The Sights of Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is a beautiful city surrounded by a moat in northern Thailand, and is considered the “cultural center” of Thailand. Nick and I spent a whole week there, and here are some of the sites we took in while we were there.

a view of the moat

In addition to hanging out in the city, we also took two days to go up to the mountains on a “Trek” (which is an expensive guided hike). The trek included an hour riding elephants, a visit to a waterfall, and spending a night in bamboo huts. Somehow we ended up on a trek of 14 people (including us) of which, 12 were Korean. Here are some pictures from the trek.

our guide made a peter-pan hat for me from a huge leaf. I'm pretty sure was an alcoholic, BUT he was a great guide, even if he was a little boozed up.

albino praying mantis

This is a step ladder leading wayyyyyyyyyyy up into the tree where the bees make their nests - so the locals can harvest the honey.

local woman who cooked our meals for us

our luxurious accomodations

a view of the village from the hillside

lone hiker

behind the waterfall!

our fearless guide

me and my elephant

a ride through the river

ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzIP! (Jungle Flight Zip Line)

One of the most fun things Nick and I did in Chiang Mai was the Jungle Flight zip line tour. High up in the mountains over Chiang Mai, Jungle Flight has strung zip lines throughout a towering rubber tree forest. Before this trip I had no idea how tall rubber trees were, but I’d say they’re on par with the sky-high redwoods of California.

At its highest point, you’re gliding through the air over 120 meters above the ground. The zip lines are fast and the views are amazing – the best view I saw during our stay in Thailand was from the middle of their longest zip line (300 meters!), the mountains around Chiang Mai are absolutely breath-taking.

We went on 20+ zip lines + 3 abseils, the highest being from 40 meters! He dropped us so fast, it felt like a free fall most of the way down.

Here’s our guide coming down head first!

Flying from tower to tower was a blast and they even let Nick and I do it together a couple of times.

In between we made our way down spiral staircases and across suspension bridges (clipped in the whole time - safety first!)

I have to admit, although I felt completely safe, I had butterflies in my stomach at almost every platform, we were seriously high in the air. Flying through the jungle, I felt as free as a bird – it was a day well spent, we had a blast!

Long Live the King!

I'll tell you what, the Thai's sure seem to love their King! At 82, he's the longest reigning monarch in the world (he's been King for 62 years!) and if he could reign forever, I believe that would be the wish of the Thai people.

His picture is plastered everywhere, on buildings

in the road

at the park

at the temple

in people's houses and businesses... the list goes one and on. I don't think it's possible to go an entire day here in Thailand without seeing at LEAST one picture of the King (well, he's on all the money to, so there you go!)


As I mentioned before, it's really hard for me to imagine venerating a leader like this. I keep tying to picture monuments to Barack Obama all over the country, or small shrines dedicated to GW Bush in people's homes... and for the life of me, I can't even visualize it.



To me, a King is just a person - albeit a wealthy person who was born into a position of supreme power - but a person nonetheless. What makes him so special?


True or False: His shit stinks just like the rest of us.

True. Case in point.


But the Thai people don't seem to look at it this way at all. They genuinely love the King and hold him in a very high place, almost worthy of worship. While I was visiting the Grand Palace in Bangkok, I saw Thai guide showing some tourists the royal thrones on display and caught him briefly bring his hands together and bow his head before passing by the royal seat - a sign of sincere devotion to his King.

On one hand, I really admire their loyalty and dedication to their leader. It seems to me that the King has had a significant influence on his people's lives and remains a great source of national pride and unity. On the other hand...it's a bit mind boggling to see an entire country so devoted to one man. I guess coming from America, where at any given moment on average less than 1/2 of the people support the President, this is a completely foreign concept to me.

But after spending a month in Thailand, constantly taking in royal and majestic images of the King, I have to chime in with the Thai people - Long Live the King!!

I'm in Love!!!

In love, that is, with Thai food! If I liked Thai food before I came to Thailand, I absolutly love it now. My previous go-to dish when ordering at Thai restaurants, Pad Thai, only begins to scratch the surface of the Thai menu.

This was the best pad thai we had during our month-long stay in Thailand – available for only $1 USD at our guest house in Sukkothai

From the pineapple rice and coconut curries and of the south (green is my favorite)

To the spicy soup and stir-frys

Being that I am so in love with Thai food, it should come as no surprise that one of my favorite activities in Thailand was attending a ½ day cooking course in Chiang Mai.

There was a class of about 10 of us and we each made 4 dishes.

The class started with a visit to the garden and an introduction to Thai herbs and spices – which left me a bit worried that I would be able to find Thai ginger in the US! (it is different from Chinese ginger and the two cannot be substituted for one another!)

Check out these TINY chilies growing in their back yard, they were about the size of my thumb nail:

The visit to the garden was followed by a visit to the market

Here is my teacher explaining how there can possibly be 20 kinds of rice for sale

Before we started cooking, we had a traditional Thai appetizer: a plate is prepared with betel nut leaves, onion, lime (with the peal), peanuts, ginger, chili pepper, and sweet chili sauce.

Then, each guest takes the leaf, folds it into a cone, drops one piece of each inside the cone, tops it off with chili sauce and then eats the whole thing in one bite. It was delicious! Spicy, sweet, and bursting with flavor. I could have made a whole meal of it!

After our little appetizer, we were put to work

One of the main ingredients in Thai food is fish sauce – it has a nasty smell but goes into almost all Thai dishes – the trick is to put just the right amount in. (unfortunately, I used too little in my pad thai and way too much in my sweet and sour chicken… but I guess we learn best by trial and error!)

Over the course of a couple of hours, we made pad thai

Drunken noodles (pad-ce-ewe)

Spring rolls

a spicy and refreshing glass noodle salad

Sweet and sour chicken (secret ingredient: ketchup!)

Chicken and cashews

And we even made our own curry paste (with mortor and pestal)

And curry dishes

The 5-course meal was delicious (if I do say so myself!) and we were stuffed by the end of it. Just thinking about the class now makes my mouth water!
I hope that I can take what I learned home with me and cook something besides baked chicken and potatoes when I get back to the States. Nick has plans to buy a rice cooker when we get home, and I want my own wok… so we’ll see how it all turns out!


One thing I will surely miss about Thailand is their food – it’s absolutely fantastic!