So right after our 4 days in Cambodia we headed over to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a few days. We purposely didn’t stop by Bangkok because I really wasn’t into seeing another big city. The place that we stayed at was AMAZING! Yes, if you want you do Thailand super cheaply and stay at hostels and such but we didn’t do that. We didn’t go all out but we did picked a pretty modern looking place that’s pretty central! The hotel is called P21 Chiang Mai!
All the cool places that we went to: Elephant Trekking, Night Markets, Lady Boy Show…I didn’t bring my camera to these places but I did have my trusty iPhone with me (iPhone snaps here)!
Met up with Graham at Chiang Mai!
So after the really cool places, we joined a local tour and went to see some other places not accessible by foot! Big mistake…off we went to the biggest tourist trap ever: The White Temple! OMG…I have so so so many bad things to say about this place! Our tour guide for this tour sucked, like…he was really really bad. He didn’t bother explaining anything to us, or tell us about the history of the places we visited. He basically dropped us off and told us what time and where to meet him! So totally not doing his job! So apparently The White Temple is famous and all because of some Korean drama that was filmed here and so all the asians decided to flock to this place to see it. So ridiculous, and what was worse was that we only had half hour here. Basically enough time for us to get off the bus, take a selfie, search for the washroom and get back on the bus!
Even the fish is white…
So I am very very very confused here…White Temple being so pure and all…and yet there are all these really creepy structures everywhere. I kid you not, there was a statue of the Predator from Alien VS Predator!
Are they…trying to reach for my wallet?
Ok…this part is prettier!
Off to tourist trap number 2! OK…I feel really really bad to be talking only about tourist traps in this post, I should change the title of this post to ‘Places to Avoid in Thailand’! So the reason why I say not to go to the Long Neck Village is because, well essentially this was a human petting zoo (and I wasn’t the only one in the tour group that made this comment)! The entire history of why these ladies still wear the metal rings around their neck has been lost. The tour guides don’t know why they wear it, the people there don’t know either. The truth is, they wear it because it attracts tourists to come see their ‘village’ and buy their products. I appreciate hand made work but when it’s obvious that a lot of the products are imported and only a very very small handful of items were actually hand made by them, it really does look like a business and these people were exploited for someone else’s gain. They charged an entrance fee to enter the village too!
When we made our way past the rows and rows of little shops, we came upon the village and the little houses that they live in. No electricity, no clean water, it was very very bare bones.
The bike she’s riding is the fanciest thing I’ve seen in all of the village.
This looks to be their school
And we can’t leave Thailand without watching Thai Boxing! No we didn’t place bets! haha
I must say tho, the food in Chiang Mai was amazing! We found this mom and pop shop and it was the most delicious food we’ve ever had! This place fed the three of us (me plus two starving guys) for under $10CAD in total! Chiang Mai is such a beautiful and peaceful place, I really loved the night markets and all the different temples! I HAD THE BEST BEST BEST THAI ICED TEA HERE!
Highly recommend Chiang Mai, just don’t go to The White Temple or the Long Neck Village!
Next stop…Krabi, Thailand!