Höhen und Tiefen im Norden Thailands

Day 77

Greetings from northern Thailand❤️

More specifically, we have now arrived in Chiang Mai, where we spent Christmas. Well, Christmas more or less fell through. Two days before Christmas Eve, Lars fell ill with a stomach flu. On Christmas Eve, it caught up with me. But we won't let it get us down. By now, we are more or less back among the living.

What else has happened recently?

From Bangkok, our journey continued by plane all the way up north to the town of Chiang Rai. The city has many small temples to offer and some smaller sights, as well as a daily night market with live music. One day we planned to watch the sunrise at Phu Chi Fa Mountain. We got up at 3 a.m. for that. But somehow everything went wrong. The driver was late, then we got stuck in the mud with the car. Despite all that, we managed to arrive there on time. But luck was not on our side, because everything was completely foggy. Unfortunately, we couldn't see anything. After a few days, we felt the urge to move on.

Next stop was Lampang. Not really discovered by tourists, which we also enjoyed. Locals instead of a tourist hot spot. Lampang is more of a small town where you can stroll along the Wang River. This time we rented a scooter. Exploring the area on our own is simply more beautiful. The city also has very beautiful temples, which we also explored. The boss of the hotel also recommended us to visit a national park and a temple complex on a mountain. Of course, we followed this advice, but it was quite a long way. We traveled 150 km in one day with our old scooter. But I must say it was worth it. First, we went to Wat Chalermprakiat, the mountain temples. We also had to cover the last stretch with an off-road car because it was too steep and bumpy. The view was fantastic and we enjoyed the great complex to the fullest. A few kilometers away was Chae Son National Park. The landscape is simply stunning, we drove through rice fields with grazing water buffaloes, surrounded by beautiful mountains. When we arrived at the national park, we passed hot springs where you could even boil your eggs. We decided to rent a private bathhouse and spent the afternoon relaxing in our little house. Then we went to a waterfall and, of course, boiled some eggs as well. What a day!
After another chill-out day in Lampang, our journey continued to Pai.

We had heard a lot about Pai from other backpackers. It was supposed to be a small hippie village with a relaxed atmosphere, etc. We were very excited. We first took a bus to Chiang Mai, where we had to switch to a minivan. 3 hours and over 700 curves later, we finally arrived. In Pai, we immediately felt welcome. Nice shops, small cafes, many backpackers, and also many peaceful hippies. Since our accommodation was a bit outside, we also rented a scooter. There were not many sights in Pai, but we enjoyed taking some time to relax. Pai has a small canyon where we went hiking and also watched the sunset. We also got up early once to watch the sunrise from a viewpoint. Below us, there was a sea of fog, with the rising sun in the background. WOW, that was a real goosebump moment. Pai really offers a great mix of relaxation and nature. A valley surrounded by mountains doesn't sound too bad either. After 8 days, we decided to move on, though, as we wanted to meet up with Pom in Chiang Mai. But we could have stayed in Pai for another 100 years.

And now, two days ago, we ended up here in Chiang Mai. Here we met Lars' former colleague Pom and his girlfriend. Unfortunately, I didn't notice much, as I was half in a coma. But today I'm better and we went on a scooter tour to a mountain and also saw waterfalls. Let's see what the next days will bring, and on the 29th of December, we will continue to our fourth country LAOS. I'm excited and thank you for reading.

See you soon

Your Anita ❤️

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