Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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Man-About-Town tries
Cruising the Ping River

Text & Images : Colin Hinshelwood

It always amazes me how very few people in Chiang Mai have ever been boating on the River Ping, or have even contemplated the idea.

Most believe it would be too hot. (It’s not. Chugging along at 5 knots, you actually get quite a nice breeze.) Others think it may be dangerous. (It’s not. The river barely rises above one meter in depth and has hardly any current.) Most folk - residents and tourists alike - probably just think that it would be too boring, an aimless venture with nothing special to see or do.

Well, that’s where I come in with my short unpatented “river tour” - designed to accompany you on a two-hour boat trip up the Ping and back, and give you an insight into Chiang Mai’s riverine history and a what’s-what of sights along the riverbank.

The most startling realization for anyone who, like me, spends so much of their time in Chiang Mai’s chaotic traffic is that your perspective of the city is so very different when viewing it from the river. It seems so green, so lush, so tropical. And you just didn’t realize that peppered along the banks - in between the temples and restaurants and stately homes - are basic stilt houses, wooden shacks, fishermen, washing women, children diving and swimming, and a whole unseen parallel universe.

So I decided to book up for a Sunday morning jaunt up the river in a small rice barge-cum-longtail boat which comfortably seats 16 passengers. There are at least two other companies running cruises on the river, but I opted for Mae Ping River cruises because it begins the tours at the Buddhist temple of Wat Chaimongkol, which as I know from my kayaking experiences is close to an impassable weir at the southern end of the Ping. This means that the tour would head northward upriver, and give visitors maximum viewing pleasure.

In any case, Wat Chaimongkol is a lovely temple, has a car park, is near the city center, and is a good enough place to begin our tour.

Always popular with Bangkok tourists, especially those of Chinese descent, Wat Chaimongkol has a Chinese shrine with a Goddess of Mercy statue. You can often find soothsayers and fortune-tellers plying their trade at this 600-year-old temple, and one I met spoke pretty good English.

With stairs descending into the water, this temple resembles a ghat on the River Ganges. Children can often be seen feeding ducks and geese at the water’s edge beside an abundant fish farm, and of course there’s a brisk trade in eels, turtles and birds that you can release into the river and the air above respectively to make - for a few coins - a quantum of merit. And don’t we all need it?

The temple grounds are grateful for the ample shade of an enormous raintree, and it’s from here that several “scorpion-tail” boat tours and river cruises set off from. So get on board, sit back and relax.

The boat heads north. Next door to Wat Chaimongkol on the west bank of the river you will see a new luxury hotel, the Chedi Chiang Mai or just simply The Chedi. It has been built on the site of what used to be the British consulate. You can still see the renovated teak consular office. It is now a restaurant - and a fine one too. The Chedi is great for sundowners. So even if you are not staying at this 5-star palace, you can enjoy a delicious martini at happy hour between 6 and 8pm. Also recommended is the Sunday Brunch (outsiders welcomed).

The first bridge you pass under is the metal expanse of New Bridge where there are usually a few fishing lines dangling into the water. The Ping is at its widest here, about 150 m. The large condominium on the west bank hosts another good sundowner location: the River Bar. It also serves Chinese, Thai and Japanese cuisine.

At this point, you might want to know a little about the river itself. The 400-mile [650km] Ping has its source just 100km north of the city in the karst precipice of Chiang Dao mountain. But by the time the river reaches Chiang Mai it has already provided grade 4 whitewater rafting in Mae Taeng, has irrigated the rice fields of Mae Rim, and is ready to ford the city levees and burst its banks. The river nowadays needs constant dredging but still usually floods mildly every August in the rainy season.

It continues through Chiang Mai southward to Nakorn Sakorn where it forms the Chao Phraya River that flows through Bangkok into the Gulf of Thailand.

Until a railway line was inaugurated on Jan. 1, 1922, the only feasible method of traveling to Chiang Mai was by barge. Indeed, 100 years ago, Chiang Mai was but a remote fiefdom in the jungle, a minor tributary of Siam, and some three to six months’ journey from Bangkok by steamboat and poleboat.

Imagine the scenes on the River Ping in those days when all trade was done by river. Picture yourself as a Chinese junk boatman, sailing down from Yunnan with a booty of opium and silk; or as a Sikh trader working out of a teak warehouse. Think how untamed and innocent Chiang Mai’s riverbanks must have appeared back then - bare-breasted women smoking cheroots as they gutted fish; husbands chewing beetlenut and tending to their bamboo fish traps. Travelers on the look-out for bandits hiding in the reeds along the riverbank. Bandits on the look-out for tigers.

Passing under Nawarat Bridge, you immediately come upon the popular nightclubs and restaurants of the east bank the Deck 1, The Riverside, the Good View, the Gallery and the Brasserie. How much more exotic they appear from the middle of the river as opposed to the drab exterior you see from the roadside.

One hundred years ago this strip of the River Ping was known as baan chang (Elephant Port). Traders from as afar as China would be unloading silks, tobacco, fruit and teakwood at this junction. It is said that there was often so much timber on the river that 19th century residents could walk across from one side to the other on the flotilla of logs.

Chinese merchants being the first to capitalize on the Golden Age of Chiang Mai commerce with foreign goods, exotic fruits and vegetables, they opened Warorot Market at this time on the west bank. You can see some signs written in Chinese to denote that this is the city’s Chinatown. It’s still a good place for cheap goods, and stays open and bustling until after midnight.

You will next pass under a footpath known as Chansom Bridge. In fact this was the first bridge built over the river in Chiang Mai and its designer was an American missionary, a Dr Cheek. This (originally teak) bridge was erected in the 1890s and to impress the local prince, Chao Inthawichayanon, a grand opening was held where Dr Cheek personally led three elephants across the bridge to prove its strength.

You can’t miss the giant stars and stripes flag of the US consulate behind a white pagoda, which (the pagoda) has its own intriguing story of origin - another time perhaps. From here, the river bends to the east, and your Thai guide will surely want to point out a large manicured compound with a 100-year-old house that used to belong to the royal family.

Another few hundred yards and you’ll pass on your right Wat Faham, another Buddhist temple, but with a canoeing club incorporated. Just beyond that, you pass under Chiang Mai’s main thoroughfare, the Superhighway, and enter a different world. The river becomes narrow and winding, and has a distinct jungle ambiance. Truly you feel hundreds of miles from the city.

Mae Ping River Cruises and most other tour companies then usually offer a halfway rest-stop at a traditional homestead. It’s a simple 30-min lunch stop for local delicacy khao soy, an egg noodle curry, with some seasonal fruits and tea. The guide also leads visitors on a short cultural tour showing rice-growing implements, ox carts, a herbal garden and a few lazy farmyard animals.

Then it’s back on board and anchors aweigh. On the return leg, you can relax and enjoy the tour in reverse. Coming back into the city, you might feel a sense of culture shock. But after you get back in the swing of shopping at the Night Bazaar, buzzing around town in a tuk-tuk, wining and dining, and visiting elephant farms, you’ll remember the tranquillity of the river and the realization that, behind all the 7-11s and Starbucks, there’s still an old world Chiang Mai out there waiting for you.

http://www.maepingrivercruise.com
Tel: 053-818027
Daily 08:30-17:00
Price: 450 baht per passenger / 550 baht with ‘khao soy’ lunch.