After visiting the ancient ruins of Ayuttayah and Sukkhotai, we were ready to visit a living city. Chiang Mai is considered the capital of the north and is in fact the only imperial capital in Thailand that is still around. We had heard a lot of good things about it and were excited to see what all the hubbub was about. There aren’t a lot of touristy sights to see other than the temples in and around the place. There are a couple of attractions a little ways outside the city, but for the most part the city itself is supposed to be the attraction.
Maybe the most touristy thing we did (other than, you know, actually being tourists) was visit Doi Suthep, a wat up at the top of the mountain-ish hill outside the city. Our visit to this temple also marked my first time driving a motorbike! I had tried it out a little at home in Carmel Valley. We had a moped that I cruised around on a couple times. Once I got used to how it handled and learned to avoid excessive acceleration, driving a proper scooter in a city (a Thai city, no less) was a lot of fun. The temple itself was beautiful though felt similar to temples we had already seen in Bangkok. You can only see so many gold Buddha statues before they all start to blend together.
On the way up to the top of the hill, we stopped off at a waterfall that is listed in most of the guidebooks. It wasn’t super impressive but it was a nice break from the city.
We also took the motorbike to the night market just outside of the old city. Vendors lined one of the main streets in the neighborhood and sold a lot of the stuff we had come to expect at these markets: a mix of clothing, souvenirs, food, and fun but ultimately useless tchochkies. Driving down the brightly-lit street at night on the scooter was one of the highlights of the trip for me, actually. The market itself was so-so but passing through it the way you do on two-wheels is quite a lot of fun. I can only imagine how much fun it would have been in Bangkok! Maybe next time.
One of the things we had on our list for Chiang Mai was seeing a muay thai fight. We tried to go in Bangkok but the price was a little too high for us. We decided to wait until Chiang Mai where prices were a lot lower (500 baht versus 2000 baht). Fortunately, the arena we planned on going to was directly behind our guesthouse and we could get discounted tickets from the guesthouse owner. We were planning on going to another arena behind the night market (supposedly it was more authentic) but the convenience finally won us over. We heard from another traveler that the night market stadium was also completely full of tourists so we didn’t feel so bad. Some of the fighters were pretty young. It was a little weird seeing teenagers knock each other unconcious but we generally enjoyed the experience. I even went back by myself the next night, since who knows when I’ll have another opportunity to see kids give each other concussions (other than minor league hockey and high school football, I guess).
In our second-hand guidebook, there is a small section for ‘different stuff to do’ in the city. One of those things was to get a proper Thai massage. The ‘weird’ thing about it is that all the masseuses are inmates at the Chiang Mai women’s prison. We had been wanting to get massages for a while and this was a chance to get rubbed down a bit, Thai style, and support a good cause at the same time. The women who work there get to keep most of the money that customers pay, which gives them the chance for an easier time when they get out. Turns out a lot of other tourists feel the same way and we quickly discovered that the place was really popular with tourists like us. You wouldn’t know that it was run by the prison at all except the management were all uniformed police officers. The ladies were very professional and nice though mine was really giggly for some reason. It was good fun and we finally got our Thai massage.
The next day we also went to one of the many foot massage places that have those fish that eat the dead skin on your feet. There are a lot of places like this in the touristy Thai cities and Marisa really wanted to try it. I didn’t like it at all, to be honest. The sensation of dozens of fish gently nibbling at my skin was really uncomfortable. They even ate Marisa’s scab off of her foot and then seemed to be drinking her blood (until she got a bandage to put over it). It was a little scary. The massage afterwards was fine, but the fish thing was really weird.
While killing time before the prisoner massage we visited a museum on the history of the city itself. It went from the Stone Age up to the modern era. It wasn’t really a particulary interesting museum but it had some nice dioramas and displays.
It talked about how the site of the city was chosen, which went into the city’s astrology and some other cool stuff. We weren’t super impressed but we did enjoy the temporary exhibit about the inhumane treatment of caged songbirds at the end.
Food was a big part of our time in Chiang Mai, which has a few good options for vegetarians. There were a lot of options for us relatively close to where we were staying. Our favorite place was called Aum and it was just up the street from our guesthouse. They served a veggie version of Khao Soi, a traditional dish from northern Thailand that is usually made with chicken. We also went to the former May Kaidee restaurant, the same person from whom we took the cooking class in Bangkok. Also, as featured on facebook, we had burritos a couple times from a place very near our guesthouse. They were really good but they had a weird habit of putting flour all over them. I don’t know what purpose that served unless Thai tortillas are extremely sticky. They also served chips that were about an eighth of an inch thick, which was kind of strange. They were still delicious.
The culinary delights we discovered in Chiang Rai weren’t limited to stuff you chew, either. We got a lot of amazing tea from the street vendors that dot the sidewalks. Imagine Thai ice tea with a variety of flavors and the occasional option to add little balls of tapioca. Each vendor’s cart was a cornucopia of creamy sweet liquid. More often than not, I was lined up behind a bunch of schoolkids. It was glorious!