Chiang Mai, Thailand!

This blog post is EXTREMELY overdue, but I’m finally getting around to it. I went to Thailand just before Christmas, and had started writing it while I was there to avoid the inevitable – me putting it off once I got home, which is exactly what happened. Nevertheless, I finally got around to it, and now in the middle of this polar vortex, I just really wish I was in Thailand again.

For my last trip of my 2018 Asian adventures, I headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand! Thailand has been at the top of my list for so long, so I knew I wanted to try to visit while I was in Asia. I left for Thailand right before my 30 days in China were up as a short trip “on my way” home (even though I have a layover in China on the way back to the U.S.). It was a short trip, but it’s another long blog post 🙂

Just under 24 hours after I had gotten back to Guangzhou from Beijing, I left my apartment for the last time with all of my belongings and headed to the airport one last time. It was a little sad leaving my empty apartment. I was super lucky to live in such a nice place, and I had really come to love my little space (and especially the view!!). I left with my big suitcase, my carry on suitcase, my EXTREMELY HEAVY backpack, and Mumble (my pillow pet), hailed a taxi, and was on the road. I was flying China Southern Airlines, which is an airline that I’ve used quite a bit during my time here. One thing that I love about their flights is that if the flight is any longer than an hour and a half, they serve a full meal. My flight was only 2.5 hours, but I got a free dinner, and it’s pretty good for airplane food.

I did have a slight panic attack on the plane though. We were going to be landing soon, and the flight attendants were handing out arrival cards for foreigners to fill out. I freaked out when I saw there was a space for a visa number, because… uh… I don’t have a Thai visa… So there was nothing else for me to do but leave it blank. Then, I got to spend the last 30 minutes of my flight freaking out and letting my imagination run wild on all the possible scenarios that could happen if for some reason I wasn’t able to get into the country. I could have sworn that I had looked up beforehand whether or not I needed a visa, and I’m sure I would have taken care of it if I had needed one. I’m a pretty responsible traveler in that sense, but of course, I could have missed that. When we landed, there was a booth off to the side of the immigration area for visas on arrival (pause panic attack), but there was a list of the countries that they accepted applications from, and of course, the U.S. was not listed (resume panic attack). I just decided to wing it and try to go through immigration, and if there was an issue I’d just be honest and say I didn’t know I needed one. The entire time the immigration worker was looking at my passport my heart was RACING. She gave it back no problem, and I quickly left to grab my things from baggage claim. I guess I wasn’t staying long enough to need a visa. I’m just glad I wasn’t stranded.

I took a taxi to my hotel ($4.50 USD!!) and checked in. Since I knew I’d have ALL of my belongings with me on this trip, a hostel in a dorm-style room was out of the question since there wouldn’t be anywhere to put all of my things. So I “treated” myself to a real hotel. But luckily Thailand is ridiculously inexpensive, so I was at a pretty nice hotel for about $30 per night. Such a “splurge” compared to the $10 per night hostels I’ve been staying in.

After dropping my things off, I found a little vegan cafe around the corner from my hotel and decided to grab a quick bite before calling it a night. This cafe was part indoor, part outdoor, which was so nice because the weather was beautiful. During the day, it is extremely hot, but at night it’s perfect – in the 70s! I got an avocado salad, and again, it was so cheap ($4 USD) despite the fact that it was giant. It was very good! After my late dinner, I headed back to my hotel and straight to bed.

My first full day in Chiang Mai was possibly one of my favorite days ever. I spent the whole day at an Elephant Jungle Sanctuary playing, feeding, and taking care of the most beautiful creatures. I got picked up at my hotel at 7:00am in a songthaew (basically a pick-up truck with a covered back and benches for passengers to sit), and we drove about an hour outside of the city to the elephant sanctuary. It was cool riding in the back of the songthaew because it gave the most beautiful view of the Thai landscape as we drove further and further into the jungle.

