Chiang Mai

Following our stay in Chiang Rai, we were excited to revisit Chiang Mai after spending our honeymoon there in early 2011. We caught a bus from Chiang Rai station, and opted for the ’vip’ option as opposed to the locals bus. The difference is the ‘vip’ option is a regular style coach whereas the locals option is captured below. Whilst only 150km or so in distance, it took us roughly 5 hours before we arrived in Chiang Mai due to the windy and hilly roads.

Hit List:

Again, our accommodation(s) were both awesome. First we stayed in the old town at Singharaj Boutique Hotel. After some town in town we ventured about an hour west and stayed at Chai Lai Orchid, where we were greeted with elephant room service each morning and elephant happy hour at the bar each afternoon!! Finn loved staying with the elephants at Chai Lai Orchid!!
On our honeymoon we had massages at the Chiang Mai womens prison by inmates. It was part of their vocational training to ensure they were able to obtain employment once released, and wasn’t overly popular. Since then, it has evolved into quite the attraction, and inmates provide massage therapy as well as a sizebale hospitality operation serviing coffess, juices and meals. During our stay in Thailand we had numerous foot massages and this was definitely the best in terms of quality!!
Café scene – similar to Chiang Rai, the cafes were very modern and sleek, and served up amazing coffee sourced from the mountains, as well as yummy juices. Favourites were Weekday & Akha Ama Coffee
Nengen Earthen Jar Roast Pork. Came across this on insta, and walked about half an hour outside of the walls to find this eatery nestled between car dealerships. They roast their pork in massive pots (hence the name) and it is bloody amazing (and was well worth the walk in the heat to find it!).
Smile Organic Cooking school. The 3 of us booked in this experience, which commenced with us being collected fom our hotel and taken to the local markets. Here we were educated about the herbs used for Thai cooking, and interestingly learned the 90:10 rule-which is 90 fresh herbs 10 dry herbs. At the markets we were encouraged to try ‘Chinese Donuts’ which were an expensive 2 baht each, and came in a sweet or salty variety. By time I got the the front of the line the sweet ones had vanished, but I was recommended a parcel of goodness by the shopkeeper – which was a donut filled with condensed milk. For a fee of 5 baht ($0.20).So naughty but so good!! We then made it to the farm where we had a farm tour, and selected 3 dishes each to cook. As a group we learned how to make and cook vege spring rolls, then selected a curry, stir fry and soup each. I opted for the red curry, chili basil stir fry and tom yum, whilst chantal and Finn cooked Penang, Pad Thai & Spicy chicken soup. For the curries we made our paste from scratch, and once we were finished were emailed an ebook with all of the recipes.
Hot Pot by Finnmarg, was 2 doors next to Singharaj accommodation, and was stacked with locals. We popped in for lunch on our first day and could see why. The food, whilst not amazing as our efforts at the cooking school, was nothing short of absolutely sensational. They have a heat scale of 1-3, and I decided to have a crack ed at a 3/3 Tom Yum Soup. It blew my face off but was so tasty I gave it a really good nudge.
Saturday night markets. Was a great experience exploring the wide range of foods, knick knacks and ice cream options.
Doi Inthanon National Park. Was part of a day trip we had organised through Chai Lai where we hired a private driver for the day. We visited Thailands highest peak, and was a very cold and windy 8 degs. The twin pagodas was an impressive sight of architecture and flora. Lastly, we visited the impressive Wachirathan Waterfall on our way back to Chai Lai Orchid.
Chai Lai Orchid gets another mentioned. Having breakfast with elephants, going on walks with them, bathing them and feeding them was an amazing experience. Finn especially loved spending time with a 6 month old baby elephant that was very cheeky!!! All elephants at Chai Lai have been rescued from the logging or riding industry.
For Thailand as a whole – the food. So delicious, filling, nourishing and cheap. Specific to the Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai regions is a dish called Khao Soi, which is similar to a penang curry but with coconut milk and garnished with crispy noodles.

Shit List

Finn loves animals, so on one of our walks through town we stopped in at a large pet shop. Once in, there were more than just your regular dogs, cats and fish for sale. A wide range of exotic birds, reptiles and even monkeys and meerkats were for sale in tiny little cages.