2 Weeks, 3 Countries: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Our second stop on our vacation was Chiang Mai, Thailand. This was the country I was most excited for, I have heard such good things about Chiang Mai so my expectations were high. I must say, my expectations were exceeded. Can we first talk about how amazing Thai food is? I absolutely LOVE Thai food, especially now that we have had authentic Thai food. Thai tea too, so good. This post will be EXTREMELY long, we did a lot in Chiang Mai and really loved it.

Anyway, aside from the amazing food we had there, we spent 4 full days in Chiang Mai. It was enough for the vacation but if we get the chance, we would like to go back. We stayed at Chedi Home and it was fine. The rooms were clean and nice, they had a pool, a restaurant with free breakfast, and they helped you book excursions for 10% off. The only thing that sucked, was that the shower sucked. The shower head misted so by the time the water got to you, it was cold and it didn't give enough water to feel like you could properly wash. Aside from that though, we enjoyed it.

Day 1 // We arrived in Thailand around 5pm and caught a cab to our hotel. We were surprised because Thailand drives on the left side of the road, that probably shows how much research we didn't do.We got settled into the hotel and the hotel restaurant closes at 3pm so we decided to figure out how to get to Night Bazaar so we could get food. Night Bazaar is known for the street food, so we went and got street food. I had heard that street food is one of the cheapest and best ways to eat in Chiang Mai, but I beg to differ. Most of the street food is meat on a stick (something we can find in abundance here in Seoul) or different versions of Pad Thai. To be honest, pad Thai is my least favorite Thai food. I'll eat it, but I don't enjoy it much. So street food for me was not something I enjoyed very much, but if you like pad Thai, you'll love it. After eating, we walked around and explored all the shops and street vendors.

Day 2// We didn't have anything planned for today and I was super overwhelmed so we had a little bit of a late start. But we went and we got a lot of brochures of cool things we could do through the hotel. We spent some time and planned for one activity a day, leaving the afternoons open to explore the city and booked them all through the hotel. We decided that tonight, we would do a Thai cooking class through Tom Yum Thai Cooking School. Around 4pm they came and picked us up from our hotel. There was a couple from Sweden also doing the class with us. Oun and his wife Kai took us to a market where they explained the ingredients and their uses in Thai cooking and they got ingredients for us to use. After exploring the market, we went back to their house where they held the class. I loved that it was in their house as it made the class more personal. Something I really loved about this class compared to the one in Cambodia is that Mark and I were able to choose different menus, us and the other couple actually chose the same 12 meals. Mark cooked:
     Cashew Chicken
     Spring Rolls
     Tom Yom Goong (Spicy and Sour prawn soup)
     Green Curry Paste
     Green Curry
     Mango Sticky Rice
and I cooked:
     Pad thai (yes I know I said I don't like pad thai but my options for that course were slim)
     Cucumber Salad
     Coconut Milk and Chicken Soup
     Panang Curry Paste
     Panang Curry
     Mango Sticky Rice

The food was so easy to cook, Oun and Kai had wonderful instructions and were patient. They also had a wonderful sense of humor and were so funny which just made the class so much more fun and relaxed.I love that Thai food is cooked fast, they don't stand and stir fry their food for 20 minutes, its in and out of the pan in under 10 minutes. The food, was incredible! I found my favorite Thai food through this class. I loved the currys and the soups and the cucumber salad. Ugh, it was so good. At the end of the class, they took us back to the hotel. Mark and I went and walked around and walked by the river and just explored some.

Day 3// Today we scheduled an ATV trip with ATV Monmaekanin Adventure. They came and picked us up from the hotel and there was another couple with us. We drove up this super windy road up to the ATV starting point in the mountains. Mark and I shared an ATV (even though I read while on the trail on the ATV safety sticker to not carry passengers, oh well haha). The other couple had two seperate ATVs. For the most part, the trail was decently easy and easy enough for inexperienced riders. There was one section, of course the only section I drove on, where it was a little more difficult and I got us stuck. Mark drove us back down that way when we went back down and drove the rest of the time. I am convinced that because Mark was able to keep up with the front guide and we kept leaving the other people behind, that the guide in the back drove us a different more difficult route. We stopped at a road and the back guide came up and told us that we were following him, so we were like okay and continued on. Then we got to a creek that we had to cross and the trail had gotten considerably harder; we got stuck in the creek and realized that the other people weren't there any more. After a little while on the trail, we met back up with the other people, then seperated again from them again and went on a super, super muddy more difficult trail. It was a ton of fun! It rained the night before so it was extremely muddy and that just made it more fun. We came out of the trails extremely muddy.

Aside from a play by play of the ATV trip, I think it was a great way to see more of Thailand without having to hike 45km. We saw tons of jungle, rice paddies, and small villages; areas we wouldn't have ever seen if we hadn't done this. We've never ATV'd in the states but I think it costs less for us to do it in Thailand than in the US, so it was such a great experience for us. Plus it took me out of my comfort zone, I had to super trust that Mark could drive it and not flip us or send us drifting into a tree or that I would lean weird and send us into some weird spin. It was so fun though and I recommend going on an ATV tour anywhere.

After we got back from the ATV tour, I decided to eat at the hotel restaurant because the ATV tour provided pad Thai for lunch. I had Panang curry and Thai tea and it was so good! I absolutely loved it and I think it was only like 4 dollars for both. This was also when we started napping, we were so tired from getting up early and going to bed late for a few days and just traveling that our bodies were just like "No! Sleep!" so we napped for an hour.

