Northern Thailand (Chiang Mai - Sukhothai)

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Our arrival in Thailand felt like we were being reacquainted with modern society. Thailand is by far the most developed country we have visited thus far and I’m not going to lie, I did feel a little warm and fuzzy inside upon sighting my first 7-eleven. Coming from Laos, our first port of call was the city of Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is pretty much THE place in Thailand to learn how to cook the local cuisine, so on our first evening we set out to do just that, enrolling in a two day cooking school where we would learn to cook ten Thai dishes. As a result, the next few days were spent cooking up a storm of curries, stir-fries, salads and desserts. I should also not neglect to mention that we ate EVERYTHING we cooked. Dispersed amongst all the cooking were visits to the famed Chiang Mai night markets for the purchasing of all things fake from Ray Bans to Lacoste shirts to perfume to Tiffany & Co. jewellery.

After two solid days of eating and shopping, we decided to get some culture into us and explored some of the famous wats in the area until we were so hot we had nothing else to do but go and stand in front of the fan in the guesthouse (how we wish we could afford air-con!). Once it cooled down at night, we decided to hit the riverside bars for drinks and some surprisingly good live music.

We had originally planned to spend five nights in Chiang Mai, however this was unfortunately extended one more due to ANOTHER case of food poisoning. I have it pretty much figured that I am destined to get it once in each country I visit, so am now extremely relieved that I only have to endure it once more. More seriously though, I am becoming concerned with the frequency of this food poisoning and am going to visit the hospital in Bangkok to ensure I haven’t contracted some exotic south-east Asian disease that I keep on inflaming.

So after a surprisingly quick recovery we headed on our way to the ancient Thai capital of Sukhothai. Sukhothai is used primarily as a base for visiting the nearby Sukhothai Historical Park, a collection of ruins from previous Thai empires. We spent one day at the ruins on bikes, cycling around until it got too hot. It was fun but after Angkor, everything really pales in comparison (I don’t know if I should really be comparing ruins of different styles and time periods but I just did). Anyway, it was a nice stop off en-route to Bangkok, which is exactly where we went the next day.

Missing you all,

Kate

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