chiang mai, thailand

day one: 

it was 5am when I arrived to the train station in chiang mai. I didn't have a guest house or hostel room booked, so I had some instant coffee and waited for the sun to come out. 

 chiang mai train station

with the sun shining, I took a taxi to the "backpackers area", close to the pai gate of the city, and walked around asking for a room. 

the old city of chiang mai is surrounded by a moab and it used to be surrounded by a wall of which only a little bit remains. for some reason, the idea of staying within the non-existing city walls made me feel better. 

pai gate

walking around this area somehow made me feel like being home and safe. maybe it was seeing other backpackers looking for a place as well, or the street art ir the quietness at that time of the morning.  after the busyness of bangkok and the nights in the train, chiang mai seemed so good. 

after having slept in the train for two nights in a row, I was desperate for a shower and a meal. it was urgent, and I was lucky enough to get a single room, for less than $5. that shower was probably the most fantastic thing that happened to me in chiang mai and before the three hour nap That was about to happen, I needed some food. 

the guest house was next to the somphet market, which I think only exists for the cooking classes to give travelers and thai market 101 class, but there, I found some rice porridge with thai ginger, crispy rice noodles, some veggies, pork meatballs (put on the side) and an uncooked egg. hello breakfast (instant coffee included). 

 

my first day I chiang mai consisted of napping, eating, walking a little, napping some more and eating some more, and the last eating session was cooked by me!

making masaman curry paste

not bowing what to do with my afternoon (not much walking please), I signed up for a cooking class. thai food cooking class? sure! it was about 5 hours long and it included a trip to the somphet market (told you!). then we learned how to do a stir fry dish, some curry (making the paste included), spring rolls and some dessert. here are two of my masterpieces (both with tofu): 

hot basil stir fry

panang curry

day two:

chiang mai is so much more relaxed than bangkok, and I needed relaxing time. for that reason, the second day in chiang mai still consisted of some lazyness with frequent coffee or ice cream stops, while still walking my ass off. 

the day started at the warorot market, outside the old city, in chinatown. a friend had recommended I went there for breakfast, but everything was in chinese and nobody understood me (maybe I went to the wrong place?)

chinatown entrance

I ended up finding what I think were some little crepes filled with coconut creme, freshly made. I was way too hungry to take a picture. 

after wandering for a bit, seeing some snakes and frogs on buckets, I decided to head towards the main temples and officially start the sightseeing. I had no idea where I was anymore, and eventually ran into wat bupparam, which was on my map! 

wat bupparam

here are some more pictures of temples I visited:

wat chedi luang

main chedi at wat chedi luang

wat pan tao

the walls inside vihara laai kaham are covered with illustrated stories - wat phra singh

wat muenlarn (found this one randomly, not on my map!)

day three:

on my last day in chiang mai, I went hiking in the jungle, about one hour away from the city. I have failed you by not writing the names of many places where I've been (and writing this two weeks after being in chiang mai, I can tell you I didn't get any better at it). 

hiking buddies and our guide fluke

anyway, I went to an "only walking" trek. this was emphasized many times, just to make sure that is what I wanted, because most trips include water rafting and an elephant ride. I wasn't interested in neither. (I think elephants are amazing, but I don't believe they are well treated and don't think their suffering is worth humans fantasy of riding an exotic animal in the jungle). 

the trek was pretty steep but it was so beautiful and I met some great people! 

it included a visit to a waterfall where we hung out and swam for an hour. 

our guide fluke at the waterfall

we started somewhere back there in one of those hills

my stay in chiang mai was pretty amazing, full of color and resting and great new friends and amazing food. see you later kao soi soup (I'm probably spelling it wrong), you were my favorite thai food. 

sukhothai, thailand

crying baby, sticky heat, uncomfy seat, and train loudness were all aboard the bangkok-phitsanulok night train with me. after very little sleep, I arrived phitsanulok at 5am, and took a bicycle tuk-tuk to the bus station to go to sukhothai.

sukhothai was the capital of the sukhothai kingdom during the 13th and 14th centuries (hello wikipedia) and the old city ruins are now a national park. 

I had read (and heard from a a friend) that the best way to see the ruins is to rent a bicycle and ride a round. so, I get off a the bus station and ask how to get to the park and say I need a bike. after a lot lf trying to understand eachother and failing, the bus station information man sent me to a guesthouse, where the lady just gave me a bicycle and a map. 

I thought, "ok I can ride 15km to the old town", not realizing that riding in sukhothai is not the same as riding in long beach.

I get my heavy city bike, repeating the instructions in my head, "turn left there, then at the intersection, turn right, then straight straight straight". 

