My Travel Blog

My kids have been asking when are we going to Chiangmai again since our visit last year. They love Chiangmai a lot, especially the overnight train ride, the visit to Chiangmai Zoo, and not forgetting Chiangmai Night Safari.

Actually, I have been thinking about visiting Chiangmai again so that we could get a glimpse of the newborn baby panda. It’s one of the best baby announcements in Thailand when Lin Hui, the mother panda, gave birth to her first panda cub. It might be too early for public viewing, but I believe that some day, we will be able to see the cute baby panda, when she’s a bit older. I wonder what will she be named after the naming contest?

Now, you have another reason to visit Chiangmai since Thailand is the 3rd country with its first panda born in captivity!

To me, everywhere is great for shopping because I’m a shopaholic who knows how to look for stuffs to buy. LOL! I don’t care much about brand name, but I buy according to my liking and mood at that moment. Thus, I had a great time shopping at Night Bazaar Chiangmai but only managed to buy a little at Sunday walking street.

Night Bazaar is fully packed with tourists, as always, and it’s like a place where you can easily find cafes, western food, Thai delicacies, lots of stalls and you might also bump into that Mesothelioma lawyer who shared the same flight with you. LOL! It’s such a small world here and I kept seeing some familiar faces which I met on the plane.

My kids enjoyed the Thai cultural dances at the food court with hub, so I could spend some time shopping by myself.

Some of the things are overpriced, since we are tourists, but you can bargain for a better price. If not, just walk over to another stalls. Most of the stalls are selling the same items!

Actually, Sunday walking street has more to offer, in terms of competitive pricing. But it was too crowded on the night I went, and furthermore, tagging my kids along was not a good idea of shopping. Thus, we only managed to walk around, grabbed a few stuffs and off we went.So, I hope that I will get a nice shopping trip at Sunday walking street next time!

 Flowers seem to be growing easily and more beautiful in Chiangmai. The gardens are generally prettier than those in Bangkok, probably due to the colder weather in Northern Thailand. I like the gardens at Royal Flora Ratchaphruek.

The Royal Flora Ratchaphruek was a flower festival held 1 November 2006, to 31 January 2007, in the Thai city of Chiang Mai that drew 3,781,624 visitors. It was one of the grand celebrations being hosted by the Royal Thai Government in honor of King Bhumibol, the world’s longest reigning monarch.

From Wikipedia.

There are a few international gardens and corporate gardens here, so it’s a nice spot for photo shooting. Our kids were too exhausted to walk, and not to mention I was suffering from vaginal dryness after a long soak in the hot spring water. So we only took the shuttle bus for a brief tour around the gardens.

I would love to come here again for more serious photo shooting as it’s kind of hard to take the photos on the bus, with a camera in hand and a kid sleeping on my arm.

This garden will definitely be in my list on my next trip to Chiangmai.

Our next stop was actually a temple in the cave, but I have forgotten its name. Besides that, only hubby and my boy went along as my gal was sleeping at that time. Thus, not much to blog about it.

Then, we went to a saa paper factory in Chiangmai town, and saw how saa paper and saa paper umbrellas are made.

I remembered my dad bought some back during his business trips to Thailand many years ago, and I have always thought that they are beautiful. Nonetheless, I didn’t get any for myself this time as I don’t want to have a lot of hand carries in my arms, while traveling with my kids.

But I did buy some products from the souvenir shop located here. The things might be more pricey than Sunday walking street but then, I didn’t buy a lot so it’s not too pricey for me.

BTW, you can also get the artists to draw some pictures on your tees, bags and etc, and it’s rather cheap. A small graphic is only like THB150, so it depends on the designs you choose.

Later on, we dropped by Hill Tribe Products Handicrafts center for a quick browse as I was looking for some tree tribe dresses for myself. But if my system memory was working well, I think the things are overpriced here, so I didn’t buy anything. Just get them from Sunday walking streets, or Night Bazaar. It’s cheaper there.

We took the taxi driver’s suggestion of visiting Sankhampang Hot Spring on our 3rd day in Chiangmai. I thought there is nothing special about this place, as I’ve been to a few hot springs before, but then, we ended up spending half of our day there. This place has a nice garden for photoshots, and it was quite crowded with local tourists that day.

We spent some time soaking our legs in the water of 40 deg, and it’s quite relaxing.

You can also come here for a picnic, and most of the visitors will buys some eggs to cook at the hot spring. Just be extra careful if you are here with young children as the water can be as hot as 110 deg, and I wonder if most insurance quotes cover injuries from the hot springs? Maybe they do.

My kids enjoyed their ice-creams here, and my boy even ate the eggs he boiled. He hardly eats eggs, but he was excited to learn how to prepare his own hard boiled eggs. As for me, I kept snapping photos like crazy. This place is indeed very pretty.

Before leaving the hot spring, we rented a small chalet to have a nice hot spring bath in private. The rental is quite affordable, so don’t miss it if you are here.

