🇹🇭 Chiang Mai - Hiking, Mountain Biking, Whitewater Kayaking, Muay Thai

Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks

Chiang Mai has a lot of good hiking routes and activities you can do. I made the most of this and tried a bunch of stuff that I’ve never done before.

Hiking the Monk’s Trail

This is probably the most popular hiking route in Chiang Mai. It takes you through the jungle past various Buddhist temples and shrines, and ends in Doi Suthep - a sacred mountain with a temple on it. It’s not a tough route, but the 30-degree Thai heat makes it challenging.

I went on a hike with Matthew, the cousin of a friend from London (Jakob). I met Matthew once briefly at a party, and now I bumped into him in a jazz bar in Chiang Mai. I’ve had a few other chance encounters like this while travelling, and it’s always strange. The world is too small.

The hike was really fun. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever done a hike that was so culture-rich and that had so many places to explore. The views were also the clearest I’ve seen in Asia so far, with the monsoon season just starting and clearing a lot of the pollution. At the peak, there were a bunch of older and younger monks on a pilgrimage.

We also encountered this cool frog:

Muay Thai

After having watched some Muay Thai in Bangkok, I wanted to try it myself. I went for a group session at Dang Muay Thai Gym, where people get split up into smaller groups according to their experience level.

The training was intense. Straight from the warmup, my heart was beating fast, and everyone was glistening with sweat. We then learned a few common moves with the other beginners, before graduating to practising on punching bags. There were a few breaks, but before and after each one, we did crunches. It was tough work. Finally, we did some pad work, which required a surprising amount of focus.

I had a good time, but realised that Muay Thai takes a lot of mental and physical dedication. It makes sense to really get into it and not casually do it. Either way, it was a great workout.

Mountain Biking

I gave mountain biking a go in Chiang Mai, organised by Trailhead. I ended up riding with a 68-year-old Kiwi guy, John, who’s pretty adept at mountain biking. It was a welcome break to hang out with someone so much older.

I’ve been cycling in London for the last 3 years, so I felt pretty ready to hit the trail. However, the mountain biking humbled me. I really needed to focus so that I don’t fly over the handlebars, and the loose terrain didn’t help. I ended up having a good time, but there were some dicey moments. If I were to do this again, I’d need to spend more time practising easier routes. It felt a bit like I was thrown in the deep end.

Grandad and I ended up being a pretty good duo, with him struggling on the uphills, and later making it up to me on the downhills, where I was strangling the brakes. We also stopped by a lychee farm, where the guide picked up the juiciest lychees I’ve ever had. I’ll really miss the fruit in Thailand.

We finished the trail with some amazing Thai food. I felt pretty mentally and physically spent - mountain biking is a lot more intense than I thought, and my body really caught up to me once the adrenaline wore off. Witnessing John look for a water source and promptly deciding to wash his face in a toilet bowl with the door open provided some comedic relief, though. I’m sorry, John, if you’re reading this, but it was hilarious.

Whitewater Kayaking

A close friend from home, Luka, loves whitewater kayaking. I’ve been curious about it, but it feels like the sort of sport that most people get into from a young age, or if they’re living very close to a water source. I found that a company, Siam Rivers, does 2-day whitewater kayaking tours suitable for beginners in Chiang Mai, so I signed up.

I was picked up by the company and greeted by a familiar face in the Jeep - John. He’s also organised a tour with these guys, except doing two days of whitewater rafting. I don’t know what ending up doing activities that a 68-year-old guy is into says about me, but I hope it’s a good thing.

We got driven to a homestay in the jungle and dropped off our stuff. We then split up, with John going rafting and me learning to roll a kayak. Rolling is necessary if I were to capsize, allowing me to flip my kayak over and continue to paddle, instead of having to take the kayak spray skirt off and fully resetting my kayak.

Learning to roll was tough. I had to capsize my kayak and practise getting back up, mostly using my hips and my paddle. It was a lot to remember, and I managed to get it enough times to then try it in a rapid, which was tougher. While the teacher had a good attitude, it didn’t seem like there was much structure to the tuition I was getting.

I spent the evening talking to John and my guide. I found that most of the people at the company have been with it from its inception 26 years ago, and that the company was struggling since COVID. I have no idea how the economies of such a business work, since there seemed to be about ten staff members for just the two of us. It also made sense as to why the tuition I got wasn’t great - the company mostly runs rafting and visits to elephant sanctuaries, with most kayakers coming here being experienced.

After going to my room, I read about whitewater kayaking tuition. Rolling in a rapid on day 1 is actually really not normal. Most people start in a pool, then graduate to a calm river, and then try a rapid after many days of tuition. I was rolling in a rapid in about 2 hours. I really can’t attribute this to any natural abilities; I think it was more intense mental and physical perseverance.

Day 2

I’ve not felt as mentally and physically exhausted as I did on this day in a long time. I was tempted to call off the kayaking and just join John on the raft, but I decided to persevere. We did a bit more rolling practise and covered some general techniques for paddling upstream and catching eddies (calm spots of water). Doing anything but rolling was pretty fun, and even kayaking down small drops stopped being so scary.

Crossing the entire river on my second day on a kayak would have been mental, so I joined John on the raft for that. In comparison to kayaking, rafting felt like child’s play.

Rafting the Taeng River was brilliant, allowing me to really take in North Thailand’s lush scenery and nature. The river is also home to many elephant sanctuaries (all operating on varying ends of the ethics scale), which was an extraordinary sight.

I did nothing the day after the kayaking and found it to be probably the most intense workout I’ve ever done. Luka, I take my hat off to you.

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I had a blast trying all these things in Chiang Mai. I’m unsure how many of them I’ll continue, as the gym and climbing appeal to me more, but maybe I’ll have a change of heart when I’m pushing 60.