Thailand Travel Blog

After a long drive from Chiangmai, we checked in at the Rim Kok Resort in Chiangrai around 1.00 p.m. The hotel was quite okay. We asked the bell boy who took t us to the room about the Kok river cruise. He told us that he could arrange the trip for us. The rate was 700 baht to Ruam Mit Hill Tribe village from the hotel pier. So we booked the 2.00 p.m. trip that afternoon. We took a hearty bath before going on the trip.

 At 2.00 p.m. we walked to the hotel’s pier. A long tail boat steered slowly to pick us up at the pier. We paid the fare for the boat trip before going down into the boat. The weather was very cloudy at the time we started out on our trip. Only 5 minutes from the pier and it started to rain. That was hampering our good view of the beautiful scenery on both sides of the river. The weather cooled down very fast after the rain and the wind was strongly blowing while we still kept on going.

After forty five minutes had passed, we reached Ruam Mit Hill Tribe Village’s pier. A lot of elephants were waiting for visitors at the pier.These elephants were available for tourists to hire for a ride in the tour of the village. While we were at the pier, the big snake (I’m not sure if it is a python or not) in the cage. This snake was also available for tourists who want to take a picture with it (only small fee applies).

 We decided to walk to visit the village instead of taking the elephant ride because by this way we could stop at any point of interest we wanted to see. There were many souvenir shops along the street in the village. This seemed to be a commercial spot for tourists. But there still is some traditional culture of hilltribe to be seen in this village.

There were 3 little karen girls trying to sell us some souvinirs. So Aom and I had an idea and told them that, if they became our guides to their village, we would buy the souvenirs from every one of them. The girls agreed to our proposal and took us past the old traditional village and went to their school. I saw a lot of hilltribe boys playing around at the school. I appreciated the visit a lot.

We stopped at a hilltribe clothe shop. Aom bought some antique hilltribe shirts. It was quite expensive but quite hard to find elsewhere. While we went back to the pier, we stopped at a souvenir shop of an old hilltribe man who was standing and playing an old traditional hilltribe musical instrument. I could not figure out the name of this instrument but I bought one from him. This musical instrument was made from bamboo. It could be played by blowing it like a flute. We also bought an old and traditional hilltribe bag which was very very cheap here. Wow…!!! what a bargain!!

 We returned to the pier after much of our money went away along the way in the souvenir shops :D. It was the time to go back to the hotel after we let the boatman to wait for us for more than 2 hours.

While we were going back to the hotel, the boatman let us visit a temple in the cave along the way before we reached the hotel. It wasa very peaceful site. There was only one monk here. The monk told us he had to live in the cave all the time. If he left the temple, sometimes some hilltribe thieves might raid the template and steal the money that people donated to the temple. How sad…

We had a nice trip to the hilltribe village and to the temple and I thought that the Kok River has a great view and a lot of interesting things to be seen more than the Mae Ping River that I visited in November 2002.

Again, this morning, We just reached Chiangmai by Nakornchai Air bus service from Bangkok. Aom and I went to Warorot Market to buy some breakfast. We got hot sticky rice with a Fried Moo Yaw, and Fried Naem. We decided to have our breakfast beside the Mae Ping river. We walked along the river and found a place that we can sit and eat our meal. How great!! Early morning, fresh air, and good breakfast.

Afterthe meal, we headed towards the Empress Hotel again to rent a car. We chose Suzuki Caribian again, but not the same car as the last time. This time we got 4 seats with the canvas roof , we tried to get the one with no canvas roof. But there was no Suzuki Caribian left. So we had to take that one. We paid 2,000 baht for 2 days rental excluding the gasoline. (more…)

In the late afternoon, we decided to cruise along the Mae Ping river from the city of Chiang Mai. We looked at the the map and saw a river cruise being advertised on it. Then we called them for a rate and booked the cruise for both of us.

Twenty minutes later, the minibus of Mae Ping River Cruise came and took us from the McDonald’s near Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. We had to join a trip with other 4 foreigners. The minibus took us to the pier at Wat Chai Mongkol. 

At the outset, the tour operators described about the trip and then Aom and I made payment of 300 baht each for the boat fees. We went down into the long -tailed boat at the pier and started.our journey along the Mae Ping River,That was my first time for such a ride. (more…)

When we had hired a Susuki Caribian car we decided to drive along Nimmanhemin Road and went up Doi Suthep. With a map from the Tourisim Authority of Thailand in Chiang Mai and the Chiang Mai city map that we bought from Bangkok,I could figure out the way to drive a car in Chiang Mai. I can say that the map from the Tourisim Authority of Thailand (sponsored by Thaiways) doies not have enough detail s that we want. It is just a big picture map. So I had to use both the Chiang Mai City map and the TAT map together.

At the start Aom and I wanted to drive along Nimmanhemin Road to look around for home decoration shop. But after we drove through the road for some time looking at the shops along the road,we decided to go on to Doi Suthep instead. because the shops we saw look so luxurious and the craftitems are too high in prices. They were not the kind of prices we wanted to pay . (more…)

We reached Chiang Mai on Saturdy at the 5.30 A.M., early in morning, by Sahacharn Tour Bus (not recommended, old bus, bad snack and bad food) and immediately we went to the Nakhonchai air bus station and booked the return ticket for Bangkok on Sunday night. I had not much time to stay in Chiang Mai until the Loy Krathong or Yee Peng days. So sad because I have never joined the Loy Krathong festival in Chiang Mai before.

We hired a Red Song Thaew (red taxi) and went to The Empress Hotel for acheck- in. After having unpacked everything, we decided to have a breakfast in the morning at Warorot Market. I remember the delicious “Moo Yaw Thawd”(fried Northern Thai pork sausage , normally a cylindrical block of 2 inches in diametre and 6 to 8 inches long.)and “Naem Tawd” ( fried Thai sour sausage)with steamed sticky rice. Wow….how wonderful it was!! (more…)