Chiang Mai
Escape from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok to Thailand's second city, Chiang Mai. It has everything that Bangkok has but on a smaller scale and without the traffic jams.
You can go by train and it's worth it at least once just for the experience. The trip is supposed to take about 11 hours by Sprinter during the day and a bit more at night. We've had reports that it can take up to 16 hours!
The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai costs 1,940 baht single, 3,880 baht return, about double the cost of a train journey with a sleeping berth. The Orient Express is also available starting at about US$850 per person, two persons per cabin...
(Prices quoted are for April 2000. The current exchange rate is approximately 75B = £1.)
Food
Recommended
Our favourite place to eat is the Mho-O-Cha Seafood Restaurant in Anusarn Market, which is just off Chang Klan Road, on the opposite side to the Royal Princess Hotel. You wouldn't think that somewhere so far from the sea could do such good fish and seafood - and so cheaply: about 200 baht will get two people a slap-up meal, including beer. You can pick your own and tell the friendly staff how you'd like it done. They have an a/c room, but we always sit outside.
All right but...
writes... I was sat in Pizza Hut in Chiang Mai, as you do, with four blokes I met in Singapore whilst I was out there. This bubbly young thing was taking our order - so smilingly that she obviously hadn't developed the hatred of the public that most restaurant workers have honed through years of work - and she stated with confidence that our meals would be with us in 13 minutes. Very precise, we thought. Hmmmmm. 14 minutes later we called her over and very nicely asked her, just out of interest, what happened if our meals weren't with us in the time she had said they would be. Her smile dropped for the first time since we had entered. She thought for fully five seconds - we thought through the possibilities (free meal, free drinks, etc...) - before smiling again and saying "You have to wait." BOOM BOOM. New company pledge: Either your meal will be with you in 13 minutes, or it, ummm, won't.
(We had a pretty similar experience when we were last up there. About seventeen staff for five customers, all of them falling over each other (and us) to be helpful. When offered a dessert we felt like asking if "fool" was on the menu. Still, the food was OK.)
Bars
Recommended
One of our favourite places in Chiang Mai is The Escape bar now run by Bill, a friendly American. A bit out of the way (on Sittawong Road, just near its junction with Chang Moi Kao Road), but still a favourite with expats - great British grub, and cheap.
Shopping
The night market on the corner of Loi Kroh Road and Chang Klan Road used to be an absolute must for cheap clothes, shoes, and souvenirs. Unfortunately it's fallen on hard times recently - all the stalls down the back alleys have gone and it now covers the streetfronts only. But still worth a browse.
Another good place to shop is Wararot Market on Wichayanon Road. Chaotic, and full of loads of small stalls selling the usual groceries and household goods, but also clothing. There's also a load of stalls selling Chinese fireworks, medicines, joss sticks and all that devotional paraphernalia. Worth going once just for the experience!
Fun
Our old pal Eddie (who used to run the Escape bar) dragged us off to the Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes one year. Cricket? (Our chief sub-editor has just corrected the fact I wrote "fives".) Still, it was a good couple of days out. Held every year at the end of March - provisional dates for the next tournament, the twentieth, are 1-7 April 2007. Teams come from many of the major cricketing countries. You can find out more about it at http://www.chiangmaisixes.com.
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