We have complained about downtown Chiang Mai's lack of parks before but there is a stretch of grass and trees that we inconsiderately overlooked, a very long stretch in fact -- nearly eight kilometres long -- which makes for an interesting and attractive hike without ever having to leave the city centre. We're talking of course about the strip of tree-lined parkland that borders the moat and frames the old town area.

The north moat looking south towards Prathu Chang Puak.

The old city walls don't quite make a square, being two kilometres each on the east and west sides and 1.8 kilometres on the other two sides, and they do of course have a busy three-lane road on either side. But there are at least 30 0r 40 metres of grass, trees and water between the two. (Indeed the most difficult part of our proposed walk is crossing the busy highway to actually get into the median strip.)

The inner moat road takes the following names on its east, south, west and north sides: Moonmuang, Bumrung Buri, Arak and Sri Phum respectively, and circulates in a anti-clockwise direction. The outer moat ring road is clockwise only and, again from east to north, has the names: Chaiyaphum, Rat Chiang Saen, Bunrueang and Manee Noparat. (Transliterations vary considerably.)

The reconstructed northwest bastion.

Regular causeways across the moat form two-way U-turns -- usually three or four on each side -- and there's a total of five old entrance gates (plus two footbridges): Tha Paeon the east, Chiang Mai and Suan Prung on the south side; the west has Suan Dok and the north side Chiang Puak.

The reason for a later addition of the fifth gate was apparently to allow the Queen Mother a convenient access into the city while she was busy supervising the construction of Wat Chedi Luang. The same gate, Suan Prung, was then later used for funeral processions so to this day is still considered an inauspicious gate by certain locals.

Much of the old wall and corner bastions were pulled down some time ago to provide bricks for the construction of the city but  extensive renovation including original bricks was carried out in the 1960s and again in the 1990s. Now most of the five gates and the four corner bastions are in reasonable condition and several stretches of wall still exist.

Now this could be done as a single hike but eight kilometres in this heat might be a bit much and you'd miss out the numerous interesting sites to be seen. We would propose to do one side at a time; perhaps say clockwise down and anti back for instance since there are plenty of sites to be seen. Apart from a proliferation of temples, you'll find markets, interesting shops, some spectacular trees, with luck some inner city bird-life, plenty of Chiang Mai's great cafes and bars and lots of general bustling street life.

Spectacular golden rain tree, on the north side.

Few people seem to have thought of this hike and the people I have dragged along have been more than pleasantly surprised; so coming up over the next few posts we'll be describing no less than four excellent inner city hikes. Stay tuned!

Tags: hiking, markets, Moonmuang, Tha Pae, walks

Nimmanhemin -- or Nimmanheminda -- Road and its surrounding sois form Chiang Mai's rapidly growing chic quarter of town, and indeed the whole area itself is now known as Nimmanhemin or commonly Nimman. Located on the west side of the city in Suthep district near the foot of the mountain, it was until some 20 years ago still just a dirt track on the outskirts of town, but has since seen a meteoric rise to trendiness. Nimmanhemin goes from the Rimcome junction with Huay Kaew Road to Suthep Road in the south, though most of the action is in the northern half of the road and the sois that lead off it. It's actually where the six-lane superhighway comes to an abrupt stop, so the road is unfortunately very busy traffic wise.

Commonly pronounced 'Nimman'.

Nearby Chiang Mai University (CMU), with its large student population, probably helped the area's growth but now it's also become a sought-after location for well-heeled locals and Thais fleeing hectic Bangkok, as well as Chiang Mai's large expat community. The kilometre or so of Nimmanhemin Road itself plus the sois to the east and west have become absolutely packed with coffee shops, tea houses, wine bars, sushi joints, live music restaurants, art and craft shops, trendy clothes stores and boutiques with silly names.

See what we mean?

