Chiang Mai

After our Workaway experience, we moved to a cozy hotel a bit outside of Chiang Mai named Sleep Mai Lifestyle Hotel Chiang Mai Airport. It was definitely an upgrade and felt a bit like luxury after our Workaway living situation, even though the hotel was next to a noisy street. One of the first things we did at the hotel was having a warm shower. Having a long shower never felt so good! In places that are not clean or don’t have hot water, like at the Workaway, we just don’t feel like having a shower every day because it’s simply not appealing at all. Furthermore, the day we moved out of the Workaway we treated ourselves to Indian food at the Curry Express for dinner.

The following three days we often stayed in our hotel to catch up on some computer work and complete tasks like booking flights and hotels in upcoming destinations. On some evenings, we were simply too lazy to go out of our hotel, so we ordered dinner via Grab and ate in the hotel lobby. During our time at the Sleep Mai Lifestyle Hotel, we also did a bunch of sightseeing by renting bicycles through an app and pedaling to the city center. Sightseeing is quite nice in Chiang Mai because of its many temples. One day, we visited the annual Flower Festival in a park where they had colorful flower sculptures. They also had a parade for which they decorated many carts with thousands of flowers. We did not see the parade but could still marvel at the beautiful carts. This was very impressive! Later that day, we dove into the lively and crowded Sunday Night Market where we had dinner at the food stalls.

On another day, we joined a cooking class at Passion Food School. We learned how to make authentic Thai dishes such as Papaya Salad, Pad Thai, Khao Soi and so on. We had a really good time as we were cooking and having fun together with several people from other countries. There was even a young Swiss couple with whom we had a great chat. At the end of our cooking experience, we were literally full of food and we got a little recipe book so that we can create the dishes we have learnt at home. It was definitely one of our highlights in Chiang Mai!

On our last night at the Sleep Mai Lifestyle Hotel we ordered Indian food from Curry Express to eat at the hotel once more. While their food was delicious as always, Matthias’ retainer wire decided to give up on life and broke off all the teeth on the left side. The still attached wire with a loose end made it difficult but not impossible to continue eating, but it was an issue that had to be addressed immediately. This was very unfortunate and annoying as the retainer was installed only six months ago in Switzerland shortly before starting our trip and it was expected to last much much longer than this. Already in the months prior to this day, there were small bits of glue breaking off but Matthias hoped that it would still make it through the entire trip. While the precision milled titanium retainer did not live up to Swiss quality standards, it at least cost a fortune.

After this fourth and last night at the Sleep Mai Lifestyle Hotel, we moved to another hotel to spend two more nights in the heart of Chiang Mai. The hotel was called Singharaj Boutique Hotel, which was small and stylish with a quiet vibe. The day we moved to the hotel we dropped off some clothes at a laundry place to have clean clothes for our upcoming destinations. Also, we went to a random dentist that seemed reasonable according to google maps to see if Matthias could make an appointment to get his retainer fixed in the little time we had left in Chiang Mai. They said that their orthodontist is not around but gave him an appointment in the afternoon to see with one of the dentists if they could fix it instead. Matthias then went back in the afternoon and the dentist said that they could not fix it but they could replace it with a new wire. And so they did. No precision titanium milling, no fuss, just a dentist bending a stainless steel wire by hand and gluing it to Matthias’ teeth. The whole procedure of removing the old retainer and attaching a new one took only 30 minutes and cost 150 CHF. At a small fraction of the cost of a Swiss retainer, the only question that remained was if it would now last. We waited for nine months to publish this footprint just so we could inform you that this new retainer did indeed last longer than the original one. Until now, no glue has broken off and the teeth have not moved. So when the dentist reassured Matthias that “they were professionals” they were not bluffing.

While Matthias was getting the new retainer, Marina went shopping. Unfortunately, during her shopping trip her phone didn’t react anymore without the possibility of being rebooted. Hence, she couldn’t communicate with Matthias about when and where to meet after his appointment and also could not just take a bicycle through the app to ride back. So, Marina just walked back to the hotel in the hope that Matthias was there waiting for her. But what if Matthias never came back to the hotel? Legend has it that she is still at the hotel waiting for him. Just kidding, due to the very quick procedure he was already there and could look up how to force Marina’s phone into recovery mode and get it unstuck.

Our last day in Chiang Mai couldn’t have been more perfect. We spent the day at the Baanchang Elephant Park where we got to feed, touch, and walk with the elephants. This was an unforgettable experience getting so close with these gentle giants. In the evening, we joined a food festival, sampling local dishes, and later enjoyed watching the 6ixcret Drag Queen Show. What a fun and colorful end to our Chiang Mai chapter!

Favorite restaurant spots we treated ourselves:
- Baan Buri (breakfast place - yummy pancakes and French toasts)
- Lazy Lemon (breakfast place)
- Curry Express (lovely Indian food)
- Coconut Shell (amazing Thai food for a good price)
- Chada Vegetarian (healthy, flavorful and affordable food / big portions)Read more