Chiang Mai: White Water Rafting

About an hour and a half out of Chiang Mai is a lush mountain valley which I will refer to as Tourist Valley. I don't know the actual name of this area but it runs along the Mae Tang River.

Here you can do just about any and every activity offered by the tour agencies in Chiang Mai: trekking, bamboo rafting, quad biking, white water rafting, elephant trekking/riding/bathing/feeding, hill tribe visit, home stays, purpose-built village visits, zip-lining... It's like Disney World only there are dozens, if not hundreds, of different tour companies that operate in the valley. The valley has been completely transformed into a tourist zone, there's even a fake village where 'long necked' women sit around posing at looms waiting for visitors to come and take pictures of them. Another tourist pointed out that concentrating all these activities to one area is probably better for environment than having tourists run amok over a wider expanse of jungle.

Inevitably, with eight days in Chiang Mai and nothing much to occupy us, we found ourselves being transported by minibus to Tourist Valley.

We booked to go white water rafting with Chiang Mai Adventures. The trip promised grade four rapids; previously Ric and I have both rafted up to grade three rapids so we were excited by the prospect of a more exhilarating trip. It did not disappoint.

The rapids were great; throwing us into the air as we plunged down waterfalls, bouncing us up over rocks and soaking us with crashing waves of river water. The scenery was beautiful too; tropical jungle of both sides, we even saw an elephant crossing the river in front of us, close enough to touch.

The agency even provided photos for us: 

Cost: 1,200 Baht each (should have been 1,400 but we asked for a little discount). Includes: transport to and from hotel, lunch, safety talk, photos, experienced guide.

Chiang Mai: Siam Rice Cooking Class

Thai food is without a doubt some of the best in the world. Spicy, creamy and full or fresh crunchy veg, I never get tired of eating it. We've been planning to do Thai cooking class since the start of the trip and found some quality, cheap courses in Chiang Mai.

Ready to cook up a storm.

We started with a trip to the market where our guide-come-chef talked us through the piles of exotic herbs, spices and unusual vegetables. Then we arrived at Siem Rice, a quiet open air kitchen just outside the center of Chiang Mai.

We selected the dishes that we wanted to cook. Our chosen menu was as follows:

Starters:

Springrolls (Steph)

Spicy Papaya Salad (Ric)

Noodles:

Pad Ki Mao (Steph)

Pad Thai (Ric)

Soup:

Hot and creamy (Steph)

Hot and sour (Ric)

Curry:

Green curry (Steph)

Penang (Ric)

Stir Fry:

Chicken and cashew (Steph)

Chicken and ginger (Ric)

Dessert:

Mango, sticky rice and coconut milk (Ric)

Pumpkin in coconut milk (Steph)

Ready to be rolled springroll.

We were lucky to be in a small group; just me and Ric and a German couple: Jan and Marcia. The four of us got on great and enjoyed a leisurely day of cooking and lots of eating. 

Tucking into soups and noodles.

What I learned was that most Thai dishes have the same base: holy basil, chili, garlic, galangal (Asian ginger) and lemon grass. You add more chili to make it spicy, coconut milk to make it creamy or lime to make it sour. 

Things got a bit heated when it came to making my noodle dish, Pad Ki Mao, which translates as 'drunken noodles'. Thanks to Jan for the video.

The day included a lesson in the classical art of carrot carving. I'm glad to have mastered this life skill, it will surely increase my employability back home...

From left: Ric's disaster, the teacher's example, my interpretation.

It was a great day and we left with bags full of leftovers for breakfast the next day. We even got a certificate proclaiming our competence and a book with all the recipes we'd made.

Cost:
A full day cooking course (10am-3pm) cost 800Baht (£16) per person (should have been 900 but we got a cheeky discount). Includes: all ingredients, drinking water, tea and coffee, carrot carving, transport to and from hotel, market tour.

Chiang Mai: Loi Krathong Lantern Festival

The problem with Chiang Mai is that everyone we have met has raved about it; they loved the "hippy vibes", it was a "bohemian paradise"; so we arrived with high expectations.

What we found was that really, Chiang Mai is a big city with an unusually high percentage of vegetarian restaurants. As far as big cities go, it's a very nice one, but within the city there isn't really that much to see or do and the 'hippy vibes' are shrouded in pretension.

We arrived with the intention of staying for three weeks and volunteering somewhere. First we found that volunteering was a lot more difficult than we'd expected. Back in South America every hostel we stayed in had a wall full of posters advertising volunteer opportunities but here in Asia it's different. There are two types of organisation: the first are those affiliated with international volunteer recruiters that charge exorbitant fees to students for all inclusive "volunteer holidays", meaning that they're less inclined to welcome folk like us that rock up at the door with empty wallets and good intentions. The other kind are the serious organisations that require a minimum commitment of three, sometimes six months, and prefer 'skilled' volunteers that specialise in certain fields such as medicine, IT and so on. The moral of the story is: we tried to find somewhere to volunteer and failed.

Without anything meaningful to do in Chiang Mai we decided to move on after a week, but first we planned to celebrate the Loi Krathong lantern festival that happened to fall on my best friend Jenny's birthday. The festival comes at the end of the rainy season and has similar origins to the Lai Hua Fai lantern festival which we attended in Luang Prabang, Laos. Candles are lit to honour Buddha and the act of sending a wreath or float sailing down a river represents letting go of anger and negativity. 

Lanterns fill the river and to the skies.

We took to the bars to jointly celebrate Jen's birthday and the festival, starting with cocktails in Chiang Mai's seedy Night Bazaar. It took us quite a while to find a bar that wasn't full of dolled-up Thai ladies looking for some "company". Once we were suitably imbibed we walked through the night market stalls to the river where all hell was breaking loose. Fireworks were going off left, right and center, kids were pointing bottle rockets at each other, lanterns were floating, crashing and falling into the river all over, all the while traffic was still passing over the bridge - it was crazy fun. Someone thrust a handful of sparklers at us while another drunk tourists handed Ric a lit firework. British health and safety officials would have a field day. 

Enjoying the madness on the bridge.

We set off our own lantern with a birthday wish and watched the parade of elaborate floats file through the city. Atop the floats were local beauty queens on their way to be judged. 

Birthday lantern for Jen.

The festival lasted two days, during which there were concerts, fair ground rides and endless lanterns clogging up the sky. The festival here was much bigger than that in Luang Prabang and ten times more chaotic. Personally, I preferred the Laos version, which felt more intimate and traditional, although we did enjoy the excuse to get drunk and play with fireworks!