A New Year’s Road Trip to Chiang Mai!
Part 1 of travelling around some of the most scenic parts of Northern Thailand to make the most out of my winter holidays!
The direction and timing of this trip itself were both spontaneous. My best friend suggested we leave our small (and very seasonally touristy) hometown to celebrate New Year. We both knew we wanted to make it into a road trip, just uncertain of the destination. And then, after a few days of thinking in over, it came to us: Chiang Mai.
I’ve written about Chiang Mai before, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of describing (or visiting) the city, because it’s one of the places I hold close to heart.
My travel companion and I have been on many a road trip, but we have somehow never driven north of our hometown. It was time to change that fact, and so the preparations started.
On December 30th, as usual running slightly behind the drafted schedule, we hit the motorway. A ten and a half hour drive between us and the city we were growing more and more excited about entering 2024 in.
Not even an hour later, the beautiful, natural views began opening up in front of us. Google Maps was working its wonders for the first time ever, as it took us on motorways and freeways surrounded by vast green fields, trees, and later, jawdropping mountains.
We may have made a few too many stops, because by the time the sun started setting we realised that we’ve only just about reached the halfway point at a city called Nakhon Sawan. A decision had to be made, and the decision was against driving through the night, and instead to have dinner, park somewhere safe, and lay out our pillows and blankets to spend the night in the car and begin tackling the second half of the journey early the following morning.
At 4:30am we were already on our way. I was surprisingly well rested after an early night, so I had the honour of driving through the sunrise on the last day of the year. And what a dreamy sunrise it was!
After hours of staring at the beautiful mountains, chatting nonsense, playing question games and all kinds of music, a few coffee stops, and discussing our plans for the day, we drove into Chiang Mai at lunch time. Thus, our first destination was my favourite little restaurant with amazing Khao Soi. Craving satisfied.
By a massive coincidence, we then met up with a friend who was on a family trip around the area, and decided to celebrate New Year that night all together.
The plan was simple: pizza and a mountain viewpoint. After a coffee and a nice hangout, we parted ways to have a rest before reuniting in the evening.
Now, I haven’t mentioned anything about the hotel yet, have I? Going in with minimal expectations from pictures seen on Booking.com, my friend and I were stunned. It was a place out of a fairytale. A peaceful countryside resort, with an astounding variety of nature, farm animals, and….an elephant.
After a well deserved nap, it was time to get some pizza, and pick up our friend from the festively congested city centre. The whole ordeal took about 3 hours, but sure enough, we made it to the crowd already gathering up at the viewpoint, ready to see the fireworks from above.
This was my first New Year away from home. And what a unique way to spend it. When 00:00 hit, there were countless fireworks to be gazed at down below us in the city, and what surprised me the most was the silence and serenity of the crowd gather at the mountain viewpoint. No one shouted the countdown. There was no popping of alcohol bottles or loud cheering, just whispers of ‘Happy New Year’, and a pleasant atmosphere all around.
Driving back through the city was a hassle, but we eventually made it to the peaceful resort and had a nice, long sleep.
Well, sort of. Because the next morning we realised that we were aching to stretch out our legs on a hike!
And so, back up the mountain it was, this time a much longer drive to the campground near the top. Personally, I always strive to do something exciting on the first day of the year, and a short hike was right up my alley.
Despite this not being our first time doing this hike, we were still mesmerised by the beautiful view from the Doi Pui peak. A good portion of time was spent strolling around, breathing the fresh mountain air, and taking in all the nature. That, for me, turned out to be the perfect way to reset my mind for the year ahead. I highly highly recommend this hike (Doi Pui Nature Trail) if you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai.
It was sunset time when we began our drive down, so we pulled over at a viewpoint to watch it.
No more hikes were desired the next morning. The same, however, could not be said about coffee.
The plan was coffee shop hopping! What I learnt from visiting quite a number of coffee places in Chiang Mai is that you cannot go wrong with coffee in that city. Every place I’ve visited had delicious coffee blends and baked goods. Needless to say, if you’re a coffee lover like the two of us, Chiang Mai is the place for you! Here are some of the coffee places I enjoyed!
That was sort of it for the morning. A calm start to recover before the upcoming adventure. Since the second part of our trip was quite different from the first, I’ll be writing a separate post dedicated to it soon! And trust me, it gets more exciting :))
Thank you for reading!
Feel free to share how you spent your New Year’s in the comments!
