Of all the places we’ve visited, Thailand is the most well known and talked about. So much so, that you almost can’t help but have predetermined impressions and certain expectations. All I’ve ever heard is that Thailand is incredible, and that I would love both Bangkok and Chiang Mai- with such high expectations you would think I was setting myself up for disappointment, but honestly it was just as amazing as I had hoped.
As we boarded our overnight train to Chiang Mai in Bangkok, I was very curious to see how it would go. The only other overnight train I’d taken was from Paris to Vienna, and it was not the most pleasant experience- so how could this be any better? Well let me tell you, it was pretty great. At around 8 pm a man comes through and immediately transforms your normal train seats into two incredibly comfortable beds. That, plus a little help from our travel buddy melatonin, helped us sleep right through the ride.
Chiang Mai train station
Chiang Mai is beautiful, and next to Luang Prabang, one of our favorite small towns of SE Asia (so far). The old part of town (which is over 700 years old) is every Wat lovers dream- there is honestly a beautiful Wat on every corner. In fact it has about 300 Buddhist Wats, making the city basically one giant tribute to Buddha. By then we had already seen so many of these religious buildings throughout our trip, that you can say we were “watted out”- so we saw the top 4 and focused more on discovering the town, which is absolutely beautiful! We compared it to Luang Prabang- the biggest difference being that here you see more locals enjoying the cafes and small restaurants around town, rather than just tourists.
Wat Chedi Luang
Some of the major highlights of our trip here were food related, so I’ll post the full stories on our food section. To give you a quick snippet- we took the best cooking class we’ve ever taken and ate at one of TripAdvisor’s top 20 restaurants in the world, where we experienced some of the best customer service of our lives. Make sure to read it!
One of the most amazing moments of this trip, and of my life frankly, was the morning we spent playing with elephants. Elephants are the national symbol of Thailand and you find representations of them absolutely everywhere- from statues on light fixtures, to the Royal Thai Navy flag. The reverence of them began very early on in Thai history when it is said kings rode them into battle against the Burmese. Chiang Mai is particularly well known for its elephant population and is where most people go to get up close to these amazing animals. Unfortunately, so much tourism to the area has brought about a very ugly side of the “elephant industry”. Most people go to Chiang Mai to ride elephants, which seems like a great time, but unfortunately most people don’t realize that these elephants are severely abused and exploited for your money. Given that Mike and I are huge animal lovers, we wanted to find a sanctuary where riding elephants is not allowed.
Early in the morning, we were picked up from our hotel and taken on a pretty daunting bus adventure into the mountains of Chiang Mai- daunting because (as is a trend on this trip) our driver was a maniac. After about an hour driving and a 15-minute walk, we arrived to a very secluded forest area- and there in the distance we caught our first glimpse of the elephants. When we arrived, their trainers started calling each one by name and waving sugar cane and cornhusks in the air. The trainers immediately handed us the food as two males approached. These guys were MASSIVE, and frankly a bit intimidating when they got up close. It was amazing to see how powerful and agile their trunks are; they are just as dexterous (if not more) than our arms/hands. We spent hours getting to know each elephant (there were about 6 in total), and our favorites were definitely Dumbo the baby and his mother. He was the most mischievous little guy who spent most of his time running around and trying to steal treats from the bigger elephants, which were monopolizing all the goods. At one point we went down to the river and had the chance to bathe them and watch them play.
It was an incredible experience to get to spend so much one on one time with these elephants and get to learn more about how they live. We loved learning that they roam freely in the forest and spend their days playing in the river and taking mud baths, like elephants should! Being so close to such a powerful, intelligent, and beautiful animal was truly a breathtaking experience.
Baby Dumbo
On our last night in Chiang Mai we also had the amazing opportunity to get dinner with an uncle of mine, Henry, and his wonderful wife and grandson. I hadn’t seen Henry since my childhood, so having the chance to reconnect and learn more about how he ended up in Thailand and what his life is like in Chiang Mai was really wonderful. It was surreal to see such a familiar face in such a foreign landscape, and Mike and I loved getting the chance to have a moment of familiarity and comfort during our trip.
Now onto Bangkok!!