Chiang Mai

We rolled into the Chiang Mai train station after our overnight from Bangkok feeling tired and dirty, caught a Grab to our hostel to drop off our bags, and went out to find some breakfast.

Arrival in Chiang Mai

There was a cute little cafe a few blocks away where we took our time and made a semblance of a plan (follow a guide book's walking tour), then set off into the heat to see some more temples. We made it about 25 minutes and two temples before we were too hot and uncomfortable to do any more and we found another place to get a cold drink and sit in the AC.

A neat temple and a little respite from the heat.

Exploring

Since we showed up without many specific plans, we did a lot of wandering around without much purpose. That can be nice, but can also feel almost stressful to constantly feel like you have to make decisions. Anyway, here are some photos in no particular order.

(We actually split up our three nights in Chiang Mai, going to Chai Lai Orchid Elephant Sanctuary in the middle, but I'll ignore that little break here.)

An awesome jazz club that was standing room only both weeknights we saw it. And the only tuktuk we took on our trip. Wish we did that earlier -- it was so fun.
Getting out of the old city to try to find something more local, then ending up on a fancy hotel rooftop with a view.
Some places really don't appreciate the smell of durian (it never bothered me, but I've broken my nose twice).

Cooking Class

We did a few cooking classes on our trip (okay, a couple were more like mini experiences) and this was easily our favorite. We made so much food and it was all delicious. Multiple curries from scratch (surprisingly easy if you have the right ingredients), pad thai, some kind of dessert, and the famous spicy papaya salad.

Cooking all sorts of stuff with a fun little crew.
Anthony Bourdain raved about the papaya salad in northern Thailand. I'm sure others make it better, but this was pretty good.

King Kong Zipline

We were running out of ideas and energy and our hostel had a bunch of pamphlets of things to do. We saw a few for zipline tours up in the mountains and ended up booking one ("King Kong Zipline, the highest in Thailand!") for our last day in Chiang Mai and had no regrets, other than a few portions of the wild van ride on the windy roads.

Is this what we came to Thailand for? No. Did we have fun? Yep. Sometimes we didn't have enough momentum and they had to come out and retrieve us.

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