Chiang Mai

The day after the BSB concert we took a night bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. It was about 10 hours ride and when we arrived in the city we had to look for a place to stay. We found a very nice room just outside the old city. After some rest we went out to explore the numerous temples inside the old city, which is surrounded by ruins and a moat. When we stopped to eat, we met a very kind woman who invited us to follow her to her home. She took us on the back of her scooter, and showed us her pets and gave us some tips about the city before we continued our walk.

Ruins of the wall around the Old City

The next day we had our first cooking class. We got picked up at our hotel and went to a local market to learn about some of the typical ingredients in Thai food. Also we got to try bamboo worms, crunchy and salty, yummy! After that we went to the home where we would have our class. There we had to choose 7 different dishes we would learn to cook. We chose different from each other, of course, so that we got to taste more different foods. It was a very fun experience and it was amazing when we tried the food we made. We actually couldn't believe that we were able to cook such good food! And it was a looooot of food. At some point we were so full that we had to ask to take the food back home. Our dinner and dessert that night would be our own take away! 

Masterchefs

The next day we went to the Elephant Nature Park office to book our visit, and in the afternoon we took a songthaew to the Wat Doi Suthep. Doi means mountain, so this was a temple up in the mountain from where we could have a great view of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy :( Coming back from the mountain we wanted to make a short visit to the night market in the old city. We arrived just when it was about to start, and everybody froze on the street while the national anthem was played over the loudspeakers. The market was huuuuge, and we ended up spending more than 3 hours there, including an amazing massage!

The whole city froze for the national anthem

On Monday morning we got picked up at our hotel for a day trip to some places outside of Chiang Mai. The first stop was at a hot spring, where Tachi boiled quail eggs in the hot spring for our breakfast. We also had a stop at Wat Rong Khun, also known as The White Temple, in Chiang Rai. This was a weird, but beautiful temple. We couldn't go inside because there were people working on it due to a earthquake last year, but it was interesting seeing it from outside. It had so many white and mirrored details. 

One of the weird things you can find at the White Temple

The next stop was the Golden Triangle, which is where the Ruak and Mekong River meet at the triple border between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
At this place we had an option to take a boat across the river over to Laos, but we preferred to go to the Opium Museum. We learned a lot about the area which is one of Asia's main opium producer, second largest after Afghanistan.
After lunch we headed to Mae Sai, the northernmost point in Thailand, at the border to Myanmar.

Handstand at the northernmost point of Thailand

Our last day in Chiang Mai was spent at the Elephant Nature Park, the main reason we planned visiting the city. This was a suggestion from Caroline, a very close friend of David's family. The Elephant Nature Park is a rescue and rehabilitation center, very different from the other places nearby where they offer riding the elephants that are actually forced and hurt to do that. We got to see how they took care of injured and handicapped elephants who had been taken out of their captivity. After visiting this place we decided to sign up for one week volunteering here :) 

Feeding the elephants

Since David was running out of time on his visa exempt, we had made our plans to visit Myanmar for a couple of weeks and then return to do our volunteering. So early the next morning we jumped on the bus heading for Mae Sot, where we would cross the border to Myanmar by foot.