In fact we wouldn't mind betting there are more cafes with free WiFi and blueberry cheesecakes per square kilometre here than almost anywhere else in Thailand, and we do wonder how the population supports quite so many -- though it has to be said that they do open and close with bewildering regularity, and what was last week a designer clothes shop is probably this week a specialty tea outlet.

'94 Coffee', Soi 9.

A Starbucks is on the corner of Soi 9 -- though we're pleased to see it often fares far worse than local coffee chains -- and an outlet of Chiang Mai's own Mike's Burger on the main drag. Other usual suspects are Black Canyon and local chains 94 Coffee and Wawi Coffee (both on Soi 9), plus the expat and increasingly upmarket Thai fave Kasem store.

Restaurants and bars abound; the most famous and a magnet for trendy tourists from Bangkok is the famous Monkey Pub in Soi 9, though you'll find many more in the same vein -- that vein being inside chic bar space, outside garden seating, live bands and big screen TVs for showing mainly EPL football matches. The bars and restaurants are predominantly aimed at rich young Thais and though you'll find a smattering of expats this area hasn't really caught on among tourists yet (though it's only a 10-minute/100 baht tuk tuk ride from, say, Tha Pae.)

Brightly coloured buildings on Nimmanhemin Road.

Restaurants include numerous Japanese, Thai, North Thai, Chinese and Italian joints , the latter including Lanta Pizza on Soi 5. There are also increasingly good evening street stalls along the main drag offering the usual array of Thai snacks. Apart from the action on Nimman itself, Sois 1 and 3 have plenty of handicraft shops and fashionable boutiques, while the restaurants and bars are concentrated in odd-numbered Sois 3 to 11.

All in all, this is a good spot to waste an evening browsing the boutiques, taking in some live music with a cold beer in hand and choosing from the myriad eateries to dine at -- or you could do a coffee-shop crawl in the afternoon, stuffing your face with mango meringue pie while checking your e-mails and browsing the stores in between.

The large monolithic red brick Chiang Mai Orchid Hotel next to Central Huay Kaew shopping mall might not look desperately exciting from the outside, but it's a good spot to waste away a few hours on a hot Chiang Mai afternoon if you've no pool in your own Chiang Mai hotel. The hotel itself is actually rather a good midrange deal,  but the main attraction for non-residents is their large, clean and almost always practically empty pool.

Busy day at the pool.

The open-air swimming pool is located on the third floor of the hotel, overlooking Huay Kaew Road, and while not exactly surrounded by a lush garden, it's pleasant enough.

Not the Andaman Coast but nevermind, eh!

Loungers beckon around the pool, a few pot plants lend a little green and if you're lucky there may even be drink and snack service -- but you most definitely won't get bombed by obnoxious brats, have to do exaggerated zig-zag lengths to avoid other swimmers or queue up to use the showers.

No 6:00 dash to spread your towel over a lounger required.

In addition to the pool, you can use a well-equipped gym, with staff on standby to provide assistance and both male and female saunas. The gym looks to have lots of impressive and complicated machines but we'll admit it's not our area of expertise, while the saunas are spacious and clean. You'll probably have the sauna to yourself and are never going to have to wait to use one of their torture apparatuses either.

With the palm trees you could almost be at the beach, right?

Staff are helpful, a little bit of English is spoken and towels and soap are provided. For non-guests it's 150 baht for unlimited time, and free for kids. (We're not quite sure how old the latter need to be to earn the free entry, but Thais usually go on height, so ask your kids to kneel down a little when you're paying the entrance fee.)

You pay your entrance fees in the downstairs lobby then take the lift to the third floor. The facilities are open all day, every day from 8:00ish in the morning to around 20:00. The Orchid is located on Huay Kaew Road immediately next to Central and below is a photo of the outside, just so you know you're at the right place. The rather ritzy lobby has an open-air beer garden attached, so you can re-hydrate after a sauna.

Orchid Hotel, Chiang Mai.

This isn't the cheapest pool in town but it's a good deal if you do have a few hours to while away, especially with kids in tow.

