The Big Read: My oh mai

Jana Marais heads to Thailand's north for the hill tribes, handicrafts, elephants and temples

A few years ago, my flatmate won money for an overseas holiday and decided on a romantic getaway to Thailand with her boyfriend.

Off they went to Phuket, ready for a week of cocktails, cheap massages on the beach, sun and sea. We prepared for news of an engagement.

Everything went according to plan until the boyfriend got to their hotel room one afternoon, flicked through the TV channels and found, of all things, one broadcasting the annual Craven Week schools' rugby tournament. You would be right to guess that the holiday ended without an engagement and Thailand never appeared on my bucket list.

Well, as my closest friends will confirm, I am a fool. Never again shall I judge a country on its package holidays and the romantic misadventures of my friends.

Perhaps it helped that we never made it to the beach, leaving our Phuket-bound fellow South Africans behind at the airport in Bangkok to head north to the mountains, hill tribes, handicrafts, temples and elephants of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

It didn't take much more than the ride from the airport to our hotel to see why increasing numbers of tourists are flocking to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city, known for its 1000-year-old temples and historic Old City.

Even if you had nothing at all planned for your time in town, simply wandering the streets could keep you entertained for days. Restaurants, bars, temples, massage parlours, markets. Chiang Mai is the exciting, cheap version of Paris: easy to get around, beautiful, and you immediately start hatching plans to stay forever.

More disciplined travellers than me would make sure to visit Wat Chedi Luang, a Buddhist temple in the Old City that housed the Emerald Buddha, Thailand's most sacred Buddha image, from 1468 to 1551. Only 79cm tall, the Emerald Buddha can be touched only by the king, who changes the Buddha's outfits three times a year to suit the season.

Today, the Emerald Buddha is housed at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, where Thais pray before it, believing it will help them "make merit", while flustered tour guides try fruitlessly to get tourists to respect its sanctity.

More committed visitors than me will make sure to visit the Chiang Mai night market, famous for its Thai handicrafts including paper umbrellas, exquisite lacquered ware and silk. Cheaper than Bangkok, the market also offers stalls run by women from the various hill tribes in the north, selling jewellery, bags and textiles you won't easily find anywhere else.

Even if you never make it to the temples or markets or pay a lovely old Thai lady to pull your neck back into line, at least two things should be on your to-do list: food and elephants.

It is hard for someone who sees microwave popcorn as a balanced meal to talk about Thai cuisine. What I can say is that we had an ambassador and two government officials from the protocol office in our group, yet manners were forgotten when it came to the dining table.

We couldn't help ourselves: we ordered extra curries; we ate until we fell asleep in briefings; we popped probiotics in the morning to ensure nobody risked missing out on a meal. Here and there, we even pretended to make polite conversation but really, everyone's mind was on the last portion of cashew chicken.

It is hard to imagine, but Thais love their elephants more than I loved their chicken. Thailand's symbolic animal, elephant images or statues are everywhere. Many enjoy royal status, and there is even a National Thai Elephant Day to pay respects and increase awareness about the need to protect the elephant population.

A symbol of strength and wisdom, elephants have been domesticated in Thailand for more than 2000 years and have been used as family ploughs, bulldozers and even "armoured tanks" in long-forgotten wars. Under threat from poaching, deforestation and cross-border trade in live animals, their numbers have fallen from about 100000 a century ago to about 2500 today.

Just north of Chiang Mai, on the banks of the Ping River, is the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp, where visitors can ride elephants and float down the river on rafts. Animals performing tricks have never really been my thing, but even I couldn't resist richly tipping the harmonica-playing trunks that came collecting cash after the performance.

From Chiang Mai, we drove through the mountains and rice paddies to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle, the area where Thailand borders Myanmar and Laos, that was infamous for its role in the opium trade for more than a century.

While much work has been done to stop opium production - particularly by the king's mother, the much-loved Princess Sangwal Mahidol, who dedicated the last years of her life to encouraging farmers to switch to other crops - the mountains of the Triangle continue to hide some poppy plantations.

The remarkable life story of the Princess Mother, as she was known, is told at the Doi Tung Royal Villa, which is surrounded by mountains, forest and beautiful public gardens that feature plants from around the world. An avid gardener who had no time for retirement, the Princess Mother continued to visit remote tribes in the mountains to promote healthcare and environmental sustainability until late in her 80s. She died at the age of 94 in 1995.

Only one thing impressed me more than the Princess Mother: Wat Rong Khun.

Unconventional, extraordinary, ornate, exquisite, astonishing and magical are some of the words that describe the temple, a creation of Chalermchai Kositpipat, a devout Buddhist and one of Thailand's most famous artists. Unlike most other Thai temples, where gold dominates, this one's exterior is a glistening white, with a mosaic of mirrors adding to the sparkle.

The interior features a range of well known characters and events, ranging from Super-Man and Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix to Osama Bin Laden and scenes depicting the World Trade Centre attack. There is nothing traditional about the temple or its surrounds - Chalermchai has been building it since 1997 and believes it won't be done in his lifetime - but the message is more traditional: life is hard and will bring many temptations, but one should choose the path that leads to the light.

As I write this, news is breaking that the temple was hit by an earthquake that measured 6.3 on the Richter scale. Two aftershocks caused immeasurable damage. It seems Chalermchai may be right: Wat Rong Khun won't be finished in his lifetime, or anyone else's. He told a newspaper he may leave the ruins as a reminder of its past glory.

"It was a masterpiece of art and it cannot be recreated," he said. "I spent almost 20 years doing it. I am now too old to spend another 20 years on it."

The Princess Mother would've had none of that. - Marais was a guest of the Royal Thai Embassy

• Chalermchai Kositpipat has since said he will repair the earthquake damage within two years. He admitted that his earlier statements, about the temple being beyond repair, were a stunt to get the government's attention.

Getting there: Thai Airways flies from Johannesburg to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai via Bangkok from R8962. The north of Thailand also offers an ideal base from which to explore Myanmar and Laos. Various tour operators offer overland trips to visit hill tribes across the border.

South African passport holders do not require a visa for Thailand. Visas are required for Myanmar and Laos and can be obtained upon arrival.

When to go: The best time is during the dry season from November to February, when nights can get cold in the north. March to June can be uncomfortably hot. The world-famous Songkran festival, celebrated during the Thai New Year around mid-April, is a popular time for domestic and international tourists.