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Published: March 6th 2011
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Chiang Mai
Monks are everywhere in North Thailand, seeing them is such a contrast between the old world and our current modern world. For the first 25 days of my Southeast Asia adventure I'm doing a tour with Free and Easy, and adventure travel company that is locally owned and operated in Calgary, Alberta. This tour will take me through North Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. After the tour I'll be on my own...
Fortunately, I met a few people that are on my tour on my first connecting flight so we stuck together for the rest of the journey to Bangkok so it made for an easy traveling experience. We arrived in Bangkok at 2am, disoriented, jet lagged and slammed with a wall of heat at +30 in the middle of the night.
The next morning we had the day to hang around and explore Bangkok's tourist area. That evening we boarded a 12 hour night train to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Bangkok and is considered Thailand's second capital. The original area in Chiang Mai is surrounded by a moat and now considered the ''old'' Chiang Mai with the newer urbanization surrounding the old city. We are staying in the old area and it's also the tourist district. My first impressions of the city is that
Chiang Mai
Part of the moat wall that surrounds old Chiang Mai it's a metropolitan, high energy city, but it also has a very laid back lifestyle with a zillion tourists milling about. I have yet to feel overwhelmed with the amount of tourists I see, as there are many ex pats who now live here with their families. Outsiders are so embraced here it's almost weird when you don't see them in parts of Chiang Mai. I see older foreign couples everywhere as well as young couples with families. Chiang Mai is extremely safe and the locals just want to assist you in any way they can. I think this would be an amazing place to live, there is so much to do and it's just a welcoming place to live.
We visited Doi Suthep a Buddhist Temple in Chiang Mai. There I had the privilege of being blessed by a Buddha. The temple has a main area and within the temple there are many little temples. A Buddha is housed inside one of the small temples sitting cross legged on a bunch of pillows waiting patiently for someone to come in and request a prayer. When you enter you must never face your feet towards the Buddha at any
Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep
trinkets and religious odds and ends to purchase for the Wat (temple). time, as the feet are viewed as the dirtiest part of the body in Buddhism. You enter the temple on your knees and crawl to the Buddha, he blessed us with holy water and a prayer and then the he will tie a white string bracelet around the men's wrists but women must go to his assistant and get their bracelet tied on because a Buddha cannot touch a female. I was only in close proximity to the Buddha for a few minutes but it was a powerful experience and I have a bracelet as a reminder.
Chiang Mai also has an amazing night bazaar market, it's so much fun, that I've now gone 3 times. The market is open until midnight and it's literally thousands of people wandering the streets browsing the many stalls that sell various crafts, clothing, shoes etc. There is also a prime air conditioned starbucks located right in the middle of the market. Yes, a starbucks, it's been a hit with us as it's one of the only air conditioned places we could find.
Today, I took a full day cooking course at Sammy's organic cooking farm. (http://sammyorganiccooking.com/about.html) The course involved a tour
Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep
The stairs leading up to the Wat. of a local market where Sammy's wife (the cook) took us on a tour of all the ingredients in thai cooking. It was incredibly interesting and informative. Half of the things I look at are things I've never seen before in my life. Thailand is full of crazy fruits and vegetables and a hodge podge of odd concotions. After the tour we went to Sammy's farm where he lives with his family, it's a beautiful location and over the course of the day we made 7 dishes, including curry paste from scratch and spring rolls. I, of course ate way too much, and so did everyone else. This appears to be a regular occurrence because the course includes an afternoon siesta time where we laze around in hammocks and digest our food before we make and eat more food. it was great!
Tomorrow morning we are catching a flight to Laos. I will upload pictures of Chiang Mai as soon as I get a chance.
I've only been in Thailand for a week now and I already can understand why it's so hard for people to leave.
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Linda
non-member comment
WOW
This is amazing Anita. Will you be posting pictures at some point! Live, love, laugh! So excited for you and plan to live through your adventure with you as you share it! Thanks !