North Thailand🇹🇭
North Thailand and Thailand as a whole was one of my highlights being my first country to have solo backpacked! You don’t need a lot of time for the North, which can easily be done in two weeks or less, however to explore everything without rushing you could spend three weeks or more. Combined with Bangkok, I spent three weeks exploring each of the following places! Each of them apart from Chiang Rai will have its own blogs, as I have a lot of recommendations to share!
Bangkok
Fly into the capital of Thailand and start your backpacking journey there! Bangkok has different opinions, with some people hating it and some people loving it, I loved it and spent a total of nine days here! There are loads of hostels in Bangkok to choose from, at the time I went I stayed at Here Hostel, which was pretty good and sociable. However, since then there have been loads of new hostels, so make sure to do your research to find the best ones to stay at.
My Bangkok recommendations will be a separate blog here.
Chiang Mai
Next stop was Chiang Mai, which I also loved and were here for a combined time of six days! There is a lot to do here so definitely make the most of it. All you need to do is book your bus or overnight train from Bangkok. I had originally booked the overnight train, but the traffic in Bangkok, is no joke so I completely missed it! Make sure to leave at least two hours earlier than originally planned as the traffic and chaos of it will 100% make you late. My friend and I, had to book a last minute flight to Chiang Mai instead, which wasn’t ideal but also not the most expensive last minute flight we’ve ever booked!
Hostels are the same, I stayed at a variety of places over the different times I stayed there, The Common Hostel, Premier Hostel and One Life Hostel, which I all recommend. However, over the last four years the most popular ones have probably changed, so make sure to do your own research!
My Chiang Mai recommendations will be in a separate blog here.
Pai
My favourite place in the North! You cannot miss Pai, even though the journey is very long to get there. Book the bus through your hostel and they will organise it all for you. The main road connecting Pai to Chiang Mai is known as the windiest roads ever, so if you get bad motion sickness, definitely get some sickness tablets before you go!
I ended up staying in Pai for eleven days during my first trip as I became another statistic of falling off my moped in Thailand. Pai is known to be both the easiest place to learn and the easiest place to fall off. I think it is because of the wide long roads that make it easier to pick it up, coming across as easy roads to drive on and then people getting too confident and then falling off.
Once in Pai, there are so many incredible hostels to choose from and so many fun things to do. All my recommendations will be in another blog here.
Chiang Rai
If you are tight on time, a lot of people miss out Chiang Rai, as it takes quite a long time to get there! This is because the only way to get to Chiang Rai is from Chiang Mai, but the normal route is to go to Pai first and there is currently no direct route from Pai to Chiang Rai. This means you have to get a bus from Pai back to Chiang Mai and then a second bus to Chiang Rai. It doesn’t really make any sense to do that if you don’t have enough time or thinking about going over to Laos. I really wanted to go see the temples which Chiang Rai is known for, so I decided to make the journey with a friend and it was a very long 24 hours there! We got the bus up in the evening, spent a night in a hostel, then got up very early the next day and managed to fit everything in, before catching an evening bus back to Chiang Mai.
White Temple (Wat Rong Khun)
The White Temple is an incredible, privately-owned Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, famous for its dazzling, all white exterior, made of intricate mirror details. People make the long journey up to Chiang Rai to see this temple. You can spend a couple hours walking around the whole grounds of the temple and see it shine in the morning sunshine.
Blue Temple (Wat Rong Suea Ten)
The Blue Temple, is another stunning Buddhist temple, known for its vibrant sapphire, blue exterior and intricate gold details, signifying purity, wisdom and healing. The complete opposite to the White Temple, people add this to their itinerary to visit and pay their respects.
Baan Dam Museum (The Black House/Temple)
The Baan Dam Museum is a unique, art complex famous for featuring dozens of dark, traditional wooden buildings, mixed with unconventional modern structures decorated with animal remains and symbolic artwork. It is a very interesting museum to walk through and we spent an hour or so walking around the grounds.
Slow boat to Laos
From Chiang Rai, you do have the opportunity to cross the border into Laos via the two day slow boat. If that is the route you are taking, check out my Slow Boat Blog here, to see all the details on how to book it!
This concludes my North Thailand blog, check out my South Thailand Route here and my recommendations!