Getting Back To Nature in Chiang Mai

Being in the city of Chiang Mai is all well and good, but sometimes you just need to escape the tuk tuk exhaust fumes and get back to nature.  Luckily, for those lazy people like me out there, you don’t need to go too far outside the city to find nature...  

Right on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, about a fifteen minute motorbike or tuk tuk ride from the city centre, is Huay Kaew (meaning crystal stream in Thai) Falls.  Despite the area’s misleading name, Huay Kaew actually comprises of not one but two waterfalls- Pha Ngerb and Wang Bua Baan.

The falls, which have a sizeable plunge before cascading over a 50m rock slope, are a popular spot for Chiang Mai-ians to go picnicking, swimming, and strolling on the weekends- as evidenced by the plethora of stands selling traditional Thai snacks such as flattened, dried fish (unfortunately not served a la stick).  After dining on fermented fish products and enjoying the falls, don’t forget to pay respect to the huge monument devoted to Khru Ba Srivichai, the person who constructed the road up to the top of Doi Suithep- the mountain dominating Chiang Mai.