Vincentia Joyce : Chiang Mai: Swiss-Lanna Lodge

Swiss-Lanna Lodge is the first place we stayed in Chiang Mai. It goes like this, as our flight arrived in Chiang Mai around 7 something in the evening, and we would be heading to Chiang Rai the morning after that, there would not be a lot of time we'd spend there, I thought we might just find a less expensive place (sth below HKD 100) for that night. But as we were browsing through agoda, my mum caught a sight of Swiss-Lanna Lodge and immediately fell in love, and insisted that we would stay our night there. For some mysterious reasons that I still don't understand I couldn't book two rooms through agoda or expedia, so in the end I booked their two cheapest rooms through their own website.

Swiss-Lanna is indeed a beautiful lodge, and people on different websites give them good ratings. My only concern was their seemingly not so ideal location. Our original plan was, after Chiang Mai, we'll spend 2 nights in Chiang Rai, then 1 night in Pai, then back to Chiang Mai for the last 3 nights. I thought it would be better to live in a more convenient place so that we could walk around the night bazaar in the evening, so for the last 3 nights I booked another place. However, after research and discussion we changed our mind. We did not want to go all the way from Chiang Rai to Pai (which is a 6-hour bus journey), so we decided to stay one more night in Chiang Mai before heading to Pai.

Too much talking. What I mean is, at the end, having no idea how lovely this place really is, we ended up staying 2 nights in this beautiful Lanna Lodge.

A video of Swiss-Lanna Lodge by "Eight miles from home"

Once we got off from the plane, we took a taxi from the airport to Swiss-Lanna Lodge. Since we had too much luggage, we needed a big taxi, which cost us 300B (while normally this journey should take about 180B).

I had printed the address and map of this lodge before hand, but guess it's really a little bit away from the main roads, at the end the driver still needed to phone the lodge and asked the way on the road. Yet, it just took around 20 minutes, not very far from the airport.

As we entered, the lady received us asked us to take off our shoes and leave them on the rack outside, and then went in to sit at the table, and enjoyed the tea she prepared.

They even invited guests to write their names on the blackboard. I glimpsed a few lizards on the walls, so I sat still on my chair, until the lady told us that our rooms were ready.

(The colour tones look different in the two pictures because we took the above pictures with different cameras, but it actually looked more like the left one)

The above two photos are the room my sister and I slept in, Buddha's room. (Wow) It is rather rectangular in shape, and the two beds lie in the opposite corners. (The white thingies at the bottom right corner are the other bed.) My sister didn't want to sleep by the windows, so I slept on the bed on the right.

This is Artistic room, where my parents stayed. The picture on the right shows a lamp and a wall decoration in it (it's a beautiful room but who would love a lizard for decoration...?) Like our room, it does not have air-conditioner or its own bathroom. We weren't very used to it at first, but after a while with the fans on they were good to sleep in.

Woke up to find myself in a Lanna wooden room just steps to fresh grass. Good morning Chiang Mai!

The place for breakfast is where we had tea the night before. The blackboard is on the left edge of the photo.

They have a variety of breakfasts for guests to pick, make on order. This is mine, fried eggs with tomatoes, onions and pepper, toasts, and coffee.

You can also choose scrambled eggs.

As mentioned above, we headed out immediately after breakfast that morning, and returned the next evening. This time, they asked whether we would like other rooms.

This is Pasha room for my parents, they even gave us a good discount. My parents said yes the second the door was open, while I was still wondering why they have that gong that reminded legislators to have meeting in the council here... There is a stair outside the door next to the red curtain, leading to the room my sister and I slept in.

This room is called Lanna room. It has a bunk bed, which we could pull out the lowest level to sit on comfortably. This room has its own bathroom, but how about the Pasha room? We KNEW that it should have, but we couldn't find it, until the next morning...

As we were too afraid of lizards we normally do not go outside at night. So in the next morning, as we walked out, and turned left...

Oh hi, it's here!

This morning, I had pancakes and avocado choco shake for breakfast.

The lodge has nice places for people to just sit and relax.

In conclusion, I absolutely love it here in Swiss-Lanna Lodge. Firstly, I was so looking forward to staying in one of these Lanna wooden houses, and this lodge has lovely designs and decorations (except for the lizard ones...) Secondly, the staff here are nice and helpful, and prepare delicious breakfast for guests. Thirdly, the prices are attractive. Although it doesn't have the best location, if you bring the hotel card out and show it to your songthaew driver, it should be no problem. However, they don't seem to have hair blow-drier in any bathroom I've used. I'm pretty sure they can lend you one on request, but if you're out till late and come back when everyone is sound asleep, perhaps you'll need to either borrow it earlier, or bring one yourself.