Chiang Mai: Part Two

After my parents left Chiang Mai there was still much fun to be had. The first day we just wandered around the old gated part of the city, sometimes the best days can’t be planned. Chiang Mai reminded me a bit of Miami: a tourist destination for sure, but look just a little deeper and it’s just as interesting to see the everyday people going about their lives as it is to watch tourist after tourist ride wobbly by on their rented motorbike.

Some of the main attractions of Chiang Mai are the mountains, and just because we couldn’t see them didn’t mean they couldn’t be climbed. Joe and I booked a trip to go climbing for the day, and lucky us, no one else had made a reservation. We had our own two guides for one full day of climbing. I was a little nervous, not having climbed since August, but as soon as I started climbing it felt like there had been no break at all. Joe and I both started on some of the easier climbs: I progressed to a few more difficult routs, but Joe just shimmied up everything the guides suggested. Exhausted, we had no problem sleeping that night.

After having worked up a serious appetite climbing, the next day we took a Thai cooking class at a local organic farm. Some of our new favorites were on the list: tom yum, green curry (we even made our own curry paste), spring rolls, and a desert made of bananas and coconut milk whose name in Thai (kluai bod chii) means “ordained nun.” If anyone is hoping I’ll make a yummy Thai-food dinner when we return to the states, I doubt it. Most of the ingredients (like galangal- essential to tom yum) would be impossible to find, and, as our teacher reminded constantly, if the ingredients are not exact “it will not be perfect!” Sounds like a good reason for Joe to start a Thai garden.

That evening, with full stomachs, we visited the famous Sunday market. Every night of the week there is a huge night bazaar where residents of Chiang Mai sell regional crafts to tourists. Near the night bazaar is a night market where the locals buy food and everyday necessities. The Sunday market is an amazing combination of both worlds as people from nearby towns and villages flood the area around the old city gates to sell anything from local candies to traditional textiles made by hill tribes to the newest (bootleg) fashions.

Our last day was spent saying goodbye the city. Goodbye to all the Western food, coffee shops, mountains, and our beautiful hotel. I was ready to get back to Khon Kaen; you don’t realize how comfortable you feel in a place until you have left it and when you return can honestly say that it’s good to be home.