Eco-Touring in the Foothills of the Himalayas

The main draw of northern Thailand is the natural beauty of the mountains outside of Chiang Mai. One of the most popular eco-tourism activities is a guided multi-day hike to visit remote hill-tribes. However, after hearing from other travellers that these were usually a (sometimes exploitative) rip-off that didn’t live up to the hype, we opted to do a few other eco-based activities instead.

1. Hiking a Waterfall

Instead of hiking for days through the mountains, we managed to squeeze in a shorter excursion to a waterfall. In the jungle canopy, we followed slippery stone steps up the side of a waterfall that seemed to go on forever. The waterfall was steep and narrow, and went even further than the steps ascended up the mountain. The short but strenuous hike allowed us to gauge how vast the mountains are – walking through a small fragment of the area, gave us some perspective on how vast and expansive the Himalayan foothills must be as they extend further north.

2. Elephant Riding

We also organized a trip to an elephant sanctuary recommended by our guesthouse. Elephant tourism is extremely popular in northern Thailand and on some of the islands in the south, but we wanted to make sure we went with a company that treated the animals well. There are many tour companies that are known to mistreat their animals or treat them like “circus” animals. The sanctuary that we visited (not mentioned in any guidebooks) was set in a valley surrounded by hills, where we came face to face with a dozen female elephants. From our experience, the elephants seemed happy, well-treated, and had seemingly close relationships with their individual caregivers (or mahouts). For the day, we learned about Asian elephants, fed them, rode them bareback through the jungle, and gave them baths. Even though I got the “aggressive” elephant Pai Coon (who kept trying to hit me with bamboo), it was a one-in-a-lifetime experience.

 3. Ziplining

One of the things that I looked most forward to when planning our trip was the chance to zipline through the jungle. After looking at a few different tour providers, we opted to spend a bit more and go with the Flight of the Gibbon, featured on the Amazing Race. On the drive into the jungle, the driver put on a taped clip of the episode. The experience was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Thailand. We spent hours flying down some of the largest ziplines in world, standing on platforms surrounding massive trees, “freefalling” and sliding into nets, abseiling, and getting 360 views of the forest canopy. One of the highlights was seeing a family of resident gibbons swinging through the trees, and getting free (and clean!) T-shirts after zipping around the mountains was like winning the backpacker lottery.

The Long and Winding Road to the Cultural Heart of Thailand

After our short stay in Bangkok, we took a 12-hour overnight bus to Chiang Mai, the hub of northern Thailand. The region is mountainous, and the small city-centre is contained by medieval-era walls. The city is one of the most sought after destinations in the country since it is perceived to preserve Thai culture, and is home to hundreds of Buddhist Temples. We would both consider Chiang Mai among our favourite cities here, but we only made it here after a hellish ordeal of overland travel.

In Bangkok we weren’t sure how we wanted to get to Chiang Mai (the two most popular options are overnight train and bus), but eventually opted for a sleeper bus that would leave at around 7PM and arrive at 7AM the next day. Our bus was full of other young backpackers – the ride consisted of watching the new Karate Kid movie on full volume, quasi-sleeping in our reclining chairs, and me finding a huge beetle in my hair when I woke up at a rest-stop. We ended up getting dropped off behind a gas station/bus stop just outside of Chiang Mai in the early hours of the morning (probably around 5AM), with everybody groggy and disoriented from the previous night. It took about half an hour to organize how the busload of us would travel in taxis (i.e. pick-up trucks with roofs) to the city, with little guidance from the “bus company,” and people constantly switching between the pick-ups in confusion. As a group of French Canadians began grabbing their bags, they noticed that they were missing valuables from their duffel bags stored under the bus. It is common practice for someone to search the bags and steal things, which is why I wasn’t overly worried, since all I had in my checked backpack were toiletries and clothes. But when the French Canadians tried to speak to the bus driver, he tried to drive away (to the point that a few of them were standing in front of the bus to stop it from moving). Eventually, we all made it into the city okay (and had to reorganize our backpacks, since everything had clearly been searched and haphazardly tossed back in). After we made it to Chiang Mai and to our guesthouse we weren’t so frustrated – guess it was just a part of the travel experience. It just wouldn’t have been the same if everything had gone smoothly.

