Even though we were excited, we had to get there first. It was time for that next bus ride. 30 hours this one took. 30 hours. Yes, over a day. We had mastered the prep by now: make sure you have full charge on your phone with an account on Netflix, on Spotify, a couple of dodgy pills you picked up from a local pharmacy to get you to sleep and away you go. Some are also better than others, would you believe this?
If you have lost track of time again we are at the end of November now. 26th to be specific when we arrived at Chiang Mai. I didn’t know this off by heart, my travel journey book had to make an appearance and give me a hand for this.
After a not so bad bus trip, we checked into our hostel ‘Brick House’. The first port of call was to go grab some beer Chiang’s from a 7/11, along with a toastie. From all the people he had met so far we mentioned to them we had already been to Bangkok and they always banged on about these toasties. If you have been reading these intently so far you will know that Nia and I never pass down a food opportunity. So we had to of course give them a go. Cheese and ham was always the preference and it was, as other travellers had best described as, ‘epic’. After this we were hooked for the rest of our time in Thailand. Don’t worry we did eat all the other amazing Thai food while we were there. Chiang Mai is known for being more authentic and therefore the traditional food was fantastic. But for those days when you were hungover, you just needed a big Chiang beer and a toastie, before starting the whole process again the next day. It was needed and a ritual.
Chiang Mai has so much to offer, we stayed for eight nights in total, which does seem like a long time, but we managed to fill all the days up. The first night, as described above, was very chilled. It was an early start on our first full day; time for a cooking class at 08:30am. Definitely a must do in Thailand at some point, doesn’t have to be in Chiang Mai they supply they all over. You learn how to make the famous Pad Thai, a soup, a Green Curry and Thai Chai Iced Tea. YUM. We headed out to the markets in the afternoon which were larger and more traditional than we had come across so far. Then headed back for another relaxing evening, having beers and playing cards with some others from the hostel.
Flight of the Gibbon was next on the agender for CM, another early start where the minibus took us out to the rainforest. Some men strapped us up and made us fly through trees – ziplining. Such a fun activity, yet another to add to the list. Funnily enough we had to have a nap during the day here, before heading out for an evening meal with another two English girls we had met. These two were part of ‘the group’ at some points, but not all the way through.
If you would guess another early start you would be right, Elephant Sanctuary time! We booked the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary after a lot of research to find and make sure we were booking an ethical place. We had heard so many horror stories, so we needed to make sure we picked the right one, and we had. Now just a bit of a disclaimer this was five years ago and whether it still will be ethical is another thing. You will need to look up today recent posts, look at blogs and reviews, you will soon find the answer. First we went for a walk with them through the jungle, when we got back to where the bags were being kept, we all got to get up close and personal. We were able to take lots of photos, feed them, and touch them. There was a baby there about 4 months old, it was so cute you couldn’t believe. After lunch we then got into our swimsuits and got in the mud bath with them and then in the river to shower off with them as well. It was an amazing day, elephants are so elegant, one of my most treasured memories. Another full day of excitement meant that afterwards, it was time for food and an early bedtime.
You would have thought we were ill or something with all these early bedtime’s, but we needed it, it was time to recharge and really enjoy the days we had with activities. Our fourth day was more relaxing, we slept in until 10:30! I know, what? We headed to the 3D Art Museum, it didn’t cost a lot and we got some great photos from it, add. We walked around the rest of town after, also up going to the cinema for some English normality before we headed out for a night at Zoe’s.
Nia was very hungover the next day, as she should be, we needed to catch up on a few nights out in one. It was a chilled one around the hostel, lunch, night bazaar markets in the evening – another must see in Chiang Mia. We said goodbye to the two English girls, so that was the end of the whole group now. Hopefully we would see them again when we get back to the UK.
Doi Suthep temple, write this down, another day activity. You can get a tuk-tuk to drive you to the top or you could walk up to it which was about 3 hours in total, this is what we did. Gets the blood flowing and burning some calories (alcohol weight) off. In the evening we went out for a big meal at a Mai Thai event which had so much atmosphere and would also recommend this. They have different events all over Thailand, so if you don’t get up to Chiang Mai don’t worry, you will be able to find them at another location.
Our time had run out at our hostel so we had to change to one just down the road for a night, as we had booked the bus to Pai for the next day. The hostel was called ‘At Baan Kuan’, I’m not even going to write a review on this one as I don’t remember it. We headed out to the Canyon Waterpark during the day and at night we just had to lay down until the early start the next morning (after a night out of course). A couple from Southampton who we had met in Laos were also heading out as well so it was nice to catch up with them again before the next destination.
LEAH HANCOX 