ginger lemon honeymoon: Chilling in Chiang Mai, North Thailand 10-16 June 2015

We started our journey to Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand, in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport where we had just arrived on flight from Mandalay, Myanmar. We took the No.1 bus from the airport to the northern bus terminal (Mo Chit 2, not to be confused with a BTS station with the same name) and boarded a VIP night bus to Chiang Mai (680 Baht).

We wanted to try riding VIP once after hearing about it in Myanmar and Thailand, but it turned out to be not that special and not really worth the extra money. The difference from the 2nd class bus we took in Thailand before was that the seats were a bit more comfortable and spacious and had massage options, there is a toilet on board, and there are personal screens (airplane style) with loads of movies which we were super excited about but soon found out that ALL of the movies are dubbed in Thai so it was useless for us. You also get some snacks and when the bus stops for dinner break you get a free dinner. All in all it was nice but a second class bus in Thailand is really good enough and cheaper.

After 9 hours we got to the Chiang Mai Arcade bus station and took a Tuk-Tuk to the old city in search of a guesthouse. After some wandering around and 2 more tuk-tuks we finally settled in White House Chiang Mai (300 Baht for a fan room with bathroom) that had big rooms, nice common area and most importantly fast wifi, which we used to download season 4 of Game of Thrones and we dedicated a full day to catch up about what's been happening in the Seven Kingdoms.

Getting ready for a full day of Game of thrones

Getting a Chinese Visa

When we arrived in Chiang Mai we were happy to find out that there is a Chinese consulate in town and it is fairly simple to get a visa there. It sounded complicated and a lot of work at first but it turned out pretty easy and this is what you need to bring with you:

Flight tickets in and out of China. This is a must, even if you are planing to cross overland like we did (obviously don't tell them that). Some travel agencies in Chiang Mai can produce fake tickets for 100 Baht.
Valid passport + 1 passport copy
2 passport photos
A completed visa form that you can download it online or you can get it at the consulate.
An itinerary of your planned trip in China including hotels and transportation. This can be simple and relatively general and obviously you don't really need to stick to it later.
We also gave 2 hotel confirmation for the first nights which we were told is also required, the clerk didn't really look at them so we're not sure if you need it but it can't hurt. you can do it on Booking.com and later cancel it for no charge.

The cost for a double entry visa is 1650 Baht and it takes 4 working days for your visa to get processed, and if it is your first time applying fr a visa the maximum you can get is 30 days stay, valid for 6 months (if you apply for a visa in your own country then you can get longer stay).

City of Temples

Since we had to wait for our visa our stay in Chiang Mai turned out to be over a week, and we really enjoyed the city, which despite its size manages to maintain a laid-back small town feel.

Chiang Mai houses over 300 temples (Wats) and we visited a few around the old city area that are easily reached by bicycle or by foot: Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phan Tao, Wat Chiang Man (the oldest wat in town), and Wat Suan Dok.

Markets, Markets, Markets

There seems to be a different market every night in this town and they are all great fun, even if you've already had your fair share of juice stands, pad-thai stalls and elephant pants on every corner. Shoppers will find unique local arts and crafts and specialty food stalls among the more usual souvenir stalls. The three main ones are the daily "Chiang Mai night bazaar", "Saturday night market" that is more food focused, and the largest and probably the best one "Sunday night market" that starts around the afternoon in the center of the old city and stretches for miles.

We Love Thai Food

We fell in love with Thai food on this trip and so it was nice to find out that Chiang Mai offers some great place to eat. We found a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Thai vegetarian food restaurant that has really good dishes for as low as 10 Baht for a plate of rice and curry and ended up eating there almost everyday. Other favorites were Kanjana Thai restaurant that serves a good pumpkin curry, Kuhnchurn restaurant that offers a massive vegetarian lunch buffet with a huge variety of delicious Thai dishes (most of them were vegan too) for 169 Baht per person, and of course the food stalls in the markets mentioned above.