Tags: Central Department Store, gyms, Orchid Hotel, pools

We've covered the excellent Chiang Mai Aquarium and Nakorn Ping Aviary but haven't yet given you an overall rundown on the city's famous zoo; so, it's about time! Chiang Mai Zoo is situated at the foot of Doi Suthep, just behind Chiang Mai University, and covers a large area of secondary forest, foothills and stream valleys backing on to the national park itself. The natural forest setting certainly helps to elevate the zoo above regular city zoos such as Bangkok's Dusit Zoo or Regent's Park but yes, it is a zoo and not a safari park. (We are not including the notoriously badly run Chiang Mai "night safari".)

Going to the zoo, zoo ...

As zoos go, this is a pretty good one and it's definitely the best the kingdom has to offer. Most animals appear well looked after in spacious cages or fenced off areas and though  some enclosures, such as that for the monkeys, still leave a lot to be desired, the zoo is always upgrading and improving its facilities.

Not many zoos where the animals have their own restrooms!

Other than the aviary and aquarium a wide cross section of native fauna live at the zoo: elephants, tigers, crocodiles, bears and gibbons for starters, plus imported species such as koalas, giraffes, zebras and penguins.

Overdosed on eucalyptus leaves.

The zoo's star animals are undoubtedly the pandas, which are on a 10-year loan from China, and for which you have to pay extra to see. That's partly because they have to live in an air-con enclosure, which rumour has it even has occasional artificial snowstorms... which brings us on to the "snow dome", another popular attraction for Thais who've never seen snow before, and which also charges a separate entrance fee. The snow dome, of moderate interest to Westerners, is a kind of overgrown deep-freeze with a toboggan slope and igloo among its attractions.

Note these are models and not real.

Other non-animal viewing attractions in the zoo include go-carting, elephant rides, inflated plastic balls on the lake, a trained bird show and an "adventure railway" ride. The latter is so kitsch it's good, and involves a brief ride around a deer and goat enclosure with added plastic dinosaurs that move their heads when you pass and a giant King Kong that roars and flashes his red eyes. Even odder are the model Akha and Mabri exhibits.

Not real either but its eyes do light up when you go past.

The zoo is large and you've got three options for getting around: foot, monorail or bus. Most of the main sites can be included in a walking itinerary but be warned: it's a fair old walk and there are plenty of hills. Much of it is however in the shade and cafes and snack bars are liberally sprinkled around the site. Allow two to three hours to do a loop around the central area on foot.

You are here.

The monorail (stations marked on above map) does afford good views but will set you back 100 baht. We found it somewhat rickety and weren't completely at ease on it though maybe we're just particularly nervous. The buses can be slightly nerve-racking too, as they hurtle up and down steep hills and speed round corners, but at least they are on the ground and they only cost 20 baht. You need to buy a single ticket at the main entrance train or bus stop, and it allows you to get on and off as many times as you like around the course.

Kind of overgrown golf buggies.

This site has plenty more details. To get to the zoo by public transport, a 20 baht red songthaew ride will do it or you should be able to get a tuk tuk for 120 baht or so from downtown.

Chiang Mai Zoo
Top end of Huay Kaew Rd, just after the arboretum and immediately before the road starts to climb up Suthep (see map)
Open daily 8:00 to 17:00
www.chiangmaizoo.peam.biz
Admission fee to zoo: adults 100 baht, children 50 baht (unclear what age they consider children to be)
Extra for pandas: adults 100 baht and children 50 baht
Extra for snow dome: 150 baht
(The disgraceful two-tier pricing system is in place: be warned.)

Tags: aquarium, Chiang Mai zoo, King Kong, pandas, snow dome

Doi means mountain in the northern Thai dialect (see our earlier geographical names post), so Doi Suthep of course means Suthep Mountain. Doi Suthep's most famous feature is its temple, Wat Doi Suthep, and is part of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park. Finally, Suthep is the name of the western district of Chiang Mai city abutting said mountain and home to CMU, Chiang Mai Zoo and the fashionable Nimmanhemin Road area.

