at 10pm.
So we spent that night relaxing at the guest house which has a varied menu of Thai and western dishes at very good prices.
Day 2
Having breakfast, I was joined by another guest, Martin, a German guy who had been living in America for 6 years. We discovered that we were heading in roughly the same direction and struck up a plan to travel together.Martin was a funny guy, after we convinced him to hire a motorcy, ( having never ridden one before), he then took an awfully long time tying his bags on, being somewhat overcautious. But each to his own:).
Before heading off towards Maesai; our next target for overnight stay with Boons family; we called in at the Temple next door. In future travels I will be more meticulous in recording names of places, but I hadn’t got it in my head to do this site then.
Pretty nervous about the motorcy to begin with,Martin soon got the hang of it. Trouble was that he neglected to top up the fuel first. As we set off from Chiang Rai and stopped for fuel, we had another 20 minutes wait whilst Martin untied his bags so that he could lift the seat to fill up, and then re-tie everything.Maesai is not so far from Chiang Rai, about 2 hours by motor cy, and Martin agreed to our detour to find Wat Doi Tung. (to continue this tour follow this link)
These giant Buddhas are quite awe inspiring, especially in settings such as this.
After a fuel stop at Chiang Saen, there was another mountain range to cross and we took the opportunity to take another detour, to a waterfall tucked away in the forests, next to yet another Temple.
Unfortunately I neglected to note the name but it was about half way to Chiang Kong, from the Golden Triangle, and signposted for a right turn.
It wasn’t so big but was beautiful and the Temple next door had some very old stonework, including stone monkeys climbing up the walls.
A little further on , up in the mountains we stopped to take a look at a couple of the mountain villages.
Saw some amazing views, houses,people and became centre of attention for many school kids on their way home. The kids loved posing for photos and gave some great examples of the famous Thai smiles. 
Eventually we made our way to Chiang Khong, passing through the most stunning views, and booked in to The Green Tree Guest House. Boon and I had been here before on an overnight trip and found it to be a very friendly little place with good food at local Thai prices and comfy rooms for just 100baht a night.
Both Boon and I were shattered from so much travel on the bike and ended up having a very early night whilst martin explored the night life in Chiang Khong. For such a small place the local entertainment was by all accounts quite good, with a good splattering of bars and live music.
DAY 4.
The next morning we headed off fairly early as Martin needed to be back in Chiang Rai for 1.30 to catch a bus down south.
The road from Chiang Khong carries on back round to Chiang Rai through yet more unbelievably beautiful countryside.
We made it back to Chiang Rai at almost spot on 1.30 and said our goodbyes to Martin, after Boon helped him get a ticket for the bus which, as it turned out, didn’t leave for another couple of hours.
We have since received e mail confirmation from Martin, now back in the States, that his little tour with us was the highlight of his trip, which is most heartwarming.
As for Boon and I, it was off to visit the famous White Temple, Wat Rong Khun. This Temple is the lifetime project of Thai artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, and is quite spectacular in its design.
The entirely white stonework is adorned with thousands of tiny mirror tiles. Some say that this is meant for the visitor to see the Buddha spirit reflected within themselves. I have to admit to feeling slightly let down with its location, being right next to an intersection and the distinct lack of Monks, other than the few amongst the visitors. 
Apparently the attraction is particularly designed to be viewed in the moonlight and it is said that the effect is well worth seeing…another plan for the future.
Still in no rush to get home we then went 40 km east off the route home to find another ‘Uncle’,another quiet rural setting and a fantastic Thai house where we were greeted,fed and boarded for the night. 
Before taking to our beds we went out on the bike for a look around and stopped at a nearby bar for a soft drink. Whilst we were there a middle aged Thai couple came in with a plate of barbecued meat of some sort. Seeing me, they called us over and offered us some of the meat. Wanting to at least know what it was, I asked before accepting. Having been told that it was rat, and once told could see from the shapes that this was likely true, i went ahead and accepted the offer. Its not something I would make a habit of eating but I have to say that it was quite delicious, somewhere in between pork and beef in flavour.
