Our last destination before the elephant sanctuary was in Northern Thailand, where we divided our time between Chiang Mai city and Pai (pronounced “pie”).
Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second largest city, and it was nestled in surrounding rainforest. The minute we got there we liked it. Before our trip to Pai, we had the chance to check out a great cooking class and the Sunday night market. In the cooking class we each got to choose five amazing dishes to prepare, and between the two of us we chose banana spring rolls Tom Yum soup, pad thai, pas se ew, green curry, panang curry, papaya salad, and mango sticky rice. Man were we impressed with ourselves. We bought a couple of essential ingredients to bring home with us from the night market, and we are determined to prepare an authentic feast for family and friends.
We then ventured out to Pai, a gem of a city about 3 hours South of Chiang Mai. On our way, our bus driver picked up a hitchhiking nun! The only seat available was next to Alex, and she kindly asked some people to move around, since she was not allowed to sit beside a man.
The minute we got to Pai we started to fall in love with it. After only planning to spend a night or two, we ended up staying for five. Although very small, Pai was home to countless unique restaurants and free-spirited shops. During the day, we were able to take day trips to some pretty spots. A beautiful waterfall that had a water slide that the locals were showing off on, a cave that we got to take a bamboo raft through, and a majestic hot spring that we saw locals boiling eggs in upstream.
At night time the streets were filled with food carts that supplied cuisines from all over the world. Our favourite was the Indian food. There was also a Dalmatian running around that kept us company – along with all of the others stray dogs, that seem to be a recurring theme everywhere we go.
Since the girls and I had so much fun taking the easy rider motor bike ride up the coast of Vietnam, Alex and I decided we would find a way to get home in style. We found a travel agency that didn’t offer the motorbike rides usually, but by god they were gonna find a way to make it happen for us. They found us two drivers, and although the ride was sketchy with all of the hairpin turns, it was a blast. The drivers were so nice, and invited us out with them that night. I was too tired, but Alex stayed out with them until 4 in the morning, as they showed him the town.
We spent two more days soaking in Chiang Mai, and shopping around for gifts – then we were off to save the elephants!
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