Chiang Mai is a major town situated in northern Thailand, with a nice historical center surrounded by the remains of an ancient wall. The city is also a hotspot for tourists and serves as hub for trekking into the surrounding hills or further towards Laos and Cambodia.
After busy Hat Yai we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in Chiang Mai, rented bikes to drive around, went to the cinema and visited a number of the numerous temples. On the way to the famous Doi Suthep temple we fell with our rented motorbike and were quite lucky we got away with a few bruises on feet and knees. The temple itself was indeed impressive, also because it is situated appr. 300 m above the city.
Compared to southern Thailand we saw a lot more monks, colourful birds in small cages we wanted to free,
nightlife, moskitos all around, a water buffalo market and snakes eating screaming frogs. We enjoyed fruit that tasted so fresh, tried about 20 different kinds of bananas, pineapple in salt and curry and fell in love with mixed fruit shakes. In every house and on nearly every corner you could spot a portrait of the monarch or the royal couple, and even in the cinema before the main film, people all stood up to honour the king and to watch a short film, apparently about the benefits of (constitutional) monarchy. We also realised that Asian people seem to have a different, more slapsticky kind of humour.
Ever done a Thai curry by yourself and do you know the differenc
e between red and green peppers? We wanted to know and did a very nice cooking class at a farm outside of Chiang Mai. We prepared all the Thai classics: Red and green Thai curry (starting with the quite exhausting preparation of the curry paste in a mortar), Pad Thai, fried rice and noodles, Tom Yum Soup, spring rolls, papaya salad, sticky rice with mango and banana in coconut milk. And we ate it all!