We’ve arrived at our second destination in Thailand: Chiang Mai. It’s in the north, not too far from the Myanmar border, and it’s a much smaller city. After Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Bangkok, the slower pace here feels really nice.
One of the first things we noticed was the weather. It’s noticeably cooler. Daytime highs are around 26–27°C and the humidity is way lower, which makes a huge difference. Mornings and evenings can even feel downright cold, like 18 or 19. Sorry to everyone reading this from Canada. I know winter has been very cold so far this year 🙂
We’re here for a full week, so we’ve had time to take it easy. There are tons of temples in Chiang Mai, but you can only look at so many gold-leaf-covered buildings before they all start to look the same. So we saw maybe two or three, very quickly, and called it a day.
I decided to get a massage. After hearing about Mylène’s massage in Bangkok, I chose something other than a Thai massage and went for a foot, back, and shoulders combo. It started off great. About 20 minutes of foot massage, very relaxing.
Then the back part started. A different massage therapist came in because apparently the first one was “too small” (that’s literally what she told me). She climbed onto the table, onto my back, and started walking on me. With her knees. I wouldn’t say it was “a little painful.” Then she moved on to what I can only describe as trying to rip my arms out of their sockets.
Strangely, when I left I wasn’t in pain at all. But relaxing? Not really.
At some point, I had to buy sunscreen because we finally finished the one-litre bottle we bought in New Zealand. Finding sunscreen here is harder than it sounds because about 99% of it contains whitening agents. Yep, not just sun protection, but skin-whitening sunscreen. To make your skin whiter. I’m pretty sure if I used that stuff I’d become transparent. After about 30 minutes of standing in a store translating ingredient lists with Google Translate, I finally found a bottle of normal sunscreen. Finally!
The next day, we took a Thai cooking class. Before I get into that, I should admit something: the food in Thailand has been a bit underwhelming for us. I know, I know. Thai food has an amazing reputation and I usually love it. But honestly, a lot of the dishes have been very sweet. I like sweet desserts. Main courses, not so much.
Also, everyone’s favourite dish, Pad Thai, isn’t actually that popular here. You can find it almost everywhere, but it’s strictly for tourists. Every local we talked to said Thai people don’t really eat it.
Anyway, back to the cooking class. Mylène paired up with Emma, and Teddy cooked with me. Teddy and I made red curry, Tom Yum soup, and shrimp Pad Thai. Emma and Mylène made Khao Soi curry, which is a northern specialty, a coconut milk soup, and chicken Pad Thai.
Honestly, the food we made was some of the best food we’ve had in Thailand so far. We made the red curry paste from scratch using a mortar and pestle, and we could dial back the sugar to our taste. Teddy completely surprised me by saying he liked the red curry, even though I made it spicy enough that the instructor asked me if I was Thai. Meanwhile, Emma thinks black pepper is too spicy.
At night, we went to a night bazaar, which is basically a street market that happens at night. They all kind of look the same and sell the same stuff, but I did buy some cool sunglasses. So clearly, it was worth it.
The next day, we visited an elephant sanctuary. We did a lot of research beforehand because there are so many in Thailand and, frankly, most of them are not ethical. At this one, there’s no riding, no washing, no feeding, and not even touching the elephants. They also have a huge area to roam around. All the elephants there were rescued from places where they were abused. Not much else to say, but it was pretty incredible to see these massive animals up close.
Warning... too many elephant photos coming up.
On our last day, we decided to take it easy and have a rest day before flying to our next destination. Well, the kids and I decided that. Taking it easy is not really in Mylène’s vocabulary, so she booked a tour to Doi Inthanon National Park. It looks beautiful, but it’s over two hours from Chiang Mai (so four hours round trip). So the kids and I stayed behind and embraced the concept of doing absolutely nothing.
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