Big multinational corporations have to make some adjustments in their products and marketing to be locally successful. For instance, McDonalds doesn’t sell beef in India (that’s right, you can’t get a burger in Micky D’s!), and here in Thailand, they make sure Ronald is demonstrating proper Thai etiquette.
Namaste Ronald!
I would like to take a quick moment to mention the impressiveness of the Thai markets. You can buy anything you may ever need or want at markets. Just as we shop at grocery stores and shopping malls (which you can also do in Thailand), the majority of business gets done at the local markets. Of course the market in Chinatown selling everything from fresh octopus to gold jewelry is very different from the tourist market selling beautiful scarves and local artwork, but the point is, they are both fascinating, diverse and a wonderful places to visit.
It is very hard when you are traveling for 10+ months and you want to buy lots of things that you see but you ultimately know you can’t the stuff in your backpack. However, even when you have no interest in buying bundles of red hot chilis, or fish on a stick, it is quite entertaining to wander the isles and try and figure out exactly what you are looking at.
Chilis galore
Spices and grains
Seriously, fish on a stick
One of my favorite markets was the night market in Chiang Mai. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of stalls lining the streets at night and catering their wares to tourists. Ted scored a “Billabong” swimsuit for about $6 and I got some “Ray Ban” sunglasses for $3. However, if shopping is not your thing, nearly all markets have a food area where you can get delicious, piping hot food for very very cheap.
Chiang Mai's night markets
Knock-off designer brands for cheap
Stall after stall of clothes, textiles, food, and jewelry
For shopping, eating, exploring and people-watching – it’s hard to beat a local Thai market.
While in Chiang Mai Ted and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. If someone had told us in 2006 where we’d be five years later, I’d hardly have believed them. However, I would have been thrilled to know that we were actually doing our round-the-world trip that we were already dreaming about back then!
We had a lovely day, beginning with delicious fresh-fruit smoothies from the best juice lady in town. After an awesome yoga class taught by our new Mexican friend Poncho, and lunch with fellow yogis Juanse and Clari from Puerto Rico, we spent the rest of the afternoon digesting in preparation of our Thai cooking class.
This lady made the best fruit smoothies in Thailand!
Juanse and Clari after yoga class at Namo studio
Lunch with our yoga crew
We had such a fantastic time at our Indian cooking class, that we decided another class was in order, as Thai is up there with Indian food as one of our favorites. Unlike India where things were more informal and where we literally cooked in our teacher’s kitchen, the Thai cooking class was a very neat and orderly operation on a large outdoor patio where we each had our own wok and cooking station. We lucked out and had the owner, Gayray, as our instructor so we got to learn from the best (our expat friend Chad turned us on to Gayray’s class – there is quite the cooking class culture here, so we were thankful to have the excellent recommendation).
Gayray explains our options for cooking class
We were in a group with four other people – 3 fellow Americans and 1 Canadian. Our not-so diverse group had to decide which types of food/courses we wanted to learn how to cook and we selected: appetizers, noodle dishes, soups and curries. As you can imagine, there was plenty of food to go around.
Ted mans the wok
Sarah grinds with the mortor and pestle
Group shot with Gayray
The next few hours flew by. Before we knew it we were cranking out spring rolls, pad thai, tom yum soup and massaman curry. There is a surprising amount of overlap between dishes so once you have the base of your soup made or your chili paste mortared and pestled, you can easily make several different delicious options quite easily. We learned about the importance of fish sauce, oyster sauce and oil to nearly every dish and it was fun and surprising to learn about the different items used to make dishes sweet, salty, spicy and sour.
Yeah, we made that! Tom Yum soup
Khao Sawy, a northern Thai speciality
Needless to say we had a memorable and fun 5th anniversary dinner, and I look forward to finding out where we will be celebrating in another five years.
One of our favorite days in Chiang Mai was to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Though quite a mouthful, this wat is particularly unique because it is set in the forest-covered hills overlooking the city. While it was hot and sticky walking around town, it was breezy and pleasant as we cruised on our motorbike up the windy road to the base of the temple 15 miles outside of town.
The entrance to Doi Suthep
According to Lonely Planet, the location of the temple “was ‘chosen’ by an honored Buddha relic mounted on the back of a white elephant; the animal wandered until it stopped (and died)” and a temple was built in that spot to preserve the relic. It’s pretty fantastic that the poor elephant died in such a lovely spot. Literally thousands of people make their way to this sacred temple each day.
