Chiang Mai is about as far away from the beach as you can get, and also doesn’t have many swimming pools. Luckily there is a solution – Huay Tung Tao lake.
We had only been in the city for a few days when we decided to visit, but the idea of a nice swim was too much to resist.
The lake is a bit of a trek but not too far – if you have your own transport like we did then you can be there in 20 minutes. If not, a songthaew would happily take you.
The lake is actually man made, which worried me slightly, was it going to be an ugly looking reservoir? I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s a beautiful setting. The lake goes on forever, reflecting the gorgeous mountains in the background.
There are small huts built all along the lake, which can be used for a small fee or if you buy some food from a nearby restaurant. Being lazy, we went to virtually the first hut we saw, but a short walk clockwise around the lake were some much better ones that actually extended out into the water.
The water was cold as expected (it didn’t help that it was raining) but clean and very refreshing. We hired out tubes and had a great time messing about in them. It almost made up for not being able to go tubing in Laos, except of course there was no current here!
At one point I paddled out right to the middle of the lake on my tube, which was so relaxing. Silence all around, it felt like I was the only one there. I’d love to go out there again with a couple of beers and spend all afternoon floating around.
We stayed for hours, ate some tasty Thai food, drunk smoothies and just relaxed. There were plenty of young Thai’s relaxing with their friends and surprisingly hardly any tourists, which we were fine with!
Well worth a visit if you’re in Chiang Mai.
