Thursday, December 3rd
We arrived around 10am to Chiang Mai from Bangkok. Again, I had a map ready for the taxi driver, since most taxi drivers need directions in Thailand. (oy!) There was a sign outside the airport that read, "Metered Taxi." We had been warned that many taxi drivers scam tourists by not turning on their meters, then telling them they owe an outrageous amount at the end of the ride.
I told the man behind the metered taxi sign that we needed to go to De Chai Hotel in Chiang Mai. Luckily, I had called the hotel ahead of our arrival, and they gave me a price they thought was fair for a one-way taxi ride to the hotel. The man started to bargain with me. I told him the price the hotel had given me, and he agreed to it. "Metered taxi" Ha! What a joke. But at least I had a ballpark figure of what to expect. There's no scamming this girl!
I hadn't planned many activities for that afternoon in Chiang Mai. I gave ourselves a big buffer because I wasn't sure how tired we'd be from traveling, or how reliable travel was in Thailand.
Since we had so much time on our hands, we decided to get massages at the top- rated massage place in Chiang Mai. (It was still very affordable to US standards)
We both got a foot massage, and an oil massage. My massages were changed to cater to my pregnancy. Neither one of us got a traditional Thai massage while we were in Thailand. Nick's had one before, and he left in more pain that he went in with. They are not for the faint of heart, and we were happy to have our oil massages.
After our 2.5 hours of massages, we decided to take a leisurely stroll through the city of Chiang Mai to check out some of the temples. I was surprised to see so many cars in the old town area. Many cities in Europe are pedestrian-only in the old towns. It makes for a noisy, smelly walk to the temples with all the vehicles zipping by us.
We were welcomed to the old town by the Thapei Gate. There I am in my elephant muumuu.
After almost an hour of walking, we made it to our first temple - Wat Phra Singh. We weren't too impressed by it, but we had 2 other temples on our list of places to see in the old town. We were hoping those would be a little more impressive.
This looks familiar. ;)
Since we really underestimated the distances in old town, we decided to try a tuk tuk. Neither Nick or I had ever ridden in one. One of Nick's favorite childhood toys was a tuktuk his dad brought back from his trip to Thailand. I was a little skeptical of the ride, since I was pregnant. I was hoping it wasn't too bouncy.
I wish someone had recorded me trying to get into the tuktuk. I thought if I leaned back, I could just sit my butt down on the seat. They're much bigger than they look. I leaned back and sat right on the floor. Haha! I was laughing so hard. I had completely missed the seat. With a second push, I made it to the seat.
Nick and I had to sit low to see out the front.
So excited for his first tuktuk ride!
Traffic was crazy!
Our ride was perfect! It got us to our second temple, Wat Chiang Man, in record time.The sun was starting to set, so we were trying to hurry.
I was so excited! I had been telling Nick about a temple that had several elephant statues. I thought the first temple we visited was it, but I was wrong. I was glad Nick was willing to see more than one temple in Chiang Mai; they just kept getting better!
Pictures just don't do it justice. The statues were huge!
There's always a stray cat or dog laying around the temples.
The sun was setting quickly. Nick was on the fence about the 3rd temple, but I REALLY wanted to squeeze one more in. With the help of another tuktuk, we made it there before it closed.
I had told Nick I had really wanted to see Wat Chedi Luang. It was one of the top rated places on TripAdvisor for Chiang Mai. We thought we had passed it on our walk to the first temple. (There are dozens of temples in old town Chiang Mai.) We were wrong! If we hadn't taken the tuktuk to Wat Chedi Luang, we would have gone to the wrong one! Luckily, the tuktuk driver knew which one we wanted to see, and didn't need a map! Haha!
It was definitely the most impressive of the 3 we had seen especially at dusk.
Buddha bellies.
I did nothing to edit this photo. This site was really pretty breathtaking.
On our walk to dinner we heard insanely loud noises going off in the city. Tourists and locals were looking around to see where all the noise was coming from.
There was a huge firework display for the King's birthday. It was almost deafening, but very cool to see. This year the king turned 88. Our last tour guide said it was his "infinity" birthday, since the number 8 looks like the infinity sign.
We ate at Cooking Love in old town for dinner. It was nothing fancy, but some of THE best food we ate while we were in Thailand. (Not to mention probably the cheapest meal we ate.)
