Taking your dog with you when you travel to Thailand is the first hurdle to overcome. But what about when you’re here? Is Thailand Dog friendly? Are the street dogs vicious? Will Hotels let my dog stay with me?
These are all the questions that passed through our minds when we decided to move to Chiang Mai Thailand from the UK with our 7 year old Cocker Spaniel Eden. The good news is that having been here for almost 3 months now with Eden, my husband and I can say with certainty that Thailand is VERY pet friendly.
To briefly dowse your fears about bringing your precious puppy to Thailand. There are plenty of Vets and Pet Stores that have English speaking staff. The street dogs we have met are curious but friendly and there are many hotels in every area that we have visited that will allow your pets to stay with you if you know where to look. We have started to compile a list of hotels that have allowed us to bring Eden with us without any problem. But for now I am going to talk about our wedding anniversary trip Pai – Mae Hong Son and Baan Tawan guest house.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were too early for check in, so we went for a walk around the town. Eden was an instant hit with the locals in Pai. So used to seeing the street dogs roaming around, it was a novelty for them to see a dog on a lead. Lots of people stopped us and asked questions about her and how we got here out to Thailand. People from the street stalls came over to stroke her and Eden was thoroughly spoilt!
As well as the locals, there were lots of the street dogs making a bee line for Eden. They all wanted to come and have a sniff of the newcomer. Me and my wife were a bit worried initially about this, wary of lone dogs with no owners around to control them. However we had no need to worry. Sniffing and a few barks here and there was as far as anything went. After a while of walking around the town, up and down a few of the same roads, the dogs generally left her alone for the rest of our weekend in Pai.
When we checked in later on that afternoon, we settled Eden into the room.
We had taken her own blanket and food and water bowls with us plus a supply of her biscuits and treats.
Eden had a quick check around the room before laying straight down, not worried at all by the change of location.
There was no extra charge for us to bring Eden with us to Baan Tawan Guesthouse, However I would recommend checking with each individual hotel before you go, as some may charge a small fee for pets.
Lots of people were concerned about us taking our dog with us to Thailand because of the heat.
The climate in Pai, is considerably cooler then Chiang Mai, even more so then Bangkok and the South of Thailand. It is cooler due to the higher altitude and mountainous landscape.
Arriving at the hottest time of the year in April, Eden spent most of her time panting and sitting under a fan. 3 months later, she seems to have aclimatised well and doesn’t seem to mind the heat.
We keep her coat trimmed short and take water with us whenever we go for a walk with her.
At Baan Tawan Guesthouse our deluxe room had both fan and A/C, coupled with the more moderate climate, we hardly used the A/C, with the fan being more than enough to keep cool.
We took Eden with us pretty much everywhere we went in Pai with no problems.
She was allowed to sit at the coffee shop with us while we had breakfast and lunch, though we opted for a table that was on the outside edge and Eden sat by our feet with her bowl of water.
We only left her in the hotel room on her own at night time when we went out for dinner. We always returned to a excited pup and wagging tail!
Eden enjoyed a morning trip to the nearby Mo Paeng Waterfall, just 2km outside of Pai town center, and went off exploring around the rocks.
On our way home, we went through a military checkpoint just outside of Pai. They checked the car but didn’t disturb Eden or ask us any questions about her.
Overall our trip to Pai was a huge success. We all enjoyed ourselves, especially Eden with all the new mountain smells to take in!
We will definitely be returning again later on in the year, with Eden!
Travelers Tails
To find out more about our travels and information on Thailand visit 8 miles from home. A blog about the Man, Woman and Dog behind Travelers Tails.
