The 12-hour overnight train ride to Chiang Mai was actually not nearly as bad as I feared. Our accommodations were basic but Alex and I both managed to get some sleep before arriving right on time at 8am.
We hailed a songthaew (basically a combination between a small pick-up truck and a tuk-tuk) and in no time we were relaxing, eating breakfast at our hotel in the old city. After showering, we mapped out a walking tour of the city and set out to explore the many historic temples nearby.
The entrance to Wat Phra Singh Woramahaviharn.
Monks in training...
Lots of elephants and Buddhas in Chiang Mai.
The beautiful Wat Chiang Man.
We quickly realized that Chiang Mai is far more manageable than Bangkok - not only is it much smaller geographically, there are fewer people and less cars. The sights were easily viewed by walking around and there were ample restaurants and shops everywhere.
For dinner we headed in the direction of the night bazaar and ended up at a restaurant called Mammary Delicious (we wondered about the name choice too). Afterward we grabbed beers and explored the night markets for a bit, scoring a couple of elephant t-shirts for a very reasonable $3.
Today we woke up planning to start the day with a hike to Doi Suthep, a nearby temple perched on top of the area's highest mountain. Unfortunately, hiking appears to be something of little interest to most Thai people and we really couldn't find any suitable maps or guidance. We settled for a songteaw ride to the temple and back (a beautiful temple but completely overrun with tourists - we much preferred the less-traveled temples we saw in town) and spent the afternoon wrapping up some travel logistics for our upcoming time in Vietnam.
Standing in front of the Doi Suthep stairs. We seriously had to wait over 10 minutes just for this crowded shot.
The temple was pretty cool once we got to the top.
One of the less-visited Buddhas within the temple.
We've seen a handful of temples that display a different Buddha for each day of the week.
Everyone else was so busy with the main temple that they paid no attention to this "side temple."
At 4pm we were picked up for our evening activity - a Thai cooking class at Zabb E Lee cooking school. We spent five hours with Ann, the owner / instructor, visiting the local market, creating a menu and cooking and eating. We learned a lot about Thai food in general and also that pad Thai - one of my favorite dishes - is actually not made with nuts, but is only garnished with peanuts at the end, meaning Alex can eat it! Ann was a great teacher and our four dishes all turned out to be delicious. What a great way to spend the evening!
First stop of the cooking class: buying ingredients from the local market.
Not the best quality image but the only one our Chef took while we were actually cooking!
Armed and ready to cook.
Tomorrow we head to Patara Elephant Farm for the day and I expect this to be the highlight of our time in Chiang Mai!