Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Thailand: Chiang Mai - Tha Phae Gate and Waroros Market

Chiang Mai is a small town that surrounded by a lot of temple like any other culture rich town in the Asia, so if you love history and legend stories, Chiang Mai will be a good place for you to explore. 

For us, we only stayed a night to catch the flight for the next day. 

As we stayed in ChiangMaan Residence which is located in the other gate from the famous Tha Phae Gate, we spent our first day by take a walk to Tha Phae gate.  

If you're interest on temples and its story, get a map in the airport and look for the temples around the city. 

And i just snap whatever temple that we bypass along the way to Tha Phae Gate.

Temple is everywhere in the town, like the main road.

a memorial hall for 3 Gods.

Artistic building catch my eye too.

Temple, really everywhere in Chiang Mai.

Gold stupa, some people say its real gold.

20 minutes leisure walk and we reach Tha Phae Gate

Old door.

One thing i love about Chiang Mai is the fine mixture between old and new stuff. 

leisure.

the wall is in very fine condition.

intro of the gate.

river that surrounded the town, just like Angkor in Cambodia 

We didn't explore the west and south gate, because we're not interested hahahahahah.

Tha Phae Gate is the hub of the town, you can find everything you need there, eg restaurant, backpacker hostel, massage, souvenir, transport transfer and etc.

We took some picture in Tha Phae gate and we decided to go back to the hotel and relax before go to dinner that really make me excited, well detail will be in the next post.

So the next morning we went to Waroros Market, do some last minute shopping before fly back home in the late afternoon.

Waroros Market is the traditional market but turning to tourist market, i didn't put my expectation that this gonna be the local market, but turn out this not bad at all.

tuk tuk drop us in the opposite road we and cross the bridge to the market place.

crowded even is raining.

lots of stalls outside of the building too

Waroros Market.

tea and souvenirs.

local foodstall, at least some are really for local.

snack, chip, food that you can bring back to your country.

we snap this from the 2nd floor.

you can spend lots time and do shopping here actually.

HK roasted chicken!

this is not sh*t, but sausage! haha.

local foodstall + flies. :S

some historical picture hanging in the market.

Waroros used to be the biggest market for the local.


Well, next post will be the best Thai BBQ buffet that i ever had! So i have to make a post specially for the place!

Stay tuned ya!




Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20130626, 0858am
Rach in hungry mood.


Thursday, June 13, 2013

Thailand: Chiang Mai - Chiang Maan Residence Boutique Hotel Review

After 4 good days in Pai, John and I back to Chiang Mai to catch up flight by the next day.

As i mentioned in the previous post, Pai doesn't have an international airport but domestic, you can either go by minivan like us (save a lot) or transit in Ching Mai to catch Nok Air (the local airline) to Pai, cost you about RM300 for return.

Alright so we back to Chiang Mai with minivan from Pai. FYI, Minivan to or from Pai and Chiang Mai is very frequent, so don't worry bout the ticket. 

Minivan from Pai to Chiang Mai stop in 3 places. 
1. Train Station.
2. Bus Station.
3. Tha Phea Gate, which is the hub of Chiang Mai.

Just let the driver know where do you want to stop and they will drop you there. 

Frankly speaking, although i know Chiang Mai is a historical town in Thailand, but i'm not really interested, and that's the reason why we only stay one day in Chiang Mai. 

Chiang Mai is not a big developed city, it just a small town and not much of attraction if you're not interested in temple visit like us.

After tonnes of research, I came out our to-do in Chiang Mai:
1. Tha Phae Gate - The historical gate of the square town, John loves anything bigger than him.
2. Sukonthan Buffet - The local Thai BBQ Buffet, cheap but hell lots of food, we eat like local :D  
3. Warrorat Market - The local market that selling lots of stuff, we both love local market.

But i'll only write the above in the next post, this post is hotel review.

In Chiang Mai, we choose to stay in Chiang Maan Residence, the boutique hotel that out of the hub, which located in resident area.

I love this home-alike hotel that run by an old couple very much, indeed i'm regret why not stay another night here. To stay in Chiang Maan Residence, makes you like spending your summer break at your grandparent house.

As i said, Chiang Maan Residence is not in the hub (which is Tha Phae Gate), it was 1.4km away from the gate accordingly google map. Take you about 20 minutes slow walk from the place to the gate.

