Sunrise Owls

On first impression, Old City Chiang Mai is something straight out of a fairytale — an area of dense development squared off with a literal moat and ancient brick walls.

After a week or so of exploring and staying both in the city and near different entry gates, we see it faces similar pressures as many major cities today: gentrification/influx of foreigners pushing out locals, aging infrastructure, and challenges with cleanliness. We’ve had a lovely time but for some of the same reasons we’re looking for a break from Texas (ie cockroaches and crippling humidity) we’re ready to head north into the mountains from here, too.

Temple Haven

There are soooo many temples (over 30) packed just within this 1.5 sq. km. square. The architecture, detailed hand painting, and golden Buddhas small and grand make for a stunning experience each time.

We were surprised by the emphasis on donation for practitioners (not talking about understandable admittance fees for tourists here) — digital or paper baht are solicited several times within each temple and across the grounds, whether a direct donation or in exchange for various offerings of incense, candles, flowers, blessings, or hanging decorations.

Lexi was also very surprised to be barred entry at the city pillar shrine. After discussing in an online community, we learned that northern Thai customs are influenced by animist and Hindu beliefs; similar restrictions do not apply in Buddhist temples elsewhere in the country.

Note: Only men can practice and become ordained monks who wear the iconic saffron-colored robes. Maechi, or Buddhist nuns, cook and clean for the monks. Denied the status, as well as educational and financial benefits of monks, they are permitted to maintain a more self-led spiritual practice with what free time they have left.

Local Customs

With the sheer number of massage parlors across the country (especially concentrated in tourist areas), it’s surprising we’ve held out this long. For a very affordable price we had a lovely couples massage with much more stretching and force than a typical American experience. Chris marked “firm” pressure on his check-in sheet. This left him sore for the next two days.😮‍💨

We also checked out a local yoga class the next night where we were joined by only one expat. Our teacher urged us to push for pose perfection and performed many adjustments that literally stretched our limits.

We stumbled upon our second local billiards league where expats and bar owners mingle for a raucous night out, although this time there was room for us to play a round and realize we are still just amateurs 😅

And of course, lots more delicious market food and new local delicacies to try! Although the monster-size rat we saw scurrying at the end of the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar left us scarred and scared for a while 😵‍💫 we forgot to photograph this time around but enjoyed steamed pork, gyoza, banana rolls, satay, curries, and some good ole Chang (beer).

Elephant Sanctuary

There are an overwhelming amount of elephant tourism companies based in Chiang Mai. On the recommendation of our friend, Maddi, who researched them all a few years ago during her own travels, we chose the Elephant Nature Park. We found their sanctuary very ethical and restorative for the elephants.

Upon arrival, we could see from our window several elephants and many water buffalo roaming freely in a vast section of land adjoining a river. This particular location works hard to rescue, heal, and then facilitate a calm, long and natural life for the elephants. They’ve endured cruel pasts from illegal logging to circus performance to forced work in extremely dangerous environments — a few elephants had even stepped on land mines. They keep doctors on site to nurse the rescued animals (including over 2,000 cats, 670 dogs, cows, rabbits, and more) back to health and keep them well — the elephants spend 18 hours a day eating 10% of their body weight, which is a lot of food to purchase and prepare!

As part of an ethical operation, we didn’t get to feed, bathe or pet the animals but we did get to walk freely through their roaming grounds. We enjoyed touring with a small group, wonderful guide and a vegan lunch grown right in the same property.

Sticky Waterfall

This natural attraction was formed over thousands of years when rather than smoothing the rock, the “sticky” waterfall left its underlying limestone rough like volcanic rock. The air pockets gave our feet exceptional grip and allowed us to actually climb up the entire cascade of four connected waterfall features! A few ropes have been added to help the less agile, but this phenomena certainly allows one to feel like they are defying gravity.

Taxis around Chiang Mai

A note on the inner city taxi system. There’s an abundance of songthaews (which means “two rows” in Thai) all around. These are small, modified pick up trucks that have two benches facing each other with a covering over the top. They aren’t the most comfortable rides but get you where you need to go. Of course there are still tuk tuks and motorbikes flooding the streets, too. We’ve found the pricing much more affordable than the islands (you may remember our past allusions to the “taxi mafia” out there.)

Laundry and accommodation hopping

Since we have carried everything on our backs for this trip, doing laundry is inevitably part of the experience. The quickest method is to hand wash our clothes in the sink with a bit of detergent. However, even though I brought our own clothes line, not every accommodation has enough space to accommodate laundry day — especially when factoring in the constant humidity. We frequently bring our clothes back in to the aircon space to finish drying before packing back up to move to the next spot. We have used one laundromat so far. The business names here are so fun and different.

Speaking of moving to the next spot…since the beginning of this trip, we have stayed no more than 4 nights at any accommodation. Once we arrive in a new city, we spend one to two nights at one spot and explore the area before booking the next place. This helps us get off the beaten tourist path and discover special places we never would have found online. Many of our accommodations have offered a mix of dorms and private rooms. While we didn’t stay in the dorms, it was great to have a community space that allowed us to meet other travelers.

Next stop:

Chiang Dao, or the “city of stars,” a small mountain town north of Chiang Mai.