This is the third recap of my southeast Asia backpacking trip (#JLAsia2018) with my friend, Julianna.

Our third stop was Chiang Mai, Thailand’s northern province. We stayed 2 days in Chiang Mai and November was actually an exciting time to go because Chiang Mai was celebrating its Loi Krathong & Yi Peng Festivals.

Arrival

Transportation

We flew from Phuket to Chiang Mai with Air Asia and it costed us around $150 CAD, which is much more expensive than the $40 CAD we spent flying to Phuket from Bangkok. Once we arrived at the airport, we took a Grab to our hotel.

Accommodations

We stayed at Pai Residence, a 3 star hotel run by people who spoke Mandarin fluently. We chose this hotel based on our budget and location – we specifically wanted a hotel that was inside the old city. It was $71 CAD for 2 nights (so around $35 CAD per person).

It wasn’t fancy compared to our hotel in Phuket, but it was decent and did its job. It took us a long time to receive our laundry back (over a day) so that stressed us out as we unable to pack until the morning we had to check out.

We had lunch at a really cute cafe across the street from Pai Residence.

After our lunch was when I realized the only long dress I brought to the trip no longer fit me (LOL so embarrassing) so we rushed to a nearby market where Julianna proceeded to buy more than 6 pairs of Thai pants. Going into the washroom costed money so I changed in a back hall where no market stalls were because I’m a cheap ass.

Things to do

With the Yi Peng and Loy Krathong festivals, there were lots of things happening in the city. We were not sure where to go. My travels-everywhere friend, Toby, helped us be a part of the celebrations in two ways.

Buddhist Loy Krathong ceremony

The first thing Toby told us he would be attending is a monk ceremony at the temple Wat Phan Tao. The ceremony was free to watch so we decided to go. There was no official start time for the ceremony (just when it gets dark) but when we arrived there at 5 pm and the sun was shining, there was already a huge crowd.

Julianna and I sat for at least 3 hours on the dirt ground, squished with hundreds of other tourists as we waited for the monks to slowly light all the candles and clean the Buddha statue. There was literally no room to even stretch your legs.

The ceremony starts with the monks walking across this bridge path, which we were sitting right in front of. They had music and humming and beautiful ladies carrying things as they walked down the path and onto the patch of land separated with what looked like a little moat.

Lots of people were taking photos, or at least trying to. If you didn’t have a tripod though, you got shunned by all the tourists behind you for standing up to take a photo.

The ceremony went on for more than an hour. The monks sat down and said or sang prayers and continuously bowed their heads before standing up to release a lantern. At this point of the night, Julianna and I had already noticed several lanterns lit up and floating in the sky a distance away. We wondered if people were releasing lanterns somewhere else in the city or from individual homes. It was pretty even though it was far away. We now know there was a free lantern release on Narawat Bridge.

After the ceremony we were tired and hungry so we went to the nearest cafe where I ordered a Khao Soi and it was the best thing ever.

Elephant Sanctuary

One of my top things to do in Thailand was to visit an elephant sanctuary and give elephants a bath. We signed up for a half-day at Chiang Mai’s Elephant Sanctuary for $70 CAD per person. The price includes transportation to and from your hotel (if it’s within the old city) and lunch. They have morning half day, afternoon half day, and even a whole day + overnight option where you sleep in the small village with all the other elephant workers.

We wake up bright and early to be picked up at 6 am from our hotel. We actually stopped by a 711 for breakfast and again I was reminded just how impressive 711 is in Asian countries and how crappy it is here in Canada.

The Elephant Sanctuary staff picked us up in a black tuktuk and we drove for around an hour outside to the rural parts of Chiang Mai where their camp was located.

We were given colourful clothes to change into so that the elephants knew we were “friends”. Our tour guide had great English and was very funny.

Luckily for us, our camp had a baby elephant (!!!!) who was only 6 months old. He was still around the same size as me and was surprisingly very hairy!

Our time with elephants was split into 3 activities – banana time, mud time and bath time. Our guide explained that banana time was a time for us to become friends with the elephants and for them to become familiar to us. Banana is like chocolate for them, apparently.

We get changed into our swimsuits after banana time to prepare for mud time. Our guide made us (yes he made us) say really loudly, “WE ARE READY TO GET DIRTY” before letting us into the mud baths where the elephants were.

I’m not a fan of getting dirty so I didn’t like the feeling of the mud going into my fingernails, but other than that the mud time was a lot of fun. You basically just grab mud from this pool you’re standing in and rub it all over the elephant’s skin. The elephant is already lying down and actually you have to be careful where you’re standing because you always have to be standing on the side of the elephant’s back, not its legs unless you wanna die.

Of course the guide is also going around slapping mud on people’s shoulders and backs so we look nice and dirty in the photos they’re taking.

Lastly, bath time. The elephants are lead to a nearby stream to wash off the mud. To help wash the elephants, you basically just splash them with water continuously. That would be really fun except a couple of things happened:

First, an elephant pooped in the stream. I don’t know if you know what elephant poop looks like but it looks like a big concrete box. It’s probably the size of a mini fridge. So one of the attendees notifies the guide that an elephant has pooped. The guide just wades over there, picks up this giant poop from the water and throws it off to the side.

Second, the workers are taking photos of us and trying to make it look like we are having a lot of fun. We are having a lot of fun, but they try to amplify it more by splashing water at us and screaming, “WATER FIGHT!!!”

Third, I, horrified of the poop scene I witnessed and the possibilities of getting pink eye, try to remove myself from this water fight. It is not effective.