Our camp was just above a little village set in the jungle of Thailand, with a river flowing below and surrounded by trees and mountains. When we got to our camp, we learned about these rescued elephants and how to feed them. On top of all the fun I had this day, I learned so much too. All of our guides were so knowledgable and SO FRIENDLY. I swear Thailand is full of the happiest, kindest people on Earth. It turns out that elephants only sleep 4 hours a day, and the rest of their day is spent eating (lucky animals…). They are herbivores, but since they are such large animals, they have to consume a lot more food than other animals to keep them full and energized. We got to feed them lots of bananas, and they also munched on some grass. The guides started handing out giant bunches of bananas and we just ripped them off one by one, held them out for the elephants, and called “bon bon!” to get their attention. They would use their trucks to just come grab the banana out of your hand and curl it under and shove it in their mouth. You could also get a little closer to them and put the banana directly in their mouth, but I thought it was a bit more fun to have them grab it with their trunk. We spent about an hour just feeding them and loving on these elephants. There were about 5 or 6 elephants at our camp at this time. We got to pet them, hug them, and take tons of pictures. They are so friendly and gentle, and it was amazing being so close to them. My favorite part about them is their eyes! They have the most stunning brown eyes that you really only get to see when you’re up close and personal.

I also learned that elephants have a similar lifespan to humans, and the oldest elephant at our camp was 75 years old! She was the grandma, and it was so cute because you could see the wrinkles around her eyes showing her age. Two of the other elephants were her sons, and apparently they are the “naughty boys” because they tend to fight with each other (playfully of course, as brothers do). One of the other elephants, who was 31 years old, was pregnant! It was honestly a little hard to tell which one was pregnant sometimes because they are all such massive animals. But if you looked closely you could sometimes see the baby move inside her. Elephants are pregnant for two years, and this elephant was 11 months pregnant. Our guide was joking that we need to come back next year and see the baby. You don’t have to tell me twice 🙂

After the elephants had eaten up all of the bananas and grass, it was bath time! We changed into our swim suits and followed the elephants a little ways down the path to a small mud pond. The guides helped us pick up giant handfuls of mud to start rubbing on the elephants. Meanwhile, the guides were also getting mud all over us! It’s more fun that way, and it did feel really good on my skin! We were all gross and muddy, and it was great. Then it was time to rinse them off, so we followed the elephants a little farther down the path the river below. The elephants were just wading in the water, and they eventually laid down on their side. Then we all just started scooping up water and splashing it onto the elephants to wash off the mud. Since they are such large animals, it took a lot of splashing to get them clean. It was basically a big water fight for 15 minutes as we rinsed the elephants. It was so fun, and we were all soaking wet and dripping mud. The company had a guide who was photographing the entire day, and he was taking lots of pictures during bath time since we couldn’t bring our own cameras. We took some group pictures as well.

We headed back up the hill to the camp to shower off any of the mud that was left, and then it was time for lunch! One of the local women had been making lunch for us while we were feeding the elephants, and I was so impressed by this meal. First off, it smelled AMAZING, and on top of that, it tasted just as good. There was lots of rice, a potato and chicken curry, tons of stewed vegetables, egg omelettes, pineapple, and watermelon. It was delicious – I had two servings. It was buffet style, and we all sat at one big long table with benches on either side. It was great getting to talk to everyone and hear peoples’ stories, especially since I was on this excursion by myself. Our group had people from the U.S., Canada, England, Ireland, and Australia. It made me so happy talking with fellow travelers because I was so excited to hear about everyone’s travels. Lots of people had been in Thailand/Asia for a while already, and some had just arrived and had extravagant plans in the near future. One of the families from my bus is originally from the U.S. but are currently living in Okinawa, Japan. It was just so cool to hear about all of these people’s lives and where they’ve been/where they’re going. There’s nothing I love more than talking about traveling and living vicariously through other people (well, except doing it myself).

