SEA Travel Diary | Chiang Mai

It’s only been a few days since we left Chiang Mai (we are now on Ko Phi Phi which is legitimate paradise, though a little hectic), but it seems like it was weeks ago that we were there. Chiang Mai is in the north of Thailand and is gorgeous. I loved the city itself, but getting to experience the Thai jungle was definitely the highlight for me.

Our first full day in Chiang Mai was spent ziplining at Flight of the Gibbon. They were so kind as to offer Cole and I a complimentary zipline tour in exchange for my review, so you’ll see a full post coming on that soon. I can tell you right now, though, that it was one of the best things we have done on our whole trip so far. We got to see a wild gibbon (which are hard to find outside of a zoo these days because they are so over hunted) which was amazing, and the zipline course and guides and just everything about the whole tour was so awesome.

I still can’t get the incredible architecture of some of the buildings and temples here. Everything is so beautifully detailed and full of color and gold splashes.

The most incredible temple I’ve seen thus far would have to be Wat Chedi Luang. It’s not as “blingy” as the other temples we’ve seen, but it really makes you feel like you’ve been transported to another lifetime.

The food was definitely a big highlight of our time spent in Chiang Mai. Our favorite activity is eating (haha, but for real) and we had soooooo much delicious food there! Khao Soi, a Burmese-influenced northern Thai specialty, was a favorite of ours. It’s harder to find throughout the rest of Thailand and we’re already wishing we ate more of it while we were in Chiang Mai!

We also have been using Trip Advisor a ton to find good restaurants to go to (because there are literally endless amounts to choose from and it gets a bit overwhelming trying to decide), and we checked out one called The Hideout. They served the most amazing sandwiches on your choice of bread/bagel/baguettes (I got Tropic Thunder which was chicken and pineapple), their lattes were yummy and we even went back the next morning for their french toast which was equally amazing.

This juice bar was also super highly rated and it happened to be right around the corner from our hotel, and I can confirm that it’s really, really good!

We LOVE Thai food (if you haven’t figured that out yet from my last couple posts, haha) and have been wanting to do a cooking class while here. We ended up doing one with Mama Noi Thai Cookery School on our last night in Chiang Mai and it was such an awesome experience.

They took us to a local market to get some ingredients, and then we went back to their incredible property where they grow a ton of organic produce themselves and cooked (and ate) our little hearts out for the next couple of hours.

I was amazed at how good our food tasted. I can’t wait to try it all again at home! I’m going to do a full review of the cooking class just because I loved it so much (and I have so many pictures to share of their beautiful farm), so I won’t talk too much more about it now- but if you’re ever in Chiang Mai, do. this. class. You won’t regret it!

I will leave you with this photo of one of the many adorable little dogs freely roaming the Mama Noi Thai Cookery School property (reason #106 to go!). ;)