I'm sure I did some ilegal turns at the intersection and the whole way was a combination of praying to the thai road gods for my safety, laughing in excitement, hating how heavy that bike was and being scared for my life. the whole 15km, which I calculated in miles as I rode and then hated myself a little, I just kept praying there were no bikes for rent near those park gates (and secretly wishing I had outsmarted everyone, for my own sake). 

I don't know why I didn't take a picture of this, but when I arrived to the park, extra sweaty and tired, there were hundreds (not exaggerating) of bikes parked at the gate. they were for rent at a third of the price that I had paid for mine, all looking at me like "oh, honey...". this is what happens when you just wing it (you get funny stories?). 

I rode around the park for most of the day, and it was peaceful and beautiful and humid (have I mentioned I've been sweating non-stop?), but mostly beautiful. here are some pictures: 

my day at the park ended with this last picture, followed by meeting new friends and speaking about traveling, in spanish, for about an hour. no, i didn't ride the 9 miles back, I was too tired. my new Argentinian friend offered to share a tuk-tuk beck to town with me, and we tied the bike to it. 

back in phitsanulok, after seeing the night market, having some glass noodles and getting lost a little bit, I took the train again. this time to chiang mai, and yes, there was a crying baby onboard. good times. 

 

bangkok, thailand

day one:

it took me about 30 minutes to figure out the taxi situation at the bangkok airport (it is very technological and I had just woken up), but I finally did, and met my very little-english speaking taxi driver. 

inside the car, we were silent for a  bit and then I asked for music. "thai music? you like?", and I replied "yes! thai music!".  it was the cheesiest thing, and the sweetest at the same time. but what made it so fantastic was that mr. driver sang the whole way over to the hostel, and it took about an hour (LA has nothing on bangkok, traffic-wise). he would sing and speak to me in thai and giggle as if I understood him (maybe he was making fun of me?) and I would giggle back and say "thai music is so pretty!" and so on. never ending giggles with my friend (that probably charged me too much?) 

after checking in and having some iced (instant) coffee on a street stall, where the lady couldn't understand why I didn't want condensed milk and sugar in my coffee, I went to explore a little. 

the hostel owner recommended going to the chatuchak weekend market. with a "you'll get totally lost and end up getting a taxi" tone, he gave me round trip public transportation instructions that involved taking a bus, the sky train and the water (boat) bus. I didn't really feel like shopping, but he had challenged me (or I had challenged myself?) so I went to the market, to prove a point (to myself!?)

I got off the bus "when you see a bunch of people", like the hostel dude told me, and there I was, in the middle of the madness. 

but not the kind of madness that you see at the mall during christmas time (is that a thing? I don't really go then...). it was a mix of crazy and normal and good smells and bad smells and words I couldn't understand and some gringo talk and almost getting run over by motorbikes and pretty things and weird things and all the cliches that might come to mind when people think about a market somewhere in asia. 

it was fun, and scary and I bought some traveler hobo pants, a vintage shirt (that I could've found in long beach) and I ate some suspicious pad thai. 

after that I took the sky train and the boat along the chao praya river. (saw the sunset and all)

point made. 

day two:

after falling asleep at 8pm at the hostel common area (and eventually making it to my bed), I woke at 6 am wanting food.

 

most of the streets were empty, but I ran into a market that was setting up. 

I had some "yum yum" sticky rice (like the thai lady said), stuffed with some red banana and beans and wrapped in banana leafs. 

tasty sweet treat followed by another one, I had some something that had coconut pudding and corn inside. (I shared half, no judging) 

after walking around for a while, pretty confused, I decided to get some (real) coffee, read my guide book and plan my day. 

wat phra kaew and the grand palace:

now, this was like going to disneyland, the real madness. so many tourists completely unaware of the people around then, but hey, this place was beautiful and I was too excited to care. 

wat pho:

after more getting lost, eating some more sticky rice at the park, being interviewed by these fancy highschoolers, almost getting scammed by a tuk-tuk driver (who got mad at me for calling him out on his BS), i got to wat pho. 

here are some pictures:

thai massage was invented(?) at wat pho, and the walls in some areas are covered with these drawings, showing thai massage teachings. 

then, after visiting some other temples, I decided to look for food. vegetarian food. but I was no longer in the touristy area, and the places had the menus in thai and people didn't speak english. so, There I was, eating crispy pork noodle soup on the sidewalk. I didn't eat the pork, but it was fantastic and spicy. 

wat arun: 

while on the boat to go back to the hostel, I see there is a sign for a boat that would take you across the river to visit wat arun. 

at this temple, you can go up to the main chedi and get a view of the city and the river, including the grand palace. 

steep climb, people. 

after all the bangkok madness and thinking that I don't have too much time to travel, I decided to take the night train to phitsanulok. there were no beds left and I had just spent two days walking. it hurts. hello thailand.