Asian Adventures - Chiang Mai

After a full day of flying from Bali (it should only take 5 hours unless you miss your 2nd flight like us), we landed in Chiang Mai a little before 9p. The AirBnb condo we stayed in was new, air-conditioned and a close walk to Old Town. Even though the owner lives stateside, she was still very helpful and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a little bit quieter of an experience. However, if you want a little more hustle, I'd recommend staying in Riverside, where it's a little more touristy and there are lots of bars, restaurants and shops. But we were happy for the comfortable bed and strong A/C upon arrival. It was an early night... But lead to an early start the next day!

I made it to Old Town around 7:30am, which I highly recommend. All the temples (wats) still had their services going on, which were beautiful to listen to. There's also a main square where you can see all the locals giving alms to the younger monk boys. I hit the main 3 wats right away. They were all gorgeous in their own unique ways. It was peaceful to sit on the grounds before all the tourists rolled in.

Wat Chedi Luang Worawihan

Wat Phra Singh Woramahaviharn

After that I walked back past the 3 Kings Monument and grabbed a breakfast of mango sticky rice (typically a dessert but I'm on vacation!) and papaya smoothie.

Yes, there's really 3 of them

And this is mango sticky rice - eat as much as possible!

After that I went to get my first Thai style massage, which I actually liked more than the Bali ones. Thai massages are aggressive. They try to crack all the bones in your body and force you into tough yoga poses for stretching while they continue to knead you. It's only 200 BHT for 1 hour, so $6. After that, I went to lunch at Hot Chili, which has a fun ambiance of red drapes and lanterns hanging from the ceiling. 

Hot Chili

I had the papaya salad, which was so hot my mouth was on fire. Everyone around me laughed as I drank 3 bottles of water in rapid succession. I also had some pork wontons to help the burn, which were far and above any wontons I've had with my Chinese takeout back home.

Papaya Salad - Hurts so good, prepare to cry

After my mouth returned to normal I continued walking around Old Town and looking at all the wats. It feels like there's a new wat every block, each with their own statue themes and different feel. For a good easy read and explanation of all the wats in Old Town follow this guide.They're hard to describe so here's a variety of photos:

Old Town is nice, as it's a central square surrounded by a crumbling wall and moat. It's touristy, but not too crazy in November. There's tons of bars, restaurants, shops and massages places. There were 2 post offices so I got some mail out pretty easily. After walking what felt like every inch of Old Town, I decided to branch out. My next trek was a specific quest. I saw that one of the highest ranked things on Trip Advisor was a cat cafe called Catmosphere. Missing my own cat, I walked there for about 45 minutes along busy roads (I'd recommend a taxi for most). 

Catmosphere!

The cafe was small but adorable. You sit on a floor cushion with a low table. There are about 15 kittens, sleeping, playing, eating. There's tons of toys. They also do treat time with them, which gets all of the sleepy ones out of their boxes and hammocks. I stayed for about 20 minutes, had a kiwi soda, played with some kittens, then headed back to the condo. 

KITTENS!!!!!!

We grabbed a taxi and headed to the restaurant Huen Huay Kaew, which is right outside of the city at the bottom of the mountains near the zoo. There you can eat on one of several levels of outdoor patios overlooking jungle and a beautiful waterfall. The food and drinks are cheap, so while it's a little out of the way it's a good deal. 

Waterfall view from the patio

The taxis here are a fun experience, as it's a closed top truck with 2 benches facing each other and an open back, so people jump in and out along the way. Careful when drivers slam on the brakes, you'll feel like you're going to fly out. They'll try to negotiate with foreigners but if you're within city limits it should be 20 BHT each. For a nightcap we hit a neighborhood bar where a man played acoustic versions of popular 90s jams.

The next day we got picked up at Wat Suan Dok by our place for an all day cooking school, Siam Rice Cookery. For the first 30 minutes they bring you to a local market where you get to see and learn about a lot if the ingredients you'll be using later. 

Meat aisle at the market

After that they take you a but further, out to the 1 building school. They are so helpful. You pick which dish you want to make for each course, they then plate all the ingredients for you. All you basically do is chop everything up, then cook it in a wok or pot. There are half day and full day options. We were excited and did the full day but in retrospect I'd recommend the half day, which is 4 courses. The full day adds an addition 3 so over the course of 4-5 hours you eat so much you can't even finish most of it. But overall an amazing experience. Is recommend it to any travelers wanting to learn more about local cuisine. I'm a horrible cook but my dishes went off without a hitch. I made chicken coconut soup, drunken noodles (so fun, pick this over standard pad thai and you get to play with fire), papaya salad (my spice nemesis), fried chicken with ginger, panang curry (my new favorite curry), and mango sticky rice (amazing for any meal). 

The finished product!

Making drunken noodles...

The next day we went on a day trip that we booked through Untouched Thailand the night prior. We booked this tour and were the only people who signed up, so basically it was a private tour. This AMAZING husband and wife team picked us up in a van and we went up the mountain to tour Doi Suthep Temple, this lavish wat overlooking Chiang Mai. It looks like it's made completely of gold and jade, so at the top of the mountain it beautifully reflects the sun. 

Our guide knew a lot about the temple and overall religious customs, so that was interesting to hear. After walking around the temple and then the outside terrace views we got back in the van and headed to Doi Inthanon National Park, which is a little over an hour outside of the city. We parked by one of the main waterfalls and our guides directed us to the best place to eat, where we could pick out meat they'd grill it up right in front of you. We had pork belly, sticky rice, papaya salad, whole coconuts, and spicy chicken and ate it all with our fingers. It was one of the most authentic, and best, meals we had the whole trip. After we walked the hill to see Wachirathan Falls. 

After that we hopped back in the van and went to a local market put on by one of the tribes who lives in the park. Then we drove to the center of the park, where we met a man who didn't speak English but was part of the Karen Hill tribe and familiar with the forest, so they hire him to be a guide. The trek was about two hours and absolutely amazing. We saw several epic waterfalls (they give you the option to go swimming in them but we passed). 

We walked through jungle, down a mountain, and through old poppy fields. 

The hike ended in our guide's village, where they make their own coffee. We got to try the coffee, as well as some of the local moonshine. Our guides had also noticed at lunch how much we loved coconuts so they surprised us with a few more. It was so neat to hang out in a place where even though we couldn't communicate with the locals, they were so friendly. Seeing a remote village of a tribe that is on the impoverish end is one of those important travel experiences everyone should have to really put things into perspective.

That evening we went back into Old Town for the Sunday Night Market. There's quite a few markets that are always going on but the Sunday night one is the biggest. It was cool to see what everyone is selling and I snagged a few super affordable pashminas, and then we decided to escape the crowd and observe from a restaurant deck up top. There I tried one of my new favorite Thai dishes, khao soi. It's a brownish curry (similar to a massaman) with fried egg noodles in it. They then give you a bunch of fixings on the side that you can opt to add in, like onion, chillies, shallots and peanuts. Not every place has it and I've been on the hunt for it since being back in San Francisco. It's only found in Burmese, Laos, and Northern Thai restaurants.

Khao Soi w/the fixings

The next day was our all day excursion to the elephant sanctuary, which is one of the neatest things I've ever done. Elephants are the sweetest animals ever. They seem like giant puppies and even have some of the same mannerisms. I was very concerned about finding an elephant place that was humane and did not use sticks to prod them or mistreat them in any way. After consulting a lot of friends and some online research, Baan Chang Elephant Park kept coming up. 

Elephants!!

I'm so glad we went here. They rescue mistreated elephants from circuses and bad owners, then rehabilitate them. The day starts our with getting to feed them bananas and sugar cane, so they're understandably excited to see us coming. 

My favorite elephant: Gangster

We learn some of the different elephants stories and how they each get their own mahout to take care of them. We gave one of them a bath and saw some babies from a distance. 

Elephant shower time

Then we learned how to mount and dismount elephants and rode them around in small circles. The sanctuary gives you lunch, then you get to ride the elephants in a larger circle through the nearby forest for an hour or so. 

Up high, look at those ears!

The day ends with an interesting "elephant bathing" experience which I won't spoil for you. Just be happy they give you clothes to wear for the day.

Just you wait...

That evening we went to the Riverside area, next to Old Town on the opposite side of our AirBnB. We met up with our group from the elephant excursion and ate at A Good View Bar & Restaurant, which has an extensive cocktail list, giant patio, and overall fun ambiance.

That's it for Chiang Mai but I would recommend people spend at least 4 days there. There were also whitewater rafting and ziplining day trips, plus multiple day excursions to nearby Chiang Rai that would have been fun. But now it's off to the islands!