THAILAND PART ONE: CHIANG MAI

Day 1: Upon arriving in Bangkok, we immediately took the next flight to Chiang Mai. There are two major airports in Bangkok, so we flew internationally into one then swapped over to the other for our domestic flight to Chiang Mai due to it being significantly cheaper!

Pro tip: taxi drivers will approach you left and right trying to get you to ride with them. They will offer you a price up front which is 9 times out of 10, ridiculous, then you barter with them or ask them to turn their meter on. We struggled to get any taxis to use their meters because they make so much more money off tourists when they cover it up and charge you a flat fee decided from the start. Usually they say 400-500 baht ($12-15 USD) which doesn’t seem bad- but realistically an actual meter taxi would probably only charge you $100-$200 baht ($3-$6 USD) depending on how far you’re going. Barter with them, it’s actually kind of fun! The rule of thumb is to offer half of what they want then meet in the middle. They give you crap for being American because they think we’re all rich, but hey. If I’m paying for an expensive ticket to a foreign country with an exchange rate as attractive as $1 USD= $31.98 THB, I’m going to take advantage of all the money I can save.

Once arriving in Chiang Mai, we got a taxi and headed straight for our hotel- only being a short ten minute drive from the airport. We stayed at the Old City Wall Inn, which I would highly recommend to anyone who likes a nice, clean, safe, modernized hotel but nothing too top of the line luxurious. The customer service was amazing and we got free water bottles every day along with free breakfast. On the last day we couldn’t use our breakfast because our flight left before breakfast time, so when we left the hotel at 5am we were surprised to find two lunch bags hanging on our hotel room door from the staff with a sandwich and juice inside! They were so sweet to us and centrally located, I would recommend this hotel to anyone. Especially at a rate of around $32 a night, how could you not?

We arrived a little too early for our room to be ready, so the staff let us change in the bathroom and store our luggage in a locked area so we could start exploring the city. We flagged down a red truck (almost like a taxi but you sit in the open back) and headed for Mae Sa Waterfall. It cost us 500 THB to have a red truck driver take us out to the waterfall, park and wait while we swam and climbed up it for a few hours, then bring us back to the hotel- which was totally worth it! We ended the day with getting an hour long foot massage from some lovely Thai women right down the street from our hotel. They were so sweet and waited outside for us to walk by every night to get us to come back!

Day 2: On our second day we decided to start the day with some exploring of the Old City. I think I especially grew fond of Chiang Mai because it was so walkable and easy to get around. We wandered down the street along the lengthy pond running through the city to check out some street food. If you’re ever in Chiang Mai- try the coffee from the street vendors!! It was SO good. We also tried some lo mein dish from a street vendor that only cost us about 50 baht, aka- dirt cheap, and very filling!

After exploring the city a little more we flagged down another red truck to take us up to the most popular temple in the city, Wat Phra Doi Suthep. This temple lies on top of one of the tallest hills in Chiang Mai, taking us about 45 minutes by car to get to the top. Along the way we stopped at a lookout spot for photos of the city skyline, then boarded back into our truck to check out the temple.

The temple was so elaborate, covered in amazing gold detail. We spent a good few hours exploring the temple grounds considering there was so much to see. Go earlier in the morning to avoid large crowds!

After exploring for a few hours, we walked back to our red truck (that waited for us the ENTIRE time) then headed back to the city. Pro tip: I noticed in the back of the trucks they have a sign in Thai basically saying they can only charge 200 THB each way- so 400 THB would have been the true cost even though we paid him 500 THB. Plus, most of the drivers are so friendly you almost WANT to pay them more. And of course, we ended the day with another foot massage from our usual girls. They were just so sweet we couldn’t stay away!

Day 3: For our third and final full day in Chiang Mai, we pre-scheduled a half day trip with the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, Chiang Mai. This cost us each about $55 USD, but was totally worth every penny. This included round trip pick up and drop off from our hotel, free waters and lunch, and of course- getting to play with elephants all afternoon! We arrived after our hour and a half trek in the bed of a truck through the jungle and changed into traditional Karan clothing (which the company loans to you for the day) while the tour guide explained to us the reasoning for the elephant sanctuary. It’s truly amazing how passionate the Thai people are about keeping their elephants safe and promoting sanctuary opportunities for tourists instead of riding opportunities from other companies. Fun fact: Riding the elephants is actually terrible for their backs and can take years off their life.

We walked down to a shaded platform as they handed out bananas to us to hide in our pockets as they brought out the elephants. (You hide them otherwise the elephants will come at you full force with their trunk to grab all the bananas they can get!) I was surprised by how gentle and friendly they were! We spent a few hours feeding them bananas, taking photos with them and watching them play. It was so entertaining, I recommend this to anyone visiting Thailand!

After this we changed into swimsuits and hopped into a mud bath with the elephants. We then walked with the elephants to the river and bathed off (both us, and the elephants) and swam for awhile. The tour guides take photos the entire time, so don’t bother bringing your phone or camera down to the mud bath or river unless it’s waterproof and you don’t mind holding it! When we finished we headed back to the main site for a complimentary Thai lunch where we thanked our guide and parted ways, ready to head back to the city. My one recommendation would be to sit up front by the driver if you get motion sickness (something I tend to run into here and there). Overall- I loved the elephant sanctuary, it was one of the highlights of our trip for sure!

After we got back around 4:30 we showered off then walked around the Old City to find some dinner and drinks. We also ended up meeting some locals holding pigeon feed that found it beyond entertaining to throw bits of feed at us and watch the birds attack. We even held a few on our arms as we fed them from our hands! They usually sell bird feed for cash in the city square but they found us so entertaining that they just kept handing it to us for free. We did this for about an hour before (once again) getting our usual end of day $6 massage from our regular place. This last time I actually ended up with a male giving me the massage which was totally fine, until the last 15 minutes when he decided to give me a mini Thai massage and beat the crap out of my back. I wish I was being dramatic when I say he was literally pounding on my head, back and shoulders as he bent himself around me in weird ways. Look up a Thai massage if you’ve never heard of it, it’s definitely not my thing but it’s interesting to say the least! I had a few bruises down my arms the next day but it gave us a good laugh.