Bamboo Nest

Living in an apartment with no garden in the inner-city has made longing for a house in the countryside. I have been following the tiny house movement with interest. In Thailand I stayed in a little bamboo hut west of Chiang Rai. The place is called Bamboo Nest and is located above a small village. The owner Nok picks you up in Chiang Rai and after a smooth ride along the river Kok the last few kilometers are so steep her 4x4 drive could barely handle the road.

The huts have one room, the only furniture being a double bed with mosquito net, a separate shower and toilet in the back and a spacious veranda with a hammock, also completely made of bamboo. There is no kitchen, so these huts are mainly constructed for sleeping. 

A tiny house is a residential structure under 46 m2 so I guess these huts could be considered tiny houses. Personally I think a living space smaller than 46 m2 is too small for permanent residence unless you downsize your stuff radically.

Chiang Mai night food

The main attraction of Chiang Mai is certainly the many street stalls and night food markets. I choose to ignore the usual three meals a day routine for a new five meals a day regime. Just to name a few: clear beef broth soup, deep-fried garlic fish and koi neua (ก้อยคั่วเนื้อ), which is a raw meat salad of Isan origin.

Chiang Mai is a very colourful city at night.

And yes, I did spent one night on the toilet of my hotelroom. Probably a plate washed with dirty water. But even then my inner Cartman-voice was going: "Awesome!"

Bangkok / Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ)

A new city can be quite overwhelming on the first day. It is hard to find your bearings. The best thing is to avoid taxi's and explore on foot. However, in Bangkok the crossings are not very pedestrian friendly. My hotel was not far from the river Chao Phraya and I soon ended up taking the Chao Phraya Express Boat and mingled with the commuters going to work. The color of the flag indicates the line. Looking at the city from the water gave me a sense of scale.

Chinatown

Bangkok's Chinatown is one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. Since I live near Amsterdam's Chinatown - if you can call Zeedijk 'Chinatown' - I just had to visit. The Bowring Treaty signed on 18 April 1855 between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam liberalised foreign trade in Siam. As a result businesses flourished in Chinatown, which was founded in 1782.

By the turn of the 19th–20th centuries Chinatown had a red-light district hosting opium dens, theatres, nightclubs and gambling houses. In 2017 Bangkok's Chinatown is certainly less interesting, but I still spent half a day in this district roaming the narrow alleyways, eating a soup with very fresh pig intestines and visiting Chinese temples, like Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, the largest Chinese Buddhist temple in Bangkok. It was a delightful place to hang out.

Wat Mangkon Kamalawat

Now everyone can fly

Moving on from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Domestic air travel is astonishingly cheap in Thailand. I paid the equivalent of € 86,02 for my flight from Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport to Chiang Mai International Airport with Nok Air. Thai Airways owns the second-largest stake in Nok Air.