Chiang Mai Here We Come!
- katlynsaley
- Feb 27, 2018
- 6 min read
Our first stop after arriving in Bangkok was Chiang Mai, which also happened to be my favorite place on our journey to Thailand! On a $30-40 flight from Bangkok you can be there in just a short hour, ready to soak up all of adventures Chiang Mai has to offer. During our 2-week trip we stayed 4-quick days here, but I could have spent many more weeks exploring the beauty of this colorful and lively place (and eating the delicious street food of course). In this post I have laid out my activities and gave some recommendations on what to do if you also decide to visit Chiang Mai.
Visit as many temples and soak in as much culture as you can!
A big reason for us going north to Chiang Mai instead of just spending our entire trip getting tan on the beach, was so we could explore and experience a few of the ancient, religious temples of Thailand. There is a temple every few blocks, if not on every block in Chiang Mai and many of them are open for public viewing. Most of these temples are free (except for a select few) and they are absolutely stunning.
As a reminder to travelers, please be respectful when you are visiting a temple. These are highly religious, sacred spaces where people pray and mediate. In our experience, monks were present even when tourists were around, meaning that you should be quiet and conscious not to disturb their practice. Ladies it is important for you to cover yourselves; something over the shoulders and past the knees is culturally appropriate. Also make sure that everyone takes off their shoes before entering.
Take a cooking class. My recommendation would be to do it with Meow at Great Kitchen...look for the Panda!
One of my favorite things we did in Chiang Mai was take a cooking class with a Thai woman named Meow (~$30). I had never taken a cooking class before this and during the 4-5 hours we spent with Meow, we learned (and ate) so much!
Before we started cooking we first went to a market to buy all of our fresh ingredients. Each of us choose a Thai soup, appetizer, curry, noddle dish, and dessert (there was a vegetarian option for each group) that we wanted to make and then shopped for the supplies needed to prepare our choices. The market was a very interesting place, packed with so many people shopping for their food. It was one of the top three biggest markets in Chiang Mai and there was everything from fresh vegetables to plastic bags filled with a full take-away meal.
Once getting back to Great Kitchen we went through the entire process of learning how to make the Thai dishes we’d shopped. My choices were tom yam goong soup, fried spring rolls with plum sauce, green curry (my favorite dish we made), phad Thai, and mango and sticky rice for dessert….and I was not disappointed! The neat thing is that if others in your group choose different food options you still get to try what they make, so really, I got to try way more than five different Thai dishes!
By the end of the teaching lessons I was so full I could barely move. Lucky for us, Meow has to-go containers if you decide to not eat everything right away. We decided to take a few things home and ate them for dinner that night, which was also a good choice.
Get a massage every day....or maybe even two!
If you’ve never had a Thai massage before than I can tell you first hand you are missing you. While in Chiang Mai, Brandalyn and I got (at least) one massage a day. With prices of $7-12 per hour you can hardly pass this up! I think two out of the three days we were there we got traditional Thai massages during the day and then on our way home from the night market stopped to get foot massages. The parlors are open as late as 1:00am for those late-night customers looking for a soothing foot rub after a long day.
Our favorite place we went to get a massage (and the next day a facial) was Lila Thai Massage. Our experience here was amazing, but that is not the only reason it was our favorite. Lila Thai Massage hires and trains female ex-inmates providing these women – who usually have a hard time finding work – with stable jobs. Unfortunately, these women often face discrimination from employers who refuse to hire them and sadly, due to the lack of unemployment some return to crime and find themselves back in prison. Lila Thai Massage was originally established to help eliminate this pattern of crime and lack of opportunity, and this is the main reason it was my favorite massage place. Not only was it a beautiful place externally, it also has a personal mission of helping vulnerable women.
DON'T go to an elephant rehab sanctuary (or at least we didn't).
Although a VERY popular tourist attraction in Thailand, we opted out of going to an elephant sanctuary for personal and ethical reasons. Before our trip we did lots of reading on this topic and online found plenty of articles and blogs that say you shouldn’t ride elephants. Even in Chiang Mai the tour companies pride themselves on being “riding free” elephant sanctuaries. However, even though there are many places that offer only washing and interaction with the elephants, we still felt like these sanctuaries are more of a money maker than an actual rehab center for wild animals. (Why else would there be soooo many securities?! Are there really that many elephants in Thailand that need to be in a rehab center and not in the wild? Or are elephants being breed there? Also, does it just happen to be a coincidence that Thailand is one of the only countries in the world where ivory trade is legal?)
Instead maybe buy one of these cute elephant paintings :)
In the future I would like to see more discussion about this topic – and articles and blogs about if these places really have a mission with the elephants as the top priority. Honestly, it was difficult for us to find anything on the negative effects of these specific elephant sanctuaries that don’t let you ride the elephants and claim to be ethical. In the end though, my thought is that these elephants are wild animals and are not meant to be interacting with humans. I’d love to think that the elephants really enjoy their time having humans love on them - I mean who doesn’t want to play with an elephant for a whole day - and maybe they do….but overall I think the focus should be less about what makes these companies money and more about getting these elephants rehabbed and back out where they belong.
Eat as much Thai street food as fits in your belly!
Yummmm, sushi!
One of the best things about Thailand cities is that there is cheap (~$2-5) street food EVERYWHERE. And it’s absolutely delicious. You can find anything from rolled ice cream to seafood kebabs to plastic baggies full of a curry meal with rice (or sticky rice and mango, it’s so yummy). Check out the pictures below to truly understand what I’m talking about.
We found Kombucha!! Yayyyy!
Eating street food is by far the cheapest way to eat in Chiang Mai. We even had Thai citizens tell us that they usually eat out every night instead of cooking at home because the price is practically the same. After seeing how many people are out and about and buying pre-made food at the markets and on the street this statement didn’t surprise me at all.
Who would pass up on homemade ice cream in a cone?....Not us!
Check out the night markets. You won't be disappointed.
Oh my gosh, had I forgotten what it is like to be out past 8:00pm living in Malawi for the last three years. YES, I HAD. That is until we arrived in Chiang Mai and spent every night out on the town, walking through the night markets, eating so much street food, listening to live music, and drinking cold Chang (a local lager beer). Night markets in themselves may have been the reason for me loving Chiang Mai so much (okay and obviously the everyday affordable massages). So, please, if you are in Chiang Mai – or any city in Thailand – stay up and don’t miss out on the night markets (and eat like 10 veggie spring rolls for me). It’s worth taking a few extra hours in the morning to sleep in.
My favorite purchase from the whole trip...found in a night market bizarre!
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