After our elephant adventure (see Chiang Mai Part 1), we were happy and tired from the experience and new friendships we made. After a day to rest up and catch up on admin chores, we spent some time touring around our local area. Much of what we loved about Thailand was the food. If we can find it within walking distance of our house, it’s a bonus. Chiang Mai didn’t have the awesome alley of street food we had in Bangkok, but we did find a great street food vendor around the corner who hooked us up with very tasty grilled pork each day. And the 7-Elevens in Thailand have surprisingly wonderful food–so different from the States. We also ventured out via Grab to the cool Nimman area where we tried a butterfly pea latte, also known as a blue latte.

 

We spent the following day at a Thai cooking class recommended to us by friends we met at the elephant sanctuary. (Thanks again for the recommendation!) The class began at a local market where our guide taught us about all the herbs, roots and vegetables we were going to use that day.

The food was fantastic! We had choices for each of the courses that we could make, from the local delicious curry Khao Soi, to spring rolls, to papaya salad, and lemon grass soup, and bright blue mango sticky rice (made from the butterfly pea) and many more. We are motivated to take these new skills back to our home in the States.

 

Back in Bangkok, H and Dad got to go to a live Muay Thai boxing competition. Well, here in Chiang Mai they got to experience it personally! Right around the corner from our house was a Muay Thai gym (we wondered why we kept seeing super-ripped men jogging around our neighborhood). So, one morning Dad signed H up for a training session. Let’s just say he was exhausted and his muscles were sore for many days afterwards! Dad couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do it as well, so he took part on a different afternoon.

Down the street from our house was a laundromat/barber/banana salesman. The man who worked there spoke very little English but loved to give us a big smile and a thumbs up. Going to his shop, dropping off the laundry, taking the wet load home to hang ourselves, and picking up some very ripe bananas, became part of our routine in the two weeks we spent in Chiang Mai. You do a lot of laundry when you only have a week’s worth of clothes to last you over 10 months!

The Bua Thong Waterfalls (Sticky Waterfalls) were fantastic. The rocks feel slightly like sandpaper, you can climb right up the steep waterfalls with very little slipping, which messes with your head because it feels like your feet should be slipping out from under you. We spent way more time there than we expected. Most of us climbed up three times! There are a couple of different levels, so you don’t have to climb up the entire thing if you don’t want to. The waterfalls are out of the way, but we still highly recommend it.

 

After the waterfalls, we drove to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (the temple with all the steps). We didn’t stay long because we got lost and didn’t get there until right around sunset and had to get back home, but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and temple. I was the only person willing to hike up the stairs AND dress appropriately to go in the temple (it’s a lot to ask for in our family after a long day), so I went in the center of the temple where the monks were praying. It was incredibly peaceful, no one was talking, the gold of the temple seemed to glow even more in contrast to the dark sky.

 

The trip to the Grand Canyon, a water park made in an old quarry, was definitely worth the visit. The kids spent hours and hours jumping on the bouncy inflatable obstacle course, slides and zipline. The kids were sore for days!!

 

The Chiang Mai Night Market is a must do. H stayed home with the girls so Mom, Dad and I could do some final Christmas shopping and soak up the fun atmosphere of the market. H says he doesn’t need to ever go to another market again ;-). Our haggling skills have gotten pretty good by now and we came home happy with our purchases.

To celebrate Christmas, we went to the Chiang Mai Community Church and baked cookies back at the Airbnb. The house we stayed in didn’t have an oven, but Rafael and Paula brought us over their large toaster oven so we manage two types of Christmas cookies. After we ran out of the small roll of wrapping paper, the gifts we exhanged were wrapped in plastic bags and newspapers. Our tree was three inches tall, but we did have a string of lights. Yes, we were extra homesick for cold weather, family and friends that day, but so grateful we get to experience beautiful Chiang Mai.

Our final adventure in Chiang Mai was zip lining! C, H, Mom and I had a fantastic time at Eagle Track Zipline. We went on the silver course. It was meant to take a few hours but because we were such a small group (it was only our family) it went pretty quickly.

 

Next time — we journey to Laos!