We both had Pad Thai (of course), and I ordered a spicy, papaya salad. It was to live for!!
For dessert we had mango sticky rice. I would go back to Thailand just to eat at that little, hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
That night we decided we hadn't had enough walking. (haha.) We walked from our hotel to the night market.
We knew we wanted to bring back a few trinkets and gifts, but we decided to just hunt for gifts that night.
The market had a little bit of everything. I thought this shirt was pretty funny, after living in Japan for a few months. I love sushi!
My feet were done, we got our 3rd tuktuk ride back to our hotel from the market.
We had a great first day in Chiang Mai. I loved the slower pace, and the laid back attitude from the locals. We also liked the cheaper prices! :)
Friday, December 5th
One of the must-see items online for Chiang Mai is a cooking class. I wouldn't say I'm a great cook and I don't have a huge interest in learning, but if so many tourists had voted that as a top attraction then I thought we'd have to do it!
I made a reservation with the top rated cooking school on TripAdvisor - Thai Farm cooking school. Our guide/teacher for the day was Garnet. She was a young, energetic girl. She would laugh loudly at her own jokes, which would make us all laugh too. She was so cute!
There were 4 other couples on the tour with us that day.
First, we hit up the local market just outside of town. Garnet showed us exactly what to look for when we were shopping for Thai food. She even did a few demonstrations while we were there.
In the photo, she's "milking" a coconut.
We had about 15 minutes to walk around on our own after her speech.
Mangos!
Nick and I bought some Thai chili paste to bring home. We can't get enough Thai food. Yum!
We had to get a Thai iced tea while we waited for the others. ;)
I wasn't sure what this woman was sewing, but I loved her shirt she was wearing. I could see that pattern in an Anthro store.
We drove about 30 more minutes to the Thai farm. We were way out in the boonies. We passed herds of water buffalo on the way. It was incredible to see how the locals really lived.
We got to know the others in our class, while we were in the confined space of the van. They were so fun!
There was an older couple that lived in Oregon, a young couple from San Fran, an even younger couple from Poland and a cute couple from China. We had so much fun bantering back and forth.
Garnet was an amazing teacher. She wanted us to act as a team. In this photo, she was using my finger to press the start button on the rice cooker while we all held hands. We all helped cook the rice! Haha!
From left to right:
Couple from Oregon, couple from Poland, couple from San Fran, and couple from China..and us of course. :)
After we did a little prep work, Garnet took us around the farm and showed us everything they were growing. Almost all of the ingredients we were using that day came from the farm.
Nick loved the smell of cilantro.
This is a long bean!
Nick tried all of these peppers on a dare. Haha! He lived to tell about it.
We went back up to our cooking stations to get started.
Our first dish was Pad Thai.
The best part of the class was we got to eat all the yummy food we'd just made.
Yum!
We had to pound our tiny Thai peppers until it was a paste for our next meal. Garnet would go around and see how everyone was doing. You'd think that Nick would have been one of the first ones done pounding his peppers, but apparently he wasn't doing it right. Garnet gave him a hard time. "More, Niiiiiick," she would say. She'd walk around and come back to him. After telling everyone they were done, she would say, "No, Niiiiiick. You need morree, Niiiiick." Haha! Glad I'm not the only one that loves to tease him. :)
Next we did a curry. It was so delicious!
We made 4 dishes total that day. I made green curry, pad thai, coconut soup, and mango sticky rice.
We were stuffed by the end, and ready for a cat nap.
This cat was ready for one too. We all wanted to take her home. She was so cute. :)
We had such a blast that day. Turned out to be my favorite tour during our trip to Thailand, and I don't even like cooking!
Garnet was an amazing teacher. The food was delicious. They gave us cook books with all of the recipes we had just made at the end. The whole class was so well put together. I would highly recommend doing that tour.
After ALL that food we ate on our tour, Nick still wanted Pad Thai for dinner. We walked to the night market so he could grab some grub.
I wasn't as hungry, but I did try a crepe at a vendor nearby.
The night market was pretty quiet that evening because a big storm had just gone through. There was a group of 20 year olds sitting nearby trying to get our attention.
We finally gave in and walked over.
