Chiang Mai is the largest city in northern Thailand. It is 435 miles north of Bangkok. Chiang Mai was founded as a royal residence in 1292 and as a town in 1296. It served as the capital of the Lannan Thai kingdom until 1558, when it fell to Myanmar. In 1774 Myanmar was driven out by the Siamese King Taksin. Chiang Mai retained a degree of independence from Bangkok until the late 19th century.
How did we get here? This trip was pretty easy. Tiring, but easy. We walked about 2 blocks to the bus station. We had already purchased our tickets the day before so all we had to do was wait for the bus. We had a double decker bus and we had seats 101 A & B on the lower level right behind the driver's cab. When boarding, we were handed a snack bag which included water, soy milk, and cookies. Our bus ride was over 5 hours with a couple of stops, basically a bathroom break. We finally arrived at Chiang Mai Arcade Bus stop where we caught a Songthaew (see below) to our hotel.
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| Bus station |
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| Snacky poo |
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| Front seats lower level |
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| A Songthaew is a small truck with 2 bench seats the length of the back and can hold up to 8 people. The name comes from Thai words "Two" (song) and "Row" (thaew). |
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| We shared a ride with our 4 French friends |
Where did we stay? We stayed at the Thongran House. We booked directly through the hotel for $28 a night. It's a family owned boutique hotel that we found through Earthtrekkers website (Their blog covers traveling all over Asia and more) This hotel is in a perfect location. The rooms are spacious and very clean. Kibb is very friendly and so sweet. Her parents do not speak English, but try to help.
Each morning our breakfast (included in price) was set up on the patio. We had juice, water, and fruit with our chosen meal.
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American Breakfast
Scrambled eggs, ham, croissant |
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| Croissant Sandwich with fries |
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| Yogurt with fruit |
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Thai Breakfast
Fried egg, stir fry chicken and rice 🍚 |
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Thai Breakfast
Fried egg, stir fry beef, and rice 🍚 |
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| Breakfast with a view! |
When we checked in Kibb gave us a map and told us about the daily market that turns into the nightly market and that there is a Saturday and Sunday market. We enjoyed a street food dinner at the nightly market.
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| Chicken Pad Thai |
Our travel agent Roberto booked us several tours with Chian Mai Easydrive via Fluke Kempe and our first tour was a One Day Chiang Mai Highlights Tour. Our driver Miko picked us up at our hotel. Our first stop Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Legend says King Nu Naone placed a relic on the back of a white elephant 🐘 and the elephant was released into the jungle. The elephant 🐘 climbed up the mountain and dropped dead. This was taken as an omen and the King ordered the temple to be built.
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| Tram to the top of the mountain ⛰ |
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| Our view |
Our next stop was Wat Pha Lat which is located in the forest. It was so relaxing and peaceful, and a popular place to meditate 🧘♀️ 🧘♂️.
Our next stop was the Huay Tung Tao Lake to see statues made of rice straw.
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| The Lake |
Baan Den Temple
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Some of the monk statues
looked so real |
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We loved the woodwork
on the window coverings |
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| Sharon's Buddha |
Srilanna National Park where we took a long-tail boat ride on the Mae Ngat Somboon Chon Dam to Restaurant on the Water. Restaurant on the Water is a floating hotel, restaurant, Waterpark and swimming hole. This would be cool place to stay especially with kids.
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| Papaya Salad |
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| Fried noodles with chicken |
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| Fish |
Buatong Waterfall aka Sticky Waterfalls! The multi-tiered waterfalls get their names from a mineral deposit that is incredibly grippy. We walked down the stairs and climbed back up the falls.
We had so much food for lunch we decided to just get a snack for dinner at the Saturday Night Market. The Saturday night market is just a larger version of the nightly market.
On Sunday November 13th we started our day driving to Doi Inthanon National Park. We stopped to purchase our tickets, which were included in the price of the tour. Our tour guide Miko purchased us some snacks the locals were selling: banana chips, pineapple, green mango with spicy sugar.
Our first stop was the Wachirathan Waterfall also called "Tad Khongyong". The waterfall is about 2460 feet or 750 meters above sea level. A very impressive waterfall.
Sririthan Waterfall not as impressive as the first fall. There was a trail that lead down to the water, but we only attempted so far, we had flip flops on.
Highest spot in Thailand is 2565 meter above sea level.
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| King Inthanon Memorial Shrine |
Ang Ka Nature Trail 👣 it was a cute little trail.
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| Sacred Water Resource |
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| Not sacred any longer |
King and Queen Pagoda built by the Thai Air Force together with Thai people. They were dedicated to the royal grace of King Rama 9 and the Queen of Thailand.
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| King's Pagoda |
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| Queen's Pagoda |
Hmong local market!
Lunch in the park! Finally trying something new.
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| Spring rolls |
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| Tom Yum Soup - spicy |
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| Thai Coconut 🥥 Chicken Soup |
Our next stop was Hill Tribe Village at Mai Klang Luang where we saw a rice paddies which were just about ready to be harvested.
Coffee time at the Hill Tribe Coffee Cafe.
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| Coffee ☕ bean skins |
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| Roaster |
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| Freshly roasted coffee beans |
The Sunday Market is huge and people travel from all over just for the Sunday Night Market. There were so many people you couldn't walk you and had to shuffle. It is a good thing we are not on vacation. We would need another suitcase just for "stuff".
The best tour yet was the Elephant 🐘 Sanctuary. A van picked us up at 0730 and we drove about an hour and a 1/2 ⏲ to the Happy 😊 Elephant 🐘 Home 🏡. The first order of business was to learn about the farm and the elephants 🐘. There are 3 elephants 🐘 🐘 🐘 on the farm, but only 2 are owned by the farm.
Next, we changed into our Thai Karen outfits. The clothes were so comfortable especially when they fit.
Malo was their first elephant and she is the oldest at 48. She was rescued from the logging industry and is blind in her right eye. Tong Bai arrived in 2015 and is 42 years old. She was a logging elephant and then a riding elephant and has a bad hip. We fed the elephants bananas. Lots of bananas 🍌, before heading to the river.
We trekked down to the river with the elephants 🐘 🐘 🐘 following. You had to be careful. Their trunks would come right up behind you and sniff for bananas 🍌. It's time for a bath!
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| Sharon giving a bucket bath |
A little break time for the elephants before heading back.
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| Rob slinging mud |
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| Nothing like a boy playing in the mud! |
As you can tell we really enjoyed this tour, highly recommend. #happyelephanthome
Our next adventure was a half day cooking 🍳 class. This was booked directly through The Thai Farm Cooking School. A van picked us up at 8:15 and we were greeted by our guide, Garnet, who was our everything but the driver for the day. By 9 we were at Ruamchook local market where Garnet explained about food used in Thai cooking.
Back in the van and off to the farm. We were given a tour of the farm and Garnet explained what is grown there and provided samples of some of the herbs. Our space was setup with a demonstration, preparation, and dining table, a kitchen with multiple cooking stations and a cleaning area.
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Papaya Tree 🌳
The bottom (pink circle) is fruit
The top (red circle) is a vegetable used in salads |
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| Demonstration Table |
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| Cooking Stations |
Our class was a small group of 10. Felix & Carmine from Switzerland, yours truly Rob & Sharon team USA, Stephanie & Sabin from Germany, Brian & Brianna from Canada, and Hannah & Mama Elsa from Korea.
First item we made was our soup. We each chose a different soup: Tom Yum (hot and sour) and Tom Kha (coconut milk) Soup. We could choose shrimp, chicken or tofu. We both went with shrimp.
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Tom Kha Soup
The taste should be creamy, salty and a little sour. Perfect 😋
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Here we learned what our spice level is Rob is a 2 pepper and Sharon is a 1/2 to 1 small pepper. We also learned you do not need to eat everything in the bowl such as lemon grass, galangal (a Siamese ginger), and kaffir lime leaves.
We all sat down and enjoyed our delicious 😋 soups before we started making our curry paste using a mortar and a pestle, grinding all the herbs. A mini workout!
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| Sharon's finished curry paste |
Our curry options were Green, Red, Yellow, Khao Soi, Penang, and Masaman. For our curries we chose Red and Penang. We could choose chicken or tofu. We both went with chicken.