After lunch, half of our group that had only signed up for the morning session headed back into Chiang Mai while the rest of us got ready for a hike with the elephants. We took three of the elephants on a big hike throughout the jungle that was just behind our camp. We took the grandma, the pregnant elephant, and one of the other middle-aged elephants. It was incredible watching them on this hike because there were parts that would have been difficult for a human. The path wasn’t always very wide or on even ground, yet the elephants made it up easily. They are the most mesmerizing creatures to watch. I could have just sat and observed them all day. Our hike lasted around an hour, and it was basically just a big circle back to where we started. We grabbed some water and then headed back to the songthaews to visit one more camp.

I was so excited for this second camp because there was a BABY ELEPHANT at this one! Oh my god, this little angel was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. He is six months old, and his name is Charlie. He was so adorable and tiny. He was a little shy, but once he saw you had a banana in your hand and heard “bon bon!”, he suddenly wasn’t so shy anymore. He was so fun to play with. My heart was just exploding with all of the cuteness. I couldn’t handle it. Charlie and his mom were the only two elephants we saw at this camp. Charlie’s mom was very large and beautiful as well. She had a rope tied around her neck with a bell on it that rang with every step. Someone else in my group had asked why she had a bell around her neck but not any of the others. The guide simply responded, “GPS”, which we all thought was funny. It’s a big jungle, and they’ve gotta keep a close eye on little Charlie! It was so sweet watching a mother and child interact and cuddle up against each other. Ugh. My heart. My favorite thing about Charlie are his long baby hairs and how they stand straight up. He was actually pretty hairy all over his body so it felt really funny to pet him. He was so playful and smiley – it was amazing.

After saying goodbye to Charlie and his mom, we got back in the songthaews to drive back into Chiang Mai. At the end of our tour we also got to each keep a free shirt like the ones we had worn that morning when we were feeding the elephants. None of us had known we’d be getting this, so that was an awesome surprise and a fun keepsake. This was seriously the best day ever. Everything about this tour was incredible. The elephants themselves were obviously amazing. The venue/landscape was beautiful and secluded. The food was delicious. The itinerary was perfect. The guides were so friendly, funny, informative, and willing to take pictures whenever even without you asking! They would just grab your phone, tell you to go up to one of the elephants, and smile! Then they would tell you to make a “sexy pose” and demonstrate. They were so fun and made the entire experience all the better. They clearly love their jobs and love all of these animals, which was so nice to see. You can tell that all of the elephants at this sanctuary are taken such good care of. There was no maltreatment or any unethical activity. It made me so happy to see these animals just living their lives and getting loved on by so many happy people every day. I also loved getting to see each of the elephant’s personalities come out. There were some that were silly, like the ones that accidentally ripped up posters and were vacuuming up the empty banana carts with their trunks for any leftovers. There were some that were shy, like little Charlie who was hiding between his momma’s legs. There were some that were assertive, like the ones that would stick their trunks right in your face to try and grab a whole bunch of bananas before you’ve even had a chance to break one off. It was just the best day. I can’t say that enough.

I got back to my hotel around 5:00pm. I was still gross and muddy, and my hair was an absolute mess. I took a shower to get myself looking like a real human again, and then went out for dinner. I follow this girl on Instagram who used to live in Chiang Mai, and she had written a blog post years ago about some of her favorite cafes and restaurants. I had pinned a bunch of her suggestions on my maps app, and one of the cafes was not far from my hotel, so I went there for dinner and sat outside. I got deep fried tofu and a stir fried noodle and vegetable entree. It was SO good. All of that (please see picture below for portion size reference) for $4.50 USD! I just can’t get over these prices. The food was delicious. I then just wandered through the streets for a while looking into shops and bookstores and art galleries. I stopped at a different cafe (another recommendation from that girl’s blog) for dessert. I got a giant waffle with chocolate ice cream, and it was all vegan so that was cool! So yummy. Then I just meandered my way back to the hotel and called it a night.