Suthep seen from Huay Tung Tao.

We'll come to Suthep district in our Chiang Mai area by area posts, and the national park is a wide subject, so for this post we'll stick to the mountain itself. At around 1,600m in height, and being within walking distance of downtown, Suthep certainly towers over the city and though we would like to say it's clearly visible from wherever you are in Chiang Mai you'd better read our last post first!

Also usually clearly visible -- even at night as it's lit up -- is the temple just below the summit: Wat Doi Suthep or to give it its full name, Wat Phra Boromathat Doi Suthep Worawihan. Now if you hear people repeating the local saying that, "You haven't visited Chiang Mai unless you've visited Doi Suthep," they really mean unless you've gone up the mountain and had your photo taken in the temple with a view of the city in the background.

Chiang Mai city seen from Doi Suthep.

The temple is thought to date from the 14th century and is considered one of the most sacred sites in the region. It's certainly both an elaborate affair and spectacularly situated, as well as being hugely popular with local tourists. (You can find a good selection of photos of the temple at this link.)

From Chiang Mai Zoo at the foot of the mountain and at the end of Huay Kaew Road, a good road winds its way up Doi Suthep for 15 kilometres before reaching the car park and cafe area at the temple entrance. From here there's either 309 steps or a 30 baht tram fare to negotiate before you reach the temple proper. The road gets very steep so if you're going up there on a motorbike please take care!

Forest on the road up Doi Suthep.

On the way up Doi Suthep the road passes through dry dipterocarp, mixed deciduous and montane forest, emerging into pine once you reach Doi Pui, so it covers a wide range of flora and fauna and is particularly reputed for bird-life. There are also numerous viewpoints and several waterfalls, some more spectacular than others and all more picturesque during the rainy season. We've already posted a couple of waterfall hikes on Doi Suthep which you can find here.

Jungle trail on Suthep.

Note if you enter the national park headquarters or visit any of the more popular falls you will have to pay the 200 baht park entry fee -- if you just go to the temple you won't. The national park HQ buildings, botanical gardens and royal palace are all located above Wat Doi Suthep as the road continues to wind its way up to Doi Pui. It's all very scenic but again, take care here if you're on a motorbike -- the road gets even steeper and even experienced riders may have problems. Most guesthouses and travel agents can organise inexpensive tours to Doi Suthep and Doi Pui.

Tags: Chiang Mai zoo, Doi Pui, Doi Suthep-Pui National park, Nimmanhemin, Suthep

The Thai Premier League football season kicked off last weekend with the usual suspects installed as hot pre-season favourites: Buriram Utd (last season's winners as Buriram PEA), Chonburi FC and Nonthaburi's Muang Thong Utd and with no less than two North Thai teams in the line-up as well: Chiang Rai Utd and TTM Chiang Mai. Hang on... Chiang Mai? They were wallowing in the lower reaches of the second tier last time we looked -- they're rubbish -- how did they get there?

Live EPL games are a huge draw for Thai bars and restaurants

Well, in fact Chiang Mai FC are still in the first division and TTM Chiang Mai are no relation to them and indeed didn't actually exist last year. TTM, which stands for Thai Tobacco Monopoly, began playing in Samut Sakhon, moved to Phichit a couple of years ago and then upped and moved to Chiang Mai during the closed season. Each move was apparently for "political reasons" but firstly the Bangkok suburbs already have quite a few established Premier League teams such as Muang Tong, Bangkok Glass, Port, BEC Tero, Insee and so on and secondly Pichit isn't, let's face it, very sexy. Maybe the owners noted a lack of Premier League teams in Thailand's second city saw a good opening?

