Thailand

We flew from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Thailand on June 6, 2014. We weren't really sure where we were going to start but after we had heard about the coup that had happened a few weeks earlier, we knew we did not want to go to Bangkok. So, we flew immediately to the north of Thailand, to Chiang Mai. Neither of us have ever been to the north of Thailand and we were both really excited to see what it had to offer.

We were only meant to spend 3 nights in Chiang Mai initially, but we really loved the place. By the end of our time in the north we had stayed 7 nights in Chiang Mai. On our first night there we thought we would play it low key since Dave's back was still bothering him, but then we heard about a Muay Thai boxing fight going on and Dave quickly felt much better. Haha. So off we went with a few other people from our hostel to see a few hours of Muay Thai. I was not prepared for how intense it was actually going to be. There were 5 rounds of fights. The first 2 were female fights - one was a beginner fight, which wasn't too bad, but the second one was a legit fight and one girl pretty much kicked the crap out of the other one. Then there were 3 male fights and 2 of them finished in a knockout! It was so brutal watching it, but sort of like a car crash - you don't want to look but you can't take your eyes off of it. The final fight finished in a decision, but it was as vicious as the knockout fights. Needless to say, I don't really ever need to watch another night of Muay Thai boxing.

In our first full day in Chiang Mai we decided to explore the city and go on a little 'temple tour'. There are so many of them in the city alone so we had the woman from our hostel tell a few good ones to go to. It ended up being a pretty long afternoon of walking around, but we got a good sense of the city and we were able to check out some beautiful temples. I still can't get over how much colour and detail some people put into their architecture. We had heard that one of the most beautiful temples is located up on a mountain just outside of the city, so we hopped into a taxi and made our way up for sunset. That was probably the best idea we've ever had. To see the temple in the daylight is awesome, but to see it in the dark all lit up was breathtaking. It was so beautiful to see, not only the temple, but the city all lit up in the dark.

The Mountain Temple at night

On our second full day we decided to take a Thai cooking class. Again, the woman who ran our hostel (Stella) recommended one and she was right on the mark. We took a class through the Thai Secret Cooking School. A Thai woman has opened her own cooking school at her house after having worked for other companies for years. We ended up being the only 2 who signed up for the class that day so we basically had a private cooking lesson from a Thai chef. It was awesome and so delicious. We each got to make 4 different dishes, so we learned how to make 8 dishes total and the the cook books are so cute - they have our pictures on them! Little touches like that will definitely make her business a success.

Cooking up some shrimp

 

The next day was a bit of a lazy day. We walked around the city again and checked out a few other areas we hadn't already seen. We also stumbled upon this little restaurant that probably has the best smoothie I have ever had in my entire life! It tasted exactly like a piece of apple pie - it was amazing. Then it started to rain so we decided to try a Thai massage to pass an hour. It was hilarious. We were in the same room together and it was amazing to see this little Thai woman sit on top of Dave and try to put him into these pretzel positions and basically just kick the crap out of him. My arm was hurting me so they took it easy on me and I actually had a nice massage, but seeing Dave with this Thai woman on top of him jumping on him was amazing! After our massages we were walking back to our hostel when we ran into an English couple (Ash and Daniella) that we had met in Koh Rong Samloem. We stopped and chatted with them for a little while and exchanged contact info because we will probably run into them again in Thailand. That night we went to the Sunday Walking Market in Chiang Mai. They close down one of the main streets in the city and hundreds of stalls pop up out of nowhere. It is the biggest market I have ever seen. We spent 2 hours walking around and only saw about a quarter of it.