To get to the temple required a pretty intimidating set of stairs, but it was totally worth it. The inside of the wat was spectacular too – literally covered in gold.
A grand entrance, and a lot of stairs
A beautiful wat!
A visitor pays respects
Colorful statues
Ornate entranceways
After the temple, we continued on up the road and saw the Thai King’s summer residence. Thai people are fanatical about their royal family – if you wanted to become immediately unpopular as a foreigner, insulting the King would be the first thing you could try. Everybody in the country is required to have a photo of the King somewhere in the house, and it is actually illegal to step on money in Thailand because the King’s image in on all coins and bills! We passed on touring the residence and instead continued on our motorbike to a nearby Hmong village further up the road.
Views of beautiful Chiang Mai from above
Road trip on the moto!
Our day-trip on the motorbike was a great success. Ted was an excellent driver, I was a happy passenger and the road trip was just what we needed to escape the heat and rejuvenate!
As we explored the many wats of Chiang Mai, we stumbled across a few influential lamas (high priests, teachers) that have been preserved for generations to come. Ok, well, not actually preserved, but a scarily-realistic wax version of the lamas, often encased in glass, on display for inspiration and devotion. WTF?!
Seriously, I think i saw this guy blink
Kinda creepy wax lama
Chiang Mai is known for its hundreds of different wats. Wats are Buddhist temples and are incredibly impressive both outside and in. We had a great time motoring around on our little scooter in Chiang Mai and popping into various wats that struck our fancy. Each wat is a little different, but what they all have in common is a lot of love for Buddha. Sometimes Buddha is covered in gold, sometimes he is reclining. Sometimes Buddha is short and fat with a big belly, sometimes he is tall, skinny and regal. Sometimes he has his eyes closed and sometimes he has them open. But regardless of what Buddha is doing, he is the man. Or the god. Whatever.
Reclining Buddha
Fat Buddha
Wat Chedi Luang
Wat U Mong Klang Wiang
Sarah admires the many Buddhas
Wat Phra Singh
Wat Phra Singh
And where there is a wat, there will be dozens of monks in their distinctive orange robes. Some men have dedicated their lives to Buddhism and Buddha’s teachings, however, some monks are only in robe on a temporary basis. Though perhaps outdated in the cities, in many parts of Thailand every male is expected to become a monk for part of his life. Often this commitment is little more than three months, however, it is of great honor to the family when a son “takes robe and bowl”. Other families opt to send their young sons off to be monks because they’ll be exposed to greater educational opportunities than their small village could provide. Regardless of the reason, Thailand has a lot of monks – young and old – and you get used to seeing them everywhere!
Monks
Young monks
More monks!
One of the most memorable wats we visited in Chiang Mai had a sign that advertised the opportunity to attend a monk chat. Though we didn’t attend one, I kinda wish we did. It is a pretty unique experience to have access to a Buddhist monk and ask him any question you can think of about religion, life and even afterlife. Apparently it is also an opportunity for monks to practice their English. A win-win for both parties!
Advertised in English!
Chiang Mai is a wonderful little city and one of our favorites stops of the whole trip. North of Bangkok, we traveled to Chiang Mai via night train. Not only were we quite impressed with the space and cleanliness of the train compared to our experiences in India (not to mention the guy that came to make our beds for us!), we also had the opportunity to meet two guys named Chad from the United States. One of the Chads had been living in Chiang Mai for nearly two years and it was great to be able to ask him some questions about Thai culture and what we shouldn’t miss on our visit to his adopted city. We later met up with the Chads several times over our next few days in town and got a little insight into (and visits among) the ex-pat community – which is thriving in Chiang Mai, and quite intriguing!
Meet Chad and Chad
This jazz bar is a popular ex-pat haven
After the business and chaos of Bangkok, Chiang Mai felt like the perfect spot to spend a few days and relax. And relax we did. We met some great fun people, did a couple amazing yoga classes, ate lots of amazing Thai (and Burmese! And Mexican!) food, and cruised the whole city on our rented motorbike.
Cruising Chiang Mai on our moto
Northern Thai specialties Chad introduced us to at his favorite local digs
I don’t know what it was about this little university town, but we grew to love Chiang Mai in a few short days. It was culturally exotic and rewarding while also feeling livable and comfortable. We had never imagined ourselves seeking out the opportunity to live in Asia before, but if we were to do it, Chiang Mai would be at the top of our list!