I arrived at Changi International Airport Terminal 1 at 11:30am and met up with my friend — just two of us on this short 6D5N trip to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. For the record, this trip was in September 2024, near the end of the rainy Southwest Monsoon season.
We checked-in at the self-service kiosks for Scoot TR676 flight and had our boarding passes printed. With 10Kg cabin luggage allowance on Scoot flights, we had no need for check-in luggages. My backpack weighted just 5.7Kg — just 5 sets of clothings and toiletries — with lots of allowance for goodies on the return trip.
After clearing immigration, we had lunch in the foodcourt while waiting for boarding — scheduled at 2:45pm. We had wanton noodle and spicy Japanese pork ramen.
At 3pm, 15 minutes behind schedule, Scoot TR676 flight took off for Chiang Mai — surprisingly, Scoot was the only direct flight between Singapore and Chiang Mai. Flight time was stated as 3 hours and only one afternoon flight per day.
Air turbulences were very frequent, especially during monsoon and typhoon seasons, over South China Sea and Southeastern part of Asia. Serious air turbulences had resulted in damages and loss of life on flights around the world.
As expected, air turbulences were encountered on our flight too, some lasting over many minutes. The captain and cabin crews kept reminding passengers to be seated with seat belts fastened but some passengers were really hopeless — they probably were ignorant about air turbulences and the risks they posed, stood up right after warnings were sounded and strolled leisurely down the aisle when the plane was shaking left and right. Who were to blame when accidents happened?
The plane touched down at Chiang Mai International Airport at 4:30pm Thailand Time (or 5:30pm Singapore Time) — Thailand Time was 1 hour behind Singapore Time. We had arrived 15 minutes before schedule, so the effective flight time was only 2.5 hours.
From the airport, we e-hailed a Grab car to The Wing Boutique Hotel in Chiang Mai Old City, just 4.2Km away by car, for just ฿176 (Thai baht is denoted as "฿"). We checked-in to the hotel and gotten a Superior twin-bed room on the ground floor. The staff were very friendly. After a change of clothings to something light, we went out for dinner.
We came to Lookbua Restaurant, along Samlan Road and just round a corner from the hotel, where we would be having Thai food. Since it was our first meal in Chiang Mai, we wanted it to be Northern Thai food. The restaurant was half-full with all tables on the patio, next to the road, fully occupied by foreigners. I preferred to be further away from the road — away from vehicle exhausts — and a staff showed us to a table in the inner dining area.
We ordered quite a number of local dishes for two pax, forgoing rice. We had roasted duck with red curry, oyster omelette in hot pan, stir-fried kailan with crispy pork, pad Thai with chicken, mango sticky rice and 2 coconut juice for ฿480 — that was less than S$20 for 5 dishes and 2 drinks. (Exchange rate was S$1 to ฿25.30)
It was only 6:30pm after dinner, we took a short walk to look around the central part of Chiang Mai Old City, which had changed a ton since I was last here in 2013. I had no recollection of how the streets were like back then.
Chiang Mai Old City was very easy to identify on any map. It was squarish, about 1 mile by 1 mile, with a moat around it and barely 2Km from Chiang Mai Airport. The historical city had a law prohibiting tall buildings within the boundary of the moat — most of its city wall were already gone with some remnants still left standing.
We walked from Lookbua Restaurant to Wat Phra Singh, turned right onto Rachadamnoen Road till the intersection with Prapokkloa Road, turned right again, passed by Wat Phan Tao and Wat Chedi Luang to Ratchamanka Road and back on Samlan Road near to our hotel — about 2Km. We had no intention to visit the temples on this night — Chiang Mai was known as the "city of temples", with over 300 wats scattered across the city, there would be tons of temple to flood our itinerary for the next few days.
Other than temple-visiting, other things to do in Chiang Mai would be to try Northern Thai delicacies and to experience the coffee culture here. Chiang Mai was also called the "Coffee Capital" of Thailand and there were many coffee plantations in Northern Thailand.
It seemed like there were not a lot of people, including tourists, at this time of the day or in this part of the old city — or was it off-peak travel season since it was the rainy season? Two weeks before we arrived, Chiang Mai was hit by a strong typhoon and a number of places was flooded for about a week. The historical old city seemed unscathed.
The peak travel season to Chiang Mai was towards the end of the year, from November to January, when there would be lesser rainfall and cooler temperatures. Between January and April, although much cooler, was also the "smoky period" when old agricultural crops were burnt and the air filled with PM2.5 dust. The summer period from March to May exposed Chiang Mai to extreme hot sun. From May to mid-October, there would be lots of rain amidst hot sunny days.
However, non-outdoor activities, such as temple-visiting, eating Northern Thai food, coffee tasting and shopping, were usually not affected by the off-peak travel season during rainy months from June to September. And it was the best time — to me — to avoid peak-season crowds. Air tickets and hotels were also cheaper during off-peak seasons.
We retired back to the hotel at around 8pm. The hotel was pretty quiet, and no traffic noises as it was located a short distance off Samlan Road, and I hoped it would stay that way for 5 nights. It rained in the middle of the night but not very heavy.
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