Dave making friends at the Sunday Walking Market

 

Our next was a pretty cool day - we went to The Elephant Retirement Park. In Thailand there are a ton of places were you can go to see elephants for the day. A lot of them involve you riding them and some of the conditions they live in are terrible. Dave and I talked about it before booking an elephant adventure. We both agreed that we didn't care if we got to ride an elephant or not, but we just wanted the conditions that they live in to be safe and healthy for them. After talking to Stella again we decided to go with a new company - the Elephant Retirement Park. They just opened in February of 2014 so they're still a pretty small company, but we had an amazing day. They have 5 elephants right now - 2 female elephants came from work camps where they were used for logging, but recently the Thai government has made it illegal to use elephants for logging work. The third female elephant was purchased from another elephant camp in the city that didn't treat their elephants very well - using hooks on them and making them do tricks for tourists and other things like that. What they didn't know at the time of purchasing these 3 female elephants is that they were all pregnant. So they now have a 7 month old male baby elephant and a 2 month old female baby elephant, and one more is still pregnant - due in November. It was such an amazing experience to be able to interact directly with the elephants, while letting them hang out in their own natural habitat. We had a chance to feed them, take a mud bath with them and then wash them. It also included tons of time to just hang out and watch/play with the elephants, as well as a delicious lunch. All in all, it was an awesome day and I really appreciate what the company is trying to do for the elephants. We ended up meeting up with Daniella and Ash for dinner that night. We really got along well with them so it was nice to spend a bit of time just chatting and hanging out with them.

After giving momma a nice mud bath

 

After our elephant day we made our way by mini-bus from Chiang Mai to another town close by, Pai. We were warned by many travelers about the road to Pai - apparently it is very windy and the drivers sometimes go really fast and often people get car sick. Overall, it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating, but it definitely was a windy road! We stayed in Pai for 3 nights in a 4 bed dorm and we lucked out with our roommates. We had 2 other Canadians from Calgary staying with us, Chase and Kelsea. They were awesome! They had both just finished their undergrads in Calgary and were travelling together for a few months before starting work. We got along really well with them and spent most of our time in Pai with them.

On our first night in Pai Dave and I went out for dinner and ran into Ash and Daniella again. We went for a few drinks with them and then called it a night. The next day the six of us (Daniella, Ash, Kelsea, Chase Dave and I) rented scooters for the day to tour around and see the sights. I was totally against the whole renting a scooter thing, but everyone else was doing it, the roads weren't very busy and all the attractions were a few kilometers out of town so it just made the most sense. All in all we had a great day. I survived without any scratches or bruises, but I had definitely had enough of the motorbike by the end of the day. But it was an awesome day. We went to a canyon close by, then stopped off at a hilarious roadside stop dedicated to strawberries...totally random and hilarious. From there we made our way to a couple of waterfalls and then back to Pai, just as the rain started. We had a great time cruising around and seeing the beautiful scenery that Pai had to offer. After the rain stopped we decided to check out the nightly market that took over the main street. We did a little shopping around and ate our faces off before having a few drinks. We got a message from Daniella that she and Ash were at a local jazz club. We made our way but I guess we were a little too slow because apparently Ash was up on stage with the band playing the guitar and we missed it. But we did have a chance to have a few drinks with them before calling it a night.

The random strawberry rest stop

 

Our last full day in Pai was a lazy day. We went out for breakfast to this amazing little restaurant called Boomalicious (I'm pretty sure we ate there 3 days in a row actually), then we spent the afternoon teaching Chase and Kelsea how to play Euchre. We played for a few hours then went back to the night market for dinner. There were so many stalls with so much delicious food. I had a burrito, corn on the cob, and a Nutella pancake...not very Thai, but delicious none the less. After dinner Kelsea told us secretly that Chase was apparently a really good singer, and we knew by now that Ash was a good guitar player, so it then became our goal to try and get them to have a little jam session that night. We were successful and it was so amazing! Chase had this amazing, soulful voice and Ash could pretty much play anything on the guitar - and if he didn't know the song, he only had to hear a few seconds of it before he could pick it up and play it. It was just amazing to see the two of them go at it. Oh, and if you want to hear Chase at work then you can check out his youtube channel: Iamchaseharvey. Such an awesome night with some pretty cool people!

We left Pai the next day and made our way back to Chiang Mai for 2 nights before flying down to the south of Thailand. On our last night in Chiang Mai we hit up the Saturday night walking market with Chase and Kelsea then had to say goodbye to our Canadian companions. They were making their way to Laos the next day and we were headed to the south. We absolutely loved the north of Thailand and were sad to leave, but excited to hit the beaches of the south.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo