Day 1 in Chiang Mai Thailand

 

Prologue:

A month ago, my kid sis was making plans to bring my niece to Bangkok for a 4 days short trip.  She jio me and I said "Onz!".   Nowadays I don't like short trips so I was deciding between extending to Kanchanaburi or Chiang Mai.  Struggled a bit and decided Chiang Mai it shall be to fulfil the White Temple (Chiang Rai) in my bucket list since don't know how many years.  So Darren (my elder) and I had 5 days in Chiang Mai before joining the ladies in Bangkok for 4 days, making our trip a total of 9 days.

She booked AirAsia, so I followed.  I was sceptical about budget airlines but it was the price of me going to a supermarket, really affordable.  Since the flights were short, decided to just chiong for it.  If the airline operated normally, it would be the best deal ever, if their habitual screw ups decided to fall upon us, then we would had to suck it up and deal with.

It wasn't the best time to visit as it was raining season in Thailand, some itineraries were affected and cancelled but we still had lots of fun without scorching hot sun.

So here we go!

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Duration: 28 Sep - 6 Oct 2023

Destination: Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand 

Flight:  Airasia multi-city with 20kg luggage $653.51 for 2pax

Accommodation: 

5 nights in Chiang Mai - THEE Kashatharn by TH District $217

3 nights in Bangkok - Bandara Suites Silom - SHA Extra Plus $568

NTUC Income Travel Insurance: $79.2

Travel buddy: adult son, kid sis and niece (joined in Bangkok)

Time difference: 1hour behind ie Singapore 3pm, Thailand 2pm.

Currency: S$1 = 26THB

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28/09/2023

Noon flight departing from T4.  I thought T4 was the "lousiest least popular" terminal, but we got it wrong, it's GORGEOUS inside.  It was stylish and bright with mirror shine flooring at the shopping area.

Almost bought this gold edition.

Our local brand tea, got so good or not?  Tried once long time ago but didn't leave an impression.

T4 was spacious with lots of nice couches.

Top, bottom, shoes all bought from Japan, my wardrobe is full of wonder travel memories.

Big shop fronts.

Ate at the food hall cos our AirAsia tix were bought through a third party which wouldn't allow ordering of in-flight food.  AirAsia web-site directed to this third party platform without me realizing, it was a shitty experience, I don't trust all these platforms when it comes to air tix, we would be the first to get bumped out of the flight if anything happens... haiz... anyway it was done.

Back to the food hall.

My steamed bread with cai fun and undercooked soft boiled eggs.  Went to change the eggs but was more raw then the first.

Enjoying T4 a bit.

It was a bit difficult to move the luggage on carpet, but it reduced noise.

Pic with slim app lolxx...

Already calling for last boarding 1hr before flight time, that got us very nervous even though we were early.

That said, our first flight with AirAsia went smoothly.

Blue sky revealed the moment we left Singapore.

3-3 configuration, this should be Airbus 320 if I am not wrong.

Super beautiful landscape of Thailand.

It was raining when we touched down Chiang Mai.  The low clouds floating around the bridge looked amazing!  Everybody was rushing out, nobody saw these clouds.

Immigration was very fast and we were out in no time.

Booked a cab with one of the counters just outside the arrival gate.  Cos offically, Grab cabs are not allowed in Chiang Mai International Airport (funny regulation but oh well...)

The cab took about 15mins to arrive.  It continued to rain.

Luckily it was fixed price, the driver drove us to the wrong place to some dark alley, scared the shit out of us.  He then made another turn, we were finally at Chiang Mai Cultural Center.  It was a short drive around 10 to 15mins.

Bought the Khantoke Dinner and cultural show from KLOOK at $20.60/pax.

Welcome drink upon arrival.

Tasted like Ribena.

These were shoe lockers, no shoes inside the restaurant.

They had traditional floor seatings and normal table seatings, we took the later to eat more comfortably.

This was how the Khantoke Dinner looked like.  We love the stir fried veg, minced pork, braised pork belly, fried chicken and goreng pisang.  Would be perfect if it came with white rice, but it came with sticky rice which was a bit hard in texture.

The traditional dance was sssssssssssssssslow, it's nice but became a bit bored after 2hrs lolxx...

Finally perked up with some sword performance.

Peacock dance with a "deer" mascot which danced around the tables and we gave tips into it's mouth lolxx...

The night ended with us being invited up the stage to dance, pity that I wasn't able to load the video here.

Anyway, after dinner was straight to our hotel THEE Kashatharn by TH District where we stayed for 5 nights straight.

The bed was super comfy, staffs were really friendly. The only down side was that there's nothing around it, the nearest 7-eleven and eateries were 10mins walk out to the main road. The lounge area was pretty but had lots of mosquitos. Nevertheless it was a fantastic value for money for about $216 only.

I think I have more photos of the room in the next post.

Thank you for popping by.  Coming up next, we had a day trip to Chiang Rai.