The long way home: Chiang Mai, Thailand

The last time we arrived in our fourth country, Thailand, for a relaxing week on the island of Phuket. After recovering, we were both ready to move north to Chiang Mai for four nights. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand and is next to the highest mountains in the country. Before Thailand formed, Chiang Mai was the capital of the Lanna kingdom for approximately 500 years. When planning our trip home, we decided to visit here for three reasons; Night markets, temples and elephants.

The flight

Normally I do not get nervous when it comes to flying, but after that plane disappeared from Kuala Lumpar, I did not like to fly through Southeast Asia. I felt good on the international flights from Australia to Bali to Singapore to Phuket. However, this time we were on a Thai internal flight. That does not mean that there is anything wrong on Thai internal flights; For some reason, I was worried. Anyway, after all that accumulation, the flight was perfectly well apart from the lack of leg space. 5FT10 and I could also have had the knees in the cabin!

Where we stayed

Chiang Mai is huge but, at least for tourists, the approach is in the old city. The old city is still lined by (mostly) intact walls and a pit and is full of beautiful Buddhist temples. As we have done a lot during our trips, we are looking for Airbnb (if you have not used it before, this Link will give you a £ 25 loan!) And found a modern apartment of a room with a view to the Shangri-La Hotel. The Airbnb was not only perfectly located in a quiet area just a few minutes from the night markets, but the price was £ 30 per night. What a bargain!

Day one

Despite entering the location of our Airbnb on the taxi driver’s phone, he still took a little trip and tried to leave us in the night market despite being 1pm. He apologized once we explained (again) that we wanted to go to our department and that it wasn’t even night. The apartment building was practically a five -star hotel with goalkeepers with suits and hats and an incredible pool on the roof. Although, having recently stayed in Marina Bay Sands, no pool on the roof will approach. I am sure that when you normally go to a pleasant place, the last thing you want to think about is to wash your clothes. However, we had planned to wash our clothes here for the first Singapore sync and there was nothing for which I was more excited than putting a load on that machine. Maybe.

After pressing too much on our first day in Singapore, the plan was to take it easy with a small walk to orient. Despite having a map, we thought we had walked throughout the old city and we were a bit disappointed with how small it was. I was also strangely quiet.

The main street back to our Airbnb was full of locals that established positions during the day and, at dusk, the whole area was buzzing. The roads full of market stalls and hundreds of tourists and, from time to time, the positions will open in a huge night market covered with food, drink, music and massages! Chiang Mai is definitely the markets! We still end up again late, but our first impressions were good.

Day two

This day was dedicated to Chiang Mai temples. I think there are more than 300 in total, although we really only had time for the main ones in the city and around the old city. I had not been in a Buddhist temple before, it was cautious not to offend anyone pointing to my feet directly to an image of the Buddha. Well, there was a Buddha everywhere. My feet did not know what path aim at. The only respectful way to enjoy the temples is to sit with your feet behind you! Talk about a British abroad … We also quickly learned that we had completely wrong on the first day with respect to the old city. We just managed to walk to the eastern wall instead of until west as we thought.

As soon as I enter the old city, you will notice that there are temples absolutely everywhere. I was also pleasantly surprised by the wide tracks and how relaxed he felt. He felt very religious, especially when you see that monks are part of everyday life here. Casually capturing a group taxi or walking along the way to the prayer of the afternoon. My favorite temples were not only the great batters of Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chedi Luang, but also the much quieter man of Wat Chiang in the northeast corner. The temples themselves were so intricate thanks to Lanna’s unique design and had huge golden sanctuaries that are good enough for themselves.

For lunch, we ate at a very small local restaurant where we wanted to try Khao Soi. This is the famous curry noodle soup of Chiang Mai that has boiled and fried noodles. Really good but so spicy! We wandered for more temples after lunch, we tried cold green tea with ‘bubbles’ (it turns out that it was a grass jelly?) And we went to look for the infamous girl of ‘Cowboy hat’. It was impossible to get lost in his food post on the outskirts of the north door. A young woman who wears a short cowboy hat mountains of pig knuckle while her order is taken next to a occupied main road.

