Hi.
DAY 1:
After a two-hour flight from Bangkok, we finally reached Chiang Mai. Our accommodation was slightly out of the main city area, so we took a quick cab ride down to our place. We stayed at a place I found on AirBnb called HeyHa Guesthouse. The place was great! We had a very spacious and clean private room with an ensuite bathroom, and even had a tiny balcony area where you can place a chair out if you wanted to smoke. It even had a place to hang your laundry and a common dining area with utensils and a microwave. The hosts were incredibly nice and accommodation too. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who wants to stay in Chiang Mai.
It was an odd hour by the time we settled in, so we just took a nap for a couple of hours before heading out to explore the vicinity. We decided to walk to JJ Market for dinner. We expected a night market, but it was actually a road lined with bars and restaurants on both sides, some with live bands playing. We decided to go for this chill-looking place with a pop art-themed decor and Thai pop music playing. The waiter could barely speak English and they didn't have an English menu, but he managed to convey "fried rice, chicken and pig?" and we both just nodded our heads. It was quite funny, and the food turned out pretty good!
We chilled and talked over some drinks for awhile before walking down to 7-11 to grab a few necessities and a few more drinks. We ended up playing card games in our room, wearing our ridiculous flower crowns, before passing out.
DAY 2:
We got up and got ready to leave the hostel to head down to the X Centre for some activities. I didn't have enough money in my wallet, so I was going to take more cash from my pouch, but it was completely empty when I opened it. Yes, I was robbed blind of all the money I had left for the rest of my trip. I thought about everything and there was literally no logical explanation on how someone managed to take my money out of my pouch, but whatever. To be honest, and Lellel can vouch for it, I wasn't really upset about having my money stolen. I guess what's done is done, and all I could do was move on.
We decided to forgo the X Centre and went down to search for food instead. Most Thais don't have proper kitchens in their homes, so there are a lot of street markets/stalls where they sell cooked food you can take away. The vendors couldn't understand what we were saying, so it was hard for us to get food, and we ended up getting roasted chicken, sticky rice, and tomyum soup. We even met a Filipino guy who's been studying in Thailand almost all his life, so he helped us talk to the vendor to order food. We also got strawberry smoothies, which we love! I absolutely love how there fruit juices/smoothies everywhere in Thailand and I cannot have enough of them. So we took our lovely food back and had lunch at our place, before I took a nap and Lellel did laundry.
When we both got done, we took a tuktuk down to the old city to check out Chiang Mai's night bazaar. It was street after street of stalls selling nearly everything you would ever need and want. I almost got myself a butterfly knife just for the fun of it, then I remembered that it took me 20 years before I could start a lighter, so it probably wasn't a good idea.
We ended up having dinner at a slightly touristy Thai restaurant, which was a mistake. Tip to anyone who's traveling in Southeast Asia who wants authentic local food, never go to a restaurant where there were more white people than there are locals eating. You just won't be getting the real deal, plus you'll probably pay a whole lot more than what it's worth. On the other hand, we met this guy with an incredibly painfully strong eyebrow and booty game that I could just not stop staring. His ass was perfect, like it was carved by God Himself, and I still think about it to this very day. No amount of squats could ever give me an ass that amazing.
After an alright dinner, and an ALRIGHT! ass, we were walking around to check out more of the night bazaar when we heard a beautiful beautiful sound. We followed it like ants to sugar and ended up in, what will eventually turn out to be, our favourite bar in Thailand, Colour Bar Garden. They had a live band playing, and the singer had such amazing stage presence, you'd think she was playing a show in Madison Square Garden.
Like I am not kidding, I am in love with this band. Any time the thought of them ever pops in my head, I legitimately get upset that I can't just take a tuktuk down to their bar to hear them jam out live. It has really taken a toll on my emotional well-being.
DAY 3:
After an amazing night of just chilling at the bar, we got up the next day and got ready to head down to Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai. It is basically a place where you pay to get to hang out with actual non-drugged tigers inside their space, and pet them and touch them and take photos!
They have four different enclosures you could go in for different price points, and we decided to go for the cheapest lot which was the oldest tigers, who were around one to two years old, and they are essentially just gigantic cats.
They are lazy and just walk around really slowly and calmly, and just like to slouch around under the sun. You can pet the tigers and touch them, and it sounds unexciting, but it really was super cool! To be that close to a "wild animal" is just amazing.
After frolicking with the giant cats, we drove down to the Saturday Walking Street to check it out, and wow. It was practically the Night Bazaar on steroids, with the addition of having a lot more street food. Most of their items can be found at the night bazaar, but they are much cheaper at the Saturday Walking Street.
