November 3-14: Chiang Mai, Thailand (By Liz)

We originally planned to use Chiang Mai as a base for everything we wanted to do in northern Thailand, but soon after arriving to the city, we found out that Chiang Mai had much more to offer than some of those other surrounding areas. We decided to play it by ear rather than book trekking trips and buses to the mountain towns all at once. This obviously irritated our guesthouse, SK House 2, because every time we passed through reception, some was eagerly waiting to push all sorts of tours on us. They were even angry at us for buying Muy Thai boxing tickets from someone else! We went to the boxing match our first night and had a great time. It was way more affordable than in Bangkok, and they even had “lady fights” with two women boxers! We sat next to a British couple, John and Christiana, and they invited us to go motor biking with them on a two day trip out in the surrounding countryside. It sounded like a great time, so the next morning, Jeff and I checked out of our pressure-selling guesthouse and into John and Christiana’s (the White House—amazing place), rented scooters, and set off with a vague map not drawn to scale.


Muay Thai boxers

The whole trip was somewhat of a bust, in that everything we had planned to do (visiting waterfalls, hot springs, elephant camps) we never ending up doing. But it was super fun nonetheless! John and Christiana popped a tire, so that was interesting getting it fixed, and we got super lost using the crummy map. We drove around all afternoon, desperately looking for somewhere to sleep, and FINALLY found someplace just after it got dark! Some Australian guys were staying there for the night during their 2-week dirt biking trip. They (and their lady “guests” from the village) hogged up all the rooms, so the four of us shared a room with three single beds. And one of the beds felt like it was stuffed tightly with sawdust. So, not the most comfortable room ever, but very welcome nonetheless. We made it back safely the following day, and explored Chiang Mai’s Sunday night market that evening.


Beginning our moto adventure!

The next day, John and Christiana joined us in a cooking class we had signed up for. We had a recommendation for Thai Farms, which is an organic cooking school out in a country setting. They took us around to a local market first, showing us the different types of rice, curries, and condiments used in Thai cooking. Then they drove us out to their farm and showed us, in their garden, the unique fruits, vegetables, and chilies that Thai people use everyday. After a lovely day of cooking six dishes, we chowed down on all the delicious food. Jeff made an awesome coconut curry soup and super delicious chicken with cashews! At the end of the day, they gave us a cookbook with all of the recipes we made, plus a section that listed alternate ingredients in case we couldn’t find certain ones at home. We had such a good time and recommend it to anyone!


Insects and other grubs, ready to eat, at the local market


One of the meat aisles at the local market


At our cooking class out in the garden


All of our lovely creations!

Jeff and I were feeling guilty for not booking treks like we had planned, so we created our own and felt very optimistic about it. Doi Inthanon National Park has the highest peak in all of Thailand, along with many waterfalls, hiking trails, and hill tribes. Going off their limited website, we found out that they had cabin accommodation there, and that we could drive up the peak ourselves. It sounded lovely, so we drove the one hour there on our scooter. We arrived with some sore bums, saw two waterfalls near the entrance of the park, and headed out to park headquarters to book a place to sleep. There were two incompetent people running the desk, but we were able to figure out that all of their cabins were insanely expensive. There was one that was a bit cheaper though, so we decided to look at it first. It was awful. The walls did not extend all the way to the ceiling, it was grubby, and had no fan. That would have been fine with us if it were cheap, but it was more than twice as much as we were paying in the city. We decided to camp instead, and rented (from the two morons running the desk) a tent, sleeping bags, and pillows (although it was still outrageously expensive). We of course somehow got very lost on the way to the campsite, but managed to come across a good restaurant for dinner later. When we did find the campsite, it was very pretty and peaceful. The ground was very hard though, so we rented a blanket from the campsite to use as a mattress. We should have rented about 7 more! The one blanket made hardly any difference, and it was soooo freezing we barely slept. We were miserable the next morning. To top it all off, our scooter was too weak to make it up the steep incline to the summit of the mountain, so we just had to turn around and go back to Chiang Mai. It was all very sad, considering how excited we were for the trip!


One of the waterfalls at Doi Inthanon National Park

One of the most awesome things we did in Chiang Mai was visit the Tiger Kingdom. It was a touristic place through and through, complete with a gift shop and restaurant. But guess what we got to do?? Pet tigers!! It was so cool! You could choose between babies, small ones up to 2 years, medium ones up to 5 years, and big ones. We chose medium because they were less expensive than the babies and big ones, and they had no line (the babies had a huge line—understandably!). While we were waiting, the big ones ended up having a small line so we were upgraded to them! They were so massive. Their paws could like, knock you unconscious! None of them were tranquilized or anything…apparently they are just so used to humans they don’t care. Although you do have to avoid their heads and paws, and we were fine with that, haha. The large ones had a pool they could jump around in, and the keepers had a palm frond on the end of a long stick, just like a cat toy! Too funny. After our 15 minutes in the tiger cage, we walked around the rest of the grounds looking at all the other cats. The babies were so cute!!! So fuzzy and sweet. We snuck a picture of one!


Baby tiger!! :)


Massive tiger paw compared to Jeff's hand!!



Chiang Mai was a great city to kick back in and enjoy the local culture. It’s very modern, yet still very Thai, but not like a standard big city like Bangkok. Although we didn’t do too much, we loved our time there.