Thailand - more than just a beach

Part 2

After a spectacular 10 days or so of bumming around from beach to beach we went further north for a completely different experience of Thailand altogether. Bikinis were stuffed back into the backpack and flip flops dug out as we said goodbye to the sun-kissed islands.

The north of Thailand very often gets left out of travellers' itineraries in favour of more time spent lazing about on the islands. After having done both I would go north over the islands any day. Sure the beaches beautiful, and not needing to wear shoes for a week is strangely satisfying, but the truly Thai experiences you can find in north are not to missed.

A short flight from Bangkok and you are in Chiang Mai, the largest city in Northern Thailand. Surrounded by a moat and the remains of a defensive wall that protected the city from neighbouring Burma, the old city is striking, rich with tradition and culture, though outside the old city it is developing into a modern and dynamic city.

The night bazaar at the weekend is well worth a trip. We arrived in Chiang Mai on Sunday late afternoon and after a quick shower we went for a wander around to find the night bazaar already in full swing, and the first corner we turned, surprisingly housed food stall after food stall after food stall. We were in heaven - and what's more it that nothing was selling for more than 20 baht (approx €0.50c), about one fourth of the price of food on the islands. Every bite was a lot more genuine than we had come across on the islands, with real Thai specialities being cooked alongside tasty morsels from neighbouring countries Burma, China and Japan. We roamed around the stalls, ironically spending more money on food than we had on any meal on the trip, stopping at one stall for a sample and then another until we were ready to explode.

Once we'd eaten our fill we wandered around the other stalls, checking out handcrafted items from Thai silks, to trinkets and original artworks. After a exhausting few hours of fighting the temptation to buy things that wouldn't fit in a backpack, we stopped for a massage at the side of the road.

Thai people see a massage as their birthright and the roads were lined with Thai people giving massages (mostly to other Thais). Once you're seated in their chairs you soon forget the hustle and bustle of the market, though open one eye and you're sure to find a tourist gawking at you or taking pictures of possibly the oddest place to get a massage they have ever seen. If you'd like to try your hand at it there are even course offered to foreigners that teach Thai massage techniques, from day courses to week long courses.

The food off the stalls in Chiang Mai is fabulously tasty, however the language barrier often prohibits you from knowing what you are eating, with even less possibility of recreating it at home. To remedy that we did a cooking course which are easy to find in the province. Asia Scenic offer great day courses that include a wander around a Thai market (and an unscheduled breakfast of pork skewers from a street vendor), transport to an organic farm and a trip around picking herbs and vegetables and cooking a five-course meal under the guidance of a Thai foodie with a sense of humour.

Rent a scooter and check out the outskirts of the city. 15km outside the city, and more than 1,500 metres up the mountain is Chiang Mai's most famous temple - Doi Suthep. The twin dragons guard the 300 steps up to the temple, which though a little touristy is a sacred place for devout Buddhists.

Mae Rim is home to elephants, tigers, monkeys and snakes - not wild ones, but, for a price, you can have your picture taken with and spend a few minutes petting them.

Boil some eggs in the hotsprings of Sankampaeng, where the water comes out of the ground at 105°C. Further down the stream you can dip your feet in and if you are brave enough have a dip.

Save your elephant trip for Bangkok, where with Bangkok Day Tours you can book a day out that includes a visit to Damneon Saduak floating market, where you can do all your souvenir shopping, buy fruit, shakes or more hearty meals all aboard a wooden boat, some fuelled by old Thai ladies with a paddle and others with vicious long tail engines - just remember to keep your fingers in the boat!

The elephant farm is spectacular. Climb aboard the magnificent creatures as they stroll around the forests, stopping every now and then to grab some tasty fruit that has fallen from the trees. The best part of the trip however is bathing the elephants. They love the water and with a little bit of encouragement from the mahout (elephant trainer) they shake you off their backs, throw you off their trunks and spray you with water from their trunks - by far the highlight of the trip!

How to get there?

Emirates offers daily flights to Bangkok, and have recently added daily flights to the popular resort island Phuket. Both options have a short stopover in Dubai to allow you to stretch your legs without waiting for hours for a connecting flight. Flights departing from Malta, for Bangkok on 11 April and returning on 25 April were priced at €831.51, including tax, at the time of going to print. Flights to Phuket on the same dates were also priced at €831.51. 

Long haul flights are always tough but aboard Emirates, life doesn't seem so difficult. Travelling in business class, my journey was a lot more comfortable that I would have imagined with seats that recline into an almost flat position allowing for some sort of sleep on the plane to arrive fresh and ready for action. Wake up to breakfast served with a smile, despite the early hours and amount of time staff have been awake tending to every customer's whim. The ICE entertainment system offers so many new movies the hardest part is to choose which ones to watch - so much so that once the plane lands you are little reluctant to get off! Gone are the days when you need to think of things to take with you on the plane to keep you entertained for hours on end as Emirates has done it for you.