We had become accustomed to arriving in new cities feeling exhausted after horrible bus journeys so it felt quite novel to arrive in Chiang Mai relatively bright eyed and bushy tailed after a short flight.
We checked into the cheap but very friendly Kavil guesthouse towards the east gate of the old town. We were immediately struck by how we were a) treated as valued customers (instead of huge inconveniences) and b) treated as normal people (rather than completely mental foreigners who might as well have been from Mars.) I guess tourism is much more established in Thailand compared with other parts of south east Asia and after 6 weeks in Vietnam/Laos we found the change refreshing.
We booked ourselves a taxi (which turned out to be a brand new hilux much to Chris's delight) to 'Tiger Kingdom' which promised the opportunity to play with tigers. Helpfully, the tigers were categorized as 'smallest', 'small', 'medium' and 'large'. Being incredibly over excited we decided to splash out and see them all. The smallest tigers were just 2 months old and the large ones were, frankly pretty large. Needless to say an obscene amount of photos were taken.
If there is one thing (other than tigers) that is plentiful in Chiang Mai, it is cookery schools. Literally every other building seems to be one so we dutifully enrolled ourselves at Baan Thai Cookery School. It was a full day, including a market tour and the making (and eating of) six dishes of our choosing (think pad Thai, green curry, Tom yum soup as well as some local specialities such as Hung Lay curry).
It was here we were introduced to the concept of 'foreigner spicy' and 'Thai spicy'. We stuck with the foreigner spicy which was usually limited to just 3 or 4 hot Thai chillies per portion! It was a really fun day, the food was really tasty (even if we do say do ourselves) and we were incredibly full by the end!
Unfortunately that evening Chris was struck down by a stomach upset (which we are confident was not caused by his cooking but by a questionable squid skewer he had consumed at a market the previous evening) We think this is probably the offending squid:
With Chris feeling somewhat recovered, we followed the foodie trail to Tannin Market in the north of Chiang Mai (featured on Masterchef). It was predominantly a fresh food market; we were the only white people there and nobody spoke much English so we really felt we were getting in with the locals.
After satisfying our food cravings in Chiang Mai we booked ourselves onto a minibus a few hours north to the town of Pai (pronounced more like 'bye') near the border with Burma. Pai is clearly geared up for tourists with plenty of bars and restaurants but still manages to maintain a super relaxed small town feel. We hired a motorbike one day and explored some of the gorgeous surrounding countryside.
Unfortunately it was then my turn to be struck down by a stomach bug which pretty much put an end to the fun in Pai. All to soon we had to leave to catch the bus back to Chiang Mai in order to get our flight to Malaysia.
We checked into the cheap but very friendly Kavil guesthouse towards the east gate of the old town. We were immediately struck by how we were a) treated as valued customers (instead of huge inconveniences) and b) treated as normal people (rather than completely mental foreigners who might as well have been from Mars.) I guess tourism is much more established in Thailand compared with other parts of south east Asia and after 6 weeks in Vietnam/Laos we found the change refreshing.
We booked ourselves a taxi (which turned out to be a brand new hilux much to Chris's delight) to 'Tiger Kingdom' which promised the opportunity to play with tigers. Helpfully, the tigers were categorized as 'smallest', 'small', 'medium' and 'large'. Being incredibly over excited we decided to splash out and see them all. The smallest tigers were just 2 months old and the large ones were, frankly pretty large. Needless to say an obscene amount of photos were taken.
If there is one thing (other than tigers) that is plentiful in Chiang Mai, it is cookery schools. Literally every other building seems to be one so we dutifully enrolled ourselves at Baan Thai Cookery School. It was a full day, including a market tour and the making (and eating of) six dishes of our choosing (think pad Thai, green curry, Tom yum soup as well as some local specialities such as Hung Lay curry).
It was here we were introduced to the concept of 'foreigner spicy' and 'Thai spicy'. We stuck with the foreigner spicy which was usually limited to just 3 or 4 hot Thai chillies per portion! It was a really fun day, the food was really tasty (even if we do say do ourselves) and we were incredibly full by the end!
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| Buying the ingredients at the market |
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| Chris looking very pleased with himself |
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| Expertly wrapped spring rolls |
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| Pad thai |
Unfortunately that evening Chris was struck down by a stomach upset (which we are confident was not caused by his cooking but by a questionable squid skewer he had consumed at a market the previous evening) We think this is probably the offending squid:
 |
| Uh oh |
With Chris feeling somewhat recovered, we followed the foodie trail to Tannin Market in the north of Chiang Mai (featured on Masterchef). It was predominantly a fresh food market; we were the only white people there and nobody spoke much English so we really felt we were getting in with the locals.
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| Live frogs |
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| Huge mounds of curry paste |
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| Mmmm entrails |
After satisfying our food cravings in Chiang Mai we booked ourselves onto a minibus a few hours north to the town of Pai (pronounced more like 'bye') near the border with Burma. Pai is clearly geared up for tourists with plenty of bars and restaurants but still manages to maintain a super relaxed small town feel. We hired a motorbike one day and explored some of the gorgeous surrounding countryside.
Unfortunately it was then my turn to be struck down by a stomach bug which pretty much put an end to the fun in Pai. All to soon we had to leave to catch the bus back to Chiang Mai in order to get our flight to Malaysia.
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