This past October we spent nearly a month in Portugal visiting Porto, Lisbon, Douro Valley, and The Algarve. This was our second time in Lisbon; we were first there with our kids in 2012. It was our first visit to Porto, the second city of Portugal, and we fell in love with the city. Now, when friends ask for recommendations for visiting Lisbon, my response is go to Porto. It’s not that Lisbon isn’t worth visiting, it’s just that Porto is amazing.
Another second city is Chiang Mai. We enjoyed our time in Bangkok, but our time in a Chiang Mai has been wonderful. With a population of almost 11 million people, Bangkok is a busy, loud, crowded city. Chiang Mai, with 1.2 million residents seems like a quaint small town compared to Bangkok. It is the second city of Thailand and it is terrific.
We arrived in Chiang Mai on Monday around noon where got a Grab ride and was in our AirBNB within an hour of our flight landing. The AirBNB is in the Astra Condo. We selected an AirBNB because we needed a place to wash our clothes and the condo had a washer/dryer combo in the apartment.
Once we dropped off our bags, we did a self-guided walking tour where we saw the wall of the old city and visited numerous wats. Wat Sri Suphan is called the silver temple as it uses silver throughout the wat. Unfortunately, Jane was unable to enter the Assembly Hall since it was for men only.
Monday evening we had dinner at the Kalare Night Bizarre, which was very lively. They had live music in the hall.
Tuesday morning we did a walking tour with a local guide. The guide provided us valuable information on the history of Thailand, wats and the significance of the various Buddhist shrines.
At 3:00 on Tuesday we were picked up in a van at the condo and headed to our cooking class at Thai Farm Cooking School. The first stop was at a fresh market where we learned about the different rice, spices, and oils used for Thai cooking. Upon arrival at the cooking school, we took a walking tour of their organic garden.
Then the fun began; we each selected four courses to make. The first course was a soup followed by a noodle dish, Thai curry, and capped off with a dessert. Jane and I made tomato yam kung and tom kaa gai (soups), stir fried big noodles and pad Thai (noodle dishes), kaeng phed gai and kaeng ka ri gai (red and yellow curry) and bananas in coconut milk for dessert. The group of eight of us bonded while we ate and the instructors were excellent. The food was very tasty and the evening turned into an extremely fun experience.
Wednesday we went to the Elephant Nature Park. The park rescues and rehabilitates Asian elephants and provides them with a safe environment to thrive. After being on safari in Kenya and seeing elephants in the wild, it was a little underwhelming for us. That said, we enjoyed the day as elephants are a sacred symbol in Thailand, plus we were with two couples from Gibraltar that made for interesting and fun conversation. In fact I showed them pictures from when we were there in 2006 with our kids, and one of the guys recognized our tour driver (when we went to the top of the rock). With only 33,000 residents on 2.6 square miles, Gibraltar is a tiny country.
We got back into Chiang Mai Wednesday night and then headed out for dinner. We had a delicious meal at Dash Restaurant & Bar where Jane had Khao Soi Northern Thai Curry Noodle Soup and I had Gaeng Phet Phed Yang (duck breast brazed in red curry sauce). We ended the evening at Boy Blues Bar (in the night market) where we listened to a local band play Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Queen, and Green Day covers. It was a lot of fun and the place was packed.
Thursday we finished our laundry (small machine) and took a Grab to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, the most iconic wat in Chiang Mai and a sacred site to many Thais. There are 306 steps to get to the top of the temple; we opted for the cable car to go up, but we did walk down. We than went to the Nimmnan neighborhood, which is the hipster artsy area of town.
While Jane did write about backpacking the other day, we are not ruffing it. We are doing a lot of walking (averaging 15,000 steps a day) but when needed, we take a Grab. Also, our accommodations are not your typical backpacker places to stay. While we have stayed in hostels years ago with the kids (wanted to show them various experiences), we have opted for much nicer accommodations.
We originally planned to stay in the AirBNB for four nights, but since the laundry was completed and the air conditioner was weak, we moved a half mile down the road to the Marriott Chiang Mai where we were upgraded to a suite which is larger than Kyle’s apartment in Arlington or Hannah’s apartment in Queens. The MClub Lounge was a pleasant place to get drinks and dinner.
After decades of business travel, meeting planning, and leisure travel, I reached Marriott Lifetime Platinum Elite earlier on this trip and last year (as well as this year). I am Titanium Elite (which if you are a metallurgist) is even higher then Platinum. So yes, it is nice to get the upgrade to a suite.
Since we have a 3:15 flight to Luang Prabang, Laos we are taking it easy today. After having Eggs Benedict in the MClub this morning, we hung out at the pool. Today was the first day we smelled smoke, it is burning season outside of Chiang Mai. The sky is definitely hazy here.
We are almost halfway through this adventure and had an awesome time in Thailand. It is a country that I definitely recommend to visit as it is rich in culture, food, beautiful islands and beaches, and it’s extremely inexpensive. The people are very friendly and we felt very safe throughout our travels.
Traveling Walters 