Chiang Mai & The Hilltribes

Being a centre of the tourist trade the town is well geared towards their expectations, As with the rest of Thailand, Temples are in good supply if youre after a bit of enlightenment or like the architecture, shopping is probably the main attraction in the city itself with some hard bargaining to be had at the shops and night market. From the town you can organise trips on elephants through the forest and to the Golden Triangle. The main trek is to do a hilltribe encounter, usually spread over a number of days

Quick Tips:

Dont take the first price on anything - just about everyone you meet will be able to offer you a price on anything you want to do - so shop around.

Best Way To Get Around:

Most things are within walking distance of the centre and the night market effectively closes off a number of streets so walking is essential. As with the rest of Thailand the local Tuk Tuks are in good supply but fix a price first, for longer journeys proper taxis are available although we never had cause to use them.

Getting to Chiang Mai: its possible to fly there from Bangkok but a cheaper and better alternative is the night train – carriages are reserved for tourists and the doors locked for security (You can get out, but not in so its safe enough) food is served on board and its possible to buy other supplies. The carriage starts in Bangkok as a normal seated train and eventually the staff will come along and convert the seats into bunks and the whole thing is a bit of a laugh if you get a good group on board your carriage. It arrives in Chiang Mai early enough to warrant breakfast in town.

With a name like this we had to check it out for a laugh, in actual fact it turned out to be one of the best restaurants we visited on our whole trip and is highly recommended. The name is derived from the fact that the restaurant is run by a charity which promotes family planning and protection from AIDS – the belief being that many relationships or romantic nights start off at a meal. The restaurant is tastefully kitted out and apart from the name you would not see anything odd about it at all. Food is varied and of high quality together with a decent price but not the bottom end of a budget.

Upstairs they have a small display / museum of their work and the hilltribes of Northern Thailand – we had to ask them for access as the place was in darkness when we first went up the stairs but it was worth a look even although it only took a matter of minutes to wander round.

The restaurant is quite a bit out of town, if walking there then be aware that it’s a good bit out from the main part of town and you get the idea that you’ve left the commercial zone, the entrance is set back from the road.

The northern city which is a major centre of the tourist trade, Chiang Mai is a fairly industrial town with a basic lack of things to go and see and is rivalled by the busier Chiang Rai nearer the Golden Triangle, another magnets for tourists nearby, however this doesn’t mean you’ll be bored as the town is filled with temples to meander around and is probably the best place to get some shopping time in, especially at the night market.

The market operates daily although does change a little in scale and produce each day so its worth a second visit if you’re after normal day to day stuff and couldn’t find it first time round. That aside it’s the tourist stuff remains the same each day and is often cheaper than the markets in Bangkok, especially if you wait till the market is nearing closing time.

On offer were the usual array of fake watches, from Rolex to Timex, I’m told that the Rolex ones are most likely to fail as their mechanisms are more complex, if you get a watch with basic functions then the forgers will put in a standard mechanism so it should last a lot longer.

One of the best things we found that wasn’t available elsewhere were hand painted oriental fans, there was a standard array of designs but also the artists would put together a design for you using your preferred colours etc, all to be ready next day although they expected a little more cash for such a service. If you were going on a hilltribe trek then they would have it ready in a few days and the price would be lower.

Daytime shopping wasn’t nearly as good and equated to the standard shops you would find on the main streets back home although it was possible to get a suit made in 24hours if you wanted to.

Love it or hate it these ethnic encounters are getting really popular, a good number are offered through package holiday deals where you get to stay in a village overnight and experience the "real Thai hilltribes" – I’m not so convinced, many of the tribes have dramatically changed their lifestyles in order to pamper the needs of the tourists and the profit demands of the companies who offer the trips - before too long now the old way of life will have largely died out altogether.

We arranged a trek with a local operator and local guide called Oi - she was once a resident of a hill village but moved to Chiang Mai for work so was a good bet that she would be up to scratch. Our choice of guide was time well spent as on our route she went into great detail over the various customs of the villages including the spiritual gates for each village and the way houses were built to withstand heavy rain and floods and the differences between the tribes and so on.

Whilst on trek we did get off the usual trails and saw what the local school was like and the increasing number of satellite dishes hidden well away from the village centre where the majority of tourists end up. Although this didn’t meet the postcard image of the rural hilltribes I reckon it was just as valid to do this as well as you really did see how these people did go about their daily lives.

Despite the façade put up the hilltribe treks are well worth doing, the northern highlands are much cooler than the cities so the going is a bit easier and the scenery quite dramatic. Its worth getting up early in the morning to catch sunrise over the dew and misty hillsides which is one of my most memorable times of the trek, truly magical.

Treks are big business and can be easily arranged from most hotels in Chiang Mai which is what we did although we still managed to influence which guide we got - with hindsight some hotels take commission so its probably better to go direct to a tour operator – there’s plenty around. Don’t know if you’ll get it any cheaper but you may well get a better return on your cash.