Later that night, we went to the Sunday Night Market because we it was Sunday, so we had to take advantage of something that only happens once a week. Now, we live in Seoul so we're pretty used to crowds, but this market was crowded like nothing I've ever seen before. you could hardly move and definitely had to go with the flow. There were so many food stalls and so many street vendors and the market spans for kilometers, up and down the main strip and around alley-ways. We walked for a couple hours buying souvenirs and Mark tried ostrich. There were also a lot of street performers which was cool to see for the few seconds as you walked by. After that though, we were so done. We could not handle being in the crowds any more. So we left and walk around the city that was less crowded. It was a market like I've never seen before though so it was worth battling the crowds for the few hours.

Day 4// This was elephant sanctuary day. Of course I'd heard that this was a must do in Thailand and I was adamant about going to an actual sanctuary that took care of the elephants and did not ride or abuse them in any way. This was the only thing I had pre-booked. We booked with Maerim Elephant Sanctuary. I heard that they were a reputable elephant sanctuary and were easier to get a spot with than Elephant Nature Park. We were of course picked up and brought to the sanctuary where we were immediately given bananas to feed to the elephants over their fence. It was a nice way to be introduced to the elephants. We were then given a change of clothes so we looked like the volunteers that the elephants knew so there wasn't so much change for them. We watched an informational video and were told to get lots of sugar cane to feed them. We went in their enclosure (enclosure sounds bad but its a huge field with a pond and mud bath area, it's not like a zoo enclosure) and fed them the sugar canes. It was so fun to give them the sugar canes in their trunks and watch them chew it. You could pet them as well while feeding them.

After we were done feeding them sugar canes, we went to a banana tree farm where we all cut down a piece of a banana tree. Mark cut down a whole tree then cut himself a piece then I cut a piece. When we were going to leave to go back to the sanctuary, we found that someone stole Mark's cut piece, so instead mark grabbed the huge top leafy part of the tree and took that. I thought it was awesome of him and it was so cute to see him carrying this huge top of the tree.

When we got back to the sanctuary, we ate lunch and we had this awesome Thai chicken soup that you make yourself. You just put chicken and noodles in a basket and put it in the broth for 10 seconds. Then put the noodles and chicken into a bowl with some broth and add whatever toppings you want. IT WAS SO GOOD. I wish I knew what it was called cause it was just as good or better than Pho.

After lunch, we fed the elephants our banana tree pieces and the elephants loved Marks leaves. they are also so smart. They take the leaves and beat the leaves against their skin to tenderize them and they crack the tree trunk open to get to the sweet middle. Once they were done eating, we took them to an open field where they could play in the dirt, eat bamboo, eat grass, scratch themselves on the trees, and just run free.

Once they were done exploring the field, we went and gave them a mud bath. It was fun and interesting but really kind of gross. We actually saw them poop and pee in the mud pond so that made it a little harder to play in. We had the knowledge that they go to the bathroom in this mud and we were basically swimming in elephant poop and pee. Mark was one of the first to cover himself in it along with another husband and of course, Mark threw some at me. I joined in the covering myself with it as well as the elephants but it took some mind over matter to do so. After playing in the mud, the elephants went to a deeper pond where we rinsed them and us and splashed the elephants with the water. They practically lay down so you can get super up close and personal with them. Then that was the end of that excursion.

The elephants are such majestic, intelligent creatures. I'm so happy that sanctuary's like this exist, the elephants deserve better and it's so cool to see how intelligent they really are.

How sweet does Mark look with this elephant? <3 During the day, the sanctuary had a professional take hundreds of photos of everyone. So at the end of the day, we paid 800 baht and got about 250 pictures, 250 professional quality candid photos on a flash drive. I was so happy they did that and I love all the pictures. *All pictures of us at the elephant sanctuary are from them*

After playing with the elephants, we got back to the hotel and we took a nap and then went to Mr. Kai's to eat dinner. We saw the restaurant when we were exploring the Sunday Market and I thought it looked good, particularly because they had more than pad Thai. I got the Tom Yom Goong chicken soup and a Thai tea, Mark got green curry and a Thai tea, and we shared some spring rolls. The food was so good and the Thai tea was amazing and helped the spicyness of the food.

Day 5 // Today we booked a zip-lining excursion because why not. Mark and I have been zip-lining a couple times and we really enjoyed it and it can be kind of expensive in the states, so we decided to do it in Thialand. We went through Eagle Track Zipline. We went for the Gold Package because we love zip-lining and wanted to do all the zip-lines, high ropes course, and abseiling. We got there and got all of our gear and headed out. Overall, Mark and I were slightly disappointed. It didn't suck by any means, but the entire track seemed to be really tame for an experienced zip-liner. In our group there was a Chinese couple with a toddler who was so brave and so cute. He loved everything and did most of the zip-lines by himself. Along with another couple who were new to zip-lining (we knew that because they messed up on every zip-line somehow but that's okay). We had fun but we have done much more extreme zip-lines and high ropes course so this was just an activity to get out in nature. We recommend it if you haven't been but if you have, there may be better zip-line tracks for you. After zip-lining, we went back to the hotel, napped, then went out and explored a few buddhist temples and ate at Mr. Kai's again, it was so good! I got the coconut milk chicken soup this time and two Thai teas and Mark got cashew chicken and two Thai teas. We also shared a papaya salad (so good and tasted a little like the pomelo salad from Cambodia) and some spring rolls. The food was so good! We also got a Thai massage today and it was nice, pretty relaxing for me and not so much for Mark. He's so tight from doing so much PT that he was in pain half the time, the masseuses were laughing at how tight he was. We got it at a place that highers ex-inmates so it was a good cause too and so cheap.

That was the end of our Thailand portion of our trip. If you're still here at the end of the long post, you're amazing and I appreciate it! We loved Thailand, especially the food, so I had a lot to talk about. It was also the longest leg of our journey.

Check out the posts about Siem Reap, Cambodia and Nha Trang, Vietnam!

See you soon <3
Kylie