After we roamed the whole place and bought a couple of stuff, we headed down to the main city to book our activities for the next day before driving down back to the Night Bazaar to grab dinner. We ate at this tiny hawker centre-type food area, which was fairly good and cheap, and went straight to Colour Bar Garden to chill out and listen to our fave Thai band again. I just cannot say enough good things about them.
DAY 4:
It was our final full day in Chiang Mai and we booked an activity package that consisted of elephant riding, white water rafting, bamboo rafting, and a trek to a waterfall. So we got up really early and took an hour long songteow ride to adventure!
Our first stop was at the Orchid & Butterfly Garden, which we did not know was part of the package. We both completely did not have any interest in this, so we ended up just walking around and taking photos of irrelevant things.
After another long ride, we reached the base of an elephant camp and got to ride on them, which was horrible. It was just a long 30-minute ride of just pure regret and self-hatred. Please do not ever go on elephant rides or support elephant camps (not sanctuaries) in any way. The elephants go through "crushing" which is basically the crushing of the spirit of young elephants by chaining them away from their mothers so they get "trained" and don't lash out against humans. It is horribly and everything about it is just wrong.
After an incredibly heart-crushing 30-minutes, we drove up to the start of our "white water" rafting course and put on these really ~glamorous~ bright orange life vests and helmets that just made me feel like the orange version of a chunky lemon.
The rafting itself was just straight up incredibly hilarious! The water was pretty much still, so we had to paddle our whole way through. And since the water was really shallow for most of the ride, we got stuck on a lot of rocks, which got everyone in our raft just bouncing up and down chanting "shaking! shaking!", it was so funny!
After arguing with myself for the longest time, I just said fuck it and went in the straight up freezing water. Lellel took photos of me by the waterfall and I just look incredibly miserable because of the cold, but I really did have fun! It was so refreshing after our trek, and even though I was uncomfortable during the ride home cause I didn't get to dry off properly, I was really glad I went in to swim.
When we got back to the guesthouse, we quickly washed up and got ready to head out again for dinner at the night bazaar again. We ate at a different stall at the faux hawker centre again, and then our whole world came crashing down when we found out that our favourite bar was closed for the night. We were so upset that we decided that we would just buy drinks from 7-11 and drink our sorrows away, but just our luck, there was some national event going on the next day so they are not allowed to sell alcohol to anyone. Amazing.
Our first stop was at the Orchid & Butterfly Garden, which we did not know was part of the package. We both completely did not have any interest in this, so we ended up just walking around and taking photos of irrelevant things.
After another long ride, we reached the base of an elephant camp and got to ride on them, which was horrible. It was just a long 30-minute ride of just pure regret and self-hatred. Please do not ever go on elephant rides or support elephant camps (not sanctuaries) in any way. The elephants go through "crushing" which is basically the crushing of the spirit of young elephants by chaining them away from their mothers so they get "trained" and don't lash out against humans. It is horribly and everything about it is just wrong.
After an incredibly heart-crushing 30-minutes, we drove up to the start of our "white water" rafting course and put on these really ~glamorous~ bright orange life vests and helmets that just made me feel like the orange version of a chunky lemon.
The rafting itself was just straight up incredibly hilarious! The water was pretty much still, so we had to paddle our whole way through. And since the water was really shallow for most of the ride, we got stuck on a lot of rocks, which got everyone in our raft just bouncing up and down chanting "shaking! shaking!", it was so funny!
After all that ridiculousness, we swapped the "white water" rafting to a quiet and peaceful bamboo rafting, where /el kapitan/ tried to flip us all over once, but besides that it was all serene and zen. After the full rafting course, we took another drive up to the base of our trekking area. We went on a 30-minute trek at this really beautiful area and ended up at a waterfall.
After arguing with myself for the longest time, I just said fuck it and went in the straight up freezing water. Lellel took photos of me by the waterfall and I just look incredibly miserable because of the cold, but I really did have fun! It was so refreshing after our trek, and even though I was uncomfortable during the ride home cause I didn't get to dry off properly, I was really glad I went in to swim.
When we got back to the guesthouse, we quickly washed up and got ready to head out again for dinner at the night bazaar again. We ate at a different stall at the faux hawker centre again, and then our whole world came crashing down when we found out that our favourite bar was closed for the night. We were so upset that we decided that we would just buy drinks from 7-11 and drink our sorrows away, but just our luck, there was some national event going on the next day so they are not allowed to sell alcohol to anyone. Amazing.
DAY 5:
