We flew from Singapore to Chiang Mai to get started on the Thailand part of our winter travels. We spent a week in this Northern town which is a bit higher elevation than the other cities in Thailand so the weather is a bit more moderate. We had pleasant 80 degree days and 70 degree nights the whole week here. The big attractions in this town are the Buddhist temples or Wats. We saw a lot of them. In fact, I’m not sure how many more we need to see, but we just started our South East Asia tour so we will get to see a lot more. Here are some of our favs from our many Wat visits.
The other big highlight for us was the food. We ate good and we ate cheap. The Thai street food was amazing and we had most of our meals from the stalls. Entrees were about $2 so we would buy 3 and share them and have way too much food. We did go to some sit down restaurants but the food quality seemed about the same. Although those were pretty cheap too, and we rarely spent more than $20 for for the 2 of us. Big beers are $3 and regular bottles are $2 so that ended up being our biggest expense sometimes. Lots of expats from all over the world have ended up staying in Chiang Mai because the cost of living is so cheap.
We tried a lot of dishes we had never had before, but we wanted to know a little bit more about what we were eating so we paid for a food tour. Our guide led us all around the city for 4 hours and we learned a lot about the foods specifically from northern Thailand, the markets, as well as the city and Thai people. Sometimes it is good to have conversations with locals besides bartenders and waiters. And of course we ate way too much….
We found this pile of deep fried chicken heads in the market but our guide told us not to eat them because they were for dogs. Not sure I would have tried them anyway….
On our last night in Chiang Mai we attended a meetup of some other retired nomads. We belong to some online communities for people that slow travel for most or all of the year. It is fun to meet some of them and compare notes on the best places to go next. Here we are meeting at another night street market. (M was taking the pic)
Next stop is a long Thai train ride to Bangkok for 4 days including the big Chinese New Year party on Sunday.
Looks like you two are having the time of your lives. We are helping to keep our own travel itch alive through your postings. Have fun and stay safe. Kris and Gina