Sawasdee Ka Chiang Mai!

Lauren –

We left steamy Bangkok after five busy days and headed north to Chiang Mai. We decided to take the overnight train (in a 2nd class sleeper) and didn’t really know what to expect. But it was great! We boarded around 6pm and by 8pm the train stewards came around to make up your beds – it felt like business class on a plane but so much cheaper! Would definitely recommend traveling this way, before we knew it 10 hours had passed and we were woken up with hot coffee!

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Walking off the platform at 7am in Chiang Mai felt much more relaxed than Bangkok – and we noticed the price drop immediately! We spent our first day wandering the streets and figuring out the local cuisine. We stopped for lunch at a local hotspot and tried the famous northern Thai dish Khao Soi – we were hooked and spent the next 5 days trying to find the best Khao Soi in Chiang Mai.

We spent the afternoon walking through the many tiny alleyways in the Ancient City. It really is beautiful and so peaceful! We were taken aback by its quaintness and cosy feel.

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We searched tripadvisor for a dinner location and stumbled upon a place called Nun’s restaurant. It is owned by a local woman who loves to cook! It is a tiny tiny place with only 4 tables, but it was packed and people were queuing to come in. We tried Nun’s Pad Thai, Massamum curry and coconut milk chicken soup all for under $10!! We loved it so much that we came back twice more on our stay in Chiang Mai.

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I couldn’t leave Thailand without signing up for a cooking class. I love to (attempt to) cook Thai curries and I needed to know if I have been doing it right, so I booked David and I in for a morning cooking class with Thai Akha cooking school. It was an amazing experience! The school is run by an Akha Hill Tribe woman (an ethnic minority group with villages scattered across parts of northern Thailand). There are only about 400,000 Akha people around the world and their food is not easy to find – and totally different to classic Thai food. We made 11 dishes – a mixture between classic Thai and Akha dishes.

We started the morning off at the local market where we bought all the ingredients for the day and sampled some local delicacies. We then hurried back to the cooking school were we each found our cooking station and got started making: Papaya salad, spring rolls, Akha salad, Sapi Thing (famous Akha dipping sauce), Akha soup, Thai red curry, Massamum curry, chicken and coconut milk soup, Tom Yum soup, Pad Thai, pumpkin in coconut and mango sticky rice.

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Safe to say we were STUFFED after the class, but also pretty chuffed with ourselves because the food we made was delicious and we can’t wait to make it again at home (and for anyone who wants to come over for dinner!).

Who knew Chiang Mai was such a foodie heaven! I was astounded at the cafe culture and the amazing food. We went for dinner at a place called Feast Society right near our homestay. My tummy needed a (albeit small) break from spicy Thai dishes and this place had over 300 five star reviews! We shared a burger with homemade bread and a warm fudgie brownie for dessert. Oh my gawwd it was amazing!

The next morning we woke up super early for a big day of trekking. We drove around 2 hours high up into the Doi Inthanon National Park where we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere.

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We set off on our 6 hour trek through the Thai jungle passing beautiful rice paddies and dense jungle (our guide needed a machete to clear the path!) We were shown local jungle fruits and medicinal plants – we saw a real tiger balm tree, it smelt amazing!

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Our guide took us to two remote waterfalls where we had a swim. The water was pretty cold but we were so sweaty from the hike that we jumped straight in!

Our guide (named Supaboy) mentioned that he knew a nearby Elephant sanctuary and that if we hurried we could catch the elephants taking a bath in the waterfall! This wasn’t part of our trek, but a surprise addition which we were so grateful for! They are such beautiful animals.

The last section of the trek we visited the village of our local guide in the Karen Hill Tribe. It was awesome to see where he lived and hear about his culture. It was then time for the very muddy two hour ride back to Chiang Mai for some seriously earned relax time.

After our trek we were exhausted and felt like dinner at our now favourite restaurant Nun’s! We decided that on our last day in Chiang Mai we would visit the neighbourhood of Nimman – a well known digital nomad hangout famous for its amazing cafes and world class coffee.

We had what David described as “the best coffee of my life” at Ristr8to in Nimman – the owner had won the world barista championships two years in a row – and the coffee was indeed amazing!

We had an absolutely fantastic time in Chiang Mai and we can’t wait to come back and spend more time wandering the street searching for the best food around. We are finding it hard to beat our now favourite snack of all time thought…the extreme chocolate icecream (we have like 2 a day…seriously!)

We are a bit sad to say goodbye to it…here’s hoping Vietnam has it too!