DAY 5
In the morning we were breakfasted on chicken and rice before we set off for home.
We took a steady ride back,taking the loop from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, through Wiangpapao, rather than back the way we came, its much shorter.
We made several stops again to rest ourselves and the bike. The recent heavy rains showed in the mountain rivers.
Another of the delights of living here, for me, is the huge variety of butterfly’s and i am doing my best to gather a collection, by photo only, no way I would kill these beauties.
Although the rivers were full and murky brown from the rains, that day the sun shone and it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride home to good old Chiang mai.
Well, after a busy week in our guest house a few of our visitors have gone on with their travels elsewhere. So, although we have a couple of bookings for later this week, as of tomorrow Room 1,Room 2, Room 5 and Room 6 will be available. This is at the time of writing and its still worth checking if you were after Room 3 or Room 4, in case there have been any cancellations. So give us a call and enjoy the delights of The Brick Road Cafe/ Guesthouse.
Never being one to plan too much or book ahead, I was beginning to regret that part of my nature when everywhere we tried around the Golden Triangle seemed to want upwards of 600 baht a night for a double room, and those were the budget places. All that distance driving and a car full of family, my normal high stress threshold was wavering. So after traveling on to Chiang Sean, Gins House seemed like a God send when she offered us a family room for 600 baht.
Gins House is a large two storey Thai style home, set in large gardens with a couple of ‘chalets’ in the garden at the rear of the house, a couple more rooms in an outbuilding, a large cafe/bar area at the front of the garden and more rooms in the main house.
All in all it was a lovely place with only a couple of minor downsides. Gin the very amenable lady owner offered us a family room upstairs, to accommodate all of us on 2 king size beds, for just 600 baht.
After checking the room out we readily accepted. After a little more consideration I decided to ask for another double room for Boon and me. Offering us one of the rooms in the outbuilding outside, Gin dropped the price from the apparent usual 300 baht to 200 and we took the room. I guess I should know by now that you should always give the room a full inspection before accepting. The musty smell hadn’t bothered me too much, figuring it would soon go if we left the door open for a while.
It didn’t, and when we went to use the bathroom the smell was much worse and everything looked in desperate need of some cleaning materials. Worn out by our travels we decided to just do our best to get some rest , deciding we could go and use the bathroom facilities in the family room later. So we turned on the fan and lay out on the bed to try and sleep. Unfortunately the fan was so noisy, sounding ready to fall off its mountings at any moment, that we decided to go join the rest of the family instead.
Upstairs in the family room, the room itself was spacious, clean and airy and outside the room was a large ‘sitting room’ and then large balcony outside, lovely.
So toilet shower time. Oops! What I initially took to be an interesting original design idea, a loose pebble floor affair, turned out to be hiding the sodden floor underneath caused by a constant leak by the sink. The bath was musty grey from layers of dust that clearly hadn’t been touched for weeks; and on attempting a shower the water pressure meant that little or no water got through. Shame because otherwise the place really was comfortable and homely. the garden was quite something, with many old wooden cart wheels and other odds and ends.
We all took an early night and got what sleep we could in between Sophie having an unsettled night.
In the morning we down for breakfast in the guest house’s quirky cafe; sort of a cross between Thai style and a wild west cowboy saloon. And I have to say that the food was very good.
After breakfast we headed back to find Boons younger brother. We had a loose plan to lunch at a lake near Chiang Sean that Boon had mentioned and decided that it would be nice to see if his brother would like to join us.
Luckily we found him at home this time. After accepting Boons gift of a new jumper for cold season, Berr accepted our invite to the lake.
Of course Boon was going by distant memory so it was quite a time before we found the lake, about 40 mins as apposed to the 15 minutes he suggested.
The lake certainly was beautiful and we had the pleasure of seeing a herd of Buffalo being herded to the water and going for a swim. Unfortunately we had no luck finding any open eating places and ended up returning to Chiang Sean to eat by the river.
