by Scott Coates

Thai massage is one of life’s great treats. Generally 1-2 hours in length, you’re poked, prodded, rubbed, bent and sometimes pushed to your limits, but for fans, there’s nothing like it. I’m a fan.

I’d heard of a massage service at the Chiang Mai Women’s Prison for quite some time but had never been. A March 2010 trip to Chiang Mai found me with a couple hours free and feeling a bit sore after six days of biking on the Thailand Trek & Trail – the perfect time to give it a shot.

Opting to walk there through Chiang Mai’s charming old walled city instead of taking a tuk tuk, I passed numerous ancient temples, shop stalls and had only a sense of where the massage was. Turned out I committed the age old man’s fault of not asking for directions first and walked much further than needed, but saw some neat sides to the city that had previously eluded me. My legs were now truly in need of a good rubdown.

Located across the street from the Chiang Mai Woman’s Correctional Institution in the center of town, the massage service is one part of their Skill Development Center.  Started in 2001 by the institution’s director as a means for residents to gain life experience to ease the transition back into society after release, roughly 420 inmates have gone through Thai massage training and are now working as masseuses around the kingdom.

The massage center is not entirely easy to find and set among a group of buildings that are part of the Skill Development Center. There are a few small signs in English and I wasn’t sure until someone said, “massage?”, if I was in the correct place. Opting for a 1-hour Thai massage I was surprised by the very friendly smiles and demeanor of a few women who welcomed and handed me some massage clothing to put on. Surely these weren’t the criminal masseuses? In my new outfit I went into the room with mattresses on the floor and sure enough these pleasant looking women were the masseuses!

Bom was my masseuse and did an excellent job. I’ve had hundreds of massages over the years and her service was quality. While receiving my treatment I gently inquired into the program and her life. Turns out she’s 28-years-old, is serving just under three years for selling Ya Ba (methamphetamines) and very much enjoys her time practicing rather than being in a cell.

Thirty of the prison’s roughly 1,400 inmates study 180 hours of Thai massage training at one time within prison walls before being allowed to serve customers. Only non-violent and low-risk offenders are admitted to the program and the real bonus is the one month students get to spend giving massages outside of the prison at the center. Eight prisoners practice at a time then head back inside after their stint is up. They then wait in a queue to practice again.

Money from massage services goes to support the training initiatives of the center and the masseuses get a bonus the month they work outside prison walls (this amount could not be verified).

While a great experience and neat way to relax while giving inmates a sense of worth, the downside is the total lack of information about the program at the center itself. There is absolutely no information, leaving guests with no sense of what they are partaking in.

A nearby business worth visiting is Lila Thai Massage, whose employees are all ex-inmates who have successfully completed the program and served there time.

The massage center is open from 08:00-16:30, can be found at 100 Rachwithee Rd, in the city center (081-706-1041. Thai massage is 180B/hr and Foot massage is 150B/hr.

Enjoy your experience!

by Scott Coates

A few shots from Christmas/New Years trips in northern Thailand. See the entire gallery here: http://photos.smilingalbino.com/Thailand-Photos/Northern-Thailand/Northern-Thailand-Dec-09/10978772_BRm5n#767408965_VtLHQ

Smiling Albino was here

Making friends along the Thai-Myanmar border

Blasting down Doi Tung, Chiang Mai province

Awesome morning at Rai Saeng Arun, Chiang Rai province

See the entire gallery here: http://photos.smilingalbino.com/Thailand-Photos/Northern-Thailand/Northern-Thailand-Dec-09/10978772_BRm5n#767408965_VtLHQ

by Scott Coates

When Daniel Fraser and I moved to Thailand in September 1999 to design and launch Smiling Albino, we chose lesser-known Thai venues as our playground. Most people prior to visiting have heard of the northern jewel

Very neat temples abound

Chiang Mai and the southern beach paradises of Phuket and Ko Samui. We were not going to open a tour company, rather a fun and experiential company. For that we needed to not only offer a different travel concept but take people places they wouldn’t find on their own. Ten years later we’ve been fortunate to host great people on wonderfully inventive trips and introduce travelers to places like Chiang Rai province, the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ayutthaya and beach areas like Ao Nang, Krabi province and Ko Samet.

