Oh Chiang Mai...so much to
love! As I’ve been writing about Thailand, I’ve been excited to get to this
part, and yet nervous at the same time because I don’t know where to begin!
When people ask me about my favorite part of the trip, without hesitation I say
Chiang Mai. We spent the second half of our trip here, and could not have been
happier with the mix of history, culture and natural beauty we encountered.
Chiang Mai is the cultural hub of northern Thailand, with over 300 Buddhist temples
(wats) and so much history everywhere you look. We had the incredible good
fortune of being there for two festivals, deep rooted in Thai culture. Loi Krathong and Yee Peng take place during the full moon at the end of November
each year (dates vary as it’s based on the lunar calendar), and amazingly, this
was during our trip. We just switched things around to be in Chiang Mai for
these festivals, as I’d read that Chiang Mai has the largest celebrations in
all of Thailand, though they are certainly celebrated throughout the country.
We stayed in what’s called the Old City – one square mile enclosed by the old
brick city gates, and bordered by a moat.
One afternoon we just walked
out of our hotel in search of some Buddhist
temples (wat means temple in Thai), and boy did we find
some. They are seemingly everywhere you turn, though some are bigger than
others. These feel like compounds as the wat itself is massive, and there are
students living there studying to be monks. There are old historical wats that
have been preserved, monuments set up to learn about the wat, and of course the
wats themselves which you can enter to pray or just take some pictures and
leave.
We bought some of the small flowers that are used as offerings to Buddha
– you write down your name, make a wish for yourself or someone else,
place it on the offering trays on the altar, and the monks will pray for you
that night and the following morning. We were just blown away by the massive gold
structures, countless statues of Buddha, and the way the religion seems to be
so embedded in the Thai culture there. The only thing I can compare it to is
the way Catholicism is very apparent in places like the Vatican City
and, to a lesser degree, Rome.
At one of the larger temples,
they had something called Monk Chat
and you can go right up and talk to the monks. While I was hoping to get into a
deep discussion about Buddhism, their English is somewhat broken as many of
them have only learned English from talking to tourists like me, without any
formal English education. So our conversation consisted more of me asking them
questions about living at a monastery and what life is like studying to become
a monk. They seemed very happy and accepting of things like not being able to
eat after dark, being required to stay on the temple grounds after dark, only
being allowed to go home once a year to see family, and other rules that you
might expect from someone in an intense program such as this. The rules vary
depending on which monastery you’re at, and they can move around to experience
living in different areas. It was all very interesting, and at the end of our
chat, they gave me a “krathong” which is part of the Loy Krathong festival
where you make a wish and let a krathong down the river, essentially making a
wish to the water gods.
One day we took an organized
tour to Doi Suthep, one of the
oldest and largest wats, about 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai. We made the
mistake of going with an organized tour group though, which wasn’t really worth the
money as they didn’t provide much information and didn’t even go into the wat
with us. If you want to see this, just rent a taxi or songthaew (a covered pick-up truck with benches in the back) and go on your
own, or do more research than we did and find a better tour company. :) The wat itself was incredible - fascinating and full
of people, and there’s a large staircase to take you up the hill into the wat.
There was so much gold everywhere and it was just beautiful! There were so many different kinds of Buddhas, in different sizes, positions, materials, and I just couldn't stop taking pictures of everything. From the top, on a clear day, you can look out and see the city of Chiang Mai
below.
In addition to learning about the religious
aspect of Thai culture, we took a Thai
cooking class which was a really fun experience! Several people had
recommended this, and since we like cooking (and eating!) we decided to do it.
I researched several cooking class companies online and ultimately went with a
smaller company boasting healthy cooking – Thai Basil Cookery. Most cooking
classes have the same format – you are picked up and taken to a Thai market
where you pick out all the food that you’ll cook (or your teacher will show you
the various Thai ingredients while someone else gets the food). Either way, the
food you’ll cook with comes from the market and as a result, should be
incredibly fresh. This was actually the best Thai food we had the entire trip,
and I’m sure it’s because it was so fresh and with so few preservatives or
additives sometimes found in restaurants.
There were two other
couples and one teacher. Our teacher, Tom, was great and I really felt like I was in cooking
school! We got to pick one of three dishes for six courses, so between my fiance and me, we learned how
to make 12 dishes – appetizer, soup, noodle, curry, stir fry and dessert! We
cooked one course and then sat down together and ate, and then cooked the next course, and were very full at the
end of the night! Highlights included making our own curry from scratch,
meaning using a mortar and pestle to grind coriander seeds (no ground coriander
for us!), chili peppers, garlic, etc. Then we made our own coconut milk by
putting fresh coconut in a cheesecloth, then continuously wringing it out in a
large pot filled with water. Then we finally combined the curry paste with the
coconut milk, and then with the veggies and meat, and stir-fried it all together for the
most delicious green curry chicken I’ve ever had.
As a devoted mango and sticky
rice fan, that was my dessert of choice, made with the same coconut milk we’d
made from scratch. So fun!! Our teacher told us where to get the ingredients at
home, such as fish oil, palm sugar and other Asian
ingredients. We got a cookbook to take home, and once we start eating Thai food
again (it’s been about a month since we’ve been back and we haven’t wanted Thai
food yet!) we’ll definitely be trying out our new Thai cooking skills!
