It’s incredible how much changes when you stick around a place for a little longer and not just hop in, check a few places off a list and hop out onto the next thing. I saw myself thinking about this quite a lot this week as we truly started to feel home in our little “cave” in the middle of Chiang Mai haha. With us slowing down and not needing to look for places or plan for anything, we quickly settled into a pretty nice routine which we didn’t really have when we were in Ao Nang.
Monday morning saw us joining the chaos of the local market where among hundreds and hundreds of Thai people, Alexis and I were shopping around, trying 1) not to get hit by a scooter, or 2) lose each other in the mayhem. It’s messy, smelly, and unorganized but it’s 100% Thailand culture and we keep going back for the buzz, the smiles on people’s faces and the feeling of being part of this never-else-to-be-seen fascinating tradition and community.
With us feeling far more settled now, we managed to get used to our gym routine, getting up at 6:30 and hitting the road for a 10 min scooter drive to the fitness. At first, I wasn’t a fan of that at all … this whole idea of rushing out of bed to get on the scooter and into the traffic but I got used to it and it actually really helps me wake up so I’ve transformed my occasional complaint into being happy for the good it’s brought us. After gym or yoga, every morning I’d make breakfast for Alexis and settle into the hammock on the terrace to read my book whilst sipping on my coffee. I can’t tell you how much I’ve been enjoying this morning routine, not only because I was truly missing going to the gym but also because as soon as the work day was on, I was struggling to fit in any reading at all and was desperately trying to get back to it. Reading Jay Shetty’s Think like a Monk for an hour or so was setting me up for the day in the most mindful way possible so I was loving it.
Another thing that came with the slow travel was the ability to really focus on work during the workdays. Earlier this month, I was guilty of thinking what’s the point of being here if we spend 5 days working and just 2 days exploring around but luckily I’m starting to see the bigger picture and appreciate the workdays from here far more than I did at the start. The open space we have at home, the life surrounded by Thai people, the ice cream lady who would come to our door and stop because she knows Alexis will be tempted, are just few of the many reasons I’m appreciating work life here in Chiang Mai more and more. So I’m pleased to report that the work week was effective, productive, creative and interrupted by a good number of walks, homemade food and dinners out to experience some more of Chiang Mai’s yummy variety.
One yum dinner we went out to Vegan heaven for what ended being a burger party with Carlos (our Spanish friend) and a friend we had met and trekked with in Khao Sok a few weeks ago. One of the best parts of travelling are the people we meet along the way because often times we get to reunite and share a few more stories when we least expect it. We had a lot of fun chatting for hours and licking our fingers from the vegan burgers we indulged in. It’s awesome evenings with friends like this that make me appreciate how special it is to be here and experience this whole adventure. We hugged each other goodbye, and promised to do it more often 😊
After a great work week, it was time to feed the adventure monster inside us and get out there to explore haha! On Saturday we did a hike within Doi Suthep national park which started from the end of Suthep Road and was supposed to take us all the way to Wat Pha Lat. I didn’t know at the time but this hike turned out to be the famous Monk’s trail which is actually one of the most famous short hikes in the area. It definitely wasn’t easy to tell that this trail was popular because we only saw a few people and it was the middle of the day. The trail itself was absolutely amazing. It was the perfect escape from the city and certainly just the right warm up for the long hike we had planned for the next day. Chatting away, taking a picture here and there and sipping on the coffee Alexis had sweetly made for me, we didn’t see the time going until we reached the temple.
This is when it hit me … I was here, 3 years ago when I was on my Southeast Asia solo trip. I didn’t remember the name of the temple and I definitely didn’t hike to it back then so I was nicely surprised when I recognized the place and realized how entirely different the experience was now compared to back then. Sometimes we get a bit uneasy when we travel to somewhere twice because we instantly get the uncomfortable feeling that we could’ve used the time to see something we hadn’t see before instead. The FOMO kicks in haha.
But coming here and realising how different it all felt was so refreshing. I even feel like this time around I enjoyed the temple far more than I did before. Maybe because I wasn’t alone but with Alexis, or because we spent far more time exploring around, we had come “through the back door” hiking, and not by scooter through the main road like everyone else. Whatever the reason, the hike and the repeated visit were 100% worth it. We even met an American guy who, similar to Chase and Shelby (our new YouTube vlogger friends), was trying to get some footage for YouTube. It made Alexis and I chat for a little afterwards about how trendy trying out YouTube was getting.
