Chiang Mai: Day One

We had such a lovely time in Chiang Mai. At the end of this day I looked at Dave and said “this may rank as one of my favorite days of my life yet.” I don’t know exactly what it was, but the people just seem to make you feel at home in their city. We took an all night bus from the village in Khon Kaen to Chiang Mai and arrived bright and early. The bus ride itself was quite the adventure going round those windy roads all night long, but that’s another story. We checked into our hotel, took our concierge’s advice, and headed up to Tiger Kingdom.  This park was like a zoo only you could pay to go inside the tiger’s cages. Dave and I decided to go into the baby tiger cage, but opted out of petting the full grown tigers. I was pretty sure our insurance didn’t cover that. The whole experience was pretty hilarious, but we had a lot of fun.

Next, we went to a village market on the outskirts of the city. It was definitely a tourist attraction and reminded us a little bit of the Thai equivalent of a colonial Williamsburg. There were people dressed in traditional clothing, playing traditional games, and making traditional crafts. It felt a bit like a tourist trap, but we enjoyed being a part of the trap.

We then saw a path leading away from the tourist area and decided to do some exploring. Everyone we met on this side of the village didn’t seem to care that we had wandered outside of the designated tourist area so we kept going.

We met this mother and daughter on our walk and they graciously allowed me to take photos of them as they were doing chores around their home. They were such beautiful women and I just adored the light around their house.

And you know I couldn’t leave the village without snapping some photos of babies.

We hired a driver for the day and it was the best decision. We loved the flexibility it gave us and it was relatively inexpensive. Our driver was really helpful and I wish we would have hired him both days we were in Chiang Mai. He drove us up the mountain to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a scared Thai temple on the mountain.  The temple was stunningly beautiful and we saw why Chiang Mai is famous for its temples.

You know we had to try some street food and street corn is always one of my favorites.

Don’t you just love those little monks?

After we left the temple we went back to the city and had Thai massages. I don’t have any photos of the massages, but it was just the thing we needed to get the knots out of our backs after carrying around equipment all week. I highly recommend Thai massages to anyone who has the chance. After the massages we went to the Chiang Mai night markets. The markets were a mix of tourist souvenirs, local flea markets, groceries, and food.

And after the night markets we went back to our lovely hotel to sleep in a real bed. (after our previous night on a bus, this was very exciting)

And this ancient temple was our view from the balcony of our hotel room. Told you it was an amazing day.

I will write about our second day in Chiang Mai next time. (Get ready to see photos of us riding elephants)