Chiang Mai - Day 5
In the morning transfer to airport and flight to
Chiang Mai, the most important city of northern Thailand. Meeting with the leadership and first visits in the surroundings
The feature of the city, in addition to the numerous temples scattered, is the shopping area, where in just a few kilometers you can visit the famous handicraft farms for many types of processing: umbrellas of paper or hand-painted silk, silver, teak and lacquer. Their visit interesting.
What strikes in this area the climate is pleasantly cool and sunny, ruined by the hotels that use the air conditioning wisely.
After dinner we walk around our hotel, where there is a covered market, which sells products for local, a good opportunity to closely observe their way of life.
Every 3 meters is a stand cooking all sorts of things, in fact in the habit of dining out in Thailand and quickly. To facilitate this, the vendors pay the cook and comes in a plastic bag with straw in order to consume the meal while walking, but the look is not very inviting.
Then we observe many stalls selling fried vermicelli mountains: we will then know that it is a specialty of this region.
Chiang Mai - Day 6
Chiang Mai is located in a hilly area, and right on a hill near the center, is the most important temple in northern Thailand, the Doi Suthep.
We start with the guide to discover this part of town, but before you stop at the temple, we continue by jeep on a bumpy road in the middle of a vegetation lussereggiante, to visit a village of an indigenous community.
Thanks to our guide, and since we are only myself and my wife, do not we just stop in the commercial area, or where the people expect visitors with a marketplace, but we stuck in the middle of the village and housing, to observe the life of these people daily, with the simplicity and partly away from economic development. The traditions are maintained and women are still dressed with colorful clothes and hand-made, although the proximity conla city has brought some change inevitable. So too are some television, the houses are not poor but have some electrical appliance.
The view is beautiful from up here, and dominates a mountainous area covered with dense tropical jungle, and the green meadows in the vicinity of the houses are cultivated by local people, a walk really pleasant and relaxing.
After the tour, retrace the road journey to stop at the temple on Doi Suthep. Can be reached via a funicular or a spettacolaregradinata, which begins with two huge snake whose tail follows the 300 steps to the top of more than 1600 mt. Obviously opt for the stairs, which is quite tiring. Ovunque bancarellevendono flowers to wear as an offering, and most people are not tourists but are very devout people who come to pray.
Once on top, from the terrace you can see a splendid view of the city of
Chiang Mai, but what strikes you most is a beautiful golden pagoda that rises typical oriental temples with sloping roofs and finely decorated, the bright colors of Wat wonderful addition to the spirituality of the place that you breathe, with many faithful knelt in front of the many statues of Buddha, with a strong scent of incense and the classic floral offerings. We are also blessed with water from a simpaticissimo monaco that makes us some domandain English.
Let these magical places to return to the hotel and after a refreshing dip in the pool we decide to take a trip downtown to discover the temples of the city.
All the sidewalks are broken and means the walk is not very pleasant for the traffic, some temples are very beautiful and worth visiting, and then go back to the hotel with a tuk tuk.
For the evening we expect instead a typical dinner of northern Thailand, the guide leads us into a nice restaurant, only for tourists of course, where dinner is sitting barefoot on the floor, tasting the specialties and witnessing a spectacle of dances.
The evening will be concluded at the Night Bazaar, where there is the possibility to buy some 'all in the bustle of stalls and shops.
Chiang Rai - Day 7
After the best breakfast since we are in Thai, we leave
Chiang Mai in the north. The day includes a transfer by car to Tha Thon and
Chiang Rai with motorboat along the river, where there are some villages and isolated tribes practically achievable only by river.
The roads that we are spectacular, and crossing a mountainous area completely covered by jungle, with rolling hills alternating with mountain peaks moltocaratteristici. We stop for a break in a training center for elephants, which are used both for work and as a tourist attraction.
Here we do a tour of one hour in the middle of the jungle with these pachyderms, fording rivers and making the road in dense vegetation. Then we see a brief rappresentazionesulle potential and abilities of these animals, and truly exceptional agile despite its size.
Continue until you reach the river, then left the car with the bags that end up in the hotel, we embark on the voyage.> Br> In the section the river flows slowly in the middle of a green valley, and then meet the rapid to enter into a kind of canyon, where cominciaaddirittura to cool and you need a sweatshirt, and the landscape is very beautiful, reminiscent of the film "Anna of the King" when sailing along the river, we are practically in the midst of the hills that before vedavamo from afar. From time to time on the hills there are some villages.
After an hour and a half, to about halfway, we stop to visit a village: a difference that visited near
Chiang Mai, here the progress has not come for nothing, the children we encounter are eager to receive candy, snacks and pens that we had previously purchased on the advice of the guide. Around the village freely moving animals that are used for the self of the community: chickens, pigs, cows. The huts are made of straw, and the furniture is scarce, consisting only of folding beds, a table and a few other things.
Continue browsing until you enter the city of
Chiang Rai, where our hotel, beautiful, has a pier on the river, and then descend and go directly to our room, where, magically, we have our bags already
Golden triangle - Day 8
Last day of tour: we continue to the border of northern Thailand, with a brief diversion "extra" in our guide to be very pleasant: "the garden of the king's mother"
It is a project to try to distract the people who live in this area from opium cultivation, the only source of sostemento until a few years ago, to this end, on the slopes of a mountain, you have created a very spectacular botanical garden , made up of waterfalls, ponds, orchids and other beautiful flowers.
After visiting another village, we continue to the Golden Triangle, the point where the river marks the border between Thailand, Laos and Burma.> Br> So we continue to
Chiang Rai airport, where, via Bangkok,
Phuket reach in the evening.
After transferring to an hour we reach the pier, where a speedboat, in another hour, it reaches the island of Maiton, where the namesake Ventaclub.