Northern Thailand by myself

It’s been a long time since I last traveled all by myself on a backpacking trip. I have always traveled with friends or family or visiting friends/family in the host countries. I think my last solo backpacking trip was probably in year 2004 to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

It was hard at first to pick up the bag and go on this trip, especially after being spoilt by the luxurious travels I get from work the last few years. This is really a challenge to get out of my comfort zone. On the other hand, I looked forward to meeting new friends during my journey.

I have my pink flip-flops to match my pink toe nails, with my pink bag and pink polka-dot umbrella for the rainy season. I’m ready to go!

Northern Thailand is a rather tourist-friendly place with friendly people and fantastic food. Most tourists would fly into Chiangmai, which is exactly what I did.

The problem with me traveling in Asia is my high “blendedness” – which means I tend to blend in with the locals easily that makes people misunderstand that I am a local. It is an advantage when I speak the local language, like in China, because then I won’t get charged “tourist price.” I don’t speak Thai – I only know enough to get by doing some negotiation while shopping at the market. It didn’t help either when suddenly all the little words I picked up in Vietnam and Nepal started coming out as I tried to speak Thai. After a few attempts at speaking Thai and getting blank looks in return, I decided I should just be a tourist and let them do what they want to do with me. But strangely enough, with a camera hanging over my neck and a map in hand, people still don’t get it! I AM A TOURIST, I DON’T SPEAK THAI!! I had a blast anyway.

What Chiangmai is not lack of are food, wat (Buddhist temples) and songthaew (local taxi).

Everywhere you go, you are bound to find food along the street. This is a place you have to come hungry and ready to eat. Language is not a barrier if you are adventurous. Just point at whatever you think you want, you will have some food served to you. One thing I learned is the way they gauge the spiciness of food. When they say less spicy, it is considered very spicy to me, and I consider myself quite tolerant to spicy food according to Malaysian standard.

The best way to get around the city is to rent a bicycle (which I’d wished I could do but I’m really hopeless in learning to ride a bike), rent a motorbike, take a tuk tuk (motor trishaw) and use the songthaew (the locals call it a taxi but I think it’s more like a bus).

I love the idea of songthaew and wished we could have it in Kuala Lumpur too. It is converted from a pick-up truck with two rows of benches at the back. You can flag down anyone of it, tell the driver where you want to go and hop on if he is going the same direction. It is only THB20 (about USD0.60) each ride anywhere in the city. It is so convenient. However, be mindful that sometimes they do charge more than that depending on the situation. You just have to negotiate.

A group of Caucasian tourists with their rented bicycles.

Songthaew