Another thing on our Thai
culture wish list was going to a Muay
Thai kickboxing fight. I used to train Muay Thai and this was another
motivating factor for putting Thailand on my bucket list, in addition to scuba
diving. So we went and it was one of our favorite nights! We went to a
“stadium” which was basically a bunch of bars on the perimeter of a
semi-enclosed building, and an elevated boxing ring in the middle. There were
about seven fights, starting with tiny looking Thai boys, then one female
fight, and the grand finale was an international fight with a guy from France
against a Thai guy. Just as I’d heard, they don’t wear any gear – no shin pads,
head pieces, nothing. I can’t imagine kicking someone’s shins without
padding…eek!!! It was pretty awesome to watch Muay Thai fighters in Thailand,
not understanding a word of what the announcer said and yet screaming and
cheering for whichever fighter we decided we liked better. Ha.
On our walk back to our hotel
that night, after the fights, we passed all
these bars with older, white men and beautiful, young, Thai women.
Unfortunately we think they were prostitutes, and it was pretty sad to think
that’s how they make a living. Shortly after, we walked through what must have
been the gay district, because we saw the exact same thing except white men
with tiny, Thai men. Interesting cultural experience and pretty sad. They
weren’t blatant prostitutes, but we saw so many situations like this that we
didn’t know what else it would be.
The next day we decided we wanted
to go hiking, but no one in Thai knew the word “hiking.” While Chiang Mai is a
well-known launching off point for jungle trekking (usually overnight hiking/camping
in the jungle), we were just interested in a day trip. Luckily, an American
girl overheard us talking and told us she’d just been hiking at the Bua Tong waterfall, part of the Mae Taeng National Forest Reserve. She raved about it, so we hired a songthaew driver for 1,000 TB to take us there the next day (it's about 45 minutes north of Chiang Mai).
This was probably the best day we had because we love exploring the non-touristy areas of a city, and we absolutely love being outside! The waterfall was beautiful, as you can see below, and you can actually climb up the waterfall as the rocks aren't the usual slippery rocks you'd expect to find.
We climbed around the waterfall and river, and then decided to explore the jungle a bit. We'd been hiking through thick jungle for a while and almost turned around when we discovered this completely untouched, beautiful waterfall! While this picture is pretty, the waterfall was so gorgeous and the pool of water this rich, bright blue, that this just doesn't do it justice. We stood there in awe for a while, shocked we'd encountered such stark beauty by accident. Amazing!
We continued hiking, though we should've turned back, because the trail became so thin and eventually just ended at the river, and we weren't sure we'd be able to find our way back. I had visions of walking in circles, never finding our way back, and had my first panic attack. Lol I wish I was exaggerating, but I was scared! When we finally got back to the waterfall, we knew where we were, and then we basically sprinted the entire way back because we thought our driver might have left us because we'd been gone for so long!
Instead, he was praying at a little Buddhist shelter near the entrance to the forest, and pointed out some view points he'd discovered while we were gallivanting around in the jungle. He was the sweetest man we met over the course of our entire trip, and I wish I'd gotten his name, but at least I took this picture with him. Some people really touch you in a way you can't explain, and I found myself thinking about him even after our trip ended. He was just so sweet and patient and happy, despite having worked all day driving us around for the equivalent of $30. Actually, he agreed to 1,000 TH (about $30) and we gave him 1,200, and he was so incredibly gracious. He offered to drive us around for the remainder of our trip and was always on time to pick us up at our hotel and so friendly and accommodating. Such a sweet man!
When we got back from our adventures in the jungle, we were off to the Loi Krathong and Yi Peng festival events! There was a parade that night going from the old city walls near our hotel, down to the Ping River where people were letting their krathongs down the river and lighting lanterns into the sky. The parade was incredible - Thai men and women dressed in traditional Thai clothing, sometimes dancing, singing, or just waving as they marched along beside their impressive floats. We walked the whole way to the river along the parade route, seeing monks watching from the nearby wats every so often.
When we got to the river, we made a wish on our krathong that the monks had given me the day before, and let it float down the river with the rest of them. There were so many people taking part in this tradition, and so much excitement everywhere we turned. I can't even explain the positive energy in the city this night - it just all seemed magical and a little surreal that we were in Thailand for something as big as this!
We watched all the people on the streets
lighting their lanterns and letting them go. We bought our own lantern
for about 30 TB (~ $1), wrote our names on the lantern and made a wish,
as instructed, and watched our lantern fly into the night sky, lit up by
the hundreds of paper lanterns floating away into the heavens above.
This was our last night in Chiang Mai and it surpassed all our expectations! After making our wishes and watching our lantern fade into the sky, we walked around some more as there was just so much activity and the streets were flooded with excited, happy people letting their lanterns fly into the sky. We crossed the bridge at the river and stumbled upon a handful of brightly lit stages with live music and dancers. We were pretty convinced that these were Thailand's biggest pop stars, but who knows ;) It must've been at least 10pm before we finally went somewhere to eat dinner. We were just so caught up in all the excitement of this huge cultural tradition.
If you ever have the opportunity to visit Chiang Mai in late November, during these festivals, I highly recommend doing everything you can to make it happen! Even if you can't visit during that time, you won't be disappointed with a visit to Chiang Mai, with it's rich history, positive energy and friendly people. I've never been anywhere like this and certainly hope I make it back some day.
Where we stayed: Awana Guest House
Favorite restaurant: The Whole Earth (Indian and Thai)
Cooking class: Basil Cookery School
