With a brief layover at the Bangkok airport, we arrived in Chiang Mai on a Sunday afternoon, taking a taxi to our hotel, the Rachamankha Hotel. The hotel was situated in the old city and it was a short walk to the regular Sunday night market. So we settled into our room, then headed out to see some of the local Thai culture. The Sunday Market is a large market right in the center of town, where lots of vendors set up every week to sell their goods of souvenirs, food, clothing and massages. It was a great way to get our bearings on the city and to see a lot of local culture.We strolled down the main street, Ratchadamnoen Road, trying to avoid the many people, locals and tourists alike, and the many mosquitos out for the night. Travers was tempted to get some street food from some of the food vendors, but I had read that it might not be the safest bet, especially as our first meal in Thailand, so we eventually opted for a restaurant that was on the main drag and served delicious and cheap Pad Thai. After filling ourselves up with Pad Thai and cooling ourselves down with a cold local beer, we continued walking through the market to the opposite end, eventually opting to take our first tuktuk ride back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning, we woke up early, had a large breakfast at the hotel, then walked across the street to the tourist office, and asked the woman to set us up with a driver for the day. We wanted to see the surrounding area of Chiang Mai, so our driver took us around for the day, heading first to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a buddist temple sitting on top of the Doi Suthep mountain. An hour's drive outside of Chiang Mai, our driver dropped us off at the bottom of the stairs and we slowly made our way up to this famous temple. The main Naga staircase is lined with a serpent on each side, and the tail becomes the handrail all the way up to the top. Before seeing anything else, I was already amazed by the design of this place and was excited to see so much more!
Once at the top, with covered legs and shoulders, we removed our shoes before going into the many pagodas that make up the temple. There were hundreds of Buddha statues throughout the grounds, all in different shapes, sizes, and postures. All the buildings were very ornate, with gold accents, sparkling tiles and statues and decor everywhere.
We walked the grounds for an hour or more, eventually making our way back down the hill where our driver was waiting for us. We drove another hour, back down Doi Suthep and over to the Mae Rim district, for our next stop, the Sai Nam Phung Orchid Farm. We weren't sure what to expect at an orchid farm, but this place has the majority of all the different species of orchids that grow in Thailand. We walked the grounds, passing by beautiful orchid after beautiful orchid.
The orchid farm also had a restaurant, so we stopped for lunch, having some Tom Yum soup and some more pad thai before heading onto our next destination, the Mae Sa Waterfall! Travers loves waterfalls so he was really excited when our driver suggested to go here. The Mae Sa Waterfall is an 8 tiered waterfall that is popular for swimming, for picnics, and hiking. We started hiking our way up the narrow path, stopping at each tier along the way for photo ops. As the afternoon went on, it got more humid, so we were thankful for the cool water running next to us, and Travers even dipped his toes in to cool off!
A bit hot and sweaty from the hike and the humidity, we were ready to end our tour of the outer area of Chiang Mai. Our driver took us back to our hotel and we said goodbye, then took a quick dip into our hotel pool before relaxing in our hotel room a bit before heading out for the night.
For our second night we headed to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, an area permanently filled with vendors and food stalls. We strolled the shops much like the night before, then headed out to the river to have dinner at one of the many restaurants that line the water. Hoping on a Red Songthaew, a red pickup truck where you pay a flat fee to the driver depending on what area you want to go to, and then hop in the covered back flat bed area of the truck and hang on! We didn't take it too far, but it was a fun experience to get us back into the center of town!
We headed back to the Night Bazaar and walked up a set of stairs to a roof top bar called Boy Blues Bar. The bar was lively but we luckily found some seats and were able to watch the band that continuously rotated throughout the night when people from the audience opted to get up there and sing and play their own music. The bar had their own band members that would fill in various instruments as needed, and the guy that owns and runs the place (see left) would often step in as lead guitar. The next day we rented a tuktuk driver for the day to take us around the city of Chiang Mai. We had yet to see all the many temples the city has, and as it was one of the hotter days, we enjoyed the comforts of being in a shaded tuktuk from place to place. We must have seen 10 different temples and pagodas. All were unique in their design and architecture, but all required shoulders and knees covered, shoes off, and no stepping on the doorway.
After a full day of sight-seeing the temples, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for an adventurous night of learning how to cook Thai food! Through the Red Chili Cooking School, we were picked up by Aon, our instructor, along with 5 other people and take to one of the local food markets to get some fresh ingredients for the night. Aon walked us through the market, explaining what different things were and what common ingredients for Thai food looked like. We were then able to explore a few minutes on our own, and I purchased some sweet dried strawberries and a couple beers for Travers and myself.
From there, we went to Aon's house where he had a large outdoor kitchen set up in the backyard with 8 individual work stations. We gathered around while he would describe the first dish and then watch him make it. Then we would all go to our stations and attempt to make it ourselves. He had two assistants with him, who I think were his parents, and they made certain each of us were doing the necessary steps. We made 4 dishes, a soup, a curry, a pad thai and a stir fry. Each time Aon would show us first how to do it, then we would all get to try our own. We got to eat each of our dishes after we made them, and I gotta say, I think we did a pretty darn good job!
At the end of the evening, once we were all stuffed with Thai food, we all lit a large lantern together, made some wishes, then raised it up and released it into the night sky. It was a magical ending to a fun, food-filled night!
The next day, we walked into town for lunch and finally got a Thai foot massage (much needed after all the walking we'd been doing) before heading back to the airport to head to our next destination, Siem Reap, Cambodia!