Time was ticking by and we really needed to be heading on as we had hoped to visit the White Temple in Chiang Rai before the last leg back to Chiang Mai. So Boon and I took Berr back home arranging to meet the family back in Chiang Sean at 1pm.
Chiang Sean is quite an historic town. It was in fact the original capital of the Lanna Kingdom before King Mengrai moved the status of Capital City to Chiang Rai.
The drive on from Chiang Sean to Chiang Khong goes through some spectacular mountain scenery and is one of my favourite roads up that way. Look out for the Huaisai Man View Point, its a “must stop and look”.
Still on the Mekong River, Chiang Kong is quite a bustling market town in the day time and relativel sleepy, early closing in the evening. That said there are a few bars with a decent live music scene going on.
If you are ever staying there I personally recommend a love guesthouse, The Green Tree Guest House and cafe, that has rooms from 100 baht a night and fantastic food in the ‘Boat’ cafe. Pui is a lovely lady, very helpful and friendly and I hope we’ll see her again sometime soon.
We hadn’t really got time to spend too much time in Chiang Khong but we were all hungry and decided to look for somewhere to eat. Taking a left turn opposite the main market area we discovered an absolute gem of a place that I also highly recommend; BaanRimtaling.
Down a side street we spotted a Guesthouse cafe sign in front of a quaint looking dwelling. As we walked through to the cafe we discovered that it sat on the banks of the River and had stunning views from its balcony eating area.
The food, both Thai and western options was superb, with helpings that you struggle to finish. on chatting with the staff we discovered that they have dorm accommodation from just 50baht a night and ‘chalets’ up to 450 for one that sleeps 3. For more info contact them here.
Everyone was pretty tired and rushing people was no use so in the end we didnt reach Chiang Khong until early evening at which point the White Temple was closed. Never mind, theres always next time.
After a coffee break opposite the White temple, we decided to just head back, getting back to the Guest House at the height of Chiang Mais Sunday Market.
For many more photos from this trip visit our photobucket albums here.
Today we’re looking to fill room 2, (double 150 baht), grab that stunning view before it goes.
Also room 3 (double 200 baht), this room boasts another mountain view. As always its worth checking on the availability of the other 4 rooms.
If you’re a single budget traveller don’t forget our 100 baht a night single room, cosy, quiet, with writing table and wardrobe, its larger than your average single room in Chiang Mai.
Seeing as I’ll be out and about tomorrow, I thought I’d give you an early update now.
As of 12 noon Friday, there will be 2 more rooms available for occupancy. Both are absolute bargains offering the occupants tremendous value for money.
That’ll be room number 1:
That’s the one with 2 king size double beds
Just 62.5 baht a night each between 4 people.
Bargain room!
Now if that doesn’t tickle your imagination, try this next one…
And secondly, room number 2:
Our 150 baht a night double room.
Which boasts an unrivalled view of the garden next door and even more spectacular, a scenic view of Doi Suthep
Please be aware that this site has recently moved hosting servers.
The move of files, images and the database went relatively smoothly.
But John has an artistic talent, as many of you will realise. During his ‘down time’, he decided to re-organise his photobucket account, renaming all his albums and re-locating images in different categories.
So when you now read the posts within this site, some of them may not have the former image, but a photobucket warning message.
Don’t worry, have no fear, John is on the case and will be re-linking all his images very soon.
Mean time, please understand the Brick Road Cafe & Guest House is exactly where it was, still has an excellent menu, still has rooms for rent and the many sights and events around Chiang Mai all exist without any interference from John’s re-organisation!
Please do ensure you check back here soon.
The family visit has been keeping me busy this week, and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way. Early week was mooching around Chiang Mai. I took a couple of ‘days off’ so I could keep on top of the business and the family took themselves out and about in town.
I’m delighted to say that I’ve seen the adventurous side of my Mother this week.
My Mother Easy Rider
Jamie Easy Rider
| © 2011 Travel and Life in Thailand | You can find literally hundreds of other photographs in our photobucket album |
Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha |
