After a short plane ride from Bangkok, we arrived in Chiang Mai. If Bangkok is like a slap in the face from an angry stranger, then Chiang Mai is a slow hug from a sweaty stranger on a warm day.
We got a great hotel - U Chiang Mai- that was right downtown. The room was great and the facilities were fantastic. The only downside was the lack of functional air conditioning, which was somewhat important in a place with 80% humidity and 90 degree weather at night.
Our hotel balcony
After checking in, we immediately headed downtown for the local temples, which were all pretty fantastic. The only weirdness was that at least one of these included wax copies of monks that were amazingly lifelike.
The ruins of an old stupa
For dinner, we went to Ratana's Kitchen. The food was good and cheap, even though the atmosphere was a bit odd. Clearly this place is on some international backpacker's restaurant list.
On our way to the famous night market, we passed through the International Lantern Festival. It was a small display of the lanterns of the world. Not entirely educational, but definitely really pretty to see.
International Lantern Festival
Night Market
The next day was our exciting elephant day! We did some research, and realized that Chiang Mai has lots of elephant places. We picked the Patara Elephant Farm, which seemed like a nice balance between conservation and entertainment. They picked us up at our hotel, and after a short van ride into the country, we stopped at a spot where a mother and three baby elephants liked to eat. They gave us some small bananas and sugar cane to feed them, and we hung out for a while.
Then we headed to the main camp, where we were each paired with an elephant. We fed and cleaned them, then hopped on board for a quick ride down to the local waterfall. Sidenote, my elephant was very grumpy and didn't like people. R's elephant had a baby that was a huge pain. It turns out that baby elephants are like bad human toddlers, only times 500 pounds. My elephant at one point, slapped R's baby. It was awesome. She was such a grump.
My and my girl, Mae Moon
After we rode our elephants down to the local waterfall, we gave them a quick bath which was a lot like washing a moving school bus. Once completely exhausted, we gathered for a picnic. It was amazing.
picnic!
So, after we said goodbye, we went back to the hotel to crash.
Our third day was all about cooking. We had the morning to kill, so we signed up for a Thai massage at the hotel. I enjoy massages generally; I like the quite, calm, relaxing atmosphere of a massage. This was not that. A Thai massage is known as "lazy man's yoga" because the masseuse picks up the victim and forces them into yoga poses. We chose to get massaged in the same room, which for me was more about having a witness than having a romantic moment. I literally yelped multiple times.
As soon as I could stand again, we headed down to catch our van to the cooking school. Like elephant places, there are a lot of cooking schools in Chiang Mai. We picked the Pantawan Cooking School because it wasn't just teaching the same generic foods all the rest were (ie, curry and Pad Thai). Plus, this place was amazingly beautiful. Again, they picked us up at our hotel.
We stopped by a local market where they explained to us all of the many fabulous things for sale. One of the specialities of Chiang Mai is a pork sausage with lemongrass and other Thai seasonings. We sampled it and a few other awesome things.
Perusing the Market
Then we went to the school and made a bunch of exciting dishes. The food was good, but the atmosphere was fantastic.
Fried rice baby!
When we finished our many multiple courses of food, we stopped by the night market once again to sample the Roti- which in Thailand, means crepe with fried banana and chocolate, and is amazing.
After three days, we felt like we'd gotten a good sense of Chiang Mai. It seemed like the right amount of time to experience the good stuff without getting ancy. And then, it was time to pack up and move on to the next spot.
Next stop- Part 3 and the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Tao!
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