The Chiang Mai Trip, Thailand

Alison had always wanted to pay Chiang Mai a visit and we took the June school holiday opportunity to fly there. Just like Penang, I last visited this mountainous city more than a decade ago. The vast difference is that Penang has changed much but Chiang Mai has not. The temples, elephants, night markets, people and food felt so familiar and I was glad the old city has retained it's rustic charm. You cannot see many high rise buildings. The Thais respect their temples and it's always disrespectful to build infrastructure that rise above any of the 300 over temples in Chiang Mai.  

Wat Chedi Luang

We would visit the more famous temples like Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh and Wat Phra That Doi Suthep . My daughter loves the elephants at Maesa Elephant Camp  and we had a whale of a time playing with the baby elephants🐘🐘🐘. There are many online debates on the controversies of riding elephants but personally I feel that it takes tremendous budgets to feed and maintain the huge appetite animals. The money must come from some revenue. 

Family Photo at Maesa Elephant Camp

We also took the opportunity to visit Doi Inthanon National Park. It housed the highest mountain in Thailand (2565m). The temperature at the peak was around 15 degree Celsius when we visited and we had to pinch ourselves to remind ourselves that we were in Thailand, which was always hot and humid. The imposing King and Queen Pagodas that are situated near the summit were sight to behold. Shrouded in mist when we visited there, the area emitted a feeling that we were somewhere in heaven. The equally impressive Wachirathan Waterfall was somewhere we would always remember. We spent sometimes enjoying the spectacular sight and cool breezes created by the water dropping from a height of almost 80 meters.

Many readers would know by now I am a "Temple man". In my itineraries, there would always be the presence of temples. But if you observe carefully enough, there is another destination I often included in my plan. Yes, Zoo is always another regular feature. We visited the Chiang Mai Zoo and enjoyed our day there. The park is massive and Charlotte enjoyed herself a lot feeding sheep, giraffes, emus elephants and deer.

I specially created a 7 mins plus video to summarize our amazing trip in Chiang Mai. Hope you enjoy it and give a thumb up!!!

Below is a brief plan of our 6 days visit. As usual, drop me a mail  if you want a more detailed itinerary. Please give us a Like at our Facebook Page before your request 😉😉😉. Let us know if you are looking for a good local driver. We can recommend the one that we used for our trip.

Day 1
-Arrived at Chiang Mai International Airport
-Checked in U Chiang Mai Hotel
-Night Bazaar

Day 2
-Wat Chedi Luang
-Wat Phra Singh

Day 3
-Maesa Elephant Camp
-Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Day 4
-Doi Inthanon National Park
-Ping River

Day 5
-Chiang Mai Zoo
-Shopping at Central Plaza

Day 6
-Checked out U Chiang Mai Hotel 
-Return to Singapore

For Your Pinning