TTM are one of the oldest Thai teams, being founded in 1963, and actually won the Thai Premier in 2005. Chiang Mai FC (formerly Chiang Mai Utd) have never won much (well, except Regional League, Northern Division in 2010), and are not great but they do have reasonable support in the city. Many Chiang Mai football fans are not happy about suddenly being presented with a new Premier League team from out of the city and would much prefer to continue to support the old Chiang Mai FC even if they are pretty awful.  (See this clip of a packed ground for a second division, third tier game against Buriram FC), although when you watch their excellent promo clip here you may agree they'd be better off moving into marketing than sticking at sport!?

Suddenly upping and moving entire teams across the country for political or business reasons is common practice in Thailand, and it certainly makes life confusing for supporters. Just in the inter-season break this year Buriram PEA merged with Buriram FC of the second division to become Buriram Utd  -- this might have been done for domestic harmony, since Thai politician and PEA owner Newin's wife happened to run Buriram FC; and Si Saket relocated to Ubon and changed their name to Isan Utd. Worse still, Songhkla based Wuachon Utd, who received their Premier League place by default after Buriram FC  didn't take up their promotion place due to the merger with their city neighbours, now find themselves playing "home" games 1,500 km away in Buriram.

Football's popular even in areas such as this mountain top Hmong village near Chiang Mai.

It's a shame that the Thai FA allows this sort of stuff to go on since it does make a bit of a mockery of a football championship that clearly has a lot of potential. Some of the top teams play half decent football, compete with some success in Asian football tournaments and have good support; we reckon it's always a nice change to see a Thai wearing their home colours of Chiang Mai FC or Buriram PEA rather than the ubiquitous Man Utd or Liverpool shirts. (Check out this clip of Buriram's very impressive travelling army, which would be the envy of certain EPL teams, or another of the awesome Muang Thong Ultras doing a worthy impression of the Anfield Kop.) Many of these teams, especially those in towns with large expat communities such as Pattaya or Chiang Mai, also count many farang fans among their supporters.

Hmong lad all dressed up in his Chelsea kit. Shame he's not wearing Chiang Mai FC colours!

Just to show we're not biased here's a link to Chiang Rai Utd -- the Fighting Beetles -- who are mid-table kind of team but who, as far as we know, got there on their own merit without merging with anyone else or suddenly relocating from Nakhon Nowhere. Lamphun and Lampang both currently play in Regional League Northern Division 2.

Chiang Rai Utd play at the Mae Fah Luang Stadium while Chiang Mai FC and TTM Chiang Mai share the 700 year old Stadium. Most matches are played on Sundays; check the relevant links above for fixtures.

Tags: footbal, Thai Premier League

We can't have any pretensions at comprehensive Chiang Mai coverage without mentioning what is the city's largest market: Worarot. Worarot refers to a entire downtown district of the city, spreading out on both sides of Chang Moi Road and covering an area roughly between Ratchawong, Tha Pae Road and the River. Worarot (or Warorot) market itself is known in the local dialect as Kat Luang, or big market, but the area is actually a complex of covered and street markets. This area is also traditionally Chiang Mai's Chinatown.

Chang Moi Road.

To the north of Chang Moi Road is a labyrinth of narrow lanes housing wholesale shops and vendors, with not too much of particular interest for casual visitors but with a strong Chinese feel to them. Between Chang Moi Tat Mai and Kuang Mane roads, (see our map), is a Hmong and hill-tribe market, while facing the River Ping is the photogenic flower market backing on to the Lam Yai covered market. Kind of in the middle of all this -- and surrounding streets are also full of stalls and ambulant vendors of all description as well -- is the Worarot covered market itself.

Food stalls in Worarot.

The two covered markets, Worarot and Lam Yai, are similar three-storey buildings situated on either side of Wichayanon and linked by a footbridge. The contents are fairly similar too, being mostly foodstuffs -- fresh and dried produce -- on the ground floors and clothes and household goods on the upper two floors. The centre is open so you can look down on the ground floor from either of the two upper-storey walkways or mezzanines, which provides some good photo opps.

