Exploring Chiang Mai, Thailand as a Solo Female Traveler.

Checking-in at Shangri-La Chiang Mai

 

After checking in I went to my room where my case was already waiting for me. After unpacking I went back up to the Horizon Club where I had a delicious breakfast. They have a small buffet and a menu, so I ordered pancakes from the menu and refueled before heading out to explore.

The concierge were helpful and told me it’s perfectly safe to get a TukTuk, and they should cost 100Baht per ride. So off I went, and found one waiting outside the hotel. I showed the driver where I wanted to go, and we sped off in the direction of the city centre.

My solo travel experience in Chiang Mai was very different to my solo travel experience in Bangkok. Chiang Mai felt safer, more relaxed, and it was full of backpackers, which I think helped hugely to give it a really great atmosphere. I paid the TukTuk driver and went into Wat Chedi Luang to take a look around.

I walked up the streets of Chiang Mai, got lost down a road, had to go all the way back to the main road, and then headed up towards Wat Chiang Man, stopping off at various temples and things enroute.

 

On the way I also stopped off at a 7-Eleven and bought some Thai sweets to try. A bag of them cost me a grand total of around £1.50. Bargain. I’ll probably do a YouTube video soon, so subscribe and watch out for that!

 

The temples were beautiful! The ones I visited were all Buddhist ones, and free to visit (they just ask for a small donation, but it isn’t mandatory), which is maybe one of the reasons why backpackers love Chiang Mai! Wat Chiang Man is well worth a visit, it was stunning and I loved the vibrant colours. Also, remembering the names of all these temples is really hard – I got Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Chiang Man muddled up when I was editing and saving the photos, and didn’t realize until I’d already uploaded them to the blog that I’d mixed them up. Doh. Anyway, Wat Chiang Man was the very first temple built in Chiang Mai, in 1297!

 

Relaxing by the hotel pool

I was feeling tired after my early start and had my Elephant Nature Park visit the next day, so I didn’t want to risk any street food in case it destroyed my bowels (I made up for this the next evening, and thankfully my bowels were fine). So I went back to the hotel, got a cabana next to the pool, and laid there all afternoon drinking smoothies and eating some of the yummy pool bar food. After my hectic week it was pure bliss. The sun was shining, and I just completely relaxed as I stretched out on the huge cabana bed and ate and drank in the sunshine.

 

Visiting the Chiang Mai night market

That evening I went to the night market just up the road from the hotel, and although it’s worth seeing, I didn’t buy anything as it’s mainly just designer goods and tourist tat. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the food! I tried banana roti, and the sticky rice with mango which is a local dish.

I’d been eating huge 7 course meals all week (first world problem or what), so wasn’t particularly hungry after my treats. I just got a soft serve ice-cream from Maccas. I know I know. Thing is, I really bloomin’ love Maccas soft serve. It’s the only thing I like from there, but in the UK they cost like 99p…in Australia they’re 50cents (around 30p), so when back in Aus I always ‘treat’ myself to one (lol)…well…in Thailand they were a grand total of around 3p, so obviously I had to have one.