Lonely planet describes this city as a “cultural darling, and that it is. The streets are alive with monks and motorcycle-driving housewives. There are more book shops, vegetarian dining options, and coffee shops than we had ever seen. This was obviously a place to kick back and relax, and had a city wide feel of “self improvement”- whether that was achieved through eating healthy or meditation and yoga, this was obviously a destination for many people’s sabbaticals. Chaing Mai, was a great first stop for us in Thailand, because it was easy for us to get a feel for all aspects of the culture. We spent our first day exploring the Old City, which is a neat square bound by a moat, with remnants of medieval architecture, enclosing intertwine “soi” (streets) filled with family ran guesthouses, gardens, restaurants, and massage studios.
When Birmy caught up on March Madness at a local coffee shop, Carley got a foot massage and pedicure. Thailand was looking pretty good right now, since there was sunshine, great food, pedicures, and sports! We explored many old Temples “wats” within the city, our favorite being Wat Chedi Luang dating back to 1441; with a huge chedi “spire” and emerald Buddah as the main focal point of the temple. Carley then found a spot to take a local yoga class, when Birmy decided it was time for a shower since he hadn’t for 4 days. We reconvened at a rooftop bar along the moat, for a drink, and to plan our next move, which was clearly to find some good street food. This was the first stop along the way where Birmy was able to convince Carley to partake in the street vendors. We then had our first pad thai of the trip, on the street for, all for 30 Baht (a dollar each), and then headed to the night bizarre.
As impressed that we were by the markets in Vietnam, this didn’t compare to those in Thailand. Here, there seemed to be better quality, more variety, and nicer vendors. You were not guilt tripped into buying anything, and nor were you haggled to look at their merchandise. A lot of vendors here were looking for friendly conversation, to possibly help with their learning of English. This was a nice change of pace! Some purchases were made, and then the plan was to have a great nights sleep. Little did we know the Royal Guesthouse was an animal farm, where cats, water buffalos, antalopes, gheekos, camels and rooster kept us up for all hours of the night.
Day 2- Carley did another yoga class in the morning, then we met at a coffee spot in the Old City. We hired a tuk tuk to take us to the hot springs, got a tour of the country side, then made it back just in time to get picked up for our cooking class. We took a cooking class at Thai Kitchen Cookery School, with a woman named Dang. This is highly recommended to anyone in Thailand! Not only did we cook a four course meal, and learn about all the ingredients and strategy to Thai flavor, but we used products picked up from the local market hours before so the quality and freshness of the food was a treat! We prepared Pad Thai, Green Curry Paste, Chicken Cashew nut, and Jalapeno stir fry, as well as fried banana with ice cream for dessert. It was a lot of fun, and turned out to be one of the best meals of our whole trip, even though we were the ones who cooked it! Birmy decided his new career path was to become a chief; he has already emailed Emerald directly about starting thai spin off cooking show which will air immediately on prime time television. That night we went to the Saturday Walking Street, which is an enormous market, only occurring from 4 pm-midnight every Saturday. This, was absolutely the best market we had been to. It was less touristy, more friendly, larger, and had a new variety of products. Birmy stocked up on some home made mosquito repellent, and Carley got home made face and body scrubs- then we were river bound to uncover the night scene in Chaing Mai. We started off going to Riverside Bar, which is also highly recommended, it was a larger, extremely nice bar, with live music, and a cool feel. Since we were excluded from the Thai sing along for multiple reasons: not being dressed right, not knowing the language, and skin color..we moved to the next bar.
The GoodView was a great bar, also on the water, with an awesome atmosphere and constant entertainment. There was some killer live band who Birmy plans to have perform at his wedding, whose hits included: Even Essence “Bring Me To Life”, plenty of Katy Perry, and special performance of enter Sandman by the ten person Thai band. Once Lesli Chow’s performance was over, and the bar was closing, we flagged a tuk tu and called it a night. A day of trekking was to come in the morning, followed by our departure from Chaing Mai to Pai.
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