Chaing Mai

From Bangkok we decided to head up north to Chaing Mai, roughly a nine hour bus ride from Bangkok. One would think this would be a bit dreadful but you'd be amazed what Thailand has to offer in terms of bus travel..it puts Greyhound to shame. Not only did we have a stewardess (aside from the driver) we were given breakfast as soon as we sat down. A little air conditioning, a comfy pillow, cozy blanket, reclining and massaging seats made it feel as we eating our breakfast at a luxury spa. Next came snacks, halfway through a free lunch at our stopover...nine hours didn't seem long enough!

What a perfect day on the bus...and the food is really good!

Chaing Mai was wonderful and we spent four or five happy days there. It's a mid size city, easy to walk around, enough English to make communication a breeze, and lots to see. Chaing Mai is known for it's numerous stunning Wats, of which we saw many!

A beautiful pagoda

A day was spent at a cooking school, Baan Thai and we all really enjoyed it. We each made an appetizer, 5 main courses, and a dessert...and since we made full sized servings each time we were stuffed beyond imagination by 4pm that day. A trip to the market started the course, and we learned what lots of the mysterious fruits and veg were. Between the three of us, our menu included red, green, and panang curry paste, Chaing Mai noodles, spring rolls, mango with sticky rice, papaya salad and more...

A fantastic day at the cooking school...and we didn't burn anything down!

Another "must" in Chaing Mai is to do a day trip to a much revered temple on the mountain overlooking the city. It was gorgeous. See below, enough said!

The King's Winter Palace

Lastly, we spent a day with our new friend, Mr. Noi. He was a private driver we hired for a day to take us to Doi Inthanon National Park, about a 1.5 hour drive south to the mountains. The day started at 6am so that we could see the monks making their morning rounds for food collection. Mr. Noi had brought an offering for us to give and we were blessed by them before heading off. The drive was beautiful, despite a little rain. We went to the top of the mountain thinking we'd be in a quiet, peaceful place but it was pure maddness! Despite our 6am start, there were hoards of tourists, mostly people from Asia, swarming the mountain top. It was a good laugh for us as many people were taking photos beside the thermometer which showed 8 degrees celcius, the coldest they've seen! There were a couple little walks through the jungle, and thankfully we did find a guide to take us on a longer hike of about an hour. There were waterfalls to see, Hilltribe villages to walk through, and stories from Mr. Noi to keep us entertained!

Shan and Cam drenched by the mist and rain on our forest walk

We learned how to pose properly for pictures from all the tourists around us...

Very nice!