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RTW Trip Day #51: Green Bus to Chiang Mai and the Night Bazaar
- andrewsco3
- Nov 19
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 20
18 November 2025
Steps: 4,927
Today was mostly a travel day as we caught the Green Bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, where we’ll be staying for five nights. It feels good to settle in one place for a little while after moving around so much lately.
Green Bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai
We looked into a few different options for getting to Chiang Mai, including hiring a private taxi, since that can sometimes work out cheaper for our family of four. A taxi would have come to around 3000 baht, which was quite a bit more expensive than the bus fare.
There were two types of buses, a standard option and a VIP one. Since the journey was about three and a half hours, we decided to go for the more comfortable choice, especially with Jess and her tendency to throw up on public transport!
We booked our tickets through 12go.com. The standard bus would have cost 1440 THB in total and the VIP tickets came to 2028 THB.
The seats were wide and comfortable but the ride itself was pretty rough. The road is being redone so there were plenty of bumps and twists and even I felt a bit off by the end.
Somehow Jess made it all the way without being sick which was a small victory in itself.
Chiang Mai Marriott Hotel
Our home for the next five nights is the Chiang Mai Marriott Hotel and we’re loving the chance to settle in and actually unpack.
It’s a five star hotel but once again we used a point redemption because it would be well beyond our budget otherwise! The rate worked out to about 29k points per night for the full stay, which felt like excellent value.
At check in we were given an upgraded room thanks to our Gold status through the AMEX Platinum card, and we were also offered complimentary breakfast for the whole family for all five days. That’s a huge a perk and if it’s anything like the breakfast we had at the Le Meridien Hotel in Chiang Rai it should be amazing.
Chiang Mai Night Bazaar
Just around the corner from the hotel is the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar and it was the perfect place to grab a quick dinner after our long bus ride. There were plenty of street vendors to choose from although Susie and I both ended up getting the same dish after she tried mine.
We found a place selling khao soi which is a northern Thailand speciality noodle soup usually served with chicken or another type of meat and crispy noodles.
We both went for the katsu crispy chicken and it was amazing. It definitely won’t be the last time I eat khao soi before we fly down to Bangkok.
We gave the girls a treat of McDonald’s (shock horror) but they haven’t had one since Hong Kong, which feels like ages ago, and sometimes a little familiar food is a good thing. It gives us a longer leash for what we can do the next day!
Susie tried to get her chai latte at Starbucks, but they don’t sell it in Thailand, for which my wallet thanks them!
Next Day #52: Exploring Chiang Mai's Old City
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