After guests travel with us once, come back for more and even a third helping, one must come up with new experiences and backdrops. These visitors also get curious about the major Thai destinations they’ve heard about. This has resulted in kind of an experience in reverse concept – do the off-the-beaten-track spots, then on your second or third trip hit some of the better-known ones. Essentially, we design custom/dream experiences that hold all the elements of classic Smiling Albino experiences. So there we found ourselves about three years ago, realizing it was time to become schooled in destinations like Chiang Mai, Phuket and Ko Samui. Off we went.

I used to be proud to say that I knew Chiang Rai province like the back of my hand and didn’t really know much about Chiang Mai or go there often. The

Mads enjoying a hippy bar

last three years has seen that change with my now visiting at least six times-per-year. At first it struck me as an overgrown mountain town cum city. Traffic, poor air at times, tons of tourist restaurants/bars/shops, and more cars. But like most places, if you’re there long enough, do your homework, get out and about, you find treasures and points that appeal. It’s not hard to understand why visitors can’t imagine how I happily live in Bangkok, but I do much of the year and love my time there. Yes, there are obvious downsides, but the upsides if you find them are enormous. I can’t think of too many cities in the world I enjoy more.

At first Chiang Mai to me had poor air, a good bike ride required negotiating cars and ring-roads for 10km or so to get to the good bits, and it seemed entirely like tourist hell with all the shops. Dinners with resident friends, drinks with musicians at bars, mountain bike rides up and down the area’s holiest mountain Doi Suthep, visits to art galleries, boutique shops, artisan villages and I came to understand what the fuss is about. Yes, this is a much bigger center than other northern provinces like Mae Hong Son or Chiang Rai, but there’s a lot of charm under the surface layer.

With roughly 225,000 residents, Chiang Mai is a much more planned city than even Bangkok. While dating to 1296 and the original walled/moat portion of the inner city remaining intact, highways have been constructed, large ring roads built with an eye to the future and irrigation canals carved out to ensure surrounding farms maintain good irrigation. A few nights there

Great outdoors

and you find there’s a ton of neat restaurants, lounges, bars and places to socialize. There are arguably more interesting/high quality shops selling everything from clothes, art, pottery, iron work, lacquer ware and nick knacks than in Bangkok in relation to the size of the center. Good breakfast spots, something that’s tough to find in Bangkok, are abundant in Chiang Mai. Smoothies, pancakes and real coffee are not only available but there a number of cool/quality spots to choose from.
Live music – check, a vibrant art scene – check, international food – check, outdoors – check, hilltribe people – check, world class hotels – check, a funky vibe – check. Chiang Mai really does have it all. I now understand what all the fuss is about.

While I wouldn’t go to Chiang Mai all the time or discount the value of our Chiang Rai trips, there’s a reason to visit this larger center. If it’s a healthy mix of the abovementioned, some home comforts and the outdoors is not the major reason for your visit, then Chiang Mai really is aptly named The Jewel of the North.

by Daniel Fraser

I have had my trip designer’s hat on several times again the past few months. It has been fantastic and has mostly involved testing bike rides or motorcycle routes or finding scenic detours, squeezing hotel pillows, sampling spring rolls, tasting hotel coffee or grilling the local bartender on how to get the keys to the city.

A nice footpath in northern Thailand

Many of our trips involve hikes and bicycle rides, some as short as an hour and others multiple days. Specifically I have been surveying various hike possibilities lately in far flung places like Isaan (NE Thailand), central Laos, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and more recently in northern, central, and southern Vietnam. I have driven several trekking guides to the point of insanity and we’ve gone back to the drawing board multiple times. I admit that at times I have struggled to explain exactly what I am or am not looking for when it comes to a good hike or bike ride or any day excursion for that matter. So, I’ve come up with a simple quick-list of qualifications that, say a hike must have to get the Smiling Albino stamp of approval.

