Time to wrap up our third jaunt to Thailand, this time in new territory…the north…a very different side from its southern islands and beaches, as well as mega city of Bangkok. There are many reasons we, and many other people, continue to flock to this country repeatedly. Below is our personal list of highlights and statistics, as well as upsides and downsides for the country. If you’ve been to this part of Thailand, what would you add?
Top Five Highlights
- Spending three nights soaking up serenity at Wat Tam Wua Monastery
- Scrambling/exploring in Pai Canyon
- Motorbike loop north of Chiang Rai including the Chinese village of Doi Mae Salong, and hot springs
- Daily walks alongside Phayao Lake
- Celebrating the Loy Kratong Festival in Chiang Khong
In Summary
Time Spent: 50 nights
Money Spent: $2149.21 or $42.98/day (in USD/two people) Greg’s parents paid for 4 nights of accommodation and the monastery was also minimal.
Our itinerary: Chiang Rai (18)* Chiang Khong (2) Phayao (4) Chiang Mai (15) Monastery (3) Pai (4) Chiang Mai (4) *we went to Laos in between
Favorite Place: Phayao
Least Favorite: Chiang Mai
Would we return? Of course. We’d love to go back to Pai, Phayao and many other places in the north especially Phrae, Mae Hong Son and Sukothai. Next time, we’d ideally spend much less time in the cities, but it always come down to available apartments and needing downtime.
Best takeaways for saving money:
- Use Bolt over Grab. It’s cheaper.
- Stay out of the center of the cities for much better deals
- When not cooking, eat all your food at mall food courts or street food in the cities
Upsides of Northern Thailand
- The world’s best and freshest cuisine at affordable prices ($1.50-2.50/meal). And yes, we think it’s even better than the food in Southern Thailand.
- This goes hand in hand with the number and quality of extraordinary night markets
- Thais take great pride in hygienic practices
- The Thais are notable and effective entrepreneurs. They are always coming up with better solutions, hustling and smiling at the same time. They remind us more and more of Mexicans.
- They are also generally organized in their transportation, their services and how they communicate
- It’s still so easy and inexpensive to pamper yourself. Massages generally from $5-10.
- Quality services and healthcare
- Overall, they are good drivers and don’t use horns.
- The roads mostly are also in good condition
- They regularly provide table water when you go to restaurants
- By SE Asian standards, they are good about recycling, and plastic usage with a plethora of water refill stations, and no plastic bags available in grocery stores.
- It’s relatively easy to use credit cards to book accommodation and transport
- For the most part, Thais are very friendly and smiling, although they are notably less smiley in the North than the south.
- The bird song is beautiful almost anywhere you go
- It’s a quiet country; you rarely have to worry about not sleeping due to interferences.
- The value and amenities you can get in an apartment in Chiang Mai/Rai is unreal. For $23-25/night, we had pools, gyms, security, workspace, and even a Pilates room.
- Marijuana is legal if you’re into that. Beer is also reasonably priced, even craft
- The Thai visa is now for 60 days upon entry.
- It’s easy and inexpensive to rent a motorbike.
- Terrific grocery store selection (in the cities)
Downsides of Northern Thailand
- There is quite a bit of overtourism in certain areas, but seems concentrated and easy to escape
- The westernization of Chiang Mai is kinda nauseating to us
- Although it’s easy to rent motorbikes, there are many foreigner check points especially around Chiang Mai and Pai. We’ve read some officers are demanding bribes, though we didn’t experience it firsthand
- It’s still mostly a cash-based society for smaller purchases
- You have to have a Thai phone number to get things like a SIM card so you need to have a plan for data. (We use FlexiRoam.) We were also unable to get a grocery store savings card without a Thai phone number
- Wine is very expensive
- You can’t drink the water
- Overall, parks and green spaces are hard to come by
- Alongside this, most places are still not too pleasant for walking
