Headed to Chiang Rai

Took the 6:45 am bus to Chiang Rai this morning.  Derrik has to leave Thailand by the end of February, so he decided to go with me because Chiang Rai is a good jumping off point for Laos.

Getting to the bus station was a bit stressful.  Grab (like uber) drivers kept cancelling.  Then we interrupted the breakfast of a songthew driver, but he wanted to charge way too much.  We should have just taken it, but on principle, we waited for the next grab driver.  I honestly thought we were going to miss it, but we didn't!

bus terminal

Well, unfortunate we didn't miss it.  2 hours into the ride, the bus got a flat tire and we sat waiting for the next ride for 2 hours.  We could have slept in!  At one point though, I look around the bus and realize it's only foreigners left.  All of the Thai people have been put on other buses.  I don't know what happened to them, but eventually we made it to Chiang Rai and met up with Kevin!

We got a flat tire across from this market, which unfortunately wasn't open lol

Derik and I rented scooters, grabbed some pizza and korean chicken wings, then met Kevin at the White Temple.

Wings were so yummy!

The clock tower in downtown Chiang Rai has a light show twice a night, apparently it's pretty cool.

The White Temple was Beautiful!  But to be honest, it was just a major tourist attraction.  You had to pay to get in and then it's just a walk through.  The paintings inside the temple are of things like Spiderman and superman.  I dunno, it was weird.

Weird statues like this are outside.  My silly crew.

Monks taking pictures with the statue haha

After that we drove to the Blue Temple.  Also crazy touristy, but more authentic.

From here, we went to the giant white lady Buddha on the hill.  As we're pulling up the hill, I notice everyone staring at me.  I soon realize they're playing the "Kings Song" and everyone is supposed to stand completely still and pay respect during the song.  Monarchy is still a very serious thing here.  Talking bad about the government or the king are absolutely off limits.

For dinner, we went to a market.  I had garlic pork and then coconut ice cream!!  Yum!

Market

60 baht for 3 scoops!  that's less than $3usd

During the day, Derik decided he's going to leave for Laos with Anna and Kevin tomorrow.  I'm really sad saying goodbye to these guys, but it's been awesome.  Because everyone is leaving me, I booked my last minute flight to Bangkok.  It doesn't sound like fun to make new friends in Chiang Rai when I'm headed to Bangkok anyways and it doesn't seem like there's a ton to do here.  I prob should've stay another day or so to explore and relax, but oh well.  

*side note: if you want to add baggage, you have to do so more than 24 hours before your flight with Air Asia.  Since I bought the ticket less than 24 hours before the flight, they said I had to pay for my baggage at the airport, which cost me as much as the flight, like $40 usd.  Many Asian carriers only allow one carry on item with a maximum weight of 7kg.

In the front is Mat, the hostel owner who actually is Also a flight attendant.  We talked about airline stuff.

Bunks in the hostel.

Chiang Mai Cooking Class Feb 24

Another relaxing day.  Decided I’ll stay here one more night. This is really a city you need several days to get to know.  I’ve started enjoying it. Got up and was productive this morning.  Booked my bus to Chiang Rai for 645am tomorrow, fixed my March work schedule, did a little research, and booked a cooking class for this evening.

After that, I wandered around a bit.  Found a few cute stores.  Then found a local massage place the receptionist at the hostel recommended.  Away from the old city and take a right, you see a little no nothing shop. It’s actually someone’s house in the back.  You wander in and two Thai ladies are laying around on the massage beds, startled when someone walks in (esp a white woman).  I tell them I want a massage and body scrub and they start running around, as if they weren’t expecting to have any work for the day and are caught off guard.  At this time, I realized I wore my shoes while walking into the house.  Oops.  They take me to a table, covered in plastic and separated by by folding doors/walls.  Meanwhile, they’re running around to prepare stuff.  I won’t go into specifics publicly, but it was an interesting experience. Like receiving a full body wash from your grandma.  After a 45 min scrub session with some yellow paste she kept mixing with water, she literally took me to their personal bathroom so I could shower off before starting the Thai oil massage.  Took forever to get the stuff off and I’m pretty sure it tinted my skin a little.

After that, I found a hair salon in someones house and had my hair blown dry for 100baht.  

Super sketchy lol

Place I had my hair done.  Poor lady was like "arm getting tired" haha it only took her 20 minutes though

LOVE having my hair straight

Made it back to the hostel just in time for my ride to the cooking class.  The food was so good!  Can't wait to try these recipes at home!

They took us to a local market and explained all of the ingredients and then we rode back to the chef's house where we did the cooking.

Market

Ingredients all set up

Cooking stations

Making cashew chicken

Making Tom Yum with prawns 

My Tom Yum!

Making spring rolls

Frying spring rolls

This is how they make the sticky rice

In this hat thing and inside a bag to steam

Mashing herbs for our main dish, Koa Soi

I put too many of the crunchy things on top but the flavour was good

Final dish, Mango Sticky rice!

After dinner, home to bed and early bus in the morning!

Chiang Mai Feb 23

Today was a relaxing day. The ride yesterday just took it out of me. I booked the same hostel again tonight and just asked “can I have the room for 200 baht” (instead of 250 like yesterday). “Yes”... that was the easiest negotiation ever.

I returned the motorbike, then did laundry at a laundry mat. It’s cheap enough to do at the hostel (40 baht for one kg), but they won’t return it until tomorrow night at 10pm.  Instead, I did it myself for 90 baht and it was done in 2 hours.  I offered to do Deriks laundry with mine so it only cost me 45 baht.

We were really hoping this wasn't bleach, but took the chance

I updated my blog through feb 17. Then wandered looking for beauty services (mani pedi massage and hair).  Found a place for pedicures 250 baht (7usd). Might be expensive in Thailand standards but I compared a few shops in the old city and they were the same.

The sanitation levels with this would kill some people.  She did a guys feet right before mine and pretty sure she didn’t clean the bowl or utensils before doing my feet.

She didn't do the best job with the waxing and my face was pretty swollen afterwards.  I'm going to have to buy some tweezers.  Oh well.

To have my hair washed and blown dry in someone’s house is 100 baht or 3usd.  I might do this every day. I can’t wait haha.

Stopped at a Rotee stand for dinner.