I woke up on Sunday excited to have a free day with no plans – after my long day with the elephants, I was pretty tired. I started my day by heading to another cafe that I had read about online for breakfast. While I was on my way there, I passed this other restaurant that looked really yummy and had a nice outdoor seating area. I decided to stick to my original plan and go to the Bird’s Nest Cafe, which was really good! I got a giant omelette – very good. Then, I was still thinking about that other place so I literally walked one block back the direction I had just come from, sat down at this other restaurant, and ordered a second breakfast. Living the life. They had smoothie bowls so I couldn’t resist. My second breakfast was also amazing.

My main goal for the day was to head up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, which is a very well-known temple on Doi Suthep mountain. I found a driver in one of the red songthaews to take me up the mountain, wait for me while I visited the temple, and then drive me back down. This made it easy since the temple is always very crowded, and it can be hard to find a ride back. The drive up the mountain to the temple was about 45 minutes, but the scenery was beautiful so I didn’t mind. I spent about an hour exploring the temple, and it was unlike any other I’ve seen! It was gorgeous and gilded in gold. It’s incredible to think that it was first built in 1383 – that’s insane! The short (and roughly re-told) version of the history is that a white elephant was  released into the jungle by a king with a relic on his back. The elephant climbed up the Doi Suthep mountain, trumpeted his trunk three times, and dropped dead. This was interpreted as a good omen, and the king immediately decided to start construction of a temple at the site of the elephant’s death. Again, I only know the basics of the legend, but I know that elephants are considered holy in Buddhism and I believe the relic was Buddha’s shoulder bone that appeared to contain magical powers, for lack of a better term. The temple is a pilgrimage spot in Thailand for many practicing Buddhists, and when I was there, it was very crowded with lots of people visiting the temples, praying, and paying their respects. The surrounding area also gives amazing views of Chiang Mai from the mountainside. It’s definitely a must-see in Chiang Mai!

After visiting the temple, I had my driver drop me off at a mall near the base of the mountain. I explored a little bit and stopped in some of the local shops along the way. I ended up making my way to a yummy place for a late lunch/early dinner. I got a quesadilla (although there wasn’t any cheese, so it was basically a veggie tortilla), and it was quite tasty. I then walked back to my hotel, and hung out in the lobby while I waited to be picked up for my night-time excursion!

That morning during my second breakfast, I decided to book a ticket for the Chiang Mai Zoo Night Safari. Traveling alone as a young woman, I like to have things to do at night so I’m not just wandering around an unfamiliar city by myself, and the night safari is supposed to be awesome! They had two safaris – one through a “savannah” and one that showed “predators”. Some of the animals (giraffes, zebras, antelope, deer) were roaming free and would come right up to the tram car and stick their heads in, which was kind of cool! A little scary, to be honest. The giraffe were much bigger than I expected. But the highlight of my time at the night safari was the new friend that I made.

On the first safari ride, I ended up sitting in the same row as a woman and her eight year old son who were from Beijing but both spoke English. We chatted briefly, but we ended up heading to the next safari and sitting next to each other again. They were both very friendly, and afterwards they asked if I wanted to go watch the dancing show at the front of the zoo. There were tons of food stands set up, so we grabbed some food first and had a late dinner. The woman, Sunny, was gone for a while waiting for her food to be ready, so I got to sit with her son Michael and chat for a while. He was so adorable. He is a very lively, charismatic child, and he reminded me so much of some of my students from student teaching. It made my heart so happy just sitting there talking to him. He was telling me all about his favorite teachers, his favorite books, what he asked Santa for for Christmas, his position on his American football team at school, the fish he saw in the Phi Phi Islands, how he knew that I was American because I say things like “gotcha” and “yep” (he told me his teacher says those aren’t real words – lol you have a point there, my friend). The list just went on and on. I ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night at the zoo, and before we parted ways he asked if he could give me his email address (MY HEART). Then his mom added me on WeChat, and Michael insisted that she send me his contact card so I could add him as a friend (I mean.. come on!!!!). It was adorable.

Monday was also a really fun day! I was taking a cooking class, which is something I’ve never done before! The first part of my cooking class actually took place at a local food market, where some of the instructors showed us local ingredients that we would be cooking with later and told us all sorts of information about them. We got a chance to explore the market a little bit before getting back in the trucks to head to the cooking school.