After bath time, the elephants go off to probably nap and eat more things while we go back to wash up, change and eat lunch. The lunch was below average but at least you could eat as much as you want (buffet style). The washrooms were really dirty and I was still confused if the water was for cleaning the toilet or our hands.

Regardless, this was such an amazing opportunity to get close to elephants who are living in a happy environment, and to make a difference for the sanctuaries that are keeping them safe and away from riding camps.

Yi Peng festival

Toby, Julianna and I paid over 3,200 baht ($130 CAD per person) to attend a Yi Peng festival because we wanted to release lanterns. We actually cancelled our cooking class to attend the festival instead, which in retrospect we wonder if that was a mistake because this festival was a shit show.

The festival was run by a bunch of different Thai touring companies and based on the turnout, it was a 80% majority Chinese tourists.

It was held at a random cowboy field. After you check-in to your tour company’s tent, they will provide you with a visitors pass and your seat number. You enter the festival where there are many lantern decorations and all-you-can-eat Thai food.

They have some performances and art stalls, but mostly we ate a bunch of Thai appetizers and waited for hours until it was time to enter the eating area.

The eating area was filled with rows of food stalls that had different types of Thai food. Again, it was all-you-can-eat but lineups are super long for everything. The seating areas were on mats with cushions and little tables. It was free-for-all sitting so it was kind of a gong show.

They had an area where people were lighting up fireworks (safety hazard since you can get as close to it as you want). They also had another area where they were releasing giant lanterns as a group. Lastly, there were two small areas where you can place down a candle and make a wish.

Again, you had to wait hours before you were allowed to enter the ceremony area. A giant stage was in the middle and all the seating around it circled it. They gave some really boring performances and then it was finally time to release the lanterns.

This is when the shit show happens.

So everybody is sitting in their seats and were given instructions that a worker will pass down lanterns down each row. That didn’t happen in our row and we were confused as to where to get them ourselves. When the fireworks erupted to signal the beginning of the release, lots of people had no lanterns and were trying to leave their seats to get one, which is super freaking dangerous because between every 3 seats or so right in the aisle where you walk there is a bunsen burner with fire and people who do have lanterns are standing there trying to light a paper lantern that catches on fire if you don’t do it properly.

Julianna gets us our lanterns after a delay and we learn how to properly light up our lanterns:

1. When you first receive your lantern, it is folded up for compact storing. You need to open it up and try to fill it with some air so the paper isn’t sticking together.
2. The wireframe of the lantern holds a circle in the middle that looks like a giant cork – light that on fire.
3. Once a fire is lit on the circle cork, wait for the hot air to fill up the lantern completely. Do not let it go unless it feels like it’s about to fly out of your hands, otherwise it’ll fly sideways and burn someone’s face.

So step 3 is really important because people literally were messing up. Lanterns were catching on fire and falling down to the ground (um that’s super scary) and also it’s hella worrisome to be trying to light up your lantern and you look up and there is a lantern about to almost hit your face. My hair almost got burned off so many times it’s not even funny. And there were children everywhere! AND STICKS OF FIRE JUST EVERYWHERE.

The release was beautiful. About 4,000 lanterns were being steadily released and you’ll bet there were tons of photographers trying to get their dream shot. Over the music you can hear the MC’s yelling into their mics: Please get off the stage. It’s very danger. It will break. But of course nobody was listening.

After the lantern release ended, our night got even worse. When we exited the festival area and walked back to where the registration booths were at the beginning of the day, everybody was gone. All the companies were gone. Certain tour companies had workers with giant lit up sticks of their logo, showing them which tuktuk to ride to go home. This is where my next piece of advice lies: do not pay for transportation with the tour company because you will be stranded.

Yup, we were fucking stranded in the dark at some random ass cowboy field 30 minutes away from Chiang Mai old city. All the tuktuks and vehicles are reserved for different tour companies, so you’re not allowed to just hop on a random one. Grab was all busy and very expensive. In the end, we hopped on an already-full tuktuk that was basically picking up leftover passengers like us back to the old city.

Between the long waits for things to happen at the festival, the price ($130 CAD!!) and the shit show of fire and all the times we could’ve suffered from burns and injuries to getting stranded by a tour company, Julianna and I were not impressed with the event at all. It was poor planning, poor execution and definitely a safety hazard for all attendees and workers. We’re not sure if the beautiful sight we saw was worth all that.

Final thoughts

Chiang Mai was such a darling city and we visited at a very festive time. I wish we had stayed more days in Chiang Mai as I hear they have a very interesting coffee culture. We also didn’t get to visit any night markets to eat street food so that was a shame. On top of that, we also didn’t go to our cooking class which Julianna was really looking forward to.

Everything was cheaper in Chiang Mai compared to Bangkok or Patong. Remember the 250 baht sunglasses I got at Patong Beach? Sunglasses were 80 baht in Chiang Mai.

The Old City itself is very interesting because it’s literally walled in. Within the Old City, I would say exploring by foot is best because the roads are very narrow and confusing for drivers to drive through. If you have a scooter that would be ideal.

Everywhere you go you will see small and large temples and they are all gorgeous. We didn’t explore too much outside of the Old City so beyond the walls may be much more metropolitan.

I highly recommend visiting Chiang Mai in November during all these festivities. You don’t have to pay $100 to participate in lantern releases. There were releases and other fun things to do for free or for less money, like releasing candles in the river for Loy Krathong. If you do go to a lantern release, just be careful. If I could do it again, I would bring my own lighter and release my lanterns a couple of meters away from everyone else.

Sincerely, Loewe