When we finally had the opportunity to explore Chiang Mai, it had a sleepy small town vibe, and was a great place to walk around, eat, and drink. We also visited the main central temple (Wat Phra Singh), and the Sunday Night Market which were both great. The highlight of Chiang Mai’s “attractions” would likely be Doi Suthep – one of the holiest and most beautiful temples in the country on top of the mountain providing a stunning view over the city.

The best part of Chiang Mai, however, was the city itself – the city is good for walking and relaxing, and we stayed at the extremely hospitable Funky Monkey Guesthouse run by an English/Thai couple where we spent a lot of time chatting with them or playing with their dogs. We also established a “spot” that we would go a sit every night, which was at the East Gate of the city wall. We only realized on the last night that it’s also the prime city meeting point for sex tourists (meaning old American/European/Australian men courting barely legal Thai girls). Despite the grittiness, our time in the city was relaxing, and it was a great hub for exploring the natural beauty of Northern Thailand.

In the Land of Smiles and 7-11s

We’ve finally reached Thailand, the shining star of Southeast Asia. It took a lot to get us here, since we travelled one of the most infamous overland crossings in the region. We took an early taxi to the Cambodian border town of Poipet (2 hours), passed through Cambodian immigration, walked through No Man’s Land between Cambodia and Thailand (i.e. a bunch of seedy casinos), got through Thai immigration, then booked a 4 hour mini-bus to Bangkok. It was a long day, but overland travel is always an adventure.

Arriving in Bangkok was a bit of a shock since the places we’d been travelling were far smaller and had fewer tourists. We took a cab to Soi Rambuttri, a street very close to the infamous backpacker ghetto of Khao San Road, and found a guesthouse to stay in for the next few days. It might be hard for us to give a fair assessment of the city, since we only spent three days in Bangkok (which most people we met along the way said was more than enough time). It is even more difficult to judge the city since the circus of Khao San Road dominates the tourist scene, but is not at all reflective of the “real” Bangkok. While it wasn’t our favourite city, we still had a good time, and we able to enjoy some Western amenities that we had missed in Vietnam and Cambodia (there are more 7-11s in Bangkok than there are Starbucks in Manhattan). When we were just walking around the city, we did manage to make a few of the obligatory tourist stops.

1. Khao San Road

This street is one of the most famous in Bangkok for its backpacker and party scene. Bars, restaurants, and hostels line the street blaring Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, and all of them are filled with Western tourists or Thai peddlers that want to rip them off. While in no way representing Thai culture, it was definitely interesting to see how tourism has overtaken the country in the past few decades, and nice to have a few drinks in the presence of other “farangs” (i.e. foreigners).

 

2. The Royal Palace, Temple of the Emerald Buddha & Wat Pho

This area of Bangkok is considered a “must-see” in most guidebooks, since it contains the architectural highlights of old Bangkok. We visited the Royal Palace, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in the same complex, which was like a larger version of the one we saw in Phnom Penh. The Temple was one of the most intricate buildings we’ve seen and housed dozens of Buddha figures, with the centerpiece, of course, being the Emerald Buddha. We probably would have been even more impressed if we hadn’t just visited Angkor Wat. Wat Pho is smaller, and houses an enormous reclining Buddha, and was definitely worth a visit. It was also easy for us to take a ferry up the central river back to the area of our hotel which gave us a chance to see the city from a different viewpoint.

3. Siam Square

Siam Square epitomizes modern Bangkok – it is an intersection of high-end shopping malls, main highway arteries, and the elegant Skytrain that goes through the more affluent parts of the city. While there were other tourists in this area, it was much less oppressive than at the Palaces or Khao San Road, and seemed to be mostly comprised of middle-class locals. We walked through a few of the interconnected malls, and ended up at MBK – the one that was less glitzy but a favourite of Thai locals. We ate at the food court which serves food from all over Asia, and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 with Thai subtitles. Before the film, we also had to stand while the national anthem played and a slideshow of the King came on the screen – a ritual that takes place before all movie screenings and usually twice a day in bus and train stations. Siam Square was probably the place that we enjoyed the most, since it seemed to cater to both the local population and tourists.

Our first impression of Bangkok was a combination of glitzy, grimy, ancient and modern, but we embraced it all as an essential part of our first taste of Thailand.