At 8:00am Tuesday, we set up the laptop for a Christmas Day video call with the family. Of course it was Monday evening back in Canada, and with participants spread out between Nova Scotia and Alberta, there are a few time zones involved. But, we got everybody online at the same time and there were seven different video screens open. Certainly amazing technology that allows us to do this from anywhere in the world!
We were headed for the Chang Phuak bus station. It's at the north end of the central area, and is the gathering point for the local transportation. Only 1.8 kms from the guesthouse, so we decided to walk it. As we're going along over the uneven sidewalks and roadways, Ruth laughed and said "nobody else would do this", and she's probably right. Why would you walk it when you could get a taxi or tuk tuk for $3 or so. But, as we always tell ourselves, "we need the exercise".
Made it to the terminal, and found the truck going to Mae Taeng.
That's our ride!
Similar to the collectivos in Mexico, this type of transportation drives a set route, picking up and dropping off along the way. We arranged to be dropped off at an intersection 40 kms (25 miles) north.
The cost was 40 baht ($1.15 USD, $1.50 CAD) each.
Traffic in and around Chiang Mai is insane. Also, this is no small city. While some sources might tell you the population of Chiang Mai is only 127,000, the metro area is well spread out and it is more accurately a city of 1.2 million.
It took us an hour and a half to do the 40 km drive!
We were dropped off at the intersection, and I called our new host Pohn, to let him know we were there. 15 minutes later, he arrived to pick us up. His wife was driving, and he was in the passenger seat with their 2 year old daughter.
I found this place on booking.com. It had very few reviews, but the reviews that were there were very positive. I had been looking for a place out in the countryside, where we could go walking on the backroads right from the location.
It turns out that we are the only guests! We got there and Pohn said that we could have the upgraded room in the "treehouse" as they called it.
Our "treehouse".
Beautiful room!
The bathroom is a little different!
Not bad, for 765 baht ($22.20 USD, $29.30) per night.
One of the only drawbacks mentioned in the reviews is the location. Being out in the countryside, some people said that eating options are limited. However the nearest village is only a 3 kms (1.8 miles) walk, which is totally fine with us. Pohn also has some good quality mountain bikes for rent at 100 baht ($2.90 USD, $3.85 CAD) per day, or some old cheap bikes that you can use for free. I could tell right away that we are going to love this place. Lots of walking and biking options.
Ruth stayed behind while Pohn put me on the back of his scooter and took me for a ride to the village and showed me the various eating options, of which there are actually quite a few. When we got back, Ruth and I walked to the village.
This is the street leading to our guesthouse.
We walk right by this temple.
There is a lot of agriculture in this area.
Bananas and palm trees.
We found a place that did whole roast chicken and rice.
Someone built a new apartment building in the village. Maybe 18 units. The sign says "Monthly room. Air conditioning, hot water, refrigerator, mattress, complete set of furniture.
Prices start at 3,500 baht ($101 USD, $134 CAD) per month."
We think we could easily spend a month or two here!
This is definitely more our style.
An old rural temple of some kind.
Palm trees starting to sprout.
Back at the treehouse, we sat on our front porch for a while.
View from the front porch.
Unfortunately, we've only got three nights here, but at least we're ending our time here in Thailand on a high note. Don't get me wrong, we've enjoyed the whole month. But now that we've got a handle on things, we would certainly do it differently next time. I think it's worth seeing the cities, but we didn't need to spend that much time in them. Instead of a week in Bangkok, we should have done three days. And same with Chiang Mai. See the main sights, then get out of town!
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And in Canada...
Oh wow, the place you are staying looks so beautiful, and the treehouse - WOW! It reminds me of inland Belize, in the jungle. So lovely. I can see why you're happier there!
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful place for sure and we have really enjoyed our stay here, When we travel in a motorhome we are almost always staying out in the country and we enjoy that so much more but when you are traveling using public transportation it isn't so easy to get out into the country but we are going to try to find places outside of the cities from now on. It may make it a little more difficult to get to but we think we will enjoy the experience so much more.
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