With the political instability and travel recommendations against visiting Pakistan at this time we made alternative plans instead and elected to travel to Northern Thailand. We hope to be able to travel again with Huma and Aftab to see their beautiful country and sincerely hope the peace and safety come to Pakistan soon.
It was very interesting for me to return to Chiang Mai after 25 years. Clearly the city is growing, and the tourist industry continues to thrive as a central part of the economy. I remembered loving my visit there in the past and was hopeful to return. Again, I was captivated by the surrounding landscape with rolling mountains, innumerable beautiful temples, golden Buddhas, waterfalls and seeing many locals still living traditionally (although everyone has a smart phone these days). Chiang Mai has been called the Rose of the North because of its many beautiful temples and gardens. In the past it was the capital of Lanna Kingdom, and the old city has more than 300 temples. We enjoyed staying in a fantastic Airbnb in the heart of the old city. We were lucky to have parking for a rental vehicle, allowing us to take day trips into the countryside and travel further north. The home we stayed in was a combination of modern convenience and a traditional multigenerational Thai family home. There was an outdoor kitchen, which was quite difficult to use given the heat, this meant we ate out more than anywhere else on our trip. We enjoyed all the beautiful artwork, the shrine, the wood carving and the wooden walls. We were very grateful for the renovated washrooms, as well as air conditioning in the main rooms. The Lanna Folk Life Museum was a wonderful place to cool off. It had several amazing exhibits showing us wonderful examples of Buddhism architecture, murals, textiles and other artefacts for many of the local communities.
While in Chiang Mai, we explored the famous night market and the Sunday craft market where much of the old town gets shut down to traffic and there are a huge number of local vendors. We street food at the market and indulged almost every night that we were there. The market is full of life music and craft people, food vendors and farmers, second hand clothing and tons of tourist souvenirs. There were many amazing sites and interesting things to purchase. We saw grilled scorpions, large squid, crocodile leather and many unrecognizable food offerings. I was very pleased to purchase to wall hangings made of buffalo hide carved out and painted by a local artisan. It was happy to show me his process and discussed the time it takes for his creation, encouraging my reluctance to bargain much.
While we were in Chiang Mai Alastair enjoyed another day of Enduro motorcycling with a tour group. Unfortunately, he did have to use his medical skills when one of the other riders likely broke his foot. Alastair really enjoyed this tour, explaining he felt more confident on this ride than the previous one in Hua Hin. The kids and I had dropped him off at the start of the course, a little out of town, which gave us the opportunity to visit a local botanical garden and animal rescue center. Unfortunately google maps sent us on a wild goose chase trying to get us to enter the park through a gated off service road and then taking us through a rural driving maze, twice, before we got things figured out. We enjoyed renting bikes; it was too hot to walk. The gardens were well manicured and full of interesting Topiary. Unfortunately, we found some of the animal enclosures for the rescued animals a little heartbreaking, particularly the ostriches who were confined to a relatively small area with at least eight large ostriches together. We laughed as the geese in the pond when we say they also had a cage containing them, it allowed them to swim in the river and use the bank, but it was a strange site to see. Cooling off in the Parks swimming pool helped before heading home for schoolwork.
On another day, we visited the famous Doi Inthanon National Park, known for having the tallest peak in Thailand, it is a beautiful drive to the peak, given the heat we were relieved to find there was only a small hike to reach the top. We visited several beautiful waterfalls in the park, saw the impressive dual stupa, and lovely views of the surrounding hillsides. Lunch at a small local restaurant was great that Sophie was able to patiently copy out the Thai calligraphy so we could order.
