A Rough Start In Chiang Mai

As I said in my previous article, during my trip around the world, I went to two countries where I had no friends: Peru and Thailand. I had dreamt of Chiang Mai, and yet, my first days were not as magical as I thought they would be.

Setting Up In Chiang Mai

My arrival in Chiang Mai was not what I expected. First, I had been sick the two days before: humidity+heat+air conditioning = a cold in Thailand (in my experience, it works in Australia too).

Second, my hostel was really far from the city center. I hadn’t realised that when I booked it. The hostel was really good, but taxis refused to take me to the center, because I was alone and it was not worth it for them. So, on my first days in Chiang Mai, I mostly walked. It was 40 minutes by foot to and from the center. Despite the distance, I wasn’t going to stay in my dorm all day. The most difficult part was crossing a four lanes road. However, even though I didn’t know it at the time, it actually prepared me for India and its crazy traffic.

Busy Days

During the day, I was doing excursions, like the wonderful Elephant Nature Park. Then, in the evening, I would walk to the center, and then come back to the hostel, take a shower, write on my Facebook page and sometimes do my laundry. It was exhausting, but there were so many extraordinary things to see and do. I don’t regret it at all.

A Missed Tour

On the 21st of November, I was supposed to do a tour, and I woke up really early. I waited. And waited. And waited. I asked the girl at the reception, who booked the tour, when the bus was coming. She told me to wait several times, but after a while, she called the company and told me that there was a problem because apparently she hadn’t booked the tour. I was very tired, and I had been excited at the idea of doing the tour. Because I had a limited number of days, that meant that I wouldn’t be able to visit one of the places I had chosen. That really pissed me off. Although I felt like shouting at the girl, I knew it wouldn’t change a thing, so I went upstairs to take a deep breath and try to think of something.

I met a sympathetic traveller and we talked for a little while. She told me that it was not meant to happen and that maybe something better would happen instead. I went downstairs and asked the girl at the reception which of the other tours that I had booked on the other days were doable today. She called some friends and finally, a bus made a detour to take me on a different tour.

My Luck Turned

In the end, I had a great day and I finally met some nice people. We visited beautiful temples, and we saw orchids and snakes.

I didn’t know what a snake farm was and I didn’t know it was part of the tour. Now I know, and I don’t like it. It felt like animal abuse, it seemed that they really were hurting the snakes. It felt like being at the circus, and I didn’t want to participate. Most people were scared, but I wasn’t, because I knew that if they put those snakes next to tourists, it meant that they were not dangerous. They offered to take pictures with a massive snake. A girl wanted to, but ran away at the last minute, so the guy put it on me. I was a bit surprised and my camera was in my bag, so the guide took a picture for me. I have to admit, it’s a cool picture. Nonetheless, I still feel bad for giving money to such a place.

New Friends In Chiang Mai

My first days in Chiang Mai were pretty lonely, because most people were travelling with friends and didn’t look for new ones. On that day, I met other girls travelling alone and I befriended a Canadian named Kimberley. After the tour, I went back to her hotel and we treated ourselves to a pedicure not far from the hotel.

In the evening, we went to a big square to see the election of Miss and Mister Yi Peng. There were loads of people, it was beautiful and full of lights and colours, but we couldn’t understand a thing as everything was in Thai. We ended up talking to a group of girls: one French and two Dutch. Kimberley had to go back to her hotel, so I stayed with my new friends and we went to a restaurant together. While queuing, we noticed that the girl waiting in front of us was alone. She was French too. We offered her to join us. She did. Here we were, five girls far from home having a nice dinner together just minutes or hours after meeting.

On that evening, I managed to get a taxi to my hostel by sharing it with two friendly Canadian guys. What a day! The girl from that morning was right: something better was meant to happen.

To see more photos of Thailand, you can visit the gallery Thailand.