One gentleman introduced himself. He said, "Hi, my name is Mai." I thought that was a strange name for a white guy, but you just never know! "Mai," I asked. "No, Ma-ey," he said. I looked at Nick. I apparently wasn't understanding him. Nick was just looking at me and laughing. I started to think the guy was just really drunk. He slowed it down again. "Matty," he said with a thick glottal stop. "Ohhhh!" Matty, was from Scotland and had a VERY thick accent.
After all that embarrassment, we decided to sit with them for a few minutes. Most of them were hippies from all over the world there to save the planet, or to find themselves. It was an interesting group! They were very kind. We were glad to have met them and hear each of their stories. That's part of the fun of traveling.
We were definitely ready for bed after that though! Laying down never felt so good! We had to be up and ready by 8am for our next tour to the Elephant Sanctuary just outside Chiang Mai.;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;o
Saturday, December 6th
I was SO excited to visit the elephant sanctuary! All the elephants have been rescued from poor living environments. We watched a 30 minute long video in the van ride out on how to behave around the elephants. It almost scared us enough that we didn't really want to get close to the elephants at all.
I was shocked when we arrived to see how many people were there. There were hundreds!!
Two couples from our cooking class the day before said they were going to the sanctuary the same day we were. We never ended up seeing them, since there were SO many people!!!
Our tour guide was not the greatest. She was very shy and timid. If or when she gave instructions we could barely hear her. Getting information out of her was like pulling teeth.
One person could usually hear her, and we'd just follow them.
While we waited for our turn to feed the elephants, we walked around the grounds.
I love this photo. There's a dog sleeping on a cat pillow, and a cat sleeping on a dog bed. Haha!
There were cats and dogs running all over the grounds. There must have been just as many cats and dogs as there were people there that day.
It was finally our turn to feed the elephants.
There were two large baskets full of fruits and veggies. Our group of 15, grabbed our food and held it out for the herd that had just shown up.
It was so fun feeding watching their trunks reach for the food in our hands.
About 30 minutes later, after awaiting instructions, we were guided (from a distance) by our guide to an open field. There were a few older elephants that either couldn't see or hear very well.
We were told to make noise as we approached and then to touch their sides. Elephants have VERY strong trunks and they can easily throw a person if they wanted to. They can also kick to the side! None of the elephants were spry enough to try either of those, but we were warned anyway.
Nick was the bravest! This elephant had a hole in her ear from where she was pinned. They used it basically as a leash. They put a flower in her ear to cover it.
The even had water buffalo at the elephant sanctuary.
This cute baby was having the time of her life with the tire. She started running toward our group with it, and our guide actually used her voice to tell us to run! Haha!
I wish I could remember all of the names of the elephants. This one had just arrived a few months prior. She had a weak (aka - broken) ankle. It was easy to get closer to her as a result. Nick got a great video of her eating because he put his go pro in with her food on the ground. The rest of the group stood waiting for her to either pick it up and eat it, or step on it. Neither happened, thankfully.
She was a sweet one!
After lunch, we walked (forever) over to watch the herds bathe in the river. This was probably my least favorite event because I was expecting to splash water on them. Plus, there were hundreds of other tourists on the shore snapping photos. I was running all over the sand trying not to get other photographers in my shots. Oy!
We walked about 45 minutes back to the main building to wait again to be told (quietly) where to go next.
Our last event was washing the elephants! I had been waiting for this all day!!
You can see our elephant coming toward us. There were about 15 other elephants that were going to be washed as well.
Our elephant took off back to the field after about 5 minutes.
We were SO sad! Everyone else's elephants just stood there for a good 30 minutes. We stood around and watched all the other groups wash their elephants and play in the water.
Maybe she didn't like getting splashed in the face.
All in all, it was great to see that these elephants have a second chance. It was also fun seeing all the animals on the grounds of the sanctuary. It really made us think twice about the elephant shows that were advertised throughout Thailand. We also didn't have a desire to ride one after that.
I think there could have been a LOT of improvements to the way the day had gone though. A tour guide that actually guided us and had given us information would have been a great start!
All in all, we liked Chiang Mai. It was slightly cooler than Bangkok, cheaper, and more laid back.
Now, onto the real relaxation of the trip...Phuket!
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