Smile, Bitch
No. of cities covered: 3
Total distance covered :1994.8km
Total trip duration(on the roads):~28 hours
Car driven: Nissan Almera 1.2 VCVT
Total petrol consumed:~200l(E20)
And so, we’re off to an awesome road trip in thailand in search for the legendary(literally) mountain called Pu Chi Fa. It’s a very, very beautiful place, over looking the clouds and the sun rises, as it rise, it warms your cheeks. Meanwhile, on one hand, you’re sipping slowly on your coffee and on the other, you’re setting the correct aperture, shutter speed and ISO. But…
So once we landed, first things first, the car. Online, we got a Honda Brio 1.2(or similar). So I went to read up on all the reviews and all got myself excited about it, after collecting it, we got ourselves a Nissian Amera 1.2.. I was a little disappointed at first, but in the end, it’s not too bad! From a hatchback to a sedan! But at least It still gets us moving!
Anyway, the plan was to travel from Bangkok(BKK) to Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai to Pu Chi Fa back to Chiang Rai back to Chiang Mai finally back to Bangkok.
From BKK to Chiang Mai is approx. 700km
Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai is approx. 200km
Chiang Rai to Pu Chi Fa is approx. 120km
Fuel is fairly okay, at about 30l for approx. 1100B(one full tank on the Amera is 40l, but we usually top it up once it reaches 10l) and can take us for about 500km
Nissan Amera
Very clean interior, well maintain and the car looks new(but can’t say the same when we returned it -_-)
The two cool fella
The two cool fella
And our buddy, Google
Live saver! Brought us literally everywhere in Thailand! Once we landed, we got ourselves a TrueMobile 3G data simcard. It’s very very cheap due to some promotion only 69B for 7 days unlimited but we managed to screw that up and wasted an additional 49B so, what the heck.
Apparently, based on the locals, if you’re going into the countryside, True/AIS works the best(proven).
Snacks
Oh ya, and stock up on food and snacks. 8 hour drive on the freeway is not funny(but it’s fun).
Our room in Chiang Mai
Stayed in the hostel in Chiang Mai, for that price($9/pax/day), it’s really damn good
Only resturant that is still open in Chiang Mai
This is the burger with damn good wedges
The super huge onion rings
and “Guitar” took this for us, the very friendly waiter there!
Overestimated ourselves and reached Chiang Mai pretty late(ok la, about 9+?), most of the stores(food) has closed, but thankfully this burger place(damn good onion rings, buffalo wings and burger) is still open for us!!
View in Chiang Mai
Roamed around Chiang Mai for a while in the morning before we set off for Chaing Mai in the afternoon
Aisehh
Burger King for brunch
Could not find anything, everything else was too touristy, so we’ve decided to eat Burger King, apparently the burgers here are much better then the counterparts over here in Singapore(I hate the BK here)
Shortly after eating, as there isn’t much to do in Chiang Mai, we set off on the freeway to Chiang Rai!
Toilet behind the stores on the freeway
Stopped along the freeway for the local market for some food as well as toilet breaks.
Local stores along the freeway
It’s very crowded with people, selling mostly those crispy food(banana, tapioca, etc etc)
Stop by for a short break along the freeway!
Local stores along the freeway
Here we come!!
We felt very excited when we saw this sign. I donno, probably this is the highlight of the trip anyway! Woohoo
Our room in Chiang Rai that has cockroaches! LOL
This is also another highlight of the trip! HAHA Our hostel is kinda “rundown”.
But it cost only $4/pax/day
Not too bad right? HAHA
I thought it was not bad, but Wess was complaining, about the condition of the room, the lack of air-con, the spoilt TV and how dirty the toilet was. LOL Oh, btw we caught a 2.5″ huge cockroach! ROFLLL Wait for the video.. it’ll be damn funny!
Toilet is in that corner
And just right infront of this hostel is the Chiang Rai Night Market! It’s opened till really late, lots and lots of food, and stuff to see and buy.
Oh yeah, Damn spicy but every tears we shed, it’s worth it
Sotong
Some meat thingy
People there are also friendly and warm, gave us alot of free food. All the food are super awesomeeeee!
–
Clock Tower in Chiang Rai
Then we heard that at every 7pm, 8pm and 9pm, there’ll be a “clock performance”. Basically it’s just a music blasting from the tower with accompanying lighting to go with it, so we got some beers and sat along the ledge and waited for it. As the time gets nearer, more and more people appeared, and it gets real cozy, feels very warm and awesome with mixed local and tourist.
Beer, as we waited for 8pm for the tower to “perform”
The next day, we woke up at 3am, get ready and set off for Pu Chi Fa at 4am?
And after a long a tedious drive towards the mountain, we had to tackle the super steep and windy roads. Reached there at about 6am, hoping to see the sunrise which is at 5:55am, but the clouds are too thick.. The light rays can’t even pass through -.- let alone the “sea of clouds” we’re suppose to see. We even brought our photographic gears, tripod ND filter, CPL filter, shutter, etc but end up didn’t even shoot much. LOL
Peak of the mountain(Pu Chi Fa)
Water droplets are forming on our hairs!
–
These are all the photos we took while we were up there #truestory LOL!
Lion Cave
That is the famous Lion cave thing, where we’re suppose to see the lion “eating” the sun during sunrise! LOLOL
We saw this as we descend back down
But ok la, at least we get to see this along the way down, some floating clouds, when we’re suppose to be in the higher clouds.
Leggo
White Temple in Chiang Rai
After descending down, we’ve decided to spend a few hours in Chiang Rai, since we’re already here. We went to the White Temple, very very nice place, the whole temple is literally white. Visited some hot spring(saw them cooking some weird veg) and a waterfall which we never seem to be able to find it. LOL
Sunset in paradise
Yup, a storm is coming
Storm is coming!
While on the way to Chiang Mai, the rain was BAD, visibility was like 10m. Thankfully I was not the one driving, I was the one cuddling up in my jacket and my neck pillow as we increased the temperature in the car.. how awesome(for me) HAHA!
200B per day!
So YOLO we rent a scooter(Honda Click) Many EPIC SHIT THINGS HAPPENED and wanted to ride towards the waterfall, when we realized that it’s way too far-.- 32km away and that would take us many many hours on the scooter, so we decided to scrape it, and just tour around the area in the bike. Only 200B(8SGD) per day
Cheese
Head back down to bangkok, eat and walked around and preparing for our last day in Thailand tomorrow.
Bangkok
The forever busy street in BKK. Even we were affected by it. took longer then expected to reach every destination. Even when returning the car, we were delayed by 30mins due to traffic jam and police checks. But it’s all fun trying hard to persuade the lady that it’s the jam fault and all. We’re suppose to pay for another day worth if we’re late. HAHA
Walked on the taxiway to the plane
Then it’s finally time to go home! ;(
Good Bye!
Damn fun road trip! Though it’s only 5days short, but i think the planning was really ingenious(planned by me in 2 weeks). All in all, It’s not where you go but who you go with that matters.
Question now is, where’s next?
Till then,
Norman
Norman Leibovitz 
