Getting to Chiang Mai

After two nights in Bangkok, our plan was to continue our nomadic life to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We had fallen in love this peaceful oasis during our previous trip so it was a must do just in the beginning of this journey.

Thapae Gate, Chiang Mai

There are few reasons why Chiang Mai is so great place for nomadic life: First of all, the weather is perfect in the winter time; just under 30 degrees during the days and 20 in the nights. The air is clear and almost pollution free (at least comparing to Bangkok). Second, the town itself is wonderful. It’s big city enough with small old town atmosphere at the same time making it amazing place to stay. Finally, the internet is fast for Western standards enabling digital nomads to work online.

Nomadic life continues in Chiang Mai

Sky lanterns waiting for the actual festival day

Our journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai didn’t begin smoothly. Because of the sky lantern festival called Loy Krathong (also known as Yi Peng Festival), all night trains were fully booked for five days in advance even though we tried to get one in two days beforehand. We didn’t want to fly there either because we just had one 16 hours made already so the only good choice left was to take a night bus like in a true nomadic life.

In this point, it’s good to mention we wanted to connect one-night accommodation costs with traveling costs just because we had a chance to do it. Having that said, night traveling is a great option for a 12-hour journey if you can sleep few hours in a moving, occasionally bumpy vehicle. The roads in Thailand are in good shape even at Western standards so we knew sleeping would be possible during the ride.

Our night bus to Chiang Mai

The night journey with the bus went well and we got some sleeping done as well. But there was a second setback already waiting behind the corner. We had booked a guesthouse called Viraporn’s Place in advance and gotten there with songthaew (a local small bus) from Chiang Mai Arcade Bus Station together with an Italian couple we had met during the bus trip.

After the night bus journey

One of the over 300 temples in Chiang Mai

When we reached the guest house, the lovely hostess informed us that they were fully booked. After wondering for awhile how this was possible because of booking and paying beforehand, we agreed to leave our backpacks there and coming back when we had eaten some breakfast. It was 7am in the morning at that time after all.
During our breakfast, our helpful hostess had managed to get a fan room for the forthcoming night to us.

Even though we had paid for three nights in an aircon room and the mistake came from their side, we agreed to stay one night in this fan room and move to aircon room for the next two nights. The main reason for accepting this deal was the great and kindly attitude of the guest house owner. And in addition, she offered a free breakfast for the next morning because the fan room is worth less than aircon obviously.

After long traveling of 12 hours and 700 kilometers and all the extra arrangements, we took an extended, couple of hours nap during the noon and were just happy that we had reached to live our nomadic life in Chiang Mai once again.