I wasn’t planning on spending much time in Thailand as I had opted to go to Laos instead, but when my flight out of Bangkok was a week away and I was more or less done exploring Cambodia, I decided to add a bonus trip to Chiang Mai as it would avoid an 8 hour bus ride to Bangkok and avoid spending a full week in Bangkok.  I knew nothing about Chiang Mai when I arrived and relied on suggestions from Facebook friends to decide what to do.

The first night I was there, I went for a run around the old city.  There is a square mote that circles the old city which is about 7km total.  I had done my long run in Siem Reap the day before so was not looking to do any more than that anyways.

Once I returned, I headed to the street food market for some grub.  I had read a review that the pork place with the lady in the cowboy hat was delicious and they were not lying.  I had a few small dishes from the various vendors which were delicious.  From there I decided to head towards the center of town and check out a craft beer place that I had seen on the map called craffity.

I always enjoy going to craft beer places in other places because they are always so proud to have California beers on tap and they are always so pricey but I totally understand since they are very delicious and I was so lucky to live in a beer are like the West coast of the United States, but when I travel I am looking for the local stuff.  I managed to have a beer while chatting with my mother on the phone as they had wifi and it was pretty decent.  After the craft beer I set off to wander the streets in search of anything interesting.  I stumbled across a bar that fellow travelers had told me to check out and decided to sit down for a beer to try and meet somebody.

I came across a fellow sitting by himself and asked if I could join him.  He obliged and we got to talking.  The group beside us was having a great time and eventually we ended up joining them as well.  They kept signing a drinking song and it just kept going around the table until everyone was finished their buckets and then they got more.

We ended up dancing the night away, then when the first bar closed we went to the “after hours” bar and after that closed we went to the “secret after hours bar”.  We all ended up having similar itineraries in that we were all heading to Bangkok around the same time, so I might as well introduce the crew as these are the people I will be hanging out with for the next few days.

Alex, Ewan and Rauridh were traveling together with a cousin/step brother dynamic and were from Scotland and Marla and Leah were from Germany.  We had a fantastic night and the group of us hit it off pretty quickly.

I had asked social media what I should do in Chiang Mai since it was a last minute trip and the two most common responses were Elephants and cooking class.  I wasn’t sure about the cooking class, but I did want to hang out with elephants so I decided to book a tour and check them out.  I had heard a lot of about Elephant Nature sanctuary but it was booked 2 weeks in advance, so I asked the hostel which one was second best and they suggested The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary which was also pretty adiment that you will not be riding the elephants and that they are a sanctuary not a tourist attraction.  The ride out was more than an hour into the woods outside of Chiang Mai.

We arrived and they gave us all traditional dress of the local people of the area and then told us a little bit about there sanctuary.  This is actually #7 and they have 10 such sanctuaries dotted around the area.  They eventually brought over the elephants and we spent the whole day, hanging out, feeding, mud bathing and swimming with the elephants.

Elephants have to eat a lot because their stomachs are not very good at absorbing the nutrients from what they eat, so they also showed us how to make “medicine balls” which contains natural ingredients to aid in digestion.  We took lot’s of photos and selfies and had a gran old time.

The other notable thing from this experience was that the guide who was leading us through everything was wearing a very similar Toronto Blue Jays Hat as me.  Of course we needed to get a selfie.

When I was asking for suggestions on what to do in Chiang Mai, one of my friends from SF mentioned that there was a local lady he had met when he was there and asked if he wanted to introduce us.  We made arrangements to watch a Muay Thai fight and grab some drinks.  She let me know she was going to be a bit late and so i wandered to the craft brewery taproom down the street for a drink or two while i waited.

The Brewery was called My Beer Friends and it was here that I learned about the law preventing Thailand from allowing Craft breweries from brewing in Thailand unless they reached a certain size of production.  In order to run a brew pub for onsite consumption it must brew a certain amount and if they want to can then it is even more.  So most breweries go elsewhere and re import it into Thailand.  Cambodia is the most common brewery location but they also import from Vietnam as well.  This tap room is trying to get up to the minimum capacity needed by opening a chain of brew pubs around Thailand.

