Wat-Hopping & the Golden Triangle: Chiang Mai on TigerAir & SilkAir

[ycp81]

Having never set foot in Northern Thailand before, I recently went on a short 4-days trip to the charming city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai, the second largest city of Thailand and the unofficial capital of the north, is not as popular as the touristy beach towns and islands in the south, but offers a very different experience for visitors, especially in the culture and sights. Chiang Mai is only a short sub-3hrs flight from SIN but unlike Bangkok and Phuket, non-stop flight options are rather limited from SIN. I woud be flying up on TigerAir and returning on Silkair.

Checked in online on TigerAir's website but only got my boarding pass printed at the airport counter.




Using my Priority Pass, I visited the T2 SATS Premier Lounge for some bites prior to departure. The lounge appeared to have undergone some refurbishment as compared to my last visit slightly more than a year ago. Definitely one of the better Priority-Pass eligible lounges in Changi Airport. It was also not too busy at this time of the day.

Seating area




Buffet selection














My food selection.








Headed to the gate 20min before STD, where boarding has already begun.

[ycp81]

19 November 2016
tigerair
TR 2176
Singapore (SIN) - Chiang Mai (CNX)
A320
9V-TRI
Economy Class
Flight Time: 2H34M


A 3-yrs old A320 would be flying us to Chiang Mai. With the recent announcement that the tigerair brand would be intergrated with, and renamed as Scoot by next year, this could well be my last ever flight on the Tiger before the brand and livery goes down into the history books. Tiger is also celebrting its 12th (and possibly last) birthday this year.






Boarding




Took my seat at row 25. Flight was about 80% full, mainly Singaporeans going away for a holiday. Seat pitch was the usual LCC-ish tight.






Bags still being loaded.




Reading materials (aka souvenirs for my last tiger flight haha)




Spot another 2 tigers




Doors closed, safety demo performed and we are ready to go ahead of schedule. Flight time estimated to be about 2h40m. Pushed back.






Taxied to Rwy20C, where there is some wait for departure and arrival aircraft ahead.

[ycp81]

We are next for departure after GA B738.




Lining up and takeoff from Rwy20C.














Video of the departure from Rwy20C.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vtVSCB3kUc


Service announcement after takeoff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghl6HZye8nk


Flying along the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia.




Cabin view.




Service started with distribution of pre-booked meals followed by buy-on-board snacks/drinks. Surprisingly, there were quite a number of passengers with pre-booked meals, which meant the meal service took quite a while to complete. BOB purchases were also quite a handful, rather surprising considering the steep prices of the onboard snacks and drinks. In fact, this was the first time in many TR flights that I saw the cabin crew needing to restock their meal cart! Service was friendly and efficient, though of course not as polished as the parent company SQ. I did not purchase anything on the flight, having had my fill at the lounge earlier. However, I purchased an A320 aircraft model from the duty-free shopping as a souvenir, since the TR A320 will be no more in a year's time.






Lavatory was basic but kept clean. A number of tigerair-branded airsick bags in the amenity compartment also went into my souvenir collection.

[ycp81]

With nothing much else to do, the only entertainment is the view out the window. It was definitely a great day to fly, with hardly any turbulance encountered during the flight.




Soon, descend into Chiang Mai begun.






Video of the descend, flying over hills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT5s3rsWtyE


Approaching Chiang Mai and a very smooth landing on Rwy36. We arrived 5min ahead of schedule.
















Video of the landing into Chaing Mai Intl Rwy36.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMEt7ThNExc


Short taxi to the terminal an parked at an aerobridge. Nok Air's Dash 8 beside us.




Disembarking.




A reasonably comfortable LCC experience on Tigerair, with minimal frills and punctual flight. With the Tigerair brand going into history soon by end-2017, it would be timely to catch one of these tigerair flights before the fleet is consolidated into Scoot.

[ycp81]

Immigration was quick as our flight was the sole international arrival at the time. A short 15min and 150baht taxi ride later, we reached Suriwongse Hotel. The hotel is conveniently located near the Night Bazaar area. Hotel is currently undergoing extensive refurbishment, preparations for operation under the Movenpick chain in the near future. Room was large but I found the bed a tad too hard for my liking.




Streets of Chiang Mai






Warorot Market









Old city wall




Chiang Mai has many Wats (temples) in the city. Only managed to visit a few major ones.

Wat Phan On




Wat Phan Tao

[ycp81]

Wat Chedi Luang














Wat Phra Singh

[ycp81]

A must visit on a sunday is the Sunday Night Market, which spans across the length of the entire Old city. Seriously, considering the scale of the market, this must be the mother of all night markets that I have been to. Almost 3hr there and I still could not complete walking through the entire market. And different from many other night markets in Asia where knock-offs are the norm products sold, this market instead focuses mainly on local made goods and craft products, as well as f&b.












For this trip, I also went on a full day tour to Chiang Rai and Golden Triangle. Chiang Rai is a 3hrs mini-bus ride away from Chiang Mai.

