We got a night bus to Chiang Mai and spent about ten days here. We really loved Chiang Mai. We made it our base for that length of time; we did 2 day/1 night trek, which was an incredible experience.
During the trek, we visited a village and spent the night with them, it was really an interesting experience as they had no electricity and we even played candlelit drinking games! Our guide Mr Pu, and some of his friends in the village, made some very cool things for us from the bamboo that grows so plentiful in the country, including cups and chopsticks for dinner later that night and some interesting hair pieces, similar to chopsticks but with a fancy tip to them! They were lovely. Pictured below is the view on the way to his village and the bamboo cup.
We also did elephant riding (which wasn’t great, the poor elephants weren’t in the best of health we reckon), and bamboo rafting!
We also did a cookery class in Chiang Mai and a day trip to Chiang Rai, where we visited the White Temple, the Golden Triangle (where Thai, Laos & Burma meet), stepped on to an island in Laos (Thai visa unaffected, thankfully!), visited Long Neck Karen Village, didn’t actually see the long necked-women, but saw the village!