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Fate brings three adventure-seekers together as they head to southeast Asia for sixty days - madness ensues

Friday, July 15, 2011

Chiang Mai

We arrived after a gruelingly, bumpy, and loud overnight train to Chiang Mai. We were all very happy to see some familiar faces, our dear friends, and our very favorite Chiang Mai super-couple, Hannah Cunha and Arron Goodman!

that overnight train wasn't so bad at first...
totally worth it to see these beautiful faces
After the crazy bustling city of Bangkok and the long travel days to and from Cambodia, we were so looking forward to the more laid back culture of this Northern Thailand city. Our expectations were met if not exceeded. Chiang Mai has an authentic and quaint feel and we all felt at ease walking around the town. We spent about six days in this magical little city. It was the first time we were able to acquaint ourselves with a place and it was fun to find little restaurants that we enjoyed and could go back to (most recommended by Arron and Hannah, who just got teaching jobs in Chiang Mai by the way!!!). Our favorite? Hands down “Nice Kitchen.” I don’t think a day went by that we didn’t stop in for some pancakes, french toast, muesli, curry or their fantastic  iced coffee. Everything was delicious.

the very best way to head start a day
Our time not spent at Nice Kitchen was filled with other activities. Laura and I went to Tiger Kingdom to play with 3 month old tigers while Shea toured the beautiful and ornate temples that appear on every other corner. Shea and I went to the Chaing Mai Zoo, a remarkable zoo  that she and I were both enthralled with. We toured around Chaing Mai University, went climbing at a local indoor gym and did lots of shopping at the Sunday night market . We went up to the Do Su Tep Temple at sunset, a magnificent and incredibly decorated temple that overlooked the city.

aaron shows off his guns at the chiang mai bouldering gym
the stunning doi su thep temple

I can easily say that while this was all great fun, we unanimously loved the Thai cooking class we participated in. We got to pick a soup, curry, stir fry, appetizer and dessert to make from scratch. After about 3 hours of cooking chicken coconut soup, cashew stir fry, yellow curry, papaya salad and mango and sticky rice and couldn’t have been more satisfied and stuffed! We have greatly enjoyed Chiang Mai and all it has to offer.

feasting after slaving over a hot stove

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