View from 2nd floor mezzanine at Worarot

Foodstuffs cover everything from fruit and veg to the obligatory fried insects and dried produce from every part of the kingdom, as well as neighbouring countries such as Burma and China. There are also plenty of noodle and rice stalls so it's an interesting place to grab a snack too.

Popular Chiang Mai sausage vendor.

The two covered markets are open from around 06:00 to 18:00 but there's almost 24-hour action in the adjacent streets, plus a popular local night market around Chang Moi too. Don't expect pirated DVDs and souvenir T-shirts, but authentic it certainly is. This is a fascinating area to explore and for a rundown on the heritage aspect of this Chiang Mai institution and fears for future development check out this excellent article.

Tags: Chinatown, Lam Yai market, markets

Wat Chedi Luang rivals Wat Phra Singh for the title of Chiang Mai's most important and prestigious city temple. Though it comes a definite second for local visitors, the two temples are probably neck and neck in terms of foreigners, though for sheer size Wat Chedi Luang has no competition.

Part of the viharn.

The partially ruined chedi is huge and must have been huger before invaders and earthquakes took their toll, while the main viharn remains big we couldn't get it all in a photo (at least, without a wide-angle lens). It must be said though that the temple grounds are not as spacious as Wat Phra Singh's so as well as it being tricky to get an overall view it does lacks the latter's pleasant garden surrounds.

The chedi with missing summit.

Chedi Luang means "royal chedi" and this was the official temple of the Lanna kings situated as it was adjacent to the former royal palace. The wat was originally constructed in the 14th-15th centuries and has been partially restored more recently though the ruined chedi wasn't reconstructed since apparently no-one is sure what it was supposed to look like.

The UNESCO sponsored restoration has been controversial.

The pristine new brick work of the main chamber contrasts oddly with the ramshackle upper section and the new elephant statues frankly border on the tacky but it is an interesting spot overall and if you're ticking off important temples on a tour of Chiang Mai's old city you can't really miss this one out.

Classic Lanna!

Some of the outlying buildings are interesting: see for example the smaller but attractive Lanna-style viharn or the impressive reclining Buddha image on the west side of the chedi.

This reclining Buddha is sporting the winter collection.

There's also a shrine containing the city pillar and, with a throwback to animist times, plenty of small shrines surrounding the complex containing 'guardian spirits'. As with the standard Thai spirit house seen in any garden, or the equivalent Burmese nats or Khmer neak ta, there's nothing particularly Buddhist about worshipping spirits or house gods that are associated with geographical locations.

Chedi Luang has a popular monk chat as well as a few token touts so, without being too cynical, beware of over-helpful locals.

Young monks heading to the chat room.

Wat Chedi Luang is located next door to Wat Pan Tao and is a short walk from Wat Phra Singh. There is one wat after another down Ratchadamnoen Road but these three are probably the most interesting if you don't wish to visit too many of them. Enjoy!

Tags: Lanna, monk chat, temples, Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Pan Tao, Wat Phra Singh, wats

Maybe I'm a cynical old whatever but... "monk chat club" sounds a little like monk feeding time in Luang Prabang. Not that it's the tourists' fault: the monks seem more than happy to go along with it. Luang Prabang novices have never been so well fed and Wat Chedi Luang donation boxes are brimming. But is this a laudable attempt by an ancient religion to move with the times or merely Buddhism's modern day adherents jumping on the bandwagon of 21st century commercialism?

Ready to chat.

What is a 'monk chat' you may well be wondering? In wats frequented by tourists there are sitting areas set aside where m0nks who can speak some English, and or who would like to improve their English-language skills, make themselves available for informal chats with tourists.

Come to join us....

