Our visit to Chiang Mai in January 2020 was largely motivated by the need to get to the extreme Northern Thailand frontier with Lao and Myanmar, an area known as the Golden Triangle to board a traditional Mekong River boat in Houay Xay, Lao for an overnight cruise to Luang Prabang.  Since we were going to be in the general vicinity we carved out a few nights for Chiang Mai to allow us to not only revisit the Elephant Nature Park but also for well needed appointments at the New York, New York Hair Salon.

We arrived in Chiang Mai after a short, smooth Bangkok Airline flight from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport and were met by Taxi Chiang Mai +66 97 109 8262.  We used this service several times during our stay in the city as well for our transfer to Chiang Rai.

It was a short ride from the airport to the BED Chiang Mai Gate. We had stayed at BED Phrasingh Hotel on our 2016 trip and had been really impressed with the property and the way it was run. I’m happy to be able to report BED Chiang Mai Gate was up to the same standard. The BED hotels are smartly designed in a modern minimalist style and feature friendly service, a great breakfast, plus free snacks and beverages available 24/7 from a large refrigerated cooler in the lobby and a free mini bar in the room.

If there is one dish that Chiang Mai is most famous for, it would have to be Khao soi and we wanted to get our fix of it during our short stay in the city.  So in preparation for this trip we researched restaurants that had a good reputation for that dish and were convenient to the BED Chiang Mai Gate.

As it turned out, the Doo Dee Restaurant is literally a 1-minute walk from the hotel and is well known for the dish so for lunch that first day that’s where we headed.  We got our first taste of their excellent Khou Soi as well as several other dishes like Smoked duck breast in red curry with rice & roti bread and found everything we tried was tasty and reasonably priced. With a combination like that plus a friendly welcoming environment and a tight schedule in Chiang Mai we ended up eating several meals there and we were happy with every visit.

As noted above, when we were making our plans for this trip the main reason we wanted to return to Chiang Mai was a return visit to the Elephant Nature Park but with the city on our itinerary, we took the opportunity to make an appointment at the New York, New York Hair Salon for the afternoon of our arrival day.

We had luckily found this place in the trendy Nimmanhaemin Road area of the city in 2016 and had been just blown away by the professionalism and quality of service. The salon is led by Artistic Director Vera Ramasute who opened her Chiang Mai shop after working for 10 years in leading studios in the U.S. in places like John Frieda NY and Aveda Salon in Philadelphia. It would be silly to travel all the way to Chiang Mai for a hair appointment and that’s really not why we were in the city but I can tell you without hesitation that the next time we are in Chiang Mai we’ll be making another appointment at New York, New York.

On the next morning, our first full day in Chiang Mai; we were picked up at our hotel for our much anticipated return to the Elephant Nature Park. Our stay there in 2016 had a great impact on us. We had always loved being around elephants but on that trip for the first time we got a greater understanding of the exploitation and mistreatment at the hands of humans. We decided then and there that we would not be riding any more elephants.

Following our ride out of town we arrived at the Park to find that some things have changed. It was still a wonderful experience but we didn’t come away with quite the same feeling as before. The growing interest and popularity of the Park is attracting more visitors which could only be controlled with some new restrictions in the interaction with the elephants.

It was still great to be able to walk with elephants and mahouts over much of the Park grounds but visitors were only allowed to watch the very popular bathing of the elephants rather than participate in the activity, which had been one of our favorite experiences of our earlier visit. Likewise the opportunities for hand feeding had become much more limited than before.

On a more positive note; the increased popularity has allowed the Park to expand its footprint with the addition of the “New Project.”

The highlight of the first day was a long walk across the open grass land to visit what was described to us as the “Oldest living elephant”. We were told she is 103 years old, which may be a bit of an exaggeration.  As shown here, she was being tended by a devoted Norwegian volunteer  hand feeding papaya after first removing the skin and seeds.

Those activities were on the original park area but on our 2nd morning we walked across a bridge to visit the “new project” and viewed the elephants from an elevated walkway circling the perimeter.

The more heavily wooded grounds of this area housed a single family of 7 plus one isolated female on the river bank. Despite achieving the objective of a more natural setting for the animals, the elephants are still accompanied by mahouts; partly because there is no fence on 3 sides of the area and we thought partly because loud construction that seemed to bother the elephants was ongoing.

The elevated perimeter walkway does provide a great view of the elephants but not the close intimate contact we enjoyed walking with them the day before and on our visit in 2016.

One area where we found some improvements was in the food service. Food is still 100% vegetarian and really quite good and unlike on our 2016 visit, there was an abundance of food that was regularly being replenished.

After dinner local village kids provided a traditional dance program for entertainment and we happily participated in the pass the hat that followed.

As we had before we spent the night at the park in one of the nice spacious bamboo cabins with front and back porches. Our room had a ceiling fan, a king bed with mosquito net, a seating area and en suite.

During the night we could hear the elephants in the nearby night compound including one outburst around 2:30 AM followed by comforting low growl/hum. We were also entertained by a rodent of some sort trying to carry off a bag with apples inside.

Following lunch on our 2nd day we hung out at the center and watched elephants and people for a while before returning to Chiang Mai city in the late afternoon.

After a shower and a short rest we walked back to Doo Dee Restaurant for dinner and an early bedtime anticipating our drive the next morning for our first visit ever to Chiang Rai.