chiang mai is a rural city in northern thailand. we stayed in the city center, also known as the old walled city. this is because the square border surrounding the city is made up of a wall and a moat, which in old times was used to help defend the city center from constant threats. pictured below is one of the main gates through the wall into the city
the moat was once much wider when it was being used for protection
tuk tuks are a common form of transportation, as well as scooters. cars are very limited and difficult to get. we saw some scooters with a family of 4 crammed on them!
ready to explore the city!
there are a ton of temples within the old city and surrounding areas. we tries to hit all the major ones. wat chedi luang was around the corner from our hotel
wat phra singh was one of my favorites
wat chiang man
wat doi suthep is chiang mais most famous temple, which resides in the forest on a hill outside the old city. there were at least a million people there!
warorot market, a gigantic multi level shopping center filled with... stuff i wouldnt really buy haha. interesting to see though...
so i was REALLY worried about eating in thailand. it seemed like almost everyone i talked to about thailand said they got food poisoning while visiting. last thing i needed was a sick and miserable kid on our trip, and if theyre miserable... they gonna make ME miserable! we were probably way overly cautious... super careful about everything we ate/drank... and brought a whole pharmacy with us. as the trip went on we got braver, and im glad we did. had some awesome food, and no one even got so much as the runs
our first meal every day was at our cute little boutique hotel, the chef made awesome breakfast for us every day... and even accommodated special orders for our picky kids
one of the first restaurants we ate at was right across the street... had a ton of great reviews so we figured it was safe. had some delicious pad thai in an egg pouch
by the end of our stay in chiang may, we were eating most of the things recommended to us. and im glad we did, because we tried chiang mais signature dish, khao soi, in a place that looked pretty questionable but it was my favorite meal in chiang mai!
so good we had it again at a place a few blocks from our hotel... sooo good!
the kalare night bazaar was our first taste of what nighttime food scene was like in chiang mai
every evening you cant walk around without running into night markets. they take over a majority of the streets in chiang mais city center. its crazy that they setup and teardown these expansive markets daily!
one of our favorite outings was visiting an elephant sanctuary. unfortunately chiang mai has a very abusive animal industry. elephants are abused to "break" them in order for them to perform for tourists, paint pictures, and let tourists ride on them through the jungle. the elephant sanctuary we visited rescues elephants from this industry. we got to prepare food for the elephants, feed them, and bathe them. they were so sweet and gentle.
cutest baby elephant!
ave loved preparing the elephant food
of course after dragging the kids around all these temples, we had to squeeze some fun kid stuff in. visiting the chiang mai zoo was one of their favorites
rented some wheels to get around the zoo... best $10 ive ever spent!
a few last shots from around town
and finally some family photos we took at wat phra singh
we had a great time in chiang mai! the sights, sounds, tastes, and people were all awesome! we would love to come back some day, but for now... off to bangkok!
No comments:
Post a Comment