I’ve omitted the obvious things like ‘carry proper supplies’, or ‘be a friend to nature’, etc., as that surely has been covered already.

Following, in no particular order, are a few steering points that I’ve used when building hikes or bike rides (from 1-8hrs) for Smiling Albino:

1 – Graceful Transitions
This means ideally no driving 45-minutes just to get to the starting point of a hike, or an hour in a van back to the resort when it is finished. Obviously in some regions this isn’t possible, but in the case where any transfer is necessary the hike must be extra special to justify it. Good flow is vital to a perfect holiday, and graceless transitions can upset the otherwise good rhythm of your trip. Now, if the hike absolutely necessitates a commute at the start or finish, or both, then an effort should be made to involve alternative means to get there rather or back than a van ride, such as a bicycle, boat, or even motorcycle taxi. Maintaining good flow is as important to an adventure as the hotels and meals. We are currently planning a couple of hikes in central Vietnam in which we transfer to the start point by a local motorcycle touring club and finish the hike a stone’s throw from a hillside pub – that’s good flow.

2 – Modifiable
As we would like several different types of our guests to enjoy a great hike, it should be modifiable so that Olympian guests can get their burn if so desired, or the leisure stroller can feel like they got what they were after. Shortcuts, scenic routes, fun detours and strategic stops make this possible.

3 – Higher Purpose
Besides a walk in the woods, what is the purpose of the hike?
Smiling Albino does a couple of fantastic hikes in northern Thailand where there is a relevant sub-theme to the hike. We follow village trails once used by smugglers in the former opium trade and use the time discuss the eradication struggles, and witness the new agricultural alternatives the villagers are cultivating. Throughout the hike we’ll discuss the role opium played in the region and how everyone from the Chinese government to the CIA had their direct influence on the villages that feature in the hike.

Not that wandering in the woods and quoting Walt Whitman alone wouldn’t be fulfilling enough, but surely a hike’s purpose, other than getting back to nature and a bit of a workout, must be to connect the hiker with the location. Additionally, bonus points if the hike follows the path of a historic battle, or even traces the migration of a people to a new settlement and the reasons behind it.
A great trip needs multiple layers of connectivity to truly be impactful.

4 – No logging roads or constructions sites!
Although one can’t deny you are still out in nature and far from the city

A guide gives blankets to a local in northern Thailand

streets, walking down logging roads or through forest construction sites or mega agro-projects just doesn’t fill the soul’s need for tree-hugging granola moments of bliss. I once did a hike that followed a series of logging roads until we reached a giant gravel quarry, where we had lunch and observed heavy machinery crunch rocks. Needless to say it didn’t make the cut for SA trips.

5 – No staged village visits
For too long in SE Asia hikers have been subjected to the trumped up ‘remote village visit’. Truth is most of the villages accessible on a day hike are not that remote, and as we know unfortunately some villages are incentivized to stage some of their tribal authenticity. I have no problem with being part of equitable fair exchanges between groups (fruit or blankets or basic medical materials in exchange for a visit to a house for a whiskey with the local shaman or a cigar with the village chief, etc.), but to make the villagers themselves the focus of the hike ultimately creates an awkward mercenary exchange in which the visitor is unknowingly paying for village behaviour to appear a certain way to fulfill his/her expectations. Professor Erik Cohen has a great series of white papers on this topic in his White Lotus books publication.
So, only subtle village visits please, and no cultural dance shows unless they were happening that day regardless of our passing through, and no human-zoo gawking and romanticising the moment. Pass through, learn a bit about them, provide a fair exchange if appropriate, and continue with getting back to nature.

6 – Bush, Plant, Bug, Bird
At least some basic learning about flora and fauna and the types of crops growing in the area is needed. Now, most guests that join our short hikes on our Thailand trips or our longer hikes on our Nepal/Tibet trips are not looking for a comprehensive breakdown of species and biodiversity in the region, but they would at least like to learn about a few crops, bushes, plants and other things along the way.
“Hey is that morning glory”? “Yes, and we’ll have some tonight.” “Cool”. Or, “Hey, can you smoke that?” “No, it is pumpkin.”