I do not remember how much we pay (around £ 1) for the Thai pork knuckle, rice and a boiled egg, but it was one of the best foods I have tried in my life. Emma didn’t like anything after seeing she was prepared, but I couldn’t help digging. The trick is to take advantage of the free condiments established at each table. Yes, it has probably been there for years, but nothing is compared to the combination of the old larger and chili vinegar with that pork knuckle!

After a long day of walking, we returned to the night market near our Airbnb. We took two fresh fruit juices and, God knows why, he decided to put our feet in those fish feed tanks. For fifteen minutes. Why the hell these became popular and flooded the main streets ten years ago, sincerely, I don’t know why. The fish were having a good opportunity to stand and even tried to get their heads out of the water to get fresh skin from their legs. I have to admit that my feet were quite soft later.

Day three

We had a slow beginning on the third day thanks to making so much the day before. Our plan today was to take a taxi for Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep; A sacred temple at the top of the mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. The weather was boiling and, by the time we walked to the shared taxi stop, my gray shirt was soaked. We were only four in the red taxi (a truck with seats on the back) that would not leave until there were eight passengers. We wait in the heat for about twenty minutes before everyone agreed to pay more just to be able to leave! To get to the temple itself, we still had to raise an impressive snake staircase. Going up 306 steps in the abrasing heat is not for the weak hearts. Fortunately, if you are prepared to wait, there is a small cable car that will take you. We fix them to see the temple well before we were surrounded by fog and the skies opened. While most people divered to cover themselves, I kept my camera out (yes, it is climate resistant) for epic shots.[easy-image-collage id=2847]To finish the day, we went to the Sunday walking market in the old city. This is the only event that does not want to get lost when visiting. A lot of roads are closed to traffic and stands on all the place that sell crafts, clothing and food. There was still a specialty of Chiang Mai that I wanted to try; SAI UA. Basically, this is a homemade pork sausage with red curry paste and other herbs. Having eaten one, I immediately returned for another was so good. What was not so good is that I could try it for approximately 12 hours later! We must have been hungry since we also ate Chinese pork buns, pork meatballs and cheese balls. Our last day would be spent with elephants in an ethical sanctuary.

Day four

This is not the publication of the blog to go to the sandy of animal cruelty and the ethical treatment of the elephants, but, as decent people, we wanted to make sure that the elephants were well served. After reading many reviews and watching YouTube videos, we decided on a full -day visit to Elephant Jungle’s sanctuary. There was no conduction involved and we could simply feed them, give them a mud bath and then wash them. There were only six elephants, including a baby and, in general, the day was really good. What I have found about doing these ‘surreal’ experiences is that, at that time, they feel completely normal. As if it were completely normal to have an elephant stealing bananas from your hand or massage the mud in an elephant twice from your size. It is only when you look back and process the experiences that seem as incredible as they were! In my honest opinion, I think there were probably too many people (30) for the day and they worry that the same six elephants were being seen by another group of a completely different company. I cannot support that with any evidence, apart from the fact that we saw the other group very close to where we just feed the elephants. However, from what I saw, the elephants were treated very well and were free to roam themselves. When they went down for washing, two of the elephants enjoyed him so much that they stayed in the water for about 30 minutes. It was definitely an incredible and one that I would recommend to anyone. The elephants are really incredible creatures and it was very good to spend a full day with them. The highlight can play one who was pregnant with a huge baby elephant twisting inside.[easy-image-collage id=2848]The only correct way to finish our time in Chiang Mai was to have a thirty -minutes and leg massage. It would have been rude not to £ 2 each. I wish I had more of these now; Maybe one a day.

Forward

Our time in Chiang Mai came to an end quite fast, but I think four nights were correct. We managed to see and do everything we wanted and we also had a lot of cold time as well. I am sure that we will lose that relaxed time once it reaches our final stop; The crazy Bangkok.

Just one more internal flight to pass …

Click here To move on to my publication in Bangkok.

If you have been in Chiang Mai, I would love to hear your thoughts too or, if you have any questions, let it know in the comments below.

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