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| View from the patio of my guesthouse |
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| The Western gate surrounding the old town |
It lived up to the billing in some ways, and it
disappointed a bit in others. Like other Thai cities, it was not designed for
walking or biking. On many of the roads, only a few feet separated the edge of
the pavement from the adjacent buildings, and the cars and trucks that whizzed by
were sometimes inches from my body. The dogs that were listless and
semi-nomadic in other cities were well-fed, territorial, and aggressive here,
and they often charged, barked, and snarled if you got too close to their
house. The locals recognize all this, I suppose, since they almost exclusively
rely on driving or hitching rides on the taxi/trucks that pass through the town.
This, along with the mountainous surrounding terrain, does not do great things
to the air quality.
Although Chiang Mai was not quite the Portland of
Thailand I had hoped for, it was wonderful in many ways. Beautiful temples were
scattered around the old city center. These temples were not like the ornate
monuments in Bangkok. They felt more “in use” to me – less there as monuments,
and more there for worship.
The liked the vibe of the travelers better than
that in Bangkok or Koh Samui. Rather than partying hard, as in Bangkok, or
simply taking a European beach vacation, as in Koh Samui, the tourists seemed
to be more oriented toward eating Thai food, taking day trips outside the city,
taking Thai cooking classes, and exploring temples and markets.
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| Learning about rice in cooking class |
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| Tip, who made excellent smoothies |
Chiang Mai did offer a lot of options for a
traveler. I took an all-day Thai cooking class, where I learned how to make
green curry, hot basil stir fry, coconut soup, spring rolls, and mango sticky
rice by hand. I got four massages and drank a fresh smoothie every day. I went
to a night market and drank local fruit wines and ate street foods with the
locals. Pauline, a French girl I met in Sukhothai, and I went to a temple on a
mountain 15 miles outside of the city, and we walked around the immense Chiang
Mai zoo after.
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| Pauline and me |
And, as all good things do, it came to an end
after five days. The three weeks of living out of a large backpack,
experiencing warm and sunny weather, eating at restaurants daily for under five
euros, and spending time mostly with my thoughts and my books (though
occasionally with fellow travelers) ended. I flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok,
and then I had an eight hour wait in the airport before my fourteen hour flight
home. And then, like magic, I was back in Amsterdam, where snow and ice blanketed
the ground and clouds obscured the sky. And, hence, back to reality.
Worry not, though; spring is just around the
corner.
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