This is a slight departure from our usual topics as we look at an excellent new Chiang Mai initiative in the field of natural medicines and beauty treatments. Skin cream,  herbal shampoo, moisturiser, hair restorer (oops too late for that!)... have I  finally lost the plot? I'll admit that having (very tentatively and making sure no one we knew was watching us) entered the new store on Moonmuang Soi 6, I came out entirely convinced. I'd been hearing about the Arun Thai natural products for a while and you'll come across them in numerous guesthouses and stores throughout the city as well as Walking Street, but since we were walking past their new store and workshop near Somphet Market we decided to pop in.

Nice display with it too.

There are other similar producers about but what made it newsworthy for me was the range of products aimed specifically at travellers (ed: this isn't a sponsored post, by the way -- none of our posts are, ever). For instance, natural alternatives to the dreaded Imodium or whatever for upset stomachs, herbal creams for heat rashes and prickly heat, balms for rucksack strap irritations, even creams for fungal infections and of course mosquito repellents.

Done a trek so have you got something for heat rash, backpack sores, rotting feet!?

Now DEET is nasty stuff -- it's a highly potent insecticide (we read somewhere it was a component of the notorious Agent Orange), and spraying it on yourself is obviously bad for your skin apart from being bad for the environment. Yes, you may only give a quick squirt as you head off into the forest, but millions of tourists every year... well it soon mounts up, so any effective natural alternative has to be good.

Having tried Arun Thai's natural repellent out on various guinea pig mates, it does seem at least as effective as any commercial chemical version. Unlike many available natural repellents, Arun Thai's is not based on citronella which they point out is effective but only for a short time. Their version combines citronella with clove and basil oils but importantly the rarer, but very effective neem oil. Neem oil comes from the sadao leaf, which is a common Thai curry ingredient but also has medicinal properties that are perhaps not so well known.

The lab!

Anyway, this is all very interesting stuff and if you've just got back from a trek with sore legs, upset stomach, prickly heat, rotting feet, heat rash and sore shoulders, then you can find treatments for everything here; staff are helpful and speak English and the prices are reasonable.

Arun Thai
59/1 Moonmuang Soi 6 (the top end of the soi if you walk down from Somphet or directly opposite Blue House)
T: (053) 289 653

Tags: Moonmuang, mosquito repellent, Mosquitoes, natural medicines, tropical health

The haze enveloping much of northern Thailand has largely dissipated with some Wednesday night storms clearing the air. Light showers in the Chiang Mai region on the night of the 11th to 12th was a good start to getting rid of the haze but quite fierce storms with high winds and heavier rain on the night of the 14th led to a substantial improvement in air quality. In fact, the high winds did actually cause some damage in certain areas -- our office sign blew off the wall in Chiang Mai -- but we reckon most people would consider that a small price to pay.

Fallen tree in Nimmanhemin.

Compare the photo below with that taken a week ago; okay the skies are still not crystal clear, and don't expect them to be so until the rains start in earnest -- usually towards the end of April/May -- but it is a vast improvement. You can now walk around Chiang Mai city without getting a sore throat or red eyes and while we still advise some caution for further north and are aware that conditions can change pretty rapidly, at present the city and surrounding areas do not present any particular problems.

Not great, but better than the below, which was taken five days ago.

Before the rain.

Chiang Mai, Phayao, Phrae, Nan, Tak, Lampang, Lamphun and even Chiang Rai have all improved, though conditions in all parts of Mae Hong Son province, which hasn't received any rain, remain at present critical.  Hopefully further forecast storms may hit the latter province soon and with luck (or government cloud-seeding efforts), some more showers will occur across the region.

Tags: haze, Mae Hong Son

Having been further out and about today we have to state with all honesty that the haze situation is worse than we thought and worse than we may have made it appear in our recent post -- and we're certainly not going to be going out and about anymore in the near future unless we can avoid it. Visibility in downtown Chiang Mai today was down to a kilometre and we hear it is worse in Chiang Rai. And Thai meteorological services now admit that dust particles in the air in some areas of the north (such as Mae Sai, Chiang Rai and Lampang) are over twice the Pollution Control Department's acceptable levels.

Downtown Chiang Mai at midday today.

After yesterday trying to blame slash and burn farmers in Burma and Laos, the Natural Resources and Environment Department admitted it was 99% due to farmers burning stubble and forest clearance by agro-business and have promised radical steps to solve the problem. (Note that this is from the government whose health minister recently blamed the rise in dengue fever cases to the increase in Thai women wearing hotpants and thus making easier targets for mosquitoes. It's also the government that just received stinging criticism for failing to act after last year's floods devastated much of the nation.)

