Chiang Mai, oh my! A Hippie Haven in the Thai Mountains

I've just returned from a lovely weekend sojourn to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. In fact, this was the first trip I went on where, when I left, I didn't feel "ready" to leave. Some of my preconceptions of Chiang Mai were indeed correct, while, yet again, I was very surprised by other parts of Chiang Mai. I was expecting a cute city surrounded by some nice scenery--sweeping green mountains and rice paddy valleys, but a city without much character due to its status as a tourist hotbed. Tourist hotbed, it was--treks were plentiful on every street, offering a smattering of options from elephant riding, ox cart rides, and bamboo rafting, to hill tribe village immersions (more like cultural tourism or "ogling"), to visits to butterfly farms or tiger kingdoms--but despite the large tourism presence in Chiang Mai, it was amazing to me how laid-back it is. Chiang Mai is completely different from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok--it's a small, livable and easily navigable city (albeit sans public transport), in fact, by the end of my weekend there, I even began to recognize where I was and where things were situated in relation to places I'd been and wanted to go to.

In terms of it's personality, Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city, is more like Berkeley, California-- as my friend told me, it's filled with hippie expats who are into organic, vegetarian food and yoga (though of a more spiritual nature, not necessarily yoga as exercise) --this was readily apparent in my first few hours in Chiang Mai as I'd seen more vegetarian restaurants in those hours than in all of Bangkok.

And, not only are the expats different (or the expat stereotype: hippy or English teacher versus sexpat or business person), but the Thai people who live there seem very different as well, and the Thai community seems much more accessible to expats than it does in Bangkok. When we went out at night, we met my friends' Thai friends and students; I'd never been around this many young Thais before! Clearly, Thais and farangs seemed to mix more than they do in Bangkok where bars and other venues are usually "Thai" or "farang," though many of the farang bars do have Thai girls (not men and women). At one of the bars we went to, we saw two local Thai bands--one alternative rock cover band, one Thai hip-hop band--which was pretty cool. Maybe it was the place we were, but overall, the young Thais in Chiang Mai seemed more alternative and dressed like hipsters. Granted, I have seen Thai hipsters in Bangkok, but not this many and it they certainly weren't this pervasive (hipster was the dominant look amongst young Thais I saw). The Thais also seemed more interested and eager to be friends with farangs like us--they were friendlier and a few even came up to talk to us. Despite this Thai-farang mix, there still are "farang" bars in Chiang Mai; we went to one, but there was still a small handful of Thai locals, mainly male, who were just chilling out, talking to the farangs. Also, my friends there spoke much more Thai than I expected (my Thai is limited to key words and phrases) and the Thais seemed exciting and willing to respond to them in Thai; in Bangkok, most people want to respond or speak in English.

The Thai hip-hop band we saw

Now, on to the things I did in Chiang Mai. One day, I rented a car with my friends and we drove to this national park, Doi Suthep Park, right outside of Chiang Mai. We drove up the hill, stopping at view points along the way for views of the city, until we reached Wat Doi Suthep, the famous Chiang Mai wat with gorgeous views of the city and the park. We climbed the 306 steep, serpent-lined (artistic serpents, not real ones!) steps up to the temple from the car park. Unfortunately, it was raining by the time we got to the top, so we didn't get the best views and didn't get to spend too much time in the temple.

Me driving our car on the other side of the road

View of Chiang Mai after a downpour

The 306-step naga staircase

The nagas (Buddhist serpents)

After the temple, we continued driving up the mountain and drove off of the main road (it was quite a drive, tiny road filled with potholes along the edge of the mountain!) to the Hmong hill tribe village (the Hmongs are not the famous long-necked hill tribe for those who may be curious, those are the Karen). The village was surprisingly pleasant--none of us wanted to just stare at the hill tribe people amidst a sea of tourists, which is what we were expecting. However, this village didn't have many tourists at all, we were one of maybe 3 small groups. We passed through the village market, which sold mainly embroidered clothes and crafts, and went to the maintained stepped garden, where there was also a nice waterfall. It was very peaceful and serene and we didn't have any people haggling us to buy things. We were approached by an adorable little girl dressed in the traditional Hmong costume who offered to have her picture taken with us for the bargain price of 10 baht (about 30 cents). We, of course, consented, she was just too cute. After our token hill tribe photo, we headed out of the garden, through the village and back to our car to start heading down the mountain, hoping to catch a hiking trail before leaving. We did get to one trail which was short, but nice. There was a waterfall, a river and a bouldered area. After the hike, we headed back to the city for, what else, amazing organic vegetarian food! Delicious. Oh, and did I mention that I had vegetarian street food too?? For dinner. Twice. At this cute little night food market in the old city. The street food in Chiang Mai was delicious.

The terraced garden in the Hmong village

One of the statues by the waterfall in the village

Our 10 B photo with the Hmong girl

An interesting tree that we came upon during our hike

The night food market by Chiang Mai gate in the Old City of Chiang Mai

Day 2 in Chiang Mai was also lovely and relaxing--it consisted of a 2-hour yoga class, which, as aforementioned, was spiritually, rather than cardiovascularly bent. After yoga, we had an amazing, again, vegetarian lunch, though this time it was all Indian food. Not as good as the Indian in Bangkok, but half the price and so therefore wonderful. My day of luxury and relaxation continued with a massage and then shopping at a weekend "walking" market, a market along a street closed off from cars. I think I'm spoiled by Chatuchak market (the largest outdoor market in the world where you can get anything!) right outside my doorstep, so by comparison, this market was okay. I bought some pretty awesome, hipster-y sneakers and a scarf.

The Sunday walking market

The nice thing, however, about the Sunday market, was that it was in the heart of the Old City in Chiang Mai and therefore surrounded by temples. Chiang Mai is a fraction of the size of Bangkok, but has just as many temples as all of Bangkok. Just from my few hours in this area, I definitely got a taste of the Chiang Mai temples of fame.

Outside a temple at night time

People making offerings

A large Buddha in one of the temples


Another temple

Overall, Chiang Mai was fantastic, and I definitely plan to go back, if only for a culinary tour. Or perhaps I should just start blogging about food...

Stay tuned for more updates and stories