Thursday, October 08, 2009

Backpacking Travelogy to Northern Thailand

I had just got back from my trip to the few part of northern Thailand. Will try to share my experience with those interested to visit the place. In fact, it was my second trip there. The very first time was part of the incentive trip with some dealers. Back then, it was pure tour guided trip and visited some major tourist attractions.

This time around, I am doing a backpacking. My destination is actually Doi Tung under the Mae Fah Luang province, about 20km from Mae Sai. The most ideal way to get to the place is of course flying to Chiang Rai which means you either fly direct to Bangkok from KL before taking domestic flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai.



However, due to budget constraint, I took the direct flight from KL to Chiang Mai instead. Thanks to AirAsia, my one-way ticket to Chiang Mai was about RM150. Getting to LCCT had always been a headache but thanks to the new service by the KLIA transit, I took the option of traveling with KLIA transit train from KL Sentral to Salak Tinggi then commute the free bus ride to LCCT, all in total only cost me about RM12.50 per trip.





Reached Chiang Mai @ noon, 1PM to be exact. From the international airport, I opted for a taxi ride to the Chiang Mai Arcade Bus Station. The fixed rate for my ride to the bus station cost me only about 150Baht. Upon reaching the Arcade Bus Station, I felt like a total stranger as it was crowded only with local, many gave a strange stare but very fortunately I manage to find someone who can speak an "OK" English. She guided me to counter No. 5, I bought the ticket for Chiang Mai en route to Maesai. The ticket cost me 212Baht. To make it easier for me, the ticket teller remarked on my ticket that I will stop at a place called Doi Tung. Since my bus will only be taking off at 3PM, I managed to bump into an internet cafe that serves some really bad food. After that particular session with the cyberworld, I am totally lost touch with it for about a week and I realized I am ok to be apart from Internet actually :)





The bus trip is good though long. It took me 3 hours to reach Doi Tung. Upon reaching there, it was already about 8PM. My host came and pick me up.

I will share more about the rest of my trip tomorrow :)

Stay tune!

PS: Today I also want to wish my very special brother a very happy birthday! Hey Ah Rim, Happy Birthday to you ya!

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