Welcome back! We are picking up after a week of traveling around Thailand and we are now making our way to the very north to the beautiful city of Chiang Mai. If you want to experience the true Thailand, then Chiang Mai is your place. We had previously been to Bangkok, which is the big city and that is what it felt like. Then we went westward to Kanchanaburi to experience the jungle. I thoroughly enjoyed the floating market and learning about the Death Railway. Then we headed north to Phitsanulok, where we experienced the weird side of Thailand. Now we were heading further north to enjoy elephants and true Thai culture.
Day 1
Chiang Mai was the part of this trip I was most excited for, and luckily it lived up to expectations. The thing I was most excited for was to see elephants. They are my favorite animal and I have only ever seen them in zoos at home in the States. I was really looking forward to experiencing animals in a much more natural habitat. It would be an animal sanctuary, but it still is much more room for the elephants to roam and be themselves than a zoo. We had two nights in Chiang Mai, so we had many other fun things to look forward to as well, including the night market, a traditional northern Thai dinner, and another temple where we would meet a monk. We had a few side quests along the way that were well worth the stop, but we will get into that in a bit. First lets start with our arrival to Chiang Mai.
We were traveling from Phitsanulok and it was a long drive! We only had a couple things on the itinerary for the day including Sukothai (which you can read about in my previous Thailand post) and then the night market in Chiang Mai.
Here was our itinerary for our eighth day in Thailand.
Day 8 of Tour: Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, and then to Chiang Mai
– Visit the Sukhothai Historical Park, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site and the nation’s spiritual
center. You’ll have the option to take a bike ride
around the temples after the tour.
– Travel to Chiang Mai via San Kamphaeng and
Bor Sang.
– With your Tour Director, visit the Chiang Mai
night market.
Let’s get on with Chiang Mai then?
Chiang means city, not to be confused with Chang which means elephant or a type of beer. Mai means new, so it means New City. -June 13th, 2019
When we first got to Chiang Mai, we were met with a bit of a surprise when we ended up at an umbrella factory and a lacquer shop. It was really smart for our guide to bring us here, because its a great way to boost the local economy. At the umbrella factory we were given a demonstration of how they make them. Now I should probably make it clear that this isn’t like umbrellas for the rain. I am talking about the traditional paper umbrellas. Its not just a regular kind of paper though. Its made with SAA paper which is treated with oil to make it waterproof, but I still wouldn’t take one of these out in a storm. Its frame is only made with bamboo and wood, so they can be a bit delicate. They are best used as sun protection. I bought just a small decorative one as well as a little fan, which I actually do use all the time. They are also very beautiful with their painted designs.
From here we headed to the lacquer demonstration.
This was really cool. Lacquer is sap from a tree used to paint wood. It has to be coated 7 times for it to get a shiny look. Each coat takes a week, so the whole process takes 7 weeks. Then they decorate the wood with gold, paint, or egg shells. I got an elephant with gold and colored paint on it. – June 13th, 2019
This was something I knew nothing about before and never would have expected to see in Thailand. These are the coolest kinds of experiences. Afterwards we headed to our hotel to hang out until dinner. Dinner was at 7 at a cute family owned restaurant. We were the only ones in the tiny building, which was nice. We were served an appetizer that looked like a tortilla chip topped with chicken, corn, and carrots. Weirdly, some of our group thought it tasted like pot pie. Then we were served a pork and cabbage soup, two of my favorite things!
Our main course was rice, stir fried onions, curried fish, and chicken flambé. It was so good, especially the chicken. It was so sweet and juicy, which is a word I don’t typically like to use to describe meat. Now if you already thought we were eating well, then wait until I tell you about dessert. It was the best chocolate ice cream I had ever had.
After dinner we walked to the night market and were given an hour and a half of free time here to explore on our own. My mom and I walked around and listened to music. There were performers through out the market so we just sat around and listened for a bit while sipping on a fruity drink, a pineapple smoothie for me. I bought an elephant notebook from the market side of things that became my little scrapbook for the trip. My mom got some chimes and spices. I hate to say we didn’t really get to use much of the spices when we got home until they went bad.
I want to give you a little excerpt of my observations here. Keep in mind I wrote this 7 years ago when I was 17, years before I studied abroad and became obsessed with Ireland.
As we walked around we saw a lot of white people, drag queens/lady boys, an Irish pub, and lots of music. – June 13, 2019
Queue the Irish Pub song! You really will find an Irish pub anywhere you go! Anyway it was a long and exhausting day. We took a taxi back to the hotel that looked a lot like a giant tuktuk, so of course that was fun! Then off to bed I went with dreams of elephants in anticipation of our next day in Chiang Mai.
