After three days of doing nothing but sitting on various means of transport we were surprisingly tired. We decided to spend our first day in Chiang Mai by reverting to being proper tourists and investigating some of the local sights.
We walked into the old town, which is a walled city surrounded by a moat (now the central reservation of a dual carriageway ring-road) and (after booking a day of whitewater kayaking – more on that later) we arrived at our first temple of the day, Wat Phra Singh.
Wat Phra Singh was a large temple complex with multiple temples inside, some private buildings which I assume are Monk’s living quarters and offices, and some large golden statues and mini-pyramids. It’s all quite spectacular and the atmosphere is added to by the meditating monks who are sitting inside the temples without moving and staring straight ahead. Before I noticed them properly I think my mind had dismissed them as more statues, they really were very still!
Once we’d take enough photos(!) we walked outside and found a ‘red car’ or ‘song thaew’ waiting there. These converted pickup trucks serve as local shared taxis and we negotiated a price for a private trip to another local site outside of the city, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Our driver took us out of the city and up a winding road to the temple which is about 750m above the city on a hillside about 10km out from the centre. Cue more photos, and some great views though I think the slightly hazy atmosphere probably meant that our photos don’t do it justice.
The next day we set off with Siam River Adventures (a local rafting and kayaking company) for a trip down 10km of the Mae Theang river. Mel and I were the only kayakers on the trip (along with 3 fellow rafters) and we were warned when booking that the river was low and therefore ‘quite technical’ (kayaker code for lots of rock dodging!), however, it was advertised as mostly class 3 with a few class 4 rapids so we figured it would be well within our capabilities.
I think, in the parlance ‘du jour’, the advertising could be best described as ‘fake news’. The river did indeed start with a few great class 3 rapids, followed by what I’d call a class 4 rapid. That was lovely. Our boats were a little on the ‘locally sourced’ (i.e. terrible design) side, but we coped well enough. The river then steepened and we dropped into a series of very technical (see, now I’m doing it), long, steep rapids, with some fairly vertical drops, some moves which were important to get right (for the benefit of fellow kayakers, crucial boofs to be made) and some nasty-looking consequences if we were to make any mistakes. This was a lot harder than we had been led to believe.
I think it can be safely said that I paddled this river with neither style nor grace (the photos from the rafting company are clear evidence of this), and yet, I found myself enjoying it. The challenge of the technical nature of the river and the difficulty of paddling a boat I found awkward with a paddle I didn’t really like was pumping adrenaline into me at a vast rate, and the buzz from the relief once we emerged from the gorge at the bottom and the river flattened back out into fun class 3 was amazing.
Call us suckers for punishment if you will (or perhaps a kinder version would be adrenaline junkies) but we straight away booked onto a mountain biking session the following morning. Neither Mel nor I are mountain bikers, but the sport is often bundled with other ‘outdoor pursuits’ which we enjoy (kayaking, trekking, climbing, snowboarding) so it felt like a good idea to add this to list! We picked the easiest route offered by our guides for the day (beginner-friendly, no previous experience required) and were driven up to the top of Doi Suthep hill, past the temple we had visited two days before, up higher this time to around 1300m. The route down was tons of fun, it was almost all downhill on single-car-wide dirt tracks. Picking a good route down between small rocks, potholes and ruts was an exciting challenge and our guides took great care of us, patching up one of our fellow participants who took a tumble off her bike on a particularly steep section and pushing Mel’s bike for her when she elected to walk up the steepest uphill section. We both felt we could definitely get into mountain biking, and it’s a great addition to our love for north Wales, since when it’s too dry for kayaking, some of our kayak club mates will often go biking instead.
Once back from the mountain biking, we caught a taxi across town to the railway station. I’m writing this on the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, which left at 6pm and arrives at 6:55am tomorrow morning. Nearly 13 hours! Let’s hope we can sleep through most of it!
Melanie and Colin Go Travelling 