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| Sharon's Penang Curry |
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Rob's Red Curry
The taste should be a little bit salty, creamy, and spicy. Perfect 😋 |
While our curries were cooling down, we made our next dish. We could choose between Pad Thai Noodles, Spring Rolls, and Pad Thai Woon Sen. We chose Spring Rolls and Pad Thai Woon Sen. Pad Thai Woon Sen is made with mung bean noodles.
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| Rob rolling his Spring Rolls |
It was now time to sit down and enjoy our Curries. We each made something different so we could share the spring rolls and Pad Thai.
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| Rob's Red Curry |
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| Rob's Spring Rolls |
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| Sharon's Penang Curry and Pad Thai Woon Sen |
Our last dish of the day was dessert. We both chose Mango Sticky Rice 🍚. OMG this was delicious.
Another great day. I highly recommend Thai Farm Cooking School. Our class cost us $66.87 (total). #thaifarmcookingschool #thaifood
Our last tour in Chiang Mai started early. We had a cheduled pickup time between 7 and 7:30 am. Our tour was The Chiang Rai Highlights Tour with our driver Mr. Pon (Surapon). We had decided to do a one day tour versus traveling and spending a night or two in Chiang Rai.
Our first stop was Mae Kajarn hot springs. Not what we were expecting. Yes we did see a bubbling spring. It was really just another market. Sharon did purchase a skirt for a measly $4.15. We could have completely skipped this stop.
Our next stop was the Wat Rong Khun or White Temple. This was the reason to go to Chiang Rai. It is a privately owned art exhibit, which we did not know beforehand. The temple was beautiful. You were rushed and yelled to move along at the part where everyone wants a picture taken.
You were allowed to take as many pictures of the outside as you wanted but once you entered the temple no pictures were allowed. Too bad because the only artwork we liked was inside the temple.
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| Sharon found Prince 🤴 Charming |
They had the best bathroom of all the places we've been to.
Our next temple was Wat Rong Suea Ten or the Blue Temple. Another beautiful temple.
We stopped for lunch at Home Food and Drinks. A quaint little spot right next to Baandam Museum.
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| Pad See Ew |
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| Rob is hangry |
We walked to our next stop Baandam Museum also known as the Black House Museum. Very interesting artwork. Definitely not our style.
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| Please pass the salt. |
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| No caption needed! |
Our next stop was the Golden Triangle. The area where Thailand 🇹🇭, Laos 🇱🇦, and Myanmar 🇲🇲 meet at the Ruak and Mekong Rivers.
We hopped on a longtail boat and did a quick ride on the Mekongg River into Myanmar before heading over to Laos. In Laos we stopped at another market. This time we tried a Laos beer before heading back.
At this point we had a 4+ hour car ride back home. We made a stop for dinner at a house with a store front. The kids were playing video games on the sofa -- very different experience. Sharon wasnt hungry but Mr. Pon insisted we all get a bowl of beef balls. The balls were definitely not the beef we are used to but the flavor of the soup was delicious.
We had such a great time. This was a very long day we did not get back to our hotel until 10 pm.
We 'only' had one near death and one OMG he's doing what? experience with our drivers. They drive on the wrong side of the road. Rob noticed our driver zipping past a line of cars stopped in the right lane at a RED right arrow light. He gets to the front of the line and starts to turn right -- directly into the path of two cars barreling down the highway in the opposite direction. Rob said time stood still and all he could see was the point of impact. He yelled. The driver yanked the wheel left and apologized. The next was passing a few trucks. Why pass on the left where there are dotted white lines when you can pass on the right crossing double yellow lines into oncoming traffic? The car we were about to head-on collide with simply moved over one lane. No horn honking. No flashing highbeams. No flipping off. As crazy as the driving is, everyone simply moves out of each other's way -- usually at the last second.
We liked Chiang Mai and will definitely be returning. Time for our next Thailand adventure.
"I know I’m back in Thailand…Not just Thailand, but Northern Thailand. Once known as the kingdom of a million rice fields, it’s a fertile, green, and gorgeous area, home of the ancient Latta people. Welcome to Chiang Mai Province, tucked up near the borders of Burma, China, Laos, India not too far away. All of them have left their mark on the food." -Anthony Bourdain
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