We wrapped up our SEA trip segment with a two night stay in each of the popular northern Thailand towns of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. In particular, our visit to Chiang Mai coincided with the hugely popular Songkan Festival. We were immersed (or rather soaked) by the water fights happening all over the town. We bid farewell to SEA as we made our long (and somewhat complicated) journey to our first island in Maldives. It was refreshing to see once again a blue sky after weeks of haze from the burning season.

2023.04.10 – Chiang Khong – Chiang Rai (Thailand)

We had an enjoyable and relaxing breakfast facing the Mekong river. We were somewhat sorry we had not planned for an extra night in town as we could enjoy the hotel’s infinity pool and e-bikes. After breakfast, I took one of the hotel’s courtesy bicycle and went in search of the bus station and schedule to Chiang Rai. I was told a bus left for Chiang Rai hourly basis. Back at the hotel, we took a tuk-tuk to the bus station around 10:30am for the 11am bus. Unfortunately, for some unknown reasons, the 11am bus did not show up. At 11:30am we finally boarded on the 12:00 pm bus and waited in the derelict red bus for over half an hour. The 2.5hr bus ride offered some interesting views but the lack of a/c onboard made the journey tiresome. Although there were a few other foreigners on the bus, the bulk of the passengers were locals boarding and being dropped off along the road. Upon arriving at the Chiang Rai bus station, we sought to buy our bus tickets to Chiang Mai from a long-distance operator in order to experience a more comfortable bus ride. We took a tuk-tuk to our hotel. We checked into a comfortable room for our two nights stay in town. We visited a money exchange office to convert most of our Laos remaining currency as well as buying some additional Thai currency with our cdn funds. In the evening, we had planned to eat at a local Thai restaurant but we changed our mind and ate at Pizza Hut.

2023.04.11 – Chiang Rai – Chiang Rai (Thailand)

In the last few days, the temperature had risen to 40C which hindered our energy levels. After breakfast, we took a Grab to reach the very popular site nicknamed the White Temple – some 12 kms away. When we arrived at 11:30am, the site was already overwhelmed with visitors. There were plenty of opportunities to snap Instagram-ready photos. We spent 1.5hrs at the site after which it was quite easy to get a Grab back to town. Later in the afternoon, we visited the pool of another hotel as our hotel’s pool was undergoing some upgrades. As I was increasingly not feeling well, Jenny kindly joined me in skipping dinner and instead resting in bed. There was probably some breakfast food/liquid that weren’t quite right – I started to feel better in the midnight after emptying my stomach.

2023.04.12 – Chiang Rai – Chiang Mai (Thailand)

After a light breakfast, we rested in our room until 11:30am. We took a Grab back to the bus station. There, we met Sophia again, a solo female traveler from Switzerland, whom we first met in Vang Vieng, then in Luang Prabang. We took the opportunity to snap a group photo before bidding her farewell. Later, we boarded a comfortable bus from the GreenBus company. The 3.5h bus ride to Chiang Mai was even more scenic than our previous journey to Chiang Rai. After arriving at the bus station, we ordered a Grab to reach our hotel. To our surprise, we had our first female Grab driver on this trip. After checking into our hotel, we went to 7-eleven for some refreshments. Along the way, we witnessed a parade/procession at a nearby temple as part of the annual Songkran Festival. We had learned about this festival for a few weeks already. Songkran referred to the Thai New Year’s national holiday. It was celebrated on April 13th every year, but the holiday period extends from April 14th to 15th. We had dinner at a small nearby restaurant catering mostly to foreigners as I enjoyed a beef burger while Jenny had a plate of wiener schnitzel.

2023.04.13 – Chiang Mai – Chiang Mai (Thailand)

With only one sightseeing day in town, we debated on where to focus our attention. We opted to walk around the old city and catch glimpses on the various temples along the way. Our hotel owner further supported our walk by encouraging us to enjoy the liveliness of the water festival associated with Songkran. Before leaving our room we ensured our camera and phone were well protected from any potential water damage. We also sought massage parlor recommendations from our hotel owner. Shortly into our old city walk, we quickly realized the extend of the involvement of both the locals and the foreigners in the lively water fights. Along the way, we stopped at a massage parlor where Jenny made a reservation for 1:30pm. As we walked the streets of the old town, there were no way of staying dry. Even Jenny begged not to throw water on her, after that she also got soaking wet. The atmosphere was very festive and everyone used different tools (e.g. garden hose, pail, water gun of all types, etc) to get involved. No one was spared from a friendly water attack. After wrapping up our walk and temple visit, I dropped Jenny off for her 1h Thai massage while I returned to our hotel room. Later, I picked up Jenny with a courtesy hotel bicycle. Jenny really enjoyed her in-depth Thai massage. With that and our chance to witness part of the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai were a great way to etch some final great memories of our South East Asia trip. In the evening, to avoid more clothing washing, we cautiously avoided any water fights while walking the local streets to the same restaurant as yesterday. We were pleased that they accepted our credit card as our local currency stash was fairly low. At the end of the day we felt tired after walking 13+kms in 40C temperature.

