Chiang Mai – The true adventure capital of Asia

Basically, Thailand can be divided into three parts when it comes to activities and things to do for tourists. On the one hand, there is Bangkok which is a mega city and offers anything a big city could offer. The south is to relax with a lot of beautiful islands and beaches. And then there is the north, my favorite part, full of action and nature, cheaper and activities as far as you can see.

Better activities in the north

The next time I return to Thailand, I’m going to spend more time in the north especially Chiang Mai. Here are so many activities that wait for me. Elephants, trekking, ziplining or waterparks, everything can be found here. Chiang Mai is a city of 130.000 people in the middle of the jungle so basically, build in nature. Of course, in the town, you don’t feel that natural feeling, but as soon as you drive 30 minutes outside the city, you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere. I personally prefer activities like trekking or visiting the elephants from relaxing on the beach, so the north of Thailand is the place to be.

The elephant tour

While I was here I went to see the elephants; I could feed them, bath them and learned much about these animals (NO RIDDING). After that, we had lunch and hiked up to a waterfall where we could swim. Our last activity for that day was white water rafting. Sadly, the water was a little slow because there was no rain in the final weeks, but it was still fun.

Trekking tour

The other day I participated in a two-day trekking tour to the Karen villages. We were hiking for over 4 hours a day and visited four different beautiful waterfalls. The Karen people live in Thailand but don’t really count as Thai people; they even have their own language. We slept at one of these villages in the night and hiked back the other morning. To find out more about this trip, you can read here.

Other things to do

Other tours you can book here are climbing trips with ziplining, a tour to the Tigers (which I wouldn’t recommend. I didn’t heart good things about that tour, the Tigers get tortured and filled with drugs to be calm when the visitors come and visit), there are a waterpark and mountain bike tours.

The city itselfs

In the evening some night markets with amazing food are spread around the city and every Saturday there is a big market in the south part of the town. I overate for three days in a row because I couldn’t decide what I should eat, so I overate. If you’re interested in Mui Thai, there are several fights every week, and the pub street invites you to have a beer in one of the bars. In addition to that, I found that the north is a lot cheaper than the south.

If you’ve done everything in Chiang Mai, the adventure is still not over, only a 3 hours’ drive away two other cities filled with experiences and adventures can be found – Pai and Chiang Rai.

For everyone who loves adventures, sport, action, and adrenaline Chiang Mai and the north of Thailand should be the number one destination in Thailand.