(day 4) chiang mai, doi suthep

Caught an early flight out to Chiang Mai the next morning, only a 1 hour flight away. From Chiang Mai airport to the guesthouse was only like a 5 minute drive -- it's not a huge city.

The first thing I noticed about Chiang Mai was how much cooler and cleaner the air was. It was SUCH a nice change from Bangkok. After days of being uncomfortable, hot, and (often) grossed out, Chiang Mai was a much needed breath of fresh air. I don't really know how to describe the difference -- it almost felt like a suburb, but with things packed in densely like in a city. A lot of the shops and businesses were very cute and hipster-designer-looking.

Not the guesthouse we stayed out, but this is just a random guest house I saw that looked really nice. This wasn't an exception or a pricy place either!

Bought some fried stuff from a lady, ate it in an alley, it was yummy.

Coffee and a mango smoothie from a cute little cafe with outdoor seating and wifi. Chiang Mai has a huge expat population, and great for digital nomads thanks to an abundance of wifi and places like this to chill and do work.

There are also temples just about everywhere you turn, in Chiang Mai. Similar to Tokyo and Kyoto, Chiang Mai was a capital for a long time (Bangkok not so much), and in an older time when transportation wasn't as easy to come by, so a lot of stuff is packed into a small space -- all within walking distance. The city of Chiang Mai is somewhat sprawling, but the Old City part of Chiang Mai is a small square area, bounded by a moat. Our guesthouse is in old city.

See this lil sea serpent dude a lot. Hallo.

Buddha sitting under a tree, achieving enlightenment I guess.

A less flashy spire.

Two of Dylan's friends from Apple, a couple named Paul and Eva, quit their jobs to go travel for a year. They happened to overlap with us in Chiang Mai so Dylan made plans to meet them for lunch. They suggested this place, a ceramics studio/garden that also serves food and drinks.

The grounds were quite nice, wandered around while waiting for them.

I didn't take any pictures of Paul and Eva (who are REALLY really nice), buuuut I did take pictures of my food. :| Curry and blue rice (tastes just like normal rice).

After lunch we went back to our guesthouse to officially check in to our room (we'd only dropped our bags off before). Then all 4 of us rented a songthaew to go to Doi Suthep. A songthaew is a sort of taxi, but built into the back of a pickup truck. A tuk tuk is also just a scooter with an enclosure attached to it. I guess Thai people are really into modding their vehicles. :)

Some songthaew's rent certain routes, but you can also flag one down and try to negotiate a price for wherever you're going.

Doi Suthep is a national park just outside of Chiang Mai. There is a Doi Suthep temple that is supposed to be really cool (Paul and Eva had been before on a previous trip). You can technically hike up the mountain but it takes 4 or 5 hours, in the songthaew it's maybe 20 minutes.

not pictured: I got very carsick going up. I never get carsick!! But I think a combination of windy mountain roads, fast turns, and sitting sideways and looking out the back of the truck just threw my brain for a loop.

The temple was very very cool. I was sick of temples at this point but still had to admit that it was really impressive. Everything was in gold, the views from the mountain were great.

Brilliant jade buddha on a golden throne.

You've all met mom.

After a few hours poking around, came back down and decided to call it a day. We went back to our room (really cute!) and watched a movie, I already don't remember what it's called but it has Michael Scott in it.

Oh that's right, I forgot to mention a huge part of our Bangkok experience. Every time we went back to the Airbnb to cool off, we'd turn on the TV and watch NHK! It's a Japanese channel with shows about random different things, like one was about a grocer and how he started his business and how his son was slowly training to take it over, another about tea ceremonies, I already don't remember a lot of them now, but it was really good! I don't know if it was due to the situation (bored, nothing else on TV) or it was actually good, but we both really looked forward to our NHK every morning/afternoon/evening.

Went back out at night for food. Dylan looked up a place called Dash and we walked over. Really great find! The food was super super good, lots of varieties and options, cheap, nice ambiance. I got pad see ew and a soup, cuz my stomach was still roiling from the car ride.

Coconut chicken soup.

Indian samosas (only ok).