Red is Chiang Maan Residence, Blue is Tha Phae Gate

Chiang Maan Residence

Frankly speaking, Chiang Maan Residence did not really catch my eye when i first saw from Agoda website, because the photos didn't seem attractive, but i put it in the 2nd choice list for the location.

After go through some other choice and i came back to do some review research in Chiang Maan Residence and found more photos from guests and positive reviews, i decided to spend the night in this boutique hotel.

Oh, did i tell you? Rent for this boutique hotel is fairly cheap, cost me less than RM100 for a deluxe room / night. 

You would probably love Chiang Maan Residence if:
1. Live like a local but modern and designed room. 
2. Wish to stay away from of noise and club.
3. Prefer relax more than rush to attraction.
4. Don't mind walking a little for food (located in residence area)

Tips to Chiang Maan Residence:
- Tell the driver to go Chiang Man Temple, 3 times tuk tuk ride and none of them know where is this place.
- From the temple main entrance, turn left and turn left in the first junction, walk straight until you see the place. Less than 3 minutes walking distance, if you take tuk tuk, will take you like forever. =.=

Blue is the temple, red is the place and green is super nice chicken thigh rice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You will see the owner's pet welcoming guest from far


old but faithful dog. 

Chiang Maan Residence.

The outlook and the lazy dog :D

I love boutique hotel because of very detail deco, like this.

The "lobby", comfort like your own home.

The door to rooms.

Read and relax in the lobby is my favourite thing to do in Chiang Maan Residence.

coffee table outside of the room. 

I love the door in our room!

Room is not big yet very comfort and clean, of course with a big window and lots of sunlight!

love the wall, love the deco, love almost everything in the room!


the other side of the window is Chiang Maan temple's garden, greenery everywhere.


I spend a few hours lying on the bed and enjoying the scene outside. 

Light up the little lamp during night time, romance.

Put the mosquito net down although no bug in the room.
This boutique hotel is the home of the owner, so around 3 or 4 rooms available, every room (well at least deluxe room, which we're stay in) is with modern facilities, like:
1. Very strong pressure shower head.
2. Flat tv.
3. Air con.
4. Wifi around the building. 

Although no breakfast provided and you might need to walk a bit for food (nearest 7-11 is 5 to 10 minutes walking distance), but if i could decide again, i would definitely stay more than one night in Chiang Maan Residence!

Although the owner cant speak fluently English, but they treat you like children, always put their smile on face and suggest place to go, they even ask us to join for dinner when we bumped into their dinner time.

Chiang Maan Residence doesn't have an official website, but a very simple blog, but they work together  with some booking website. We make our reservation via Agoda.

If you decided to stay Chiang Maan Residence after reading my blog, please show this blog to the owner, and tell them they deserve this, and i miss them already =)





Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20130613, 0219pm
Rach in hungry mood.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Thailand: Pai - Ta Pai Hot Spring & Treehouse Resort

Frankly speaking, if you don't ride a bike, Pai village probably is very boring for you, but if you have a bike, i bet you could spend a week there and still find a lot to explore. 

We stayed 4 days 3 nights in Pai and i didn't have enough time to enjoy the place and explore the area, and i miss Pai already.

Alright come back to the 3rd day in Pai, we decided to wake up early to go to hot spring that about 10km away from the village by our scooter. If you wanna know more bout renting a bike, click me.

Before go into detail, you might ask "wtf thailand has hot spring? who will want to soak into hot water in hot weather?!"

Let me tell you, Thailand do have winter.

Pai is located in northern Thailand, neighboring to Yunnan China, Mymmar and Laos. Winter time in Pai could go down to 10'c according to my Thailand friend.

Even its not winter, Pai's morning and night time are chilly, most of the time we wore a sweater because wind chill was strong.

So what is better than go to hot spring in chilly morning?

Ta Pai Hot Spring is a natural spring in a national park, get the map from the scooter renting shop, and depart in the early morning, like us. 

We woke up by 630am and get ourselves ready in 15 minutes, Family house @ Pai breakfast time is by 8am and we just decided to skip it.

However, when we came back in the evening, the owner offer us chicken sandwich anytime we like for the breakfast replacement, which we didn't even ask for it!

