Chiang Mai - What to do

kraggy

Hey guys,

Getting to Chiang Mai next Saturday and was wondering what you'd recommend for doing.

Probably gonna do whitewater rafting but stuck after that.

Anyone gone up to the hill tribes? How long is it for?

Any other recommendations for things to do?

Thanks,

K.

PS don't want to do elephant trek or anything to do with animals.

Doc

I went up to one of the hill tribes and really enjoyed it. I did a 2 night 3 day tour but there was also a 1 night as well. The things I didnt like were a visit to the long neck tribe and the elephant trek as I felt guilty after both. The long neck village seemed so staged and I spoke to people who help run a nearby elephant sanctuary after my trek and I regretted doing it after they told me a few things. The trek itself is tough enough not too bad but hard enough that you will feel a sense of accomplishment when you get to the village at the top. It depends on the group you go with though if you go with a good group you will have a good time.

darrenh

I'd really recommend doing a cookery course in Chaing Mai. Its a big thing to do up there. You spend the morning at a local market with all the odd foods explained and then the rest of the day cooking what you like. Its actually good craic and a good way to meet people too. We all got to make a starter, soup and main course of our choice. Then we all made one of each others courses. Ended up having about 25 different courses over they day. It really helped then knowing what to pick when choosing from a Thai Menu.

amz5

Hi,
I'm in Chiang Mai at the moment and heading to Chiang Khong tomorrow. I haven't done the treks, but I have done a cookery school and it was fantastic. I'll just quote a bit from my blog, but it's a cookery school in the guesthouse where Im staying. The guesthouse, Eagle House, is fairly basic but it's very cheap and central. The cookery course was fantastic and the chef is great fun. You could choose 5 dishes from a big glossy cookery book that you were given at the end, so everyone made their own dishes. We went to the local market to buy the ingredients in the morning. This seems fairly standard as we saw some other cookery school there too, but they were in much bigger groups. There was 3 in our group, but there are 6 in the school today, and there was 1 guy the day before us. So it depends on how many book in. We started at 9 and finished at 4.30, but the length of the day depends a bit on what you make. Tea/coffee/water and eating your 5 dishes is included inthe price, and you can get doggy bags for any food you don't eat. If you're staying at the gueshouse, they let you put the doggy bag in the fridge and they'll reheat it for you if you want too. It was 900 baht, which seems to be the price everywhere. There's another school recommended in the lonely planet, can't think of the name offhand, but it takes you out to a farm and you pick the food, and that sounded cool too - I think it was the Chiang Mai cookery school or something. But we were happy with our choice! Now I'll just quote from the blog...sorry about any repetition!


We have just had a fantastic day cooking with Visutt at The Chilli Club Cookery School which was in our guesthouse. We arrived at 9 o'clock this morning and gave a look at Visutt's cookery book to choose the 5 dishes we would like to make. Although some of our dishes overlapped, we chose a wide range of different Thai cuisine. Visutt made out a shopping list and we headed off to the local market. The market was colourful and aromatic and busy. There were some other cookery school students wandering around with their chefs also. We wandered around to the various stalls and picked up all of the ingredients that we needed. We had lovely bamboo baskets to fill with fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs/spices. I was hungry already...

There were little baby baths filled with live fish that were killed as needed. When we bought our coconut, the seller put it through a machine to make coconut flakes which were very tasty (even before we did anything with them). On the way back to Eagle House Visutt showed us some fruit trees and trees that picked some of the herbs that we needed for the day. People are happy to let you pick herbs from their garden if you want them! He showed us a ginger plant tree and told us that it lasts for about 500 years. If you want some ginger you just cut a little from the root and let it continue to grow!

We all made a curry. I made a green curry and C made a red one, and S made Pat Paneng Curry. I think mine was the tastiest... It really was the best thing that I've tasted since I got to Thailand. I hope that I can make a decent effort to replicate it back home! However, some of the ingredients are not availabe in Ireland, and maybe the substituions/tinned/dried versions may not be as good. We'll have to wait and see! Next, I made Pat-thai noodles. This was fairly good, but there was egg in it and it had a bit of a scrambled egg taste from it. The last thing that I made before our lunch break was Chiang Mai Noodle Curry. Wow! I wish I had room in my stomach to really appreciate this dish! It was fantastic. Nearly as good as my green curry, maybe better! We had a 1.5 hour break and we returned at 1.30 for the afternoon. Horrifyingly enough we were hungry again!

After lunch I made chicken souffle. It was ok, but I don't think I'll make it again. Myself and S both made Golden Parcels because we had tasted them yesterday when another student was attending cookery school. Unsurprisingly as he was on his 5th dish, he was happy enough to share with us. Golden parcels are egg roll wrappers (filo pastry?) filled with a spicy chicken which I had ground tirelessly with a mortar and pestle for quite some time (cue the blender at home). We made various shapes with the egg roll wrappers and stuck the corners together using egg as a our glue. We fried them and then dipped them in chilli sauce....mmm my new party food speciality!

Visutt also showed us how to make a rose out of a tomato that could be used to decorate a plate. Beautiful, but very time-consuming. We were silent for at least ten minutes making it. C had chosen a dessert as her last dish of the day - Mangoes and Sticky Rice. However, as Mangoes are not in season, she chose some fresh pineapple at the market instead. Visutt told us that she had chosen the most difficult Thai dessert to make. It was certainly the best dessert I've tasted in a good while! He made some extra portions for myself and S, as we had not chosen a dessert and he also fried up some coconut with peanuts and sugar to sprinkle on top. Yum! We got a few doggy bags to fill up with our leftovers and we can get the kitchen to heat them up when we need them, so that's pretty cool too. Visutt gave us a glossy cookery book with all of his recipes in it and lots of helpful advice for fanangs (foreigners) who can't get Thai herbs/spics etc. We also got a pretty cute certificate with our name in Thai as well as English. I liked that! The day cost 900 baht each (including ingredients and free water/tea/coffee all day). That's about 18 euro.

We're really impressed. Our accomodation is 290 baht total a night here which is less than 6 euro between us a night for a twin ensuite room with a/c and fan. It's not the most luxurious room I've ever been in, but it's lovely and clean and outstanding value for money. It's very close to the centre of Chiang Mai just a street or two away from the main area and there's a 7-eleven and net access next door. There's a restaurant on-site and food is great - curry for less than a euro, and there's a free bookexchange and lovely cool garden to relax in. The Irish bar is next door too, so what more could you ask for?!

kraggy

Thanks a lot for all that info, plenty of food for thought (pun very much intended )

Doc, are the mozzies really bad on the hill tribe trek? What other hill tribe treks are there besides the long neck?

Thanks again folks. Depending on time, I'd really like to do a cookery course. Might give me some ideas to spicen up my diet when i get home.