I was quite surprised that all of us actually enjoyed Sankhampang Hot Spring, even if it’s not our first experience to a hot spring.

  I love flowers, but only to receive them. I am not good at gardening, in fact, all the plants I bought died after some time. Thus, even if I like orchids at Sai Nam Phung Orchid, Mae Rim, Chiangmai, it didn’t come across my mind of getting one, no matter how pretty they are.

This orchid farm is only a stone throw away from the monkey school, and our taxi driver suggested that we pay it a visit. You have to pay an entrance fee, but I can’t remember how much was it. It’s not expensive though.

The orchids are pretty here, but my kids didn’t have interests for flowers. They would rather play hide and seek in the garden than admiring the orchids!

I guess you can get some souvenirs here too, not not custom rubber stamp with orchid designs la…

We were only there for a brief visit, but for our next trip to Chiangmai, we will skip the orchid farm.

Frankly, I think this monkey school in Mae Rim, Chiangmai is a disappointment. Unless you don’t mind wasting your annual travel insurance to fly over here to see some monkey shows, I would suggest that you skip this place. There is nothing attractive here, and I don’t quite like the smell of the school. It’s monkey’s urine, and it’s quite unpleasant. I wonder why they don’t wash it up?

Monkeys perform tricks playing basketball, riding tricycles and counting exercises and a demonstration of how monkeys climb trees and retrieve coconuts. Show times at 11:00, 12:15, 13:15, 15:15 and 16:15 with an entry fee. (0 5329 8818).

If you are interested to see the shows, that’s the number to call to get to the school. Take note that the monkeys might not be friendly to kids, so make sure that you children do not touch the adult monkeys. They can hold the baby monkeys though, if they are bold enough.

 Our taxi driver suggested that we had lunch at Tiger Kingdom. There is a restaurant here, located just by the fence where you can see a few adult tigers roaming in the enclosure area. It’s one of the famous attractions here in Chiangmai, and if you are interested to have close encounter with tigers, this is the right place for you.

Different pricing for different categories of tigers.

You can close to dine at the tables, which are close to the tigers.

We only paid for the baby cubs because my kids are too young and small. Tigers will see them as preys, and there is a risk of getting hurt.

You can go into the enclosure area of adult tigers, if you are big and brave enough.

We only chose to touch the younger cubs of 4 months old.

You have to remove your MBT shoes before entering the cage of the newborn cubs. No flash is allowed, if you want to snap photos of the cubs.

My kids enjoying being close to the cubs.

But there is still a risk of getting hurt here, so think about it before you decided to enter the cages.

My kids have been to a few zoos, but all of us were surprised to see how hilly Chiangmai Zoo is. At first, I was wondering why they allowed cars to be driven in the zoo area, but it didn’t take me long to realized that it’s impossible to walk and cover every corner of the zoo with 2 kids in stroller and you have to walk uphill and downhill and the place is quite big! We took the shuttle service and it’s a relieve to my back bone and feet…

You can expect to see most common animals here, like any normal zoo. But over here, there are giant pandas!

My kids had never seen real pandas before, so they were thrilled to see the pandas. However, they got bored after awhile as the pandas are pretty slow, and …just sat there and ate. LOL!

Besides that, my kids had the chance to feed the cheetah cubs, the rhino, giraffes and etc. Not to mention, they went on pony rides again!

There is an aquarium here, but we missed it. So, maybe we should visit Chiangmai Zoo Aquarium next time.

BTW, take my advice. Drive in the zoo or take the shuttle bus. It’s impossible to walk like this, if you have young children! You will be exhausted in no time! But luckily, there are a few stalls selling drinks, but I don’t think it’s enough. Do submit your business resumes to the zoo authorities if you are interested to run a business there. Hahaha! Just kidding…

Actually, I planned to visit one of those real villages, but the journey was like an hour or more away from our hotel, so we couldn’t make it. We had to get back in time to visit a few places at night, thus we could only have a brief visit at the tree tribe village near Mae Sa Elephant Camp. It’s not a real village, but something like a cultural village where a few tribes were gathered here for tourism.

I would say the living condition is not really good, but it should be better than the villages in the mountain area. You can forget about seeing the tree tribe villages wearing any Swiss Army watches, a tour to their houses showed how simple their lives are.

You can get some handicrafts here, but I’m not sure if they are pricey as comparing to other places. I only bought a few items, and to me, they were rather cheap.

Most tourists are here to see the long neck Karen Pedaung tribe, where the girls wear brass rings on their necks, wrists, below the knees and ankles. It’s their tradition to avoid being beaten by tigers, but I think the custom is carried out just for tourists these days.

Here’s a photo of how the brass ring is put on…

 I wonder if the girls do so voluntarily, but somehow, I don’t think this little girl is happy with cameras flashing at her.

If you are interested to know more about Chiangmai tree tirbes, check out the link.