Chiang Mai

We weren't originally planning to come to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and didn't know anything about it except that the air quality is often abysmal during the burning season, when farmers set their fields alight to clear dead crops. However, the city shares its name with Chelsea's favourite Thai restaurant back in Oxford, and since we have a pretty flexible itinerary this year, that was enough justification to make the trip. We booked a nicer hotel with a pool, so that if the air was awful we could just hang out there instead.

We didn't need to worry though! Chiang Mai is perhaps our favourite place we've visited in Thailand so far. We have been quite lucky to arrive in a good year when the smog from the burning season is minimal. And since we were able to go outside without gas masks on, it meant we had plenty of time to appreciate Thailand's second biggest city.

We started with an evening food tour of the Chiang Mai night markets, where we finally managed to get some properly spicy Thai food. We also took the opportunity to try durian fruit, which we had been both dreading and looking forward to for a while. This fruit is so smelly, it is banned on all public transport in Southeast Asia and you have to eat it with plastic gloves on so it doesn't get under your nails and stink up your life for days. It is an acquired taste, but people in Asia go crazy for it — you can get durian ice cream, durian coffee, durian cake. It can't be grown in China, so you see busloads of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand just to eat different types of durian. A Chinese national was arrested last year with a suitcase full of Thai soil, trying to take it back to China to work out how they could grow the fruit there and start a local industry. We were warned that 90% of locals like the fruit, whereas 90% of western tourists find it disgusting. Unfortunately, however much we wanted to be "not like other tourists", we did also find it repulsive. But it was worth a try!

Next day, we took a day tour of Doi Suthep, a temple on the hillside just outside town. We were the only ones on the bus — we've finally made it past the overcrowded parts of southern Thailand! Doi Suthep temple, the 'hidden temple' at Pha Lat, and Wat Chedi Luang in the city centre were so much more peaceful and pristine than any of the temples we visited in Bangkok. It's really beautiful up here, and much less touristy. Chiang Mai has definitely improved our overall perspective on Thailand.

We also had a chance to walk up the 'sticky waterfall' at Buathong. This runs over porous limestone, meaning the rock is very grippy, and you can walk uphill through it in bare feet. Chelsea was pleasantly surprised (heroic) and managed it even with her recovering (deeply bruised) ankle. Maybe it wasn't so bad and she's just been a crybaby about it the whole time, or perhaps she’s pushing through the pain due to FOMO.

Even though we've been enjoying Thai food for 90% of our meals, we did get very excited to find a good quality Middle Eastern restaurant called ‘Hummus’. Perhaps TOO excited. In our enthusiasm, we ordered so much food for lunch that they had to pull two tables together to make enough space for it all 🫃 By the time we had eaten a large meal's worth of falafel and labneh, they were still bringing out more dishes that we forgot we had ordered. Clearly we didn't realise the level of our chickpea withdrawal symptoms.

Lastly, we made sure to get tickets to a Muay Thai show on Saturday night. Muay Thai is the national sport: a martial art that is like boxing, but with shins, elbows, knees and feet involved too. Basically, you can hit your opponent anywhere except the groin, with any part of your body. Some of the fights were fairly poised and strategic (the women and the leaner men), and some were just slugging it out (bigger lads, and the title fight). It was terrifying and also very impressive. We consistently backed the wrong fighter in every bout, discovering our total ignorance of this extremely athletic sport and witnessing several knockouts plus a fair bit of blood.

We're currently on the bus to our final stop in Thailand, with a big doggy bag full of hummus for the journey... stay tuned!Читать далее