Aidan Dunbar. Date of travel: Jul 2005
Far up in the north of Thailand , Chiang Mai has slowly grown in popularity with tourists as its slightly cooler climate makes it a great escape from the heat and humidity of Kanchanaburi and Bangkok in the south. Getting there from Bangkok can take a while simply because of the sheer distance between the two cities. Your main options are really bus or plane, with the overnight sleeper bus being my personal preference. Leaving from Bangkok's massive Northern Bus Terminal (New Moh Chit Station) at about 9pm one day, the idea is that you wake up the next day in Chiang Mai sometime around 11am feeling refreshed and satisfied that you got a good night sleep. The bus is actually pretty good, and it stops off near halfway for quarter of an hour should you wish to stretch your legs. Remember to pack a torch or similar item if you plan to do any reading or writing on this journey as the driver turns off the cabin lights half an hour into the trip. Once you are in Chiang Mai, like most other places you will be shouted and heckled at by the touts and Songthaew drivers; but this time from across the road. Apparently they are not allowed into the bus station complex and one got a “good hiding� when he went to see some people near us. Everyone says it, but the Night Bazaar is a place to be seen and experienced. Hundreds of stalls line one street selling their wares – which range from lamps to ninja stars, football shirts to candles. The underground part of the bazaar is definitely worth visiting as the artists that work here are exceptionally talented, and a real bargain can be picked up easily. Similarly, the Night Market is worth visiting, there is less focus on the tourists here and the products on sale are more oriented towards the normal Thai person i.e. fruit and vegetables. Still, the sights and sounds are well worth seeing. Taxi-Meters are apparently a rarity in Chiang Mai, and you will have to make do with a Songthaew instead. These work as a kind of bus, where you tell the driver where you want to go and then he incorporates this destination into the route he takes, dropping off and picking up passengers along the way. The fare was about 10 Baht while we where there, but it can be increased should you come across one you want to charter. Thankfully, the motor-samlaw (tuk-tuk) is pretty scarce in Chiang Mai, so their annoying high pitched whine and blue-grey smoke isn't too invasive. A great way to see the city is to hire bikes – there are several shops all around the place, and in the event you can't find one you could always ask a tour operator (ours was conveniently situated at Wiriya House – the hotel-standard guest house we were staying in. Of course, there are always the usual attractions of Doi Suthep Mountain and its on-location Wat, not forgetting the others spread around the entire city. If you get a chance, drop by at Wat Suan Dok on one of their ‘chat to a monk' days – I believe this is still on a Friday – and talk to one of the monks currently residing at the Wat. This is really good fun, and the questions that you can ask them and they ask you in return are often quite bizarre. Throughout, there are chunks of the old wall knocking about. These create the boundary to the inner city and the outer city. Think of it like ‘ London City ' and the rest of ‘ London '. The segmented walls and one way systems can lead you believe your taxi driver is ripping you off by going extra distance and wasting time. It turns out he (or in the rare cases, she) is in fact taking you the quickest route. Taking time to explore the city is well worth it – just make sure you visit Warorot Market in the east, and remember that deep in the Soi it can be hard to find transport willing to take you. There are meant to be line breaks in this text, but they do not appear on this page for some reason. To see the properly paginated version, visit http://hosted.thatguyoverthere.net/chiangmai.htm Tour Operator: World Challenge Expeditions (Team Challenge)

Mark Edrew. Date of travel: Jan 2004
When in Chiang Mai I would certainly recommed doing a 3 day tour that includes trekking and visiting the hill tribes, elephant back riding and bamboo rafting. This was really fun (especially riding an elephant) and very interesting. Also greatly worthwhile is a Thai cooking course - I did a day course with Chef Tim (Thai Kitchen Cookery School), which was outstanding - we went to the market to buy the ingredients and then spent 8 hours cooking delicious, easy meals which we then had to eat! We each got a recipe book to make notes in while cooking and this we could then take back home - brilliant.