A Dream Come True

cocosandswimwear
Mar 22, 2017
4 min read

Our travels continued in Northern Thailand, this time closing the end of our three-month mark in this beautiful country. The north is very different from the beachy, tropical south. We visited Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai during the month of November. Let’s start with the first of these two; there is a lot to include in a single post from these two colorful, beautiful places.

Chiang Mai:

Chiang Mai is the largest city in Northern Thailand with a population of approximately 150,000. It was the capital of the Lanna Kingdom until 1558. The Old City still retains some of the historic structural sites as well as the cultural and religious center it once was. We decided to stay in the Old City to be able to walk to all the sites. I am not sure what the exact number of temples in Chiang Mai is, but it has to be hundreds of them; it seems like there is a temple in every corner of the city. We had a total of two weeks here which gave us enough time to take everything slowly and not rush our visit. Our AirBnB host was a super sweet Thai lady who barely spoke English but somehow managed to communicate very well with us. She also ran a restaurant on the first floor of the building which was very convenient for two food lovers like Angel and myself.

The first few days were spent walking around the city, going into any temple we ran into and finding local coffee shops and parks to hang out at. We had a small setback when Angel decided it was a good idea to eat some suspicious-looking fermented pig liver with chillies… and ended up having to spend a night at the hospital with a severe stomach infection and intestinal cramps. It was very scary, but our AirBnB host drove us there at 2 am, stayed with us and checked up on him the entire time. It was like having a mom taking care of you. She even cooked us meals like a traditional rice porridge with egg that his stomach could take. She was nothing but an angel during those tough days for us.

The city was very busy during these days since one of their main festivals was approaching, Yi Peng, aka The Festival of Lights. This northern festival coincides with Loi Krathong, which is placing decorated flower baskets on the river. I was so excited about all of this happening! There was a small drawback last year, Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej had just passed away, therefore there were rumors the festival was going to be cancelled. Night-time was approaching and we started to head towards the river; we could see the lanterns flying up already and it looked like something from a Disney movie, so magical! After a long walk and getting pushed through the crowds we finally got to the heart of it. There were too many people and we didn’t even get to buy a lantern that first night. Although a lot of people still participated, you could tell it wasn’t the usual numbers, given the number of lanterns in the sky. We managed to buy one of the decorated flower baskets, made our wishes and sent them down the river. It was very exciting even with the millions of people there almost pushing you down the river.

The next day, we overheard some people saying that there would be lanterns again! I couldn’t resist and decided to make it down there again and to my surprise there were more lanterns going up that day. We purchased a big one and a little one, just in case we needed to practice with the little one first. We stood next to others who were in groups, but with enough space to enjoy this moment. We made our wishes and up they went! There was even a Chinese photographer near-by that took some shots of us and was kind enough to email them to me. It was a very special, happy moment. It felt a little surreal that we’re on the other side of the world, participating in something I had looked at and only wished we could do one day.

Chiang Mai was one of my favorite places. We often joked around that if we were to move abroad to this side of the world, this would be at the top of the list. Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh, and many others were stunning sites to visit, so rich in cultural and religious history. You learn something new at every single one of these sites.

I forgot to mention the 3D Museum in Chiang Mai

Chiang Rai:

This is where we spent our last two weeks in Thailand. It was mainly time to relax, do our last days of temple-hopping, and “live” at this place for this short time. Our AirBnB was a very nice condo, with a beautiful pool and a gym. We realized we had been gaining some weight and tried to work-out during our days here.

One of the highlights while being in Chiang Rai was meeting an older lady who ran a laundry shop/ restaurant from her house. The only way you could tell it was a restaurant was when she would decide its time to put on her big chefs hat on. That was the signal, she would literally put on a big “chef Boyardee” hat on and that meant the restaurant was open for business! Her food was absolutely delicious, yet some of the spiciest Thai meals I’ve ever had, surrounded by other peoples clothes drying on the line.

We also found a charcuterie! Of course, indulging in cheese was a must. It was Thanksgiving back home and it did feel a little weird not being around family and friends. This is our favorite Holiday and we were still going to celebrate it. We went to a nice restaurant and enjoyed a “thaisgiving” dinner. Although it wasn’t the usual dinner menu, it was still delicious. The next morning, we called our family and face-timed with them to spend some time together. We were, and continue to be, nothing but extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be on this journey.