Day 2
The day had finally come! I was going to see elephants! The night before was a bit of a late night, so we were getting a little bit of a later start this day. We didn’t have much on the agenda other than going to the elephant sanctuary and then a traditional dinner and show, but it was a few hours in the bus to get to the sanctuary. Here was our itinerary for the day.
Day 9 of Tour in Chiang Mai and Mae Taeng Valley
– Travel to the Mae Taeng Valley to visit the
Elephant Nature Park.
– Enjoy a Khantoke dinner and show.
Once we got to the nature park, we disembarked the bus and then had to take a shuttle another 15 minutes to actually get to where everything was. We were in the Mae Taeng Valley, which very much looked like a valley. There was no sign of human life. It was just animals and nature which is what made it so amazing. There is something peaceful about stepping into a place that feels so untouched by humans, even though I know humans obviously touched it to create a sanctuary, but its the fact that nature is being preserved that makes it feel this way. It felt like its own little world. Now lets get to the elephants!
When we got there the first thing we did was feed the elephants. I fed one of the elephants bananas and pieces of melon. It was scary at first, but it was also so much h fun. Then we got a tour of the sactuary and learned about what they do. They help save and rehabilitate elephants that have endured cruelty ,abuse, and forced breeding.We also go to meet some of the elephants like Grandmother and Sasa. It was so cool. We even got to pet some of then.- June 14, 2019
Then we had lunch here at the sanctuary, which consisted solely of vegetarian dishes, which I thought was very fitting for an animal sanctuary. We had so much to choose from at this buffet. I had potato curry, noodles, papaya salad, veggies, and spring rolls. For some reason I cannot forget about these spring rolls. I can still see and taste them to this day. They were just that good.
After lunch we went to cat kingdom. I fell in love with all of the cats. They were all soo cute. There was a lot of them. There was an orange one that loved me. I became its human, which made me really sad to leave it. – June 14, 2019
There were definitely some tears as I tried to leave my cat. I would have brought it home if I could, but its probably not the best idea in the world to bring a cat over to the States all the way from Thailand. I took lots of pictures to remember it though. It’s my cat even though its not.
Before heading back out to the elephants we stopped in the gift shop where I bought an elephant bracelet and shirt. Writing this right now is how I realized that I have a shirt from here. I haven’t seen it in years and can’t even remember what it looks like. Now I need to find it!
Anyway at 1:00 pm we went to the river to see the elephants bathe. They bathed in families which was really cute. There was one that went all the way under the water. As we watched the employee play with the elephants in the water, and guide them in and out, it began to rain. Luckily we had brought ponchos so we threw those on. The rain didn’t last long though.
We left around 2:30 pm and as I said before, it was only a couple hours in the bus, so we had a little bit of time before our dinner, so our guide brought us on another side quest. We stopped at an orchid farm, which was beautiful. I adored the flowers. They are unlike anything we have at home. There was also a butterfly garden. On our way out we each got an orchid pin. We got some of the most amazing souvenirs on this trip.
We had a little free time after we got back to the hotel so my mom and I decided to get manicures. You may know that massages in Thailand are dirt cheap, but what you may not have known is that a manicure here is equal to about $8. Beyond the amazing price, it was also a fun experience. The salon workers didn’t really speak much English and they also had a tv on, playing Thai pop music. I looked up a bunch of these songs and they ended up becoming the playlist of my trip. Anyway I got a light blue color and it was very cute.
For dinner we had a Khantoke dinner planned. This ended up being another of my favorite experiences here in Thailand. I wore a purple skirt that I had bought at the floating market. I was so excited!
At dinner I sat on the floor along with Maddy, Jamie, Jana, and Grace. The rest of the group wanted to sit at tables. I wanted the real experience. We got soup before our food. Then we got rice in cute baskets and the tray that had the food. The tray had veggies, pork curry, pork crisps, a tomato sauce, fried chicken, friend bananas, and a sweet crunchy rice ball. I thought it all was delicious. I ate all our bananas. Then we had fruit for dessert. Like usual, it was watermelon and pineapple. At 8 the dancing started. Everything was different here compared to southern Thailand. The costumes were more folky and less glammy and the music used more instruments. – June 14, 2019
I thought it was really interesting to experience the culture of northern Thailand, because as young Americans we have a pretty narrow idea of what Thai culture is and things we consider Thai, but just like everywhere else, there is some much more to culture. It can differ by region, even if it is the same country. That’s why tours like this are so good, especially for educational trips and high schoolers! You experience so much and learn about all the different people and places in a destination.
Now enjoy some of the music!
Day 3
This was our day to actually explore and see the city of Chiang Mai. Our plan was to visit the big temple there and have a discussion with a monk about Buddhism. It was going to be pretty different from our other days on this trip because we were really digging into the culture by meeting with locals. We then would fly back to Bangkok to save us the time of taking the bus back. Normally the tour would end here and you would fly back home from Bangkok, but we added the extension which included a few days further south of Bangkok to enjoy the beach.
