Chiang Mai was possibly the best 3 weeks of my life so far. The time just seems to have gone by as one massive blur of fresh fruit smoothies, phut lens (jokes) and chin chin law’s (reallllllly?) with our adorable Thai teacher and crazy nights out in ‘Zooooeeeeeeeey baaaaaar.’
Nicole, Cissy, Cammy, Kevin, Cissy, Tom, Jelle and I all arrived looking and feeling not so great after an 18 hour over night bus journey from Ubon Ratchathani to Chiang Mai - the bus itself was not so bad, we had real reclining seats and free biscuits and crisps! We all bundled into the first Song Thaew we saw and after pointing at this one map we had between the 7 of us, we finally got to our guest house where the other 12 volunteers already were. Reuniting with the other volunteers, after a difficult first month in Thailand, was probably the best part about the trip. We immediately (by immediately I mean after showers and fresh clothes) went out to explore Chiang Mai and get some fooooooooood! The food in Chiang Mai was the best - real Thai food, not Isaan Thai food and being able to order Thai food with menu's translated into English was a treat too. Next adventure: Chiang Mai Markets! It was a sunday which meant the Sunday Evening market was out in full swing with hundreds and thousands of bags, clothes, trinkets - you name it, they had it - to discover. It's safe to say Chiang Mai ate a lot of my money... oops. That first night all 19 of us decided to hit the tourist night life and discovered zoeeeeeeeeey bar and the reggae bar full of tourists with travelling stories and Thai university students eyeing up some 'farang' (foreigners). That first night was one of many messy nights to follow during the 3 weeks we had in Chiang Mai.
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| Our class with Ajaan Joy! |
Monday morning resulted in minor hangovers we had to suffer through as we had our first Thai language lesson and met our teachers for the course. Ajaan Joy was the cutest and funniest teacher we could have wished for; she had perfect English so we could chat in English as well as attempting Thai. Over the 3 weeks she became more like a friend as our class of me, Nicole, Cissy, Cammy, Kevin, Sally, Ocean, Annaliese and Hollie shared an array of inside jokes with her. The other class apparently had intense lessons whilst ours were more informal chats, "Sa bai dee mai ka?" She'd ask us every morning and we'd reply with whoever was off ill that day as being "mai sa bai." Apart from the first and last day, I think there was one person off 'ill' (hungover) every day - hashtag best class ever? A less intense class was definitely preferred though and I definitely feel like I've learnt a lot, and a lot about Thai culture as well.
The weekdays in Chiang Mai were mainly filled with our morning fresh fruit smoothies from the smoothie guy across the road from the language course, "smoothie glooeye gap saparot gap ma muang ka?" (banana, pineapple and mango smoothie please?), our chillaxed lessons with Joy and lunches at Nun's. Nun is the owner of a very small, cute little restaurant near to the language course who became our dear friend as we went their almost every day. He is the owner, waiter and chef and always chatted to us about our time in Chiang Mai and made the most delicious food and large portions and was sooo cheap. He even started giving us free water because we became such regulars! Massaman curry became a dear favourite, along side pad thai and chicken with cashew nuts - I must learn how to make all of these for uni next year. The nights were mostly filled with Zoeeeeeey bar, the rooftop bar (before we learned it had a sign outside banning Thai people from entering!), reggae bar and 3am drunken 7/11 runs for the blue crisps!
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| Adoring the baby tiger! |
The weekends were an entirely different story however. The first weekend Nicole, Annaliese, Beth, Sally, Hollie, Ellie and I all went to watch Sally, Hollie and Ellie bungee jump Saturday morning. I am far too scared of heights to even consider such a thing, even though it did look so thrilling that afterwards I wished I'd had the guts to do it myself. (I still definitely do not though.) After such a thrill, we were then taken by our tour guide for the day to Tiger Kingdom where we got to play with baby tigers, small tigers and big adult tigers! The babies were adorable whereas the adults were kinda scary but it was incredible. Before I had always thought these tigers were drugged and treated horrendously, but they weren't drugged, the only sad part was how they were held captive but I suppose it's the best of a bad situation for them. After a thrilling and busy day we were taken back to our guest house where we got ready for another night out at the rooftop bar and you guessed it - zoeeeeeeeeey bar! We did go to zoey's so often that we learnt their soundtrack off by heart, but it was still such fun. The following Sunday was, ahem, a day in bed feeling the toll of the night before. I don't think we even surfaced until at least 2pm.
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| Feeling fearless! |
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| Feeling fresh Sunday morning! |
The second weekend was even more intense than the first, but an experience 100% worth having. Nicole, Cammy, Kevin, Sally, Annaliese, Hollie, Beth, Ellie and I had all booked into a 2 day Jungle trek. Saturday early morning we were picked up by a tour guide we grew to love over the weekend and picked up two Argentinian doctors who we shared the weekend with and driven out to the mountains. We we given some not so nice fried rice and then started our 5 hour trek in the heat up and down some mountain to get to a hill tribe village where we stayed the night. This was... an experience. The trek was definitely one of those, 'I'm glad I did it but I would not like to go back in time and do it all over again,' moments. After 5 hours of intense hill climbing and jungle trekking we eventually arrived at a ermm... few huts in the middle of the jungle. We slept on roll mats under mosquito nets in one big hut and had a bonfire that night with our tour guide who made us some curry and rice for dinner. It was a real bonding moment for the group - including the 2 Argentinians who enjoyed our humour. Sunday morning we awoke stiff and grouchy at 7am and were given a random western meal of (slightly stale) bread and cold scrambled eggs before a half hour trek to the main road where we picked up by a song thaew and taken to see the elephants!!!!! We then proceeded to ride some elephants, zip wire across a river, bathe a baby elephant, bamboo raft down the river, visit a long neck tribe and white water raft. All in one day, you ask? Yes, I did say it was intense! After arriving home at 5ish that evening, saying goodbye to our trusty tour guide and having longggggg hot showers we then decided to visit the previously discovered Irish Pub to have well deserved English food! Bean and lentil burger with onion rings, chips and side salad? Yes pleeeeease. We also could not say goodbye to our Argentinian friends just yet and so planned to meet them in Zoey's that evening to continue the seemingly never ending, exhausting yet insanely fun and slightly surreal weekend.
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| Fun with the elephants! |
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| Group shot! |
I think it's safe to say that Chiang Mai was indeed an experience, an adventure and a lifelong memory. Our last night out in Zoeeeeeeeeeeey bar with our Project Trust Rep, Lucie, definitely ended the 3 weeks on a high! Saying goodbye to the other volunteers was difficult as there has been friendships made and cemented for life here, but coming home (to Muang Sam Sip) with Sally as Nicole and I's new partner is just the cherry on the cake! I am already not looking forward to returning home to coldy and rainy England as I enjoy (and sometimes still moan about) the 30 degree heat here.
Love and hugs from sunny Thailand as I relax in my no longer cockroach infested home with my partners and lifelong friends, Sally and Nicole.
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| Just chilling on our elephant trek! |
