Chiang Mai

After leaving Laos my first destination in Thailand was Chiang Mai. My first impression of Thailand was one of almost a culture shock because after sleepy Laos Thailand was very busy. The amount of traffic on the streets and the number of people walking around was something that didn't exist in Laos.

The old part of Chiang Mai contains several wats that I spent the better part of a day wandering through. The wats seemed to be fairly similar to most of the wats that I had seen in Laos so I didn't feel that many of them were special. There were a couple though that were quite impressive: wat chedi luang contained the largest chedi that I had ever seen even though it was significantly damaged in 16th century, wat phra singh is the other impressive wat as it is quite large and one of the most important temples in the city.

Just outside of the city is wat phrathat doi suthep which is located on a hill overlooking the city. This wat is huge tourist attraction as when I was there so were about a hundred other tourists, mostly Thais. The wat itself was quite impressive with a golden chedi in the middle; however, the most impressive aspect about this sight were the superb views of the city from here.

Aside from all of the wats located in Chiang Mai many people come here for a massage or cooking course. I joined a cooking course on my last day in Chaing Mai and had a great time although I ate entirely too much food. The course started out with a trip to the local market to learn about the fresh fruit and vegetables used in Thai cooking. After the market tour we returned back to the house to spend the next 6 hours learning how to make 5 Thai dishes of our choice (from a list of 15). I learned how to make phad thai, spring rolls, panaeng curry paste and panaeng curry with pork, tom yam soup, and sticky rice with mangos for dessert. It was all very delicious and a great way to spend the day.

At night in Chiang Mai there is always the night bazaar which is a fairly long night market set up on one street. Here a person could buy anything that they desired; but it was a very touristy market with the majority of people wandering around being foreigners. In addition to the night bazaar there is an even bigger night market every sunday that seems to take up most of the old part of Chiang Mai. I was lucky enough to be here for a sunday and got to witness this huge market where you could still buy anything you wanted and more but it was not only for tourists which made it even better. There were still lots of tourists there but probably just as many Thai people shopping around as well.

After Chiang Mai I took a bus to Pai a small town just to the Northwest of Chiang Mai. Again the computer I'm on doesn't let me upload photos so I'll get some up soon.