There is so much to say about my Thailand trip, I had to break up my posts into 4: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, beach town and general tips for Thailand travel.
Then our "we'll just have one drink" night turned into this:
They drink 5 shots before they start drinking. You can see the shots below and, you know, just the normal Thai bar munchies: grubs and worms. It was basically the best night ever followed by the worst morning ever. Worth it. Earlier that day we also ran into a graffiti art contest near our hotel.
On the nightlife note: You say jazz bar and I'm there. We hit up the North Gate Jazz Bar because of all the hype on TripAdvisor. It was alright, I've lived in Louisiana though so if someone isn't belting it out, I kind of lose interest. It was nice and relaxing for a bit but we didn't stay long. It's missable.
Our hotel is in the Nimman Street area which is the spot to be for hopping bars, clubs, chill patio bars, high energy or low, you can find any type of nightlife you're interested in. This is the area you want to stay in. That youth culture I was talking about? This is the nucleus.
Warm Up is the SPOT in Chiang Mai. It was one of the only places open past midnight so every Thai in the area is there partying. I woke up the next day with about 10 new Thai facebook friends (I've been hitting that auto translate button a lot now... and it is really hilariously bad at translating Thai to English).
We also went to see a traditional Muay Thai fight. We went to Thaphae Stadium and the fights are real... pretty sure we saw someone get a rib cracked. This pretty much summed me up:
But the drinks were flowing and we had a fun Irish couple sitting next to us. The fighters are warming up and cooling down like 10 feet away from you so you get to go chat with them and take pictures pretending to punch their abs. The "half-time show" might have been my favorite part: they put 10 guys in the ring blind folded and had them go at it.
I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I might never eat Chiang Mai food again. We got a lot of restaurant recommendations from our hotel and they didn't disappoint.
In Chiang Mai you don't eat Pad Thai, you eat Khao Soi, Tom Yum Soup, whole fried fish, cashew chicken and panang curry in open air "restaurants" where they cook it at a stall on the edge of the seating area. Khao Soi is the real MVP (pictured above).
Tom Yum soup is pretty spicy but weirdly amazing. It doesn't look nearly as incredible as it tastes. Sausage is a Chiang Mai specialty, we tried it and didn't love it but maybe that's just the spoiled Texan in me. In Thailand you order several different dishes and share, you don't each just order one thing. And if you're like us, you'll order A LOT. These shrimp dumplings below were also incredible. My best tip is to over-order your face off in Chiang Mai.
Oh and: eat mango sticky rice. All the time. You can thank me later.
We've heard everyone drone on and on about Thai cooking classes and while I would rather just eat than learn how to cook, the Pantawan Cooking class was a great experience. You should do it too. I drank the koolaid, or panang curry, if you will. They also serve beer.
I have already made some of the recipes at home and blown people's mind. They also take you through a traditional market beforehand to buy the ingredients. We saw different veggies, herbs and meats we never even knew existed. Below is the fried whole fish you have to try, it looks super terrifying but don't let that deter you.
Onward... We didn't want to devote an entire day to elephants, and most elephant places are full day adventures. Our hotel was able to find a half day tour, with a "new" company that they weren't very sure about. Sounds shady... but it was awesome. Elephant Carer Home spent time letting us feed the elephants and do a little bonding before starting the death defying trek ahead of us.
I'm just joking, kind of. I was the only one who couldn't get comfortable on an elephant. Everyone else was chilling and relaxing as they enjoyed the beauty of the area. So while this is what we were seeing:
This is what I was most definitely feeling:
Needless to say, I was glad we did a half day trip, but I am so happy we did it. It was a super cool experience and I'm probably the only weirdo who can't find balance on a giant elephant.
We also got to bathe them and they were so cute. They were like puppies slashing around and smiling in the water. They also have a baby elephant that walked along beside her mom the whole time. If you plan accordingly, this elephant place is right by the long neck tribe (where the women wear all those gold bands around their necks) which we missed but would have been interesting to visit.
