Chiang Mai

Hello! 

After spending time on the Islands we headed to the Northern region of Thailand for two weeks. We weren't too jazzed about the 32 hour bus and overnight train ride up to Chiang Mai so we decided to take a flight there from Krabi. 

We almost missed said flight as the bus was an hour late. Luckily we made it with minutes to spare and we were soon on our way to the North region.  Once there we instantly fell in love with this laid back city. We stayed in a lovely little guest house Liams Suan Dok Mai which is highly recommended, the owner is lovely and our room was beautiful. We had a fantastic time and stayed there for 10 nights!

On our first day in Chiang Mai we went in to the old city through Tha Phae gate and visited a few temples. They had some crazy statues that we thought were actual people! The feet gave it away though. 

It's amazing how much the Thai people and Buddhists respect these temples and completely believe in the gods. I loved watching them pray an give their offerings, quite incredible. 

On the Sunday nights we stayed in Chiang Mai we headed to the famous Walking street markets where I spent most of my budget on some very pretty things. I also brushed up on my bartering skills and managed to get a silk bed spread for half the price! 

There are a lot of buskers at the Walking street markets and they were all very talented. These 4 blind men played beautiful music, and the little girl danced with a smile on her face throughout the night! 

We visited the Tweechol botanic gardens on a lovely sunny day. The sculptures where so huge! And there was also a mini zoo there where we fed Camels and Ostriches.. very odd.

We were lucky enough to find ourselves our very own tuc tuc driver Mr. Suket. He took us everywhere at a vewry reasonable price. He also confessed that he gets commission every time we go in a shop or to a museum ETC so we spent a day going to them all for him. 

Mr Suket took us on a tour to Doi Suthep national park, this was an awesome day. We went to see the waterfalls on the way up and Mr Suket ate some of the local delicacies.  

At the top of Doi Suthep you get awesome views of the whole of Chiang Mai and of course there is a stunning temple up there. 

Chiang Mai was just an awesome place for us to chill out and explore the less touristy side of Thailand, we had a great time there, it here that we went on the Elephants and played with the tigers... That's got a blog post of its own though! 

Sarah xxx