On a recent trip to Northern Thailand I finally got to visit Mae Hong Son Province and its principal towns – Pai and Mae Hong Son. The northern capital of Chiang Mai is the gateway to start exploring this region and provides an opportunity to combine the city based attractions with rural exploration and adventure.
Temple in Chiang Mai
I travelled overnight on the air-conditioned sleeper train from Bangkok although most people tend to prefer to fly. The train takes approximately 12 hours whilst the flight lasts only one hour and a number of airlines ply the route numerous times a day. I was lucky not to be in a rush on this occasion and spent a couple of nights in Chiang Mai re-visiting the city’s awe-inspiring temples. Despite visiting Chiang Mai fairly regularly, I hadn’t spent a great deal of time in the temples since my backpacking days and I was pleasantly surprised by how much more interesting and spectacular they were to me this time around. Buddhist temples in Chiang Mai exhibit a mixture of architectural styles that reflect the varied heritage of Northern Thailand. Elements from Lanna Thai, Burmese, Sri Lankan and Mon temples have all been used in one form or another. (more…)
Our visit to northern Thailand was rather short and fleeting. We arrived in Chiang Rai from Laos and were pretty knackered after the Gibbon Experience and so did not do anything too energetic. Chiang Rai is a fairly size-able Thai city and although a fair amount of tourists pass through, it retains its ‘Thainess’ more than Chiang Mai. (more…)
Fantastic documentary on the temples of Angkor. Please ignore the adverts for our (expensive) competition! (By that we mean the travel company and not the lady boy introduction agency… )
