Day 319/320: Chiang Mai

We made plans to train up to Chang Mai in the far north, however we had issues booking the train online. We found a travel agency who helped us and apparently they do underhand deals with police officers and monks for their beds on the train 🤣 it’s a night train so we used Sunday to finish planning out ski America trip and book more accommodations in New Zealand.

The train was wild: it’s a sleeper but you don’t have private shared rooms. Instead, you were out in the open with lights on and people walking through at all hours of the night. The train was very bumpy, the sleeping sections were not long enough for Kieran, and the mattress pads were extremely firm. We both got only 2-3 hours of sleep from the 13 hour train.

We arrived to Chiang Mai around 8am and taxi'd to our hotel to drop off our bags. Fortunately, we were situated right in the center of town with easy walking access to restaurants and temples. We found a small mom-and-pop shop for breakfast and a local monk walked us through the restaurant and food options. We like that you can easily pop down some sidestreets to find restaurants that are much cheaper and have a more authentic feel.

We visited 3 different temples in the area. As per requirement, long pants and shoulders covered (even when the weather is 93 degrees each day). We particularly like the Buddha statues where they incorporate Naga, the seven headed snake that protects Buddha. One temple included pigs head offering and another wouldn’t let women inside 😒

In additional to temple exploring, we watched a local game of peewee soccer next to a temple.

Hotel: Sakura Guest House

Food:
Panang Curry
Pork Noodle Soup
Khai SoiRead more