Thailand: Chiangmai

We have been loving Chiangmai. It has all of the Thai culture and history we have been craving seeing. It is very chill here and the people are very nice. 

The first day here, we arrived in the afternoon from Phuket via Bangkok Airways, which apparently is the best regional airline in the world- who knew? At the airport, we were a little early, so we sat in their lounge. When we arrived, we were stunned by how gorgeous our hotel- Ruen Come In- was.

View from our hotel room balcony

We headed into the city by trying to walk to a mall to find a mythical bus. The bus didn't exist (theoretically), so we explored the mall a bit- it was huge with six floors and lots of interesting stores. We ended up taking a red taxi bus into the city center and found that there were many temples. We walked through Tai Pei Gate and stopped by a few temples, which we gorgeous. I enjoyed a fresh coconut. 

A lot of the temples had gardens and puppies that the monks tended.

We also met a few kind people at the temples who gave us great advice of where to explore, eat, and shop. Two people recommended one tailor in particular called Chiangmai Fashions. Another person we listened to was a monk, who was part of the local temples' program to talk with visitors about life as a monk and Buddhism. This was a really cool experience for several reasons: 1) other religions are not usually this open in their dialogue with outsiders, 2) it put so much more context to the place we were visiting and understanding of monk life, and 3) the monk really didn't push religion on anyone but instead recommended his philosophies (but also amended his comments to explain everyone had valid interpretations and that is ok) which were more about living a simple life and finding internal happiness vs. pushing religious fervor. Overall, it was a really positive experience. 

Also, the food, shopping, and tailor that were recommended to us were excellent. Over the next few days, we found great deal and cheap eats at the night bazaar. Osho also got a custom purple blazer and special burgundy blazer from the tailor, which look awesome. It's crazy how cheap things are here in Chiangmai. 

Our second day here, we went elephant trekking. It was probably Osho's favorite thing we did. We got to learn about how the reserve called Baan Chang saved the elephants from abuse and how they were being taken care of properly. We also got to meet, feed, pet, wash, and ride them. It was awesome. Our tour guide Jimmy really made the tour because it was clear he really loved the elephants and knew all 44 of their likes and dislikes. It was really cool to see how similar they were to humans. One elephant even loves to give kisses. 

Riding the elephants was much more unbalanced than I had anticipated, but I loved it. Didn't love the outfit we had to wear, but it makes sense to protect our clothes.

The next day, we did a cooking class with a company named Basil. It was great because they took us to a market, explained different ingredients, and made everything so simple. We made curries, noodles, salads, vegetable dishes, curry paste, coconut milk, and dessert. Osho and I tried to make different dishes in each category to try more foods. My favorite thing I made was the Tom Yum Shrimp soup. 

After the class, we chilled at the hotel for a little bit and watched the movie 'Rio', which was so funny. Probably going to Rio next on vacation ;). We spent the rest of the night eating and hitting up the tailor for final fittings.

We planned on spending the rest of the next day keeping everything chill before heading into Bangkok.