Anyway said radical steps involve the really radical action of actually enforcing the existing non-burning and non-forest encroachment laws! How did they think of that? Anyway upon stating their intent to apply existing environmental protection laws, ones that they presumably thought up in the first place, the Ministry for the Environment have confidently claimed all haze problems should be over within a week. (We're not making this up!)

Unless you are particular fans of sore throats, stinging eyes and respiratory illnesses we do advise against any unnecessary travel to the following provinces for at least the immediate future: Mae Hong Son, Tak, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Phayao, Phrae, Nan, Lampang, Lamphun and Uttaradit. Watch this space and we'll watch the wastes of space down in government house.

Tags: Chiang Rai, haze, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sai, nan, Phayao, Phrae, Tak, Uttaradit

Haze, smog, smoke, dust: at this time of year -- every year -- the local and international media becomes full of concerned articles on northern Thailand's air quality, and the government pretends to be concerned and claims to be doing something about it. We're not certain -- and indeed doubt -- if this year's statistics are worse than previous year's but it is certain that come the hot, dry season in March and April, the sky up in these parts can get pretty opaque.

Doi Suthep, around 3km away, from Doi Suthep Road, two weeks ago. Haze has worsened since.

Now at various times of year much of Southeast Asia can be prone to less than perfect air conditions and wherever you are in the region you won't get the clear blue skies and crystal clear vistas you get during say clear days in the rainy season. This is due to various reasons: much of Malaysia, including KL, suffers from smoke wafting across the South China Sea from seasonal fires in Borneo and Sumatra, and large cities such as Bangkok and Saigon suffer from air pollution thanks to exhaust fumes at the best of times. A lack of rain means potentially irritating dust particles in the air even in the most unpolluted of areas and yes, of course, there's the smoke from burning paddy fields.

Chiang Mai mountain top view, November. This is merely standard afternoon heat haze.

In the case of North Thailand it is a combination of all these factors. Geography has a lot to do with it. Towns and cities in the north are located in valleys, surrounded by paddy-fields and generally sandwiched between mountain ranges.  Larger conurbations such as Chiang Mai do have increasing traffic congestion problems, but at this time of year farmers also burn off stubble ready for the coming rains and rice planting -- and these narrow valleys do make perfect bowls for this smog, dust and smoke to sit in. According to official statistics, the worst air pollution at present is in Phrae and perennially affected Mae Hong Song province, neither of which have much industry or many cars.

Early morning cold season mountain mist at Mae Fah Luang, Chiang Rai.

Wildfires are a problem at this time of year and consequently some controlled burning of national park forests is necessary and while the burning of agricultural land -- such as rice stubble -- is officially illegal no-one seems to take much notice; on a ride from Chiang Mai to Pai at this time last year we saw mile after mile of burning roadside vegetation where government workers were taking the easy way out by simply setting fire to verges instead of cutting it by hand. Now if provincial road department crews don't take any notice how can you expect farmers to?

I can see for miles... rainy season view from Doi Tung.

You may have noticed we haven't mentioned the slash and burn agriculture traditionally practiced by hill-tribes yet, even though this is one of the usual suspects. It's easy for lowland Thai agro-businesses or government officials to point the finger at the Lisu or Akha but these days many of the hill-tribe groups in northern Thailand don't actually practise slash and burn anymore. So many government projects, royal schemes and NGO initiatives have worked to reduce initially opium production but also slash and burn, that between the tea and coffee plantations, cherry orchards and strawberry greenhouses you'd probably be pushed to find any slash and burn in most of Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai provinces these days.

Akha tea plantations near Mae Salong -- not much slash and burn up here.

Before placing the blame it might be good for the Thai government to actually take some practical steps to reduce air pollution instead of empty promises (and endless talk of absurd cloud seeding schemes),  and actually enforce the no burning laws, have a word with their own council workers and look at the black smoke churned out by thousands of tuk tuks and songthaews across the region.

There have been years when Mae Hong Son, Pai and even Chiang Mai airports have been closed due to poor visibility. While we don't seem to have reached that stage quite yet -- though we are still only early March -- yes, the air is pretty thick. Climb up Doi Suthep and you'll get a view of brown haze. So without over-dramatizing, if it's clear mountain air you're after, then it's probably better to wait until the rains start before heading up this way.

Tags: Chiang Rai, haze, hill-tribes, Mae Hong Son, Phrae, slash and burn

There's plenty of travel advice to Thailand floating around in light of the current flooding. Here we're not going to offer any new tips, but rather attempt to put some of the existing information into perspective.

Such activities here are now contrary to FCO and other governments' advice. This was Sukhothai, last week.

We're somewhat put out, though hardly surprised, by some of the Western media's rather sensational coverage and here's an example by the UK's Daily Telegraph. Calling Don Muang Bangkok's second airport is, we guess technically true, but the report doesn't mention it's now used mainly for cargo, as well as by small low cost carriers Nok Air and Orient Thai. Nok have for now relocated to Suvarnabhumi but we've heard nothing of Orient Thai. The Thai Airways planes on a flooded runway in the article's  dramatic photo are in fact cargo planes.

Sensational or exaggerated media reports can be ignored (assuming one realises they're exaggerated), but advice issuing from governments can't be so easily dismissed, unless you want to find your travel insurance invalidated. Note if your government warns against travel for a certain area then, generally speaking, insurance agents based in that country no longer consider your travel insurance valid if you ignore said government advice. Here is the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice for Thailand published October 26 and following is a list of the 27 provinces they have seen fit to advise against travelling in:

Bangkok; in the North, Sukhothai, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Nakhon Sawan and Uthai Thani; in the Central region Chai Nat, Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Lopburi, Saraburi, Suphan Buri, Nakhon Pathom, Pathumthani, Nonthaburi, and Samut Sakhon; in the Northeast, Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, Srisaket, Roi-et, Surin, Mahasarakham and Kalasin; and in the East, Chacheongsao, Nakhon Nayok and Prachinburi.

Here are some links to some other government warnings as of October 27.

We're not sure on what basis the FCO compiled their list and would love to know. While the lower central provinces and Bangkok suburbs may well be best avoided under current conditions, we're at a loss to see the potential dangers of travelling in many of the other areas. In many of these districts floods have subsided (such as in the north), and in others we've not heard any reports of current extensive flooding either (the northeast, for instance in Surin). It appears to us to correspond, at least partially, to a list of provinces that have suffered flood damage in recent times regardless of whether they are still suffering or not.

Sukhothai for example was flooded some three weeks ago but on a visit last week we saw nothing other than minor flooding in very restricted areas. Certainly we couldn't see any impediments or potential dangers involved with visiting the provincial capital or old city, which are the likely tourist destinations in that particular province. As we've already mentioned, declining to visit places in the aftermath of the disaster is effectively a second blow to recovering communities.

Even in northeastern provinces where some residual flooding remains, we can't see any life threatening dangers and the worst case scenario would seem to involve getting one's feet wet. We don't mean to make light of the more than 300 deaths reported so far in the last month or so's flooding -- sadly many children or older people unable to swim, or in the former case playing in dangerous areas. But there's a big difference between badly flooded regions with 1-2m of floodwaters and others containing residual puddles.

The distinctly dry-looking Sukhothai old city on October 16.

Sukhothai could do with some tourist bucks to help recover from the damage caused by the earlier deluge. Please check up-to-date info carefully, and conditions can change rapidly, but in our opinion the inclusion of certain areas on the FCO list is unnecessary and misinformed. As the FCO points out, travel in those areas is up to the individual, but bear in mind if you crash your motorbike or break a leg insurance isn't going to cover your costs.

PS For anyone who can read French we've just found these rather sensible and restrained warnings from the French embassy, which proves that not all Western governments favour knee-jerk overreactions! Vive la France!

PPS As of October 28 reliable reports have at a minimum, Phichit and Sukhothai as back to normal, and Nakhon Sawan and Phitsanulok as cleaning up post flood -- in Ayutthaya the waters are only just starting to recede, so the latter definitely remains off-limits for visitors.

Tags: floods

Dates seem to vary slightly according to the source -- one of which is here-- but our usually reliable man on the ground in Yunnan reports that two Chinese cargo vessels travelling on the Mekong between Jinghong, Yunnan and Chiang Saen, Thailand were hijacked at around midday on October 10. The particularly brutal hijacking took place some 20km north of Chiang Saen, close to Sob Ruak and between Burma and Laos. Thirteen crew members were blindfolded and shot. All passenger and cargo boats (and cargo vessels regularly carry paying passengers anyway) on this route have now been halted for an indefinite period.

Chinese cargo boats docked in Chiang Saen.

Reports are still slightly confused but it appears the hostages may have been executed during a gun battle with a Thai border patrol unit, which then boarded the boats after hijackers were either killed or fled. Since a substantial quantity of drugs was found on the boats along with its regular cargo of apples and garlic, the thinking is that the hijackers, rumoured to be a gang run by Burmese Shan smuggler Nor Kham, had taken the boats to use in a drug transportation operation. Chinese boat companies have had frequent problems with such bandits who've not hesitated in the past to deal viciously with Chinese crews reluctant to cooperate in their activities.

Passenger boat from Jinghong to Chiang Saen.

The passenger boat service running from Jinghong to Chiang Saen town was a popular, and highly scenic, route for backpackers and tour groups travelling between China and Thailand, but for at least the immediate future the land route is the only option. 

The land route from Jinghong to Chiang Saen is overland to Boten on the Lao/Chinese border, onwards to Luang Nam Tha from where there are a number of transport options to Huay Xai and Chiang Khong on the Lao/Thai border. Once in Chiang Khong you're hooked into the main Thai overland bus system, including regular transport to Chiang Saen and nightly buses to Bangkok.

This tragedy serves as a warning that the Golden Triangle region is still not as tame as many would make it out to be -- indeed you may count  us among the guilty parties, as shown by our recent Golden Triangle post here or a pretty picture post of a still dangerous area here.)

Tags: Boten, Burma, Chiang Saen, China, drugs, hijacking, Jinghong, Luang Nam Tha, Shan

On the basis that you'd assume no news was good news there was no news yesterday - which is good news! Although water had spread out to areas further from the river over the last couple of days levels are now happily down right across Chiang Mai. Worarot and night bazaar areas and west of the Ping were reported pretty much dry today though there is standing water remaining on the east bank and southern suburbs.

Water's down from yesterday but lots of clearing up to do!

A big clean up is now underway and larger public buildings such as certain schools etc would welcome any help they can get to enable kids to return to school on Monday morning. The receding water leaves piles of mud, silt leaves branches etc behind so if you don't have anything important to do and you fancy a bit of exercise grab a broom or mop in the nearest school and give a hand. (If you can't find one then here's a link to ABS junior school 's FB page where they have just put out a request for help so the  little angels/monsters - delete as necessary - can get back to their studies!)

Chiang Mai City council actually apologized to affected persons and businesses at their inability to prevent flooding though have rather ominously said that receding waters have given them some breathing space to repair and consolidate sandbag barriers before the incoming typhoon hits early next week!? Yes unfortunately typhoon Nesat that hit Northern Vietnam over the past few days is now heading towards Laos and North Thailand. It has been downgraded to a tropical storm but heavy rain is to be expected and further flooding is a distinct possibility.

Highways out of Chiang Mai are all clear though we understand that rail services are still seriously disrupted mainly due to severe flooding in provinces in central Thailand. Finally here's a link to some spectacular aerial images of the flooding.

With the recent heavy rains in Chiang Mai itself and the Ping River filling up with run-off further north the river finally carried out its threat to burst it's banks around 4.00 pm today, (see VDO clip below). Water is now infiltrating into the night bazaar and Chinatown/Worarot area as well as suburbs close to the river such as Nong Hoi but river levels continue to rise.

Coming to a Chiang Mai street near you

Large areas of districts further north such as Mae Tawan, Mae Taeng, Chiang Dao are already underwater so conditions in Chiang Mai City are expected to worsen considerably during the night with a surge in the Ping River estimated to reach the city later this evening. Furthermore authorities warn that they will have to do a 'controlled release of water' held in certain dams north of Chiang Mai due to dangerously high levels so by morning fears are that floods will have reached the catastrophic 2005 levels (see report here).

(Video by http://www.all-thailand-exp.com/)
In 2005 flooding covered much of eastern part of the city between the river and the train station and extended well up Loi Kroh and Tha Pae Roads in the other direction with over 1m of water in the night bazaar.

Train services from Bangkok are cancelled though flights are operating as normal. We have heard reports that the Chiang Mai - Fang and Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai roads are cut off though whilst we can't substantiate the former the latter was still passable this afternoon.

Anyway the proverbial's likely going to hit the fan tonight so good luck to everyone and sincerest commiserations to the many people already affected. We'll have some photos for you as soon as day breaks and further updates as we get them.

(As of 7.00 pm there was around 30-40 cms of water in the night bazaar area but vehicles were still circulating along Tha Pae Rd and over Narawat Bridge. (see map))

Tags: floods

We'll begin with a warning -- not about snakes, as the majority of those are pretty harmless, but about our identification abilities. Not being a qualified herpetologist (we ahem looked that up on Google), it's often very difficult to identify our wriggly friends who tend to vary considerably in colour and markings from region to region, time of year, age, sex, no other reason than to confuse amateur snake spotters and so on and on.

