chiang mai

Chiang Mai - Pockets of colour and devotion everywhere

9th - 15th December 2016

Our second port of call was Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai in northern Thailand is well-known as a place to unwind, stock up on delicious food, and check in to happy hour.

We loved it! Everywhere we walked, we found colour - in street art, around tiny shrines, on tuk tuks, and of course, in the luscious flowers curling over every wall and gateway.

We took a food tour with a company called Elliebum (and yes, their logo is a cartoon of an elephant's bum!). Gade, our bubbly guide, filled us in on the history of Chiang Mai, taking us to a few quiet, sleepy temples. She also brought us to one of the local food markets explaining about the different herbs and vegetables, before showing us offering shops. Here, people buy symbolic offerings for the shrines, that range from fake money to tiny figurines of servants. Also, for some reason, a bright crimson Fanta drink is a popular offering too, though Gade is not sure why...

We finished the tour with some delicious mango sticky rice, which is probably the national dessert of Thailand. There is so wonderful and comforting about the combination of sweet and zingy mango with gooey sticky rice.