The Remarkable Chang Mai

It`s funny how travel works. Initially when I was planning my trip Chang Mai wasn`t on the itinerary. I was struggling how to fit it in amongst all other destinations, both form a time and distance perspective. After some shuffling, I managed to figure out an itinerary where a trip to Chang Mai was possible. I am SO glad I did, as Chang Mai has turned out to be my favorite destination in Thailand.

Upon arrival on Tuesday, I was greeted by a very historical old town, surrounded by a moat with existing stone gateways at 4 ends of the old city. After dropping off my bag, I headed out to find something to eat. As I ventured down a small side street, it became very clear what Chang Mai was all about. The street contained a little market, a number of cafes, local food stalls and massage parlours. I found a little Thai food shop, where you could watch the cooking right in front of you. Little did I know this would become one of my favorite eateries in Change Mai.

On Wednesday, I followed an online guide and walked around the old town of Chang Mai, which contains a plethora of temples. I couldn`t even tell you the names of all the ones I saw, but they were quite amazing. Most of them followed a similar pattern, where at the front of the property there was a 'glitzy' temple containing a large gold buddha structure. At the back of the property there was an old stone temple structure. I visited about 5 temples in the morning all with beautiful features. At noon, I headed back to the hostel and stopped at a restaurant called The Salad Concept along the way. It was the perfect stop to enjoy a good healthy meal that I had been missing in the rice and noodle ridden country!

Once back at the hostel a group was headed to the Grand Canyon of Chang Mai. The Grand Canyon, is essentially a big quary with a lake in the middle that you can jump into off the cliff and enjoy a swim to cool off from the heat. I had the guts to take the jump just once, but enjoyed the rest of my time swimming in the lake.

I was really looking forward to my plans for Thursday. I had pre-booked a morning trip to an elephant sanctuary, which is one of the popular things to do in Chang Mai. Because there are so many options, I had done a lot of research to find one that was ethically conscious. I got picked up at 6:30 in the morning, before making the hour drive out of the city, a long a bumpy gravel road to meet the elephants. Upon arrival we were greeted by 6 elephants! There were 5 females and 1 male. The littlest elephant, YaYa, was 3 years old. The oldest of the bunch was in her early 50`s. One of the elephants was pregnant and they were expecting her to give birth within the next week.

We got changed into traditional Karin clothing and stuffed our pockets full of bananas and sugar cane for the elephants. It was then off to feed them. The elephants would take the food from your hand with their trunk and proceed to put it in their mouth. It was the coolest experience spending an hour feeding them, observing their behavior, learning about them from the guides. Each elephant had an individual care taker who looked after them and even slept over night with them. The elephants were so thankful for the food, I even got a hug and a kiss!

After all the food, the elephants needed a bath! Off we went to the river to bath the elephants. They even helped out using their trunks to spray water.

It was then lunch time for the humans, where we enjoyed noodles and fruit while we learned some more about the animals. After we were done, the fruit scraps were a perfect dessert for the elephants. They indulged in some pineapple and watermelon scraps and rinds. After another some final feeding, playing and cuddling it was time to say goodbye to the elephants.

It was such an amazing experience spending the day with the elephants. They are such gentle giants with an amazing demeanor and is definetley a day I will never forget!

After returning from the amazing experience with the elephants, I went for another wander around the old town. One of the experiences I have read about was Monk Talk. There are a few temples in the area that help the monks practice their english, by having foreigners come and talk to the monks. You can ask questions about their life, thai culture, buddhism or anything else of interest. I thought it was a great opportunity to ask some questions about Buddhism. It was a really cool experience to talk to a monk and learn about why they became a monk.

In the evening, I ventured with some others from the hostel to the night bazaar. The streets were lined with sellers hawking everything from clothing to electronics. It took about an hour to wander from one end to the other!

We then decided to partake in a Thai tourist tradition of going to a lady boy show. It was quite the experience, with performances varying from Rihanna to cabaret. The boys in the audience had quite the experience getting some personal shows.

One busy day was followed by another, as Friday was a full day of Thai cooking class! We visited a traditional Thai market to learn about some of the ingredients, before heading to the farm where the cooking class was held. At the farm we did some more learning about the ingredients that are grown there before starting into the cooking. We spent the day cooking 5 traditional Thai dishes. These dishes included coconut soup, pad thai, sweet and sour stir fry, green curry chicken and mango sticky rice. By the time I left cooking class my belly was busting with all the good food. Looking forward to applying these skills when I get home!

My last full day in Chang Mai was pretty relaxed. I started off the day with breakfast at my favorite cafe that makes their own yogurt and granola. I did some more walking around the old town looking in shops and taking photos of the street graffiti and other surroundings. I also stumbled across a massage place that I had heard a lot about. This massage place is different from the other 100+ in the city in that it employs ex-prisoners as the masseuses. I thought this was such a amazing initiative that I had to support it by getting a foot massage. The massage was actually so good that I fell asleep; talk about relaxing!

Saturday evening there is another market in the city. As we were on our way there the wind started to pick up. After getting past a few stalls the rain then started to come down, and the further we got down the track the more vendors packed up. With some souvenir shopping still remaining, we headed to the night bazaar that we had gone to the other night to see if we could pick up some last minute things under a more covered setting from the rain.

Sunday I awoke a little sad to be leaving Chang Mai and all its beauty. That didn`t stop me from embracing my last morning with all my favorite things. I enjoyed breakfast at my favorite cafe one last time, got a massage and had a lovely lunch at the Salad Concept. It was then time to hit the road and head to the airport.

It`s kind of ironic that the last place to be added on the itinerary becomes your favorite. I definetley think Chang Mai and I will be meeting again in this lifetime.