The 411: Thailand
A night in the world's largest hotel & a visit to the gilded temples of Chiang Mai.
“The 411” is a segment where I do a no frills recount of my week. Here’s what I did in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
25.03
After an 11 hour flight, we landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 8:30 pm local time. Dad’s friend generously arranged for us to be picked up from the airport, and be driven straight to Genting Highlands, around an hour from the city.
Genting Highlands is a tourist attraction situated on the top of a mountain. It’s home to two theme parks, a cable car, a few mega mall complexes, a casino, a theatre, and a few hotels, including the largest hotel in the world: First World Hotel. It has 7,351 rooms. Our family stayed on the top floor. Here’s the view from our room!
26.03
The next day, we walked around the massive complex and rode halfway down the mountain on a glass-bottom cable car.
27.03
No rest for the wicked. Straight to Chiang Mai, Thailand in the afternoon, landing at 5: 30 pm local time. Dinner was in the craziest mall food-court I’ve ever seen. We got a dry curry fish; hand-rolled noodles with pork blood; fish-balls and tofu with an incredible fresh chilli mix (pictured); and a rice-cake dessert.
28.03
The MOST delicious street food for breakfast. Stir-fried noodles, pork & beef entrails, spiced bamboo shoots, sour-spicy stewed cabbage, stewed gourd. Sticky rice for dessert. Awed at the sheer variety of (Northern) Thai food on offer and don’t know if I can go back to Pad Thai.
After breakfast, we drove around the old city and saw some of the ancient walls of Chiang Mai, constructed around the 13th century. We stopped at the famous Tha Phae gate and the North-west corner. Tha Phae gate is a reconstruction of the original city wall done in 1985. The North-West corner still has some of the original stones.
Then, we dropped by the Three Kings Monument and the nearby Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang, a traditionally constructed Lanna Buddhist temple which once housed the city pillar.
After that, we visited Wat Umong Suan Phutthatham, the Temple of Tunnels in the foothills of the city that was built in the 13th century. According to our lovely local guide Noom, oral history in the region says the temple was built for a monk who was the favourite of the king. Apparently, he had lunar madness—each full moon, he would black out and wake up miles from his last known location. As the city became busier, the tunnels were dug for him as a meditation site, and to contain him each month.
Lunch was Khao Soi, a locally famous curry noodle dish. It’s creamy, a tad spicy, served with flavourful stewed beef. The noodles are chewy, and the whole affair is topped with crispy fried noodle bits.
In the afternoon, we visited the Buatong Waterfall, also known as the Sticky Waterfall. Calcium deposits over the rock-face make the surface of the waterfall grippy, so you can clamber up and down the falls quite easily. It’s obscenely fun.
29.03
This was the day we decided to make a quick day-trip to Chiang Rai, a three hour drive from Chiang Mai.
Our first stop was Wat Rong Kun, or the White Temple. It was designed in 1997 by the locally famous artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat. At the entrance to the temple, there’s a representation of hell, where one’s sins are purified before reaching heaven. In the main temple itself (where you’re not allowed to take pictures) there’s a large statue of the Buddha, and a wax figure of the late abbot. The walls are painted with representations of the journey from hell toward heaven. On the back wall, representations of sins and sinners represented included Ben 10 and Sailor Moon.
After another lunch of some frankly glorious street-food and a beer, we headed to a tea plantation.
The final stop on the way back to Chiang Mai was Wat Huay Pla Kung, where a 69m tall representation of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy can be found. We climbed 5 or 6 flights of stairs up a neighbouring pagoda. Each level houses sandalwood depictions of Guanyin and Buddhas.
30.03
Congee for breakfast—one of my favourite meals ever. Then to a large day market, where my Mum bought a full 8 different kinds of fruit.
After the market, we moved onto Doi Inthanon National Park, where we had our fruit by Wachirathan Waterfall.
The national park is named after Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand, which was our next stop.
Then we visited the Two Chedis, also known as Phra Mahathat Naphamethanidon and Nophamethanidon, built in honour of the 60th birthdays of the King and Queen of Thailand.
Our final stop was Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Ratchaworawihan, the most famous temple in Chiang Mai. Its stupa is said to encase a bone fragment relic of the Lord Buddha. Its exterior is plated in gold. To properly greet the Buddha, you should walk clockwise around the stupa three times. Our guide made the big brain decision to bring us to the temple at night for the evening prayer, when it’s much quieter, cooler, and has a nicer view of the city.
31.03
Our last day in Thailand. After another congee breakfast, we visited one of the local Hill-Tribe villages at the foot of the mountains. Considered refugees by the Thai government, tourism is one of their main sources of income.
After a quick visit to an insect museum, we had our last meal in Thailand: whole barbequed catfish, sticky-rice, mixed barbeque, oyster mushrooms and chilli, and various stews.
Back in the city, I spent our last hours in the Chiang Mai City Arts and Cultural Centre, situated in the old royal residence.
I miss the food already :(.
If you made it all the way to the end—thanks! I hope you enjoyed the first edition of “The 411”. My sincerest apologies for my Canva graphic design skills.
noooo I love the canva skills! This takes me back so much, I love the insect museum and the sticky falls and the canals and the fruit!! so many beautiful places (although the idea of making the biggest hotel in the world so it sort of becomes its own attraction is a super interesting one)