Thrilled by the way up to the temple, we wanted to stretch the hike a bit more so instead of going back the same way which is THE way, we went on to discover a path that would get us back to our scooter by making a circuit. The path definitely hadn’t been used in months if not years but it gave us the extended adventure we were looking for and added another hour or so to the way down which was awesome.
The next day was the real adventure. For this one we had Carlos on board too who in hindsight would have loved if we had saved him from all that followed haha! Not much of a hiker, Carlos was up for our 22km plan to hike from our starting point on the main road, about 1 km from Wat Pha Lat, to a village called Ban Khun Chang Khian, and then back down via a different route to close the loop. The hike wasn’t easy. Passing by Wat Pha Lat once again, the first stretch of the hike was to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep which was a steep, exposed stretch of about 3km.
It was tough but the reward to access the temple by walking to it, felt special and totally different for me since I was here before, again 3 years ago, but had come via the main road and by scooter which now I know simply can’t compare. After the temple, we were left with the stretch to the village which was also our lunch spot so you can imagine the impatience … we were already starving haha. At this point we were about 6km into the trek, and had another 7km to go to the village so we were hoping for a bit of flat terrane but not much of that was to be seen. We trekked on, pretty much fully uphill, stopping here and there for a toiler break, a sip of water or just to collect our breaths whilst listening to the wind stopping itself into the trees and the birds that appeared to be making some sort of a The Voice who’s-gonna-out-sing-who competition 😄. It was spectacular … and a little pause was all that was needed to fully take in all that was around.
We kept on trekking until we saw genuinely the biggest tree I’ve come across in my life. Completely spectacular, the tree was so massive we three were able to “go inside” its various “rooms” and have a little tour. Looking up, it was incredible to realise the age, grand both in width and height, and true uniqueness. When we eventually said goodbye to the tree, we kinda had the feeling that we’d seen the best of this trail sooo let’s go for lunch already haha. Sadly, the village was still nowhere to be seen or heard.
We had gone so tired and hungry at this point, poor Carlos started to hallucinate thinking the roots of the trees on our side were moving in and out 😂. That was the shouting signal that we needed to think twice next time we think of challenging our buddy this far into the jungle and away from food hahaha! We had our fun, distracted the brains from the imaginary smell of fried rice haha and moved on. Eventually, after only one snake encounter, we got to the village. We didn’t expect to find anything too special here but actually the village turned out to be the hot spot where you could see wild Himalayan cherry blossoms as well as a few coffee, plum and peach plantations.
We didn’t know about any of this so we weren’t hugely disappointed when we saw the cherry blossom season had finished. So we quickly headed to Ba Rung which was the only place around that was offering food and fresh coffee. We soaked in the sun, filled up our bellies with eggs and rice, #energybomb haha and for (more than) a moment or two contemplated whether or not to hop on one of the scooters that were parked outside and get back down the mountain real fast haha! Far more energised by the food, we went back to our senses and slowly started to pack up and head on our way back.
The cool thing about the trail back was that it was going through most of the village so we could peak inside people’s life here and see what it meant to live at 1,350m up in the hills in Doi Suthep National park. Kids were running around, some of them were helping out with the farm work, older people were keeping busy chatting, sweeping the floors or selling in the few local pop-up shops. This little tour and dive into the local culture brought me back to my 16 days Annapurna trek. The whole trek back then exactly this – trek, trek, trek for hours until I reached a little village to call home for the night, full of life, people and local culture. I loved Annapurna and I sure loved this little reminder ❤
Just before leaving the village, we saw the local school which to our surprise was a nice specious area, well maintained and with a large playground. It was clearly showing that education and kids were a priority around here too which was really nice to see! A few moments after we had thrown ourselves back in the deep jungle away from the village and all noises of civilization.
After a total of about 9 hours we were back to our scooters, happy, excited and fulfilled that we pushed through (without having to carry Carlos down even a single step of the way 😂 … let’s hope our hallucinating Spaniard never read this post hahaha).
The adventure continues …
Stay tuned …
