The thought evolved when Joe took a fishing trip with Joseph to Cape Verde. I was alone for a week and spent my time online, looking for something I really wanted to do… and I came up with a Chiang Mai Photo Tour! The trip was in Nov 2019, and it has taken me that long and a global pandemic to sift through the thousands of pictures on my memory card.
Chiang Mai is in the mountains of Northern Thailand and is a lot more manageable than Bangkok, which can be overwhelming. There is a lot to see, and it’s a very convenient home base. This was my second trip, and I was there for ten days and still had some things left on the list. Every day we had a scheduled photo session, usually multiple venues, and most days, we met afterward for class time. So there was plenty of time on our own to walk around, get a massage, swim in the pool, etc. The food was wonderful, almost everyone spoke English, and it felt very safe.
Tour Highlights
A Day at the Elephant Sanctuary
Elephants are not always treated well in tourist destinations, so there is a lot of discussion as to whether it is ethical to participate… but who doesn’t love a baby elephant? So my day at the refuge gave me a jumbo dose of pachyderms.
Thai Cooking School
If you love Thai food and want to see the process, this is a fun activity (and a meal, well, several meals), which helps you appreciate the amount of work involved in making your favorite dishes.
Visiting Wats
There are hundreds of wats to visit, and we hit a variety. It’s hard to pick a favorite because they are all very different. Wat Doi Sutep is on a mountaintop, and we were there for blue light and a downpour. Wat Umong is a graveyard of broken Buddhas, which is slightly creepy.
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Fall Lantern Festival
Lots of Wats
Lots of Markets and Tuk Tuk Rides
Hill Tribe Village
Day Trip to Chiang Rai
Visits to Local Craft Families
Bangkok, add-on
video clips
there are many more posts, and, of course, pictures to come... stay-tuned
about my trip
The trip I found was organized through Great Escape Publishing and was a ten-day Chiang Mai Photo Tour, with an optional add-on extension in Bangkok. It was a bit expensive for what it was, but I was willing to pay because I didn’t want any hassles while traveling on my own in Southeast Asia.
The group was marketed as a small group with individual instruction, which it was. However, there was an additional group staying in the same hotel and doing the same things on different days. Both groups had their own instructor, handler, and local guide, which was great. Doing some things as a larger group would have been nice because I would have liked to get to know the others better. However, our group of nine was very close; we enjoyed each other’s company, did things together on our free days, and still keep in touch.