Here was our itinerary for the day.
Day 10 of Tour: Chiang Mai and Bangkok
– Participate in a group discussion with
local monks.
– Visit the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple.
– Fly back to Bangkok.
We headed into the city around 8:30 am on our bus. At a certain point though we had to park the bus and hop onto some taxis and trucks to go up the hill to the temple because buses weren’t allowed there on weekend. It was the worst ride of my life. I have a weird thing about motion sickness. Buses are fine. Boats are fine. The back of a truck going up a curvy road? Not fine. We were 8 people crammed into the back of a truck and it was hot! So many people were getting sick because of how curvy the road was too.
Once we got as high as the road goes, we got out of the truck and hopped on another form of transportation, the funicular. This took us the rest of the way to the temple. We had an amazing view from up here. We could see the entire city. Otherwise the temple was just like many of the other temples we had seen. It was still cool to walk around and explore, because the temples are quite gorgeous in Thailand.
Then we found our next side quest and we were about to pour even more money into the Chiang Mai economy.
After we walked around we took the steps back down and walked to the jade shop. We were given iced coffee and rice cakes. We then watched a video about jade. After the video, a Gemologist came in and talked to us. I thought he sounded just like my uncle, but my mom thought he sounded British. He definitely studied in an English speaking country. His English was fluent. Then we walked around the workshop area a little bit. It takes a long time to carve jade. Then we walked into the store. Everything was super expensive, but my mom bought a ring and me a necklace. We both got white jade which stands for good luck. – June 15th, 2019
We then took the beloved trucks back down to the bus. This time it was better. I’m not sure how going down could have been better than going up, but it was! Maybe it was the fact that we knew we were going to lunch next, so we had something to get us through it. Lunch was another buffet and I settled on spring rolls, rice, sweet and sour veggies, and chicken satay. Of course it was all amazing and delicious. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I had to go home and could no longer eat rice and curry for every meal.
After lunch we went to a gem store. My mom and I didn’t buy anything though because we found out they sell Ivory. I love elephants too much to support any kind of business that kills them for their tusks. We did end up going to a silk factory next that I really enjoyed. I learned a lot about silk. I guess I never really knew what it was before.
Silk is literally made from the nests of silk worms. Its kind of gross, but it makes great fabric. It was neat to see all of it done by hand. I ended up buying a beautiful deep blue scarf. I vowed that would be the last thing I buy. – June 15, 2019
Spoiler alert, it wasn’t.
Anyway, we headed to our next temple for our meeting with a monk. We had a little bit of time beforehand to walk around the temple and get a sense for things. There was a cemetery here as well that holds the graves for Chiang Mai royal families. Then at 4 pm we had our meeting which was essentially a Buddhism 101 for those that don’t know anything about it.
It was actually quite interesting. Buddhism isn’t a religion, but a way of life. Someone can be Christian and Buddhist. He was really good at teaching us. I feel like I learned a lot. – June 15, 2019
I did go out of this thinking I could be Buddhist. I really was drawn to the dedication to peace. I am Catholic though, so him telling me the two could coincide really struck something in me. Obviously you can’t be fully both, because either you believe in heaven or rebirth, but I do think some of the principles of how you live your life are very similar. For example, I think mindfulness and understanding are both present in the Catholic faith as well. We need to be mindful of our relationship with God and others. Both have strong ethical beliefs as well. But try getting a Catholic to given up alcohol. That’s one big difference.
From here we went right to the airport where I had one of the most interesting airport experiences of my life. We had to go through security to just get into the airport. Then we checked in. Then we had to eat dinner before then going through actual security. It was also a bit stressful because we were supposed to board at 6:30, but we only began security at 6:30. Our flight left at 7pm. Anyway for dinner I had a TomYum chicken wrap and Kabob potato chips.
Our inflight experience was also very interesting. We weren’t allowed to use electronics at all during take off and landing on Bangkok Airways. We also were served a dinner on this hour long flight, so I guess we didn’t need to eat in the airport. It was some kind of duck and noodles and then a clear jello. I typically love jello, but didn’t care for this so much. I also took the duck off my noodles. I don’t mind duck, but I was scared what airplane duck would do to me.
Anyway we arrived at 8pm, picked up our luggage, got a new bus and bus driver, and headed to our hotel for a night in Bangkok. It was about 10 pm by the time we got there and everyone was exhausted. Luckily our only plans for the rest of the trip was to go to Cha-Am and enjoy some free time on the beach.
And that will be a post for another day.
I hope you enjoyed reading about Chiang Mai. I was worried I wouldn’t do it justice, because it was such a significant part of the trip. It really completed the Thailand experience and opened my eyes to the diversity of Thai culture. To read more about my Thailand trip, head to my Thailand page!
The Journal of Wanderlust 