As I wrote in the previous posts, we decided to start our journey in Thailand, specifically, in the North.
Our final target was Pai, but, the flight to Bangkok takes ~12 hours, then you have to wait for the flight to Chiang mai and there is a 3 hours drive from Chiang Mai to Pai, too much for “one ride”, so we decided to split it.
There are more ways to get from Bangkok to Chiang Mai:
- Over night bus: 30 usd and ~11 hours of driving.
- Train: price starting with 8 usd up to 33 usd for a sleeper 2nd class with A/C
- Taxi: starts from 240 usd
- Flights: start from 40 usd – that was our choice.
You can use www.12go.asia to see your options.
So we flew 12 hours, waited another 4 hours to our flight to Chiang Mai which last 1:15 hours and then, we finally arrived to Chiang Mai. 150 Baht for a taxi and we arrived to our hotel, “The Nine Smiths Hotel”.
I admit that when I booked that hotel, I was looking for a cheap hotel with breakfast, not too far from the old town. well, that what we got 🙂 , actually, it was pretty nice. quite room, pretty big (we got the “deluxe option”), comfy bed with nice breakfast. Later we found out that it is right next to the Sunday night market which is one of the biggest markets in Chiang Mai.
We planned to stay here for 3 nights and then move to Pai, we spent our time in the different markets 🙂
The markets are pretty similar, the Sunday market is much bigger, we walked around 3 hours and didn’t see all of it. There are so many food stands, restaurants, fruits, street massage, local art, clothes and jewellery stands that you simply can’t see them all in one tour. The markets are in the “old city” you can look for them in Google Maps and you’ll get the exact directions (links above).
We spent the last evening in Nimman, that is the “new area” of Chiang Mai, most of the digital nomads live here and you can see it while walking in the streets. Many western global food networks (Macdonald’s, KFC…) a big shopping mall (Maya shopping mall) and a lot of “internet cafe” where people can come and work during the day.
As expected, the prices in Nimman are higher than the old city, expect doubling your food price there and so is the accommodation (hotel or an apartment).
Wonder how much we spent in Chiang Mai? watch our short video and see the prices…
If you are in the old city, expect paying 150-400 baht for a lunch for two, eating in western restaurants/Nimman area will double it.
In the next post I’ll write about the way to Pai…