As we mentioned in an earlier bird post, Chiang Mai being a leafy kind of town and surrounded by farmland and forest there's quite a bit of wildlife to be found and that includes snakes. There's reckoned to be around a couple of dozen or so species common to the city (and there's at least as many in central Bangkok), so here's a quick run through.

We'll kick off with the most dangerous, and notorious: the king cobra.

Scary snake!

This was a big one -- around two metres -- but to be honest it was firmly in the 'burbs at Sankamphaeng that we saw it. They'll go after chickens, rats and so on and while unlikely to take up residence in the city, may certainly make forays from time to time.

Same goes for the water-loving, giant reticulated python, which you're unlikely to run into in the night bazaar but are occasionally seen in the Ping River.

Probably the most dangerous common variety in downtown would be one of the pit-viper family. These are usually not very big, and green coloured with black markings, but many variations exist and they are difficult to tell apart, though all are potentially dangerous. Below is a relatively easily identified green tree viper, followed by a pit viper which wasn't actually shot in Chiang Mai, but we liked the photo.

Very green snake.

Posh snake.

Now pit vipers can be nasty and are even potentially fatal, but the good news is they're nocturnal and generally pretty unobtrusive. They love sleeping and when they sleep, they sleep so you'd really have to go some to annoy one. They like height so are often found in, for example, straw roofs or overhanging vines. They are well camouflaged and not necessarily very large snakes so though there's enough about, you're still very unlikely to run into one say at your hotel.

Other common though harmless species found in town are the tree racers and tree snakes, which also come in several varieties and being diurnal, are relatively regularly spotted. As the names suggest, they are found in trees but the former is known for its ability to move very quickly, while the latter is also called a flying snake, since it glides through the air from tree to tree.

Sporty snake.

I intended to add a picture of a green tree racer at this point, but on closer examination the above seems to be a far more dangerous white-lipped pit viper. Anyway: another common Chiang Mai one is the aptly named common house, or wolf, snake. It's a medium sized mottled grey snake, which once got into our 2nd floor bathroom at home via a carrier-bag of Tesco's toiletries. The 1.50m certainly freaked out the cleaner but is perfectly harmless, and no, she didn't get a photo of it.

I've also had some too small to identify baby snakes appear up the bathroom drains, so yes, downtown Chiang Mai has plenty of snakes around, but as is the case of snakes anywhere, they know you're coming long before you see them and most are far more scared of you than you are of them. A sighting is really a lucky event.

However, if you are as bad at identifying them as we are, it's best to consider all of them dangerous and to be treated with respect.

Tags: sankamphaeng, snakes, tesco

Now we're not adding this to the Chiang Mai see and do section -- nor even suggesting this for "hikes and walks" or "entertainment". This is, frankly, just a boring-looking pond surrounded by some comatose anglers. But the pond does have an interesting story behind it.

What lies beneath?

"Lake" is a bit over the top to describe this large pond but the offical Thai name is Mae Nam Salouang. It's located in the village of the same name and was discovered on our recce of the Temple of the Four Buddha Footprints.

Villagers tell us however that the more common local name is Ghost Waters or Ghost Lake due to its macabre reputation. In recent years, this innocuous looking stretch of water has seen no less than four mysterious deaths: two girls from the village, a fisherman and someone else they couldn't remember have all drowned in the calm waters of the water-filled former sand quarry.

According to villagers the two girls -- both reportedly strong swimmers -- and the unnamed person were "pulled under the water" by a "ghost" or clearly malevolent monster that dwells in the lake, while the fisherman drowned in 2 feet of water. (Locals do admit that, while the fisherman might have been a strong swimmer under normal circumstances, he was at the time absolutely smashed on local whisky, which might have something to do with his tragic end!?)

Monster of the deep?

(Yes, okay, it's a moray eel but we don't have any real monster pix in our catalogue ...)

We all know that reports and rumours of Loch Ness-type monsters occur in many rivers and lakes throughout the world but we'd never have believed one was in Mae Rim -- until now. Forgotten relic of the dinosaur age, rogue giant catfish, evil water spirit, it sounds to us like a job for Jeremy Wade -- biologist and extreme angler. So expect to see Mae Rim appearing in the next series of River Monsters and in the mean time, think twice before swimming there and don't drink too much if you're fishing!

Tags: Jeremy Wade, Loch Ness, Mae Rim, monsters