7 – Snack
Depending on the length of the hike, appropriate food at an appropriate place can’t be underestimated. I was once on a hike (before Smiling Albino existed) and we had a picnic lunch of rice in a box served under a bridge. Zero points for ambiance – but surely even some basic fruit and nuts under the canopy of the jungle would have tied us over until dinner?

8 – Transcendence (in a hiker’s context)
Ideally the hike actually brings you from one place to another, or, in a perfect world, the hike is part of a larger experience carefully woven into the day. For example, sometimes we do a short afternoon kayaking venture down a river in northern Thailand. If the guests are up for it, then we offer the alternative to hike back to the resort rather than a longtail boat (5km or less) just for a change of scenery. In this case the hike is woven into the ongoing events of the day and becomes part of the kayak trip, which becomes part of getting back to the resort. The activities combine to form an afternoon’s experience which goes beyond the simple joy of each element itself. This adds to the vital ingredient in any adventure: flow. Re-arranging the dots, as opposed to simply connecting them, enables our guests to hike right back up to their rooms after a trek in the woods and a paddle down the river. No vans or graceless transfers. That’s some good flow.

9 – Be a friend to local communities
This is vague of course, but it means that there should be some higher learning that the guests gain about the area and the people. A visit to a local school can be a great way for a few moments of innocent cultural exchange, or throwing Frisbee for a few minutes with children from a rural village. No handing out candies or clamouring for photos, just some dignified human-to-human interaction.

10 – Work-out
Lastly, if a hike isn’t strenuous enough to warrant a cold beer immediately upon completion, go back to the woods and start again. You’ve at least got to work up a sweat, or use some muscles that have been dormant for a while, or push yourself even slightly so that that beer at the end feels like you earned it.

Walking with locals in the mountains along the Nepal-Tibet border

11- Bonus
A great company will prepare cold beer or your favourite beverage of choice at the end of a hike (unless of course operating a vehicle is still required afterwards).

This isn’t a lecture and no travel company is perfect, but having had my trip design hat on several times the past few months I was not able to find what I was looking for just by using terms like ‘flow”, “transcendence”, “graceful transitions” or “connectivity”. So, I jotted down the basic thoughts which have governed my approach to hikes and I realized the way we approach things at SA involves a great deal more analysis than most people realize. Plus we’re very high maintenance. The small details are enormous.

by Scott Coates & Daniel Fraser

Chiang Mai while physically small in the minds of most travelers prior to visiting is in reality quite a sprawling area. Constantly on the move it offers a host of activities, attractions and lodgings, all helping to propel it onto the international travel scene. Known as the kingdom’s cultural and design capital many visitors are wowed by stunning architecture both old and new, much of which is in traditional ‘Lanna’ style, referring to one of Thailand’s early kingdoms dating to thirteenth century.

The stunning Four Seasons Resort

Selecting a hotel is rarely an easy task and in the day and age of hotel portals the sheer volume of choices can be overwhelming. Smiling Albino’s policy has always been to only recommend hotels we have at the very least personally inspected and hopefully slept in the room, felt the sheets, tried the shower and asked for extra towels to see how the service rates. Having done this we’re proud to share some of our favorite Chiang Mai hotels in various categories. All offer great value and span the experiential arena.

Crank out the platinum card

Four Seasons Resort
It’s all in the name and this property is everything you would expect from one of the world leaders in hotel service and delivery. Located roughly 30 minutes north of the city center on a gorgeous piece of land looking at the mountains, rooms and enormous villas are set amongst a private rice paddy with wandering water buffalos on staff. If it’s away from the hustle and bustle with great service and food you crave, look no further.

Dhara Dhevi Mandarin Oriental
Best described as its own little kingdom, this sprawling property covers 60 acres with 124 suites (no standard rooms here) and has been designed from scratch to look ancient. Temple roofs spire upwards with many in Thai ‘Lanna’ and Burmese styles, there are rice paddies, buffalos, temple squares, shops, and it goes on and on. Chose from the Colonial Wing or Thai villas, all of which are huge, beautiful and sure to take you to another world. Located about 5km from the city center exploring is also rather easy.