The famous White Temple at Chiang Rai.














The Golden Toilet in the White Temple.

[ycp81]

Went further north to the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.




Took boat ride along the Mekong river to Laos.






Riverbank of Laos




Up for a sip of Geckho, King cobra, Tiger penis or Turtle whiskey?






Thailand on the left, Laos on the right, and Myanmar ahead.




At the Thailand-Myanmar border, with Myanmar just across the bridge. This is also the northenmost point of Thailand.






Visit to a Karen Tribe village. One of the very few surviving village tribes, but mostly are all tourist sights now.

[ycp81]

Some of the delicious food that we had in Chiang Mai:

Dinner of Thai fishcakes, pepper pork and Tom Kha soup.








Ploen Ruedee Night Market. Very cool dinner/supper place!












Khao Soi, the "official" dish of northern thailand.




Really cheap and good thai local eatery, Lert Ros.

[ycp81]

For the flight back, it was a 150baht Uber ride back to the airport. Great thing about Chiang Mai is that the airport is a mere 10-15min car ride (depending on traffic) from the town center.

Chiang Mai Intl Airport is clearly showing its age among the mega or new airport terminal buildings in Asia. Check-in was quick with no queues at 1.5hrs before departure, and was handled by very friendly TG agents.








Boarding pass




Through immigration and security into the departure hall. Some shopping within but not too exciting. Reminds me of Phuket's old international terminal.






Boarding gate. Our aircraft, initially scheduled for the A320, was swapped with the A319 due to the low loads. Aircraft had arrived early from Singapore.




Boarding announced and conducted very orderly by priority and row numbers. Our baby Airbus A319, one of the last 3 in SilkAir's fleet, awaiting for the flight back.







22 November 2016
Silkair
MI 705
Chiang Mai (CNX) - Singapore (SIN)
A319
9V-SBG
Economy Class
Flight Time: 2H38M


Welcomed onboard and greeted by name by the crew-in-charge at the door. Passed the 8 seater Business cabin and proceeded to my seat at the second last row of the aircraft. Pillows and blankets were available in the overhead bins or you can request from the crew.






Boarding in progress. Flight was about 70% full.

[ycp81]

Seat pitch is decent for this short flight. Pillows and blankets can be requested from the crew.




China Eastern B738 beside. PRC is a huge inbound market for Chiang Mai, with multiple flights daily to various parts of China.




Reading materials.




Boarding was completed swiftly and wet towels were distributed.




Pilot announced a flight time of 2h45m, and also candidly introduced the beautiful crew-in-charge and the rest of the wonderful Silkair crew. One thing I noticed about Silkair is that the pilots and cabin crew are closely-knitted like a family. Prior to boarding, I even saw the pilots came out to the transit area to purchase Thai iced tea for all the rest of the crew! Safety video was then played.




Taxi to the runway, with the sun setting in the distance.




Video of the taxi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrsoCi58TZE


Lining up and takeoff from Rwy36. The entire Chiang Mai city can be viewed as we climbed into the sunset.

[ycp81]

Over city of Chiang Mai










Video of the takeoff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKplw_Ok-mw


Sunset






Dinner service started shortly after takeoff. Service started from the front of the aircraft towards the rear. Short silent features were shown on the drop-down screens while wireless-streaming Silkair Studio IFE was also available.






Quick visit to the lavatory as the meal service moved towards the rear. Basic amenities available only.




Meal cart reaching my row soon.




Unfortunately, as the chicken option has ran out, the only available option left was the fish with rice. The meal tray came with cut fruits and an almond cooke. I requested an orange juice and a white wine to go with the meal.

[ycp81]

The chardonnay came in a mini-bottle. It was rather good.




Drinking water and cookie.




The fish was in a thai-styled spicy tomyam sauce. However, maybe to tone the spicyness level down for the western palette, it was actually rather tasteless with only a hint of tomyam flavour. The vegetables, on the other hand, was a bit too salty. Edible, but definitely no where near the best I had on a flight. Fruits were sweet enough.




The Asian vegetarian choice, which we requested from the crew (normally there is one or two catered on each flight), tasted much better.




A cup of tea and the almond cookie to end. The cookie is very tasty!




After meal service. cabin lights were dimmed, while I watched on my phone through the wireless streaming IFE. 45min prior to arrival, cabin lights were switched on again, and the crew passed through with juices and mixed nuts before the descend. Interesting service as I had though that normally nuts would be served before the meal service.






Descending into Changi and landed on Rwy20C more than 15min ahead of schedule.






Video of the landing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4rRRZEZjnc


Parked at Terminal 2.




Disembarking and a shot of my seat.






A pleasant and comfortable flight on Silkair, with frills and friendly service. The only setback is the average catering, which was disappointing compared to my previous Silkair flights where the meals had been excellent.

Thanks for reading and any comments are welcomed.