She ended up being about 2 hours late, so I had some time to enjoy a few beers.

She knew the guys at the fight and we got some good seats right by the bar.  I enjoyed the fights and we had drinks and food into the evening.

Once everyone had cleared out of the place, I asked if it was possible to get a photo in the ring and they said yes.

The proprietor of the place was a cross dresser and had big feet.  I had never had the opportunity to try heels in size 11 so I asked if I could try them.  I feel like I would be able to get used to them, but I certainly hand it to the ladies who dance and do other assorted activities in heels.  There are obviously pictures and I feel like at some point this will give me troubles on the internet but if someone has a problem with this type of activity I don’t want to associate myself with them or the company (thinking about it from a future job perspective).

After the Muey Thai place, we actually ended up at the same after hours bars as the night before.  But this time when the last one closed, she knew of another place that had a pool table and some drinks but was very minimal and for sure a real locals only establishment.  It was eventually pretty late and it was time to hit the hay.

I predictably slept in a little bit the next day and eventually decided that I wanted to do a cooking class for dinner and so I booked one and then went for a run as well as explored the area surrounding the hostel.  There were a bunch of temples so i checked them out.

I returned back to the Hostel where I was picked up for the cooking class.  Our first stop was the market which is where the chef explained all of the ingredients needed in Thai cooking and where one can find most things in the market.

After that, we jumped in the van and headed to their kitchen which had only just opened less than a year ago.  They had a decently sized herb garden and a very nice set up.  After picking the fresh herbs needed for our meals from the garden, we headed inside to get started.

We ended up cooking three community dishes and then we each got to select 2 more from a set of options.  In the end I ended up making Coconut soup, chicken with cashews, Green curry, Pad Thai, Papaya salad and mango sticky rice.

A few things I learned from this class.  Red curry is less spicy because it has dried chillis instead of fresh ones (green curry) and that instead of using salt, they use fish sauce which was interesting to me.  The other thing I learned was that the secret ingredients that really give it that Thai taste and smell is galangal (which I had never heard of before) and kaffir lime leaves which when I smelt them for the first time it was like, “yup, that’s the thai food smell.”.

The cooking class itself was very imforative and well run and at the end when it was time to eat, I was very proud of myself for cooking all of the food that was in front of me and it ended up being delicious.

After we ate, the teacher distributed our cook books and we got a ride home.

My flight was the next day and I planned to go up the hill in the morning to see the sunrise, but waned to run back to the hostel after and the only problem was that you have to wear pants inside the temples.  I decided I was going to buy a cheap throw away pair of elephant pants that I could wear in the morning then discard so I asked the driver to drop me off at the night market.  I wandered the night market for a bit, bought some pants and then began my journey back to the hostel because I had planned to get up at 5am the next morning which meant an early bed time.

I woke up at 5am and headed out of the hostel to grab a ride to the top of the mountain.  I had read that it was cheaper to get a car to the base of the hill and then take a red truck to the top as it would be cheaper.  What I did not anticipate is that this was only if you shared the ride with others.  Since it was 5:20am in the morning there weren’t any other people to split the fare with.

I negotiated pretty hard to get the price down to something that was affordable and we were on our way.  We arrived at the base of Doi Suthep Temple and I climbed the stairs just before sunrise.  I went to the viewing area and chilled out for about an hour watching the sun rise.  It was a bit smoggy and the sun took a bit to poke out above the fog, but it was still very pretty.

Shortly after sunrise, the monks lined up for their offering and then had a prayer session.  It was very interesting to witness.  After spending soem time in the temple, I headed back down to the trail that was shown on maps.me.  There was a do not enter sign at the trailhead, but it seemed like only a suggestion, so I continued.

Running on hiking trails can be very fun in some cases, but in this case the trail was not very well maintained and it was pretty slow going.  I tried my best to continue to run but most of the time it was a burning hot coals type prance.  There were a lot of waterfalls and forest scenery, so from a hike perspective it provided a lot.

Just was not great in the run department.  I took a bunch of photos and eventually made it to a road where it was mostly smooth sailing back to the hostel.  Upon returning, it was time to pack up and check out and then head to the airport for my flight to Bangkok!