Where it’s at

Rachamankha
One of the classiest, stylish and well-thought-out hotels, this is our

The Rachamankha is one of our favorites

favourite, making it the best value hotel in its category.  Located within Chiang Mai’s city moat exploring is right out your door, but leaving will be tough. Designed by an established Thai architect every corner, hall, ceiling and piece of furniture has been personally selected and designed with specific intensions. With only 24 rooms it’s a very intimate atmosphere and you’ll quickly slide into a very ‘sabai’ (relaxed) world.

The Chedi
Part of the GHM hotel group, the emphasis here is new and chic. A large, modern building set on the banks of the Ping River, it reeks of modern cool from the moment you approach with smooth lines, water gardens, subtle colors and a calming ambience. Spacious common areas, two great restaurants and our favourite happy hour make this a place to talk about.

Bang for buck

Shewe Wana Resort
This smallish, personally designed property is 500m east of the Ping River, making it an ideal place to strike out and see the city. Lush gardens, a small pool and cute rooms make this our favourite value in the city if simple fits the bill. A nice spa is also attached, a perfect treat after a day sightseeing.

Arun Tara
Situated along the banks of the Ping River about two kilometres from the famous Night Bazaar, this hotel opened its doors and 28 rooms in early 2008. Mostly white design with dark black accents creates a modern atmosphere with thoughtful Thai touches. This is one of the best value rooms in the city with a very slick edge.

Tamarind Village
A long-time Chiang Mai favourite located in the heart of the old city, this is a solid choice. Stylish and calming, it was designed by the architect who created the Rachamankha, with a large Tamarind tree as its centerpiece. With less than 50 rooms, it maintains a small feel and is a relatively good value. Great for families.

Mountain Magic

Proud Phu Fah - calm and cool

Proud Phu Fah
Conceived and operated by a former advertising creative director, this self proclaimed ‘hip’ resort is perfect for a true mountain escape. Located about 45 minutes north of the city along the Mae Sae road, two or three nights will wash your stress away. Modern, glass villas are situated on a small mountain with a large common area, great coffee, tasty food and a very relaxed atmosphere. Elephant rides, waterfalls and other activities are very near by too. Check-in and check-out.

Smiling Albino is pleased to arrange stays at any of the above mentioned hotels, along with air transport, airport transfers, guides/hosts and any other services you’d like to make your time in Chiang Mai perfect. Pillion motorcycle rides, ghost walking trips, a day with legendary travel writer Joe Cummings and art/design outings are also some of our specialties.
Send us an email (info@smilingalbino.com) to make your Chiang Mai escape reality.

by Scott Coates

I’ve been in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai the last week leading training sessions for guides, mapping new biking routes for an upcoming cycling trip and am now enjoying a couple days of mountain biking before hosting guests.
The most noticeable thing is how green/lush everything is. Even after living here for more than eight years it’s truly staggering how some rain really gets everything growing at super-speed. Roads are lined with roots and plants trying to take them over, usually wide dirt paths are narrow as foliage sprouts. It’s truly gorgeous. If you don’t mind getting a bit wet here and there then the rainy season is the time to visit Thailand.

Got out for a couple mountain bike rides, one up Doi Suthep, on the edge of Chiang Mai. It was a challenging 11km, 1,000 vertical meter climb and took one hour and twenty minutes. One of our guides from Bangkok, Nee came as well and never stopped pedalling, which meant I had to keep pedalling too. What a push. Today we’ll be heading out for a three-hour ride along the Doi Chang mountain range, south of the city and then tomorrow is a first try at a new dirt trail from the Huai Khum Resort back to Chiang Rai city. Should be about an 80km ride along the Mae Kok river, all off-road and hopefully it won’t rain. If it does then the trail might be nearly impossible. Crossing my fingers.

Time to hit the trail!