Obviously highly dependent upon their language skills -- and for that matter the English skills of the visitors since we haven't seen many monks yet who can converse in French or Hebrew -- but the 'chat' or conversation could be about Buddhism, Thailand, Chiang Mai or anything you want really. It could be questions on finer points of Theravada doctrine or just 'my girlfriend doesn't understand me, what should I do'; but if you bear in mind a popular question for Thais for a monk is 'what number should I play in the lottery', it certainly doesn't need to be anything especially profound.

"Hmm... still reckon Spurs deserved a draw though."

Again, these monks may often be novices or young lads and even if you have genuine questions on the finer points of doctrine don't necessarily expect detailed answers, though of course you can still expect an interesting chat about some of the basics: their life, Buddhism and all things Thai.

Don't forget the donations box on the way out. There's the rub: the essential elements of a monk chat are seats, table, monks and donation box. You're not exactly paying for your chat but if you've sat and wasted a few hours of their meditation time would you feel comfortable leaving and ignoring the large and strategically placed box with donation written on it?

"We're off to join the club!"

It seems like half the temples in central Chiang Mai -- certainly those down Ratchadamneon Road -- have areas set aside for monk chats with perhaps Wat Chedi Luang being the most popular. Having strolled around said wat last weekend we hesitated at the monk club since two temple-related questions did spring to mind. First, why are touts, preying on gullible tourists, tolerated in the temple precincts?  And second, if someone has taken the trouble to stick up worthy signs saying 'please don't buy the captive birds it only encourages this cruel practice', do you see the same bird sellers there day in, day out as well?

Thought monks got up early?

Anyway try it out for yourselves if you have an hour to spare and see what you think -- and remember -- donation box is up to you!

Tags: Jesus, Luang Prabang, Spurs, Therevada Buddhism

We cannot guarantee any uncharted rocks or icebergs on this cruise and the Nam Ou, Sangkar River, or even River Kok it is not, so don't expect dramatic scenery; yet a cruise on the Ping River is a very pleasant way to while away a couple of hours.

Wat Chai Mongkol

At least a couple of companies now offer boat cruises in Chiang Mai up and down the Ping River but we travelled with the Mae Ping River Cruise and jolly good they were too. Their boats depart from Wat Chai Mongkol, just off Charoen Prathet Road, and their cruises take you through downtown Chiang Mai then out through the northern suburbs to a "farmer's house".

The 'office' of Mae Ping River Cruise at Wat Chai Mongkol.

It may once have been a farmer's house but it's now a combination museum, restaurant and fruit and veg garden where you are given a juice and huge fruit platter and have the option to buy coffees or other drinks as well as souvenirs. A restaurant on site means you can have a lunch of say khao soi or fried rice there if you wish.

Arriving at the farmer's house.

The leisurely trip takes around 45 minutes each way; the first part takes you past central Chiang Mai, under the various bridges, past the numerous riverside cafes and Worarot market on the left before heading into the town's ritzy northern suburbs, where the lawns of the huge and flashy villas and mansions sweep down to the river and then.... well that's about it really.

The museum.

Oh, you may get a running commentary from the boatman which in our case was so bad it was good but since he clearly realised that we tipped him anyway. Majestic trees grow along the banks and if you're lucky you may spot some bird-life; it's not spectacular but pleasant enough.

The old iron Narawat Bridge

The return trip will cost 450 baht per person or you can do a one way trip for 240 baht and then tuk tuk it back to town from the house. Boats leave whenever the staff decide there's enough people to make it worthwhile so waiting time is going to vary considerably between low and high season though you do have the option of paying a bit more and taking a smaller private boat.

Some stretches are actually scenic.

What the extra price is will depend on how busy they are... or how much of a hurry you are in. We shared a large (and comfortable) boat with a fun and friendly French bunch but obviously as with any join-in trip you could be unlucky.

Mae Ping River Cruis
maepingrivercruise.com
T: (053) 274 833; (081) 884 4621
Cruises go from 08:30 to 17:00

Tags: cruises, Kok River, Nam Ou, Ping River, Sangkar River, Wat Chai Mongkol, Worarot Market