Hello there. I didn’t update this blog for a while because I’ve been busy with my job. Anyway, as I promised that I will show you some exciting places, so here we are, part two of my Chiang Mai trip.
Read also : Trip Outing to Chiang Mai Thailand part I
It had been raining all day, so I thought it would be nice to take a bath somewhere that I can enjoy the great nature of Chiang Mai. My tour guide told me that he knew just the perfect place for what I was looking for. He drove further away from the city of Chiang Mai about 45 minutes and I was surprised by the place I was looking at. It is HOT SPRING!! I never thought that Thailand has a natural hot spring before. Every time when I think about hot spring, it comes to the impression that I have to go to Japan, dipping myself into a hot spring pool naked with total strangers.
This place is called San-Kam-Pang hot springs; it is initiated by the King of Thailand. Not only hot springs you can enjoy, but also many activities that you can have fun and spend the whole day with your family and friends such as Thai massage, camping, hot spring swimming pool, and a lot more. The thing that I enjoyed the most in this place was the private bungalow with my own hot spring bath tub. It is quite pleasurable to stay in a private hot spring, watch TV, and lie down on a bed after walking for a half day.
It was not expensive either, only 200 baht an hour you can get all this. Oh, something I have to warn you. They have different prices for foreigners and locals in every tourist place. Normally, foreigner price will be twice as much as the regular price. So, if you think you look Thai enough I would suggest you to try a regular one. The other thing I found very interesting at this place was the cooking eggs pool. It is a small pool which has a lot of hooks installed inside for people to hang their eggs into the hot spring. The duration depends on how well you want your eggs to be done which they have an instruction shown on a board.
After getting very comfortable from taking a hot spring, I felt so hungry and went straight to one of the most popular restaurant in Chiang Mai, which called “Good View”. This restaurant is located by the main river that runs across the city, just like Chao PhraYa river of Bangkok. The food did not entertain me much but the atmosphere was pretty good. They had live music in English and good view for you to enjoy throughout your meal. Next to this restaurant has another restaurant called “River Side”, it is decorated in an old style American bar. I did not have a chance to taste their food but I can guess that this place was really good because it was so crowded.
Good View Restaurant
I walked to Chiang Mai night bazaar (Chiang Mai night market) after dinner because I wanted to enjoy the view and it is not too far away, just on the other side of the river (about 20-25 minutes). It is a pretty long road filled with hundreds of shops which you can find all local stuffs, such as handcrafts, silver wares, cloths, blah blah you name it. All things on this road are negotiable and you need to negotiate because the open price will be a lot higher than the price you can buy. I suggest you to ask for half price or even more. Yeah, it takes a lot of energy to get some stuff here but I felt that it was fun and a good chance to practice your Thai as well. If you are not the type of price negotiator, you should wait for part three. I will take you to buy the exact same things for the local price without spending your energy bargaining. Alright guys, thanks for reading. I will leave you with the picture of Tuk Tuk (Thailand's unique taxi) and see you later.
Tuk Tuk at Chiang Mai night bazaar