The cooking school itself was beautiful – it was like an outdoor sanctuary! There were several gardens all around, lots of trees, benches, and figurines similar to garden gnomes. There were also some puppies and one cat that were roaming around. I obviously had to pet all the dogs before we started (@Mallory, Mom, and Grandma Johnson – I was mentally petting the cat in your honor). Before we got started cooking, our teacher, whose name was Nook (she was awesome!!), talked us through our menu for the day and gave us some time to pick which meals we wanted to cook. We all got to make three meals – a stir fry, a soup, and a curry. Each category had 3 options. Nook then went down the line and “took our orders”. It was nice, because we were still all cooking together but we got to make sure that we were making something we really wanted to eat, and not necessarily what everyone else wanted. We then got a short break while the staff got our ingredients together. I got to talking with another American, who I ended up spending the rest of the day with. Her name is Jennifer, and she is from California.

We put on our aprons and lined up along our big long table to start preparing our stir fry. We each had a small cutting board, a big knife, and an empty plate in front of us. Nook had us grouped together based on what dish we were making so that we could easily share ingredients. We were basically preparing all of our ingredients and putting them on one plate so that when we were ready to cook it, we just needed to transfer our food from the plate to the stovetop. Nook did such an awesome job of basically teaching 3 meals at a time. We prepared all of our stir fry ingredients, covered them up to keep the flies out, and did the same with our soup ingredients. Here are my “ingredient plates” for my stir fry (first picture) and my soup (second picture).

We then took our soup ingredients over to the stove tops, again grouped up based on what kind of soup we were making. Nook talked us through all of the steps on when to add everything in, when to stir, how high to keep the heat, and all of that. We then poured our soups into our bowls, brought them to the dining table, and covered them with our plates to keep them warm. Then we took our stir fry ingredients to the stovetops, and started putting things one by one into our woks. Then we finally, got to serve up our stir fry and head back to the dining table to eat. My two meals were SO GOOD. I can’t believe I made those… I mean, they were amazing. Catch me on the next season of Master Chef. The stir fry that I made was pad thai, and the soup that I made was a sour & spicy soup. So tasty.

Then we got ready to make our last dish, which was a curry! We got to chop up all of our ingredients and grind them with a mortar and pestle – which was VERY difficult. My arms hurt so bad after that. All of the different curry pastes smelled so good. We then took our curries over to the stovetops and started cooking them up with coconut milk and whatever protein you chose. I, along with many others, decided to box up the curry to take home for later because I was still so full from my first two courses. So i got to take home some left over khao soy curry with egg noodles, onion, and fried egg noodles. I ended up eating it later that night in my hotel room, and it was fantastic, however, it was not as pretty as it would have been if it hadn’t been refrigerated for half the day – so no picture of the finished product, but I do have a picture of all the ingredients. The last part of our class was a complimentary Thai tea and dessert! We got to help make the tea, which was SO good and smelled like chocolate. The dessert they gave us was so simple, but delicious. It was just a couple slices of banana in a coconut milk cream (or something like that). SO TASTY. I really enjoyed the cooking class, and I’m so glad I did it! They even sent us all home with a cookbook for all of the meals on their menu, so I know have the recipes for the 3 meals that I made, plus all the ones I didn’t get to try. Will I actually make any of these at home? Most likely not. But the thought is nice either way.

Jennifer and I went to an art gallery after the cooking class that showcased a bunch of those artworks that when viewed from a certain point look 3D. The museum also had an app to go along with it, and at certain places you could stand with the app open and it would make the pictures start moving (on your phone screen obviously) and it was accompanied by music. It was cool! It was super big, and I stopped taking any pictures after I realized there were literally hundreds… no, thank you. Here are a couple though, just to show what the exhibit was like.