2023.04.14 – Chiang Mai – Bangkok (Thailand)

It seemed inevitable that we would both end up with a cold for the past few days due to continually moving between 40C exterior temperature to cool interior A/C temperature. We had our last breakfast in Chiang Mai before taking a Grab to the airport. The check-in counter was efficient although Jenny was displeased with the security screening agents as her 150ml sunscreen bottle was confiscated. The 1h 20 mins AirAsia flight was uneventful but we were reminded of how stingy this type of low-fare carrier was as we did not even get offered any water during our flight. Upon arriving at the Don Muang Airport – the 2nd Bangkok airport, we quickly retrieved our checked-in luggage from the carousel. We then made our way across a pedestrian bridge to our 4 start hotel conveniently located for an early airport departure – just like our planned departure tomorrow. After checking into our room, we went back to the airport to purchase some snacks. In the late afternoon, as I was resting in bed, I had a vague recollection about the need to complete some online forms ahead of our arrival in the Maldives. Thankfully, I checked and promptly completed the forms. In the evening, we had an expensive dinner at our hotel restaurant. In preparation for our upcoming stay in the Maldives, we resigned ourselves in using one of the airport exchange offices to convert some of our Cdn funds to US bills

2023.04.15 – Bangkok – Dhiffushi Island (Maldives)

We left our hotel at 6am and quickly made our way to the airport’s international departure. The AirAsia check-in line was quite slow. Nonetheless, within less than one hour, we were having breakfast at McDonalds and waiting for our flight to Malé – the capital of the Maldives. We suffered through yet another AirAsia “no-service” flight. Sadly for us, this journey lasted almost 4.5hrs. Upon arriving at the airport, the immigration processing was fairly efficient – thanks to the fact that a bunch of folks were sent away to complete their arrival form. We were glad we had completed ours yesterday afternoon. After retrieving our luggage from the carousel, we made inquires at the information desk for the pier location of the public ferry destined to the island of Dhiffushi. We were glad we inquired as the information we had read online was not accurate or up-to-date. The pier was easily accessed by a $1pp ferry boat ride operating from the airport to the public ferry ticket office. Within less than 1hr after touching down in Malé, we were having a light lunch in a hotel restaurant while waiting for our 2:30pm public ferry to Dhiffushi. We opted to take the slow public ferry taking 3hrs but costing only $2pp rather than a scheduled speedboat taking only 50 min but costing $39pp. Because of scheduling differences, both transport boats were scheduled to arrive in Dhiffushi at a similar time. We rode the ferry with a few foreigners but the most were locals. As we arrived at the boat pier in Dhiffushi, staff from our hotel were waiting to pick us up in an electrical cart. After checking into our room, we had a short dip in the Indian Ocean before enjoying our hotel’s buffet dinner. To our relief, our hotel’s pre-paid meals appeared unaffected by Ramadan. The only constraint noted was that breakfast would be served within the confine of the restaurant as opposed to tables spread in the open-air beach front area. Also, we gained two hours over the time in Thailand.

2023.04.16 – Dhiffushi Island – Dhiffushi Island (Maldives)

We were a bit apprehensive showing up for breakfast in the morning as we had read a few not so glorious reviews online about it. In the end, it was quite reasonable – not our best breakfast but then again not our worst one. As the hotel’s wifi signal in our room was quite weak, we decided to splurge and buy a sim card for our short stay in the Maldives. In the morning, we sought to move to an upper level room but the choice of rooms was quite limited hence we stayed with our ground level sea view room. We had a short walk around part of the island. In the afternoon, we visited the local mobile/clothes/electronic small store to purchase a 5gb sim card for $12usd. The sim card registration was quite elaborate requiring passport with Maldives entry stamp, digital photo and many other details. In the late afternoon, we reserved beach sun chairs and umbrella from our hotel reception. We bought some ice cream before heading out to the water. We were told we would need to eat it in the confines of our room or in the restaurant beside our hotel. We had our first snorkeling outing over some coral reef located across from our hotel. The fish were not abundantly colorful or large. The corals lacked varieties. Clearly, the snorkeling was not as enjoyable as the one we had done in Koh Kood in Thailand – and it was far from our Fiji snorkeling experience. After a well deserved shower, we enjoyed once again our hotel’s dinner buffet. Throughout the day, the congestion from our cold kept on improving.