Leaning In

Our original plan had been to get the sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, but as with most plans we make that didn’t exactly work out! You can read here about our visa debacle if you haven’t already, which will explain why we ended up flying into Chiang Mai from Kuala Lumpur instead!

Once we were safely back on Thai soil we “Grabbed” it into the old town where we were staying. Chiang Mai old town is really nice, on the river, with the old castle walls surrounding it and making it this perfect square in the middle of Thailand’s bustling second largest city. But when you’re in the old town you wouldn’t really know you were in a city at all. Great restaurants serving up cheap Thai dishes, like our favourite Khao Soi, are so easy to come by; as are bars, many of which have pool tables and darts to keep you entertained. Our first night in Chiang Mai we had a delicious meal at Arroy Dee on the main street of the old town, then crossed the road to Kangaroo bar where we spent the next couple of hours drinking Chang and playing pool. We were able to play DJ there too and pick what music we wanted on, an added bonus!

The next day, after a leisurely, late brunch, (I suppose that’s lunch really!), we rented a scooter as we thought we would head to Wat Doi Suthep the next morning. I had seen that it was about an hour away but Ryan decided to check again on maps and discovered in was only half an hour away. So we headed out to see it. I had read that it is this beautiful place covered in gold, and that there were about 300 steps to climb in order to see it. When we pulled up right at it I was a little confused but figured maybe the parking situation had just changed. We went in and saw lots of people praying and placing their offerings of flower garlands while the monks chanted and sprinkled holy water. It was really interesting and peaceful to watch. We headed on through to the viewpoint and looked out over the vast city of Chiang Mai. It was then that I noticed the sign that said Wat Doi Kham. This was not Wat Doi Suthep. I broke the news to Ryan, we looked up where we were and realised we were now still 45 minutes away from where we had wanted to end up! 

Back on the scooter we made it up the winding road to Wat Doi Suthep just as the sun had gone down. They weren’t lying when they said there were a lot of steps to get up the Wat. There was a tourist tax of 30THB to pay for a ticket when we eventually did make it. With that we were free to walk about. We were quite glad in the end that we got there when we did, there weren’t very many tourists so it was nice to be able to just walk around at our own pace. I imagine during the day it would be really busy and a lot less pleasant so we were glad that it worked out the way it did! The Wat itself was lovely and this was definitely the golden place I had read about on other blogs, however unfortunately the main stupa was covered in scaffolding when we visited. It didn’t take away too much from our experience and they even have gold fabric wrapped around the scaffolding which visitors had written messages on. 

We headed back into the city where I had the spiciest soup I’ve ever had, Ryan had to eat most of it for me. Ironically it was the only soup on the menu that didn’t have the word spicy in it’s name but clearly that meant nothing! Thankfully just around the corner was 7 Senses, a gelato shop that served very generous portions, and the coconut gelato was just the thing to cool me down!

Our next day in Chiang Mai started with a trip to Chinatown. Once we eventually figured out the one-way streets and managed to find somewhere to park, we were on the outskirts of Chinatown and ended up having the cheapest, and one of the tastiest Khao Soi’s for brunch. We then had a look around the Chinese market where there were all sorts of weird and wonderful things for sale. It really was like another world!

We spent our evening learning how to cook 4 Thai dishes and different curry pastes from scratch at Asia Scenic Cookery School. They picked us up from our hotel and took us to their school in the centre of Chiang Mai old town, where we met our group of fellow students and our teacher for the evening, Olive. The whole experience was fantastic from start to finish! There were 10 in our group, and what was really nice was that we each got to pick what we wanted to make from the options. 

Before the cooking started, we walked to a local market where they buy a lot of the ingredients we were going to be using, and Olive explained about the traditional herbs, spices and vegetables we would use. Back at the cookery school we then went on a tour of their little cottage garden where they grow the herbs and sampled the ones we would be cooking with. 

Before we began cooking, we sampled a traditional Thai welcome snack – Meang Kum – that is normally served to guests that you are cooking for. It involves filling a lettuce leaf with a little onion, ginger, chilli, lime, toasted coconut and peanuts topped with some sweet syrup and wrapped up and eaten in one mouthful. It was absolutely delicious and this was before we’d even got to the main event!

Now it was time to start cooking. We made our noodle dishes first, I made the classic Pad Thai while Ryan made Pad See-Ew. The process was pretty similar for both and it was so quick to make! We immediately tucked into these and enjoyed every mouthful. Not to toot my own horn, but I think it was one of the nicest Pad Thai’s I have had!

After this sufficient sustenance, the serious cooking could start. We were spilt into small groups to make up the various curry pastes we would need; red, green and massaman. All of the ingredients get crushed together with a pestle and mortar, which I’m telling you is hard work! But it’s worth it for those aromatic flavours! 

We then made our soups; I went with Tom Kha Kai, or as Olive called it, baby soup due to its coconut milk base and lack of chillies and Ryan made Tom Yum. Then we were straight into cooking our curries. As you will have gathered by now, we are big fans of Khao Soi, and so neither of us could resist learning to make it ourselves. With the curries made we just had to quickly deep fry the spring rolls and that was us, ready to tuck in!

This meal that we had cooked was by far the most food we had eaten in one sitting whilst in Thailand. None of us could finish it, despite it all being so delicious! 

Our morning at Elephant Nature Park has definitely been one of the highlights of our trip so far. Chiang Mai is one of the places in Thailand that has a lot of elephant sanctuaries but you really do have to be careful when choosing where to go to ensure that it is ethical and actually a sanctuary, not a riding camp or other park that prioritises visitors over the happiness of the elephants. We did a lot of research before deciding to go with Elephant Nature Park, as their tours are completely hands off, and only involve observing the elephants in their habitat. They picked us up from our hotel, and on the way we were surprised to drive past riding camps with tourists riding elephants. With the knowledge we have now about the cruel methods used to “train” these creatures, we found it hard to understand why people would pay to ride on an elephant.

Elephant Nature Park is home to nearly 200 rescued elephants, as well as hundreds of other rescued animals including cats, dogs and buffalo. Our guide, Top, took us around the park, introducing us to many of the elephants that call this beautiful place home, and telling us their stories. The majority of the elephants here have spent their lives working and being mistreated by humans for their own personal gain. Some of the treatment that the elephants here had faced was completely shocking, but it was great to see how happy and well looked after they are now. They get to live out the rest of their lives in this beautiful place, where their needs are put first. 

We learnt so much during this trip, including some of the similarities between elephants and humans. Most children stay with their mums until they are around 18 years old and elephants tend to live to be 70-80 years old. The oldest elephant we met was 92 years old! 

Our next stop in Northern Thailand was Pai, a laid-back little town, which we really enjoyed, once we got there! The journey there was a different story. Packed into a minivan, the road to Pai involves over 700 sharp turns and with a driver who wasn’t fond of using the brake, needless to say, I was feeling pretty unwell by the time we got there. Even Ryan, who doesn’t usually suffer from motion sickness, was feeling a bit queasy. 

Once in Pai and finally off that horrible bus, we quickly knew we would like it here. It’s a small town, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature; right up our street! We rented a scooter and headed out to Pai Canyon for sunset, and to Ryan’s delight the first successful drone flight since it’s repair. It was a short but steep walk up to the canyon but the views were worth it! 

The other side to Pai is that it has become a bit of a party place. There are parties in the jungle that go on all night and tipsy tubing down the river, if that’s the sort of thing you’re into. It’s not so much our scene, but if you’re like us, the party scene has an upside. A lot of the tourists that come here to party don’t rise before the afternoon and so you don’t even need to get up really early to get some of the main sights to yourself. We found this out when we arrived at Mo Paeng waterfall at around 10.30am and were 2 of 5 people there! This waterfall has some natural ‘waterslides’ which Ryan was brave enough to go down. I’m a baby when it comes to things like that so I just sat in one of the shallow pools and watched Ryan slide down and lose his sunglasses! Some friendly Spanish men jumped in to help him look for them and one of them managed to find them! 

After spending a couple of hours there we then headed to the Chinese Village and viewpoint and again, were there with a handful of tourists which was lovely! We had some delicious Chinese noodles for lunch then headed up to the viewpoint and had a pot of Chinese tea while we enjoyed the view! 

The main street in Pai turns into a night market at 6pm and fills with vendors selling food at the side of the road. We ate here both nights we stayed, sampling various delicious dishes, including gyozas, tacos, khao soi and pad thai. You can eat while you walk, pull up a plastic chair or some of the bars let you bring your street food in as long as you buy a drink which was really handy! 

We were really hoping that our onward journey to Chiang Rai wouldn’t involve having to go back down those twisty roads, but of course it did! We had booked to go on a bus to Chiang Rai so when a taxi turned up we were slightly confused but you just have to go with it! We got in, along with a Japanese man who was also going to Chiang Rai, and set off down the dreaded road again. Thankfully it wasn’t just so bad in a car, still not super fun, but not too awful! This car took us to the outskirts of Chiang Mai, where we pulled into a petrol station and were ushered into another car. It turns out this was our next “bus” that would take us to Chiang Rai. Another couple of hours on much more decent roads and we were safely in Chiang Rai. 

This is the city from which you can easily get to the Laos border and the slow boat. (More on that to come!) We had decided to spend a couple of nights here before heading to Laos but to be honest we didn’t do a whole lot and used those days to have a bit of down time! It was a pretty big city but we just stayed in the centre near the clock tower, having nice food and drinks and enjoying doing very little before we started our journey to Laos. 

The 10 days we spent in Northern Thailand were jam-packed, and went by in a flash; but we loved it. It is a beautiful part of the country that is, in our opinion, well worth a visit!