In the map, you'll notice a square moat around the old city of Chiang Mai. The area actually still has the moat and crumbling walls and gates around it. That alone is worth a trip to the city. There are a ton of temples in Chiang Mai and this map was my optimistic goal of seeing the coolest temples. From A (our hotel) to G (night bazar) is just about 4 miles. (I said optimistic remember?)
We decided to rent a moped, because everyone in Thailand zips around on motor bikes and we felt inspired. That was a terrible idea, and seriously don't do it unless you actually know how to drive one... So I was basically so concerned for my life the whole time, I couldn't keep up with where we were. Here is a list of the ones I determined, after exhaustive research were the coolest: (B) Wat Lok Molee, (C) Temple of the Lion Buddha Wat Phra Singh, (D) Wat Chedi Luang Worawihan (and monk chat), (E) Monastery of a Thousand Kilns Wat Phan Tao and (F) Wat Phan On.
Wat Chedi Luang is the most must see of all, not just because of the impressive, crumbling, ancient looking mountain-like temple but because of the "monk chats" held on the grounds. It was more like visiting ruins really. The monk chat was developed by an English dude who was hoping to get the monks some English practice. It was a bit intimidating walking in there but was incredibly eye opening. A monk told us his story of how he chooses not to talk to his family because those earthly ties (love) keep him from reaching nirvana. Woah.
Wat Lok Molee was actually our first stop, as planned, even though we had no idea where we were going. It was small, built in the 1300's, and all I remember is wanting to kiss the ground when we got there (it was our first moped stop). Temple of the Lion Buddha was very cool. We bought offerings at the stand at the door, they explained what we do with them and we entered the temple barefooted to see a golden shrine and a stationary monk meditating cross-legged in front of those kneeling on the floor. Wat Phan On will stop you from the road with a giant golden dome; it is a sight. We didn't make it to Monastery of a Thousand Kilns -Wat Phan Tao, not because we died, just because we were afraid of the possibility.
The night bazaar is amazing. There are literally millions of things to look at and they stretch miles. Buy a ton of stuff to bring home, everything is SO CHEAP. Retail therapy has nothing on Chiang Mai. I bought a real pearl necklace for $20. Saturday and Sundays are the walking street markets, these are, if possible, even more impressive than the night bazaar. Really be sure to articulate to your driver you want to Saturday/Sunday walking street market or they'll just take you back to the night bazaar.
At night, from the rooftop of the hotel, you can see Wat Phra That Doi Suthep glowing in the mountainside. You can ask your hotel to schedule you a driver to take you up and back down to this temple complex, and it is absolutely the most stunning, over the top, golden spectacle. There are monks strolling all around and you can see a fantastic view of Chiang Mai below. The drive through the Thai jungle (waterfalls included) to get there is pretty stunning too. I also really wanted to go to Wat U Mong on the same trip to Doi Suthep but we just didn't have the time.
Tiger Kingdom ended up accidentally being an adventure for us. We took one of those red cabs there and nearly flew out the back of it on the freeway. I'd recommend a traditional taxi driver or get your hotel to schedule you another car. Again, it isn't that expensive.
I was only down with petting baby tigers and they didn't disappoint. There were also big tigers, bigger tigers, white tigers and even lions for insane people to get in the pens with to pet. I kind of expected the tigers to seem drugged or sluggish... they were NOT. And there were crazy people in the pens with them snapping selfies.
We didn't realize there weren't just taxis waiting to take people home from Tiger Kingdom... so we were kind of stranded in the middle of the Chiang Mai countryside. Get your driver to wait for you. We walked out of Tiger Kingdom, turned right and there was a resort a mile or so down the road (no sidewalks and on a freeway in the middle of nowhere). The resort was kind of like Narnia, a weird oasis in the middle of nowhere. We got a few drinks and had them call us a cab.
Chiang Mai is a must. It might be my favorite all time city I have ever traveled to. But all of Thailand is pretty sweet... Read about our time in Bangkok here, beachy Thailand here and some general tips on Thai travel and food here.
All these are featured in our Thailand trip video:
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