Ok, we went out bout 7am and go to have our breakfast in the village, there is a very nice porridge and yau char gui stall opposite the 7-11 convenience stalls (Pai has only 2 7-11, if you're interested, just go 2 stores and check out the little porridge stall), the boss is Yunnan-ist and could speak a little Mandarin, his Thai is far fluent than Mandarin actually.

We then get some snack and water in the 7-11 and departed to the hot spring. We lost a bit, spent more time than we expected to get to the place, but nothing irritated me because you could see very nice scenery along the road.

I was trying to located the hot spring from google map, but doesn't work out, just go and ask anyone in the village and they will show you the direction. Pai is very simple place, there have only one main road and you won't get too far from everywhere.

Ok, lets go into the details of Ta Pai Hot Spring, Pai.
- About 20 minutes ride from Pai village.
- Located in a national park, so place take care the environment. 
- Admission fees or the management named it as management fees, 200bath per person, without time limit. (i think this is a little pricy but consider the management needs money to run the place so just take it as money of support)
- Strongly recommend to go by morning, say like about 8am, so you could enjoy the hot spring with chilly weather. Leave by 9 or 10am, so you have whole day of time to visit others place.

Luckily there is english, or we will just pass by and never knew where is the place!

Map in the entrance aka scooter parking lot, you have to walk a little to get to the place.

less than 10 minutes walk in the jungle to the spring.

the jungle is quiet but sign to the place is very clear, so don;t worry bout it.

pass by some interest place like this aging bridge.


and slowly you will see some warm water on the way uphill

this is the downstream.

ta-da! yea might look like longgang in pic but the real place is nice.

this is the downstream pool, medium warm.

this is the hottest pool. right above the medium warm pool

John take off and jump down to the medium warm pool.

another smaller pool, this is the least warm pool, the baby is really enjoyed it.

There are 3 pools on the area we went, the management told us could climb a little to reach the higher pool, but for us this is good enough and we decided to stay and try on the 3 pools.

We both like the place because this is not crowed, and under the shades with sunlight, very relaxing place.

We spent about 2 hours there and decided to leave and hunt some food.

he found a can that can carry him!

arrhhh, my skin was smooth and soft like that right after the spring bath!

We don't have a destination right after the hot spring, we don't want to go back with the same road we came so we decided to take the far route and explore the place.

And we see this along the road.

Paddy! Rice! Green! Food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We ride very slow just to enjoy the scene and breeze, thanks God the sun is not too torturing and then we reach a small village, which not only human living in, but elephant.


Elephant, with chain on his feet =(

I read the map which i got from the shop, we were in a small village that neighboring Pai, which is famous with elephant riding and some luxury resort.

My heart is pain when i ride along the village and saw not less than 10 elephants that have chain on their feet. I know some people might treat them well, but do not deny there are more people to treat them really really cruel to fulfill the tourist demand.

PLEASE REMOVE ELEPHANT RIDING FROM YOUR BUCKET LIST! 

You won't loss anything if you don't ride them, but if you ride them, elephant might just lost their life.

If you want to know why, google it, you can get lots of info. Link below is one of the well writing about the issue.

http://journals.worldnomads.com/responsible-travel/story/81053/Thailand/Why-Elephant-Riding-Should-Be-Removed-from-Your-Bucket-List

Further down the road you could see some luxury spring resort, one of the famous is Tree House. Yea, they build a house on the tree, and that attract lots of tourist to experience the life of monkey, ok i'm kidding.

Well we thought of stop by to visit the place, perhaps have tea or even better some light meal, John needs food almost every 2 hours.

Entrance of tree house resort.

The place is amazing, we pick a seat on the 2nd floor and had our light meal.

Ta-da this is the view!

The restaurant is huge, they're welcome non- resident to dine in.

fried rice with seafood and glass noodle soup.

We spent more than an hour at the nice place, because we're the only customer hahahahahah. Only quiet place could keep me in a restaurant for more then an hour.

Well if you love eating in a nice place, tree house could be one of your choice after your spring bath. But taste is more important for you, my advice is get their drink, the drink is better than food.

We thought of visit some temples nearby after light meal, but sky turn dark and rain was coming, so we ride back to Pai village for massage after tree house. Only 10 to 15 minutes from tree house to Pai village.

I love Pai, because you've free great view anywhere anytime, like below. =)