After the museum, Jennifer and I parted ways for a bit to go back to our hotels. I relaxed for a bit, and then walked to a nearby hotel that had a rooftop swimming pool. I was meeting Jennifer there, but when we arrived we found out it was full and we couldn’t get in at the time. We went back to an outdoor area that I passed on my walk that had lots of food stands. We both got banana Nutella crepes and sat outside listening to a live band that was playing some Christmas music. The crepe was super good, although it was crispy and a huge chunk of mine cracked off and fell on the ground 😦

We decided to go back to the rooftop pool hotel, and were able to go up this time. The pool itself was closed, which was no big deal because it was completely dark anyways. There was also an outdoor bar/seating area. We sat at some pool chairs that were on the edge of the water, submerged just a few inches into the water. We sat with our feet in the water and had a drink and just hung out. It was beautiful weather, and the rooftop gave a pretty view of the city. We could also see the Doi Suthep temple all lit up on the mountainside! It was a fun day – it was also my first time making a friend on a solo trip. While I love traveling by myself, it’s nice to have someone else to hang out with.

My last day in Thailand felt super hectic. My morning was busy with running around to the currency exchange, the post office (to return my pocket WiFi), packing up all of my things, storing my bags at the hotel, and checking out of my room. I settled down for breakfast at another cafe near my hotel, and to no one’s surprise, I got another acai bowl. This one was packed with toppings and it was fantastic, as usual.

One of the “must do” things in Thailand is to get a Thai massage! There are massage places literally all over the place. I’d say at least four on every block. And just like everything in Thailand, these massages are crazy cheap. Most of the hole-in-the-wall places charge like $5 USD for a Thai massage. My last day in Thailand was actually Christmas, so I decided to treat myself to an hour long massage at a pretty upscale place. Upscale meaning $20 USD. That’s my kind of budget! It was also my first time ever getting a massage! I’d say overall, I enjoyed it once I relaxed, but it wasn’t what I had been expecting. I was picturing it would be like a Swedish massage (which now looking back on it… why would it be a Swedish massage in Thailand? Stupid..) where you lay on your stomach on a massage table and they work mostly on your back. Instead, they had me change into a silk pajama set (for lack of a better term) and lay on my back on a mattress on the floor. The masseuse started working on my legs for a long time before finally having me flip over and working on my back. My legs and feet can get really ticklish and squeamish, so in hindsight, this was not the best choice for me and I probably wouldn’t go for a full body massage again. I couldn’t enjoy the massage at first because I was so tense and couldn’t relax. When the lady was massaging my back and neck though… different story, that was great. Although, since I was just laying on a mattress, there was no hole for my face to poke through, and she wouldn’t let me turn my head because it puts kinks in your neck. So every time she would press down hard on my back, my nose was just being squished into the mattress. I felt like Squidward.

I spent the rest of the afternoon before my flight meandering around to kill time. I found another great cafe hidden in a side street. It is a vegan cafe that donates 100% of its profits to a non-profit organization for Burmese refugees. It’s such an awesome cause, and the food (another acai bowl – nothing new here) was great too. They also had guestbooks all around, which I was reading through while I waited for my food. People had written such amazing things, and it made me so happy. I’ll put a picture of my favorite entry below.

My last stop in Thailand was a bookstore. I picked up a magnet (I collect them from every city I visit!) and added a bunch of books to my to-be-read list. Then I headed back to my hotel, got all of my stuff, and took off for the airport to gear up for a long travel itinerary. I was flying Chiang Mai – Guangzhou for a 13-hour overnight layover (the gym booked me a room at a nearby hotel), Guangzhou – L.A. for a 6-hour layover, and finally L.A. – Tucson where I was meeting all of my family for our belated Christmas. Everything went smoothly, and I made it safely back to the U.S.! I can’t express how happy I was when I landed in L.A. I had missed American soil so much. I was so happy just to be able to read all the signs in the airport and have a short conversation with the people at customs. It’s the little things 🙂

Everything about Thailand was a dream. I’m already dying to go back (hint hint @Mallory) and see more of this beautiful country.