Southeast Asia Part IV: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Read: Part I, Part II, Part III
Welcome one and all to another post where I recap some of my travel memories. I visited Chiang Mai for the first time about 5 years ago with my sister. In my memory, we only spent a couple of days there, but I loved the energy of the city and knew I wanted to return one day. Up until this point, my trip had been highly curated and planned, but this section was meant for rest and spontaneity. I booked a hostel for a week, and had no idea what I’d be doing while I was there.
Chiang Mai
I hopped on a domestic flight from Siem Reap and had a short layover in Bangkok. Before the next flight, I walked into the airport 7-Eleven to get some snacks. Fun fact: 7-Elevens in Thailand are amazing (I’ve also heard this is the case in Japan), and I want to give them a shout out. You can easily find any essentials you need, and they really shine in their fresh food/snack selection. There is a wide variety of high quality and affordable hot meals, tasty coffee, and fresh pastries. They’re like a cross between a high-end bodega and a CVS. It would be the first of many times I would pop into a 7-Eleven in the next couple weeks.
Getting onto my next flight, I was excited for this solo time, but also nervous. I feared that I might not make any friends and would feel lonely during this week. To my surprise and delight however, the complete opposite ended up happening. What occurred over the next few days felt like the universe telling me that I needed to stop doubting myself and expecting disappointment. Instead, it showed me examples of why believing in a different outcome was so much better.
Checking into my hostel, I immediately met a gregarious Dutch girl who was in the same room as me. We talked about where we had gone so far, and where we were planning to go. She was several years younger than me, and had been traveling for months. Because of this, she had plenty to recommend, and advice for what to skip. She was leaving the next day, but I felt a calm wash over me that I had already met someone so nice.
That evening, I got dressed and prepared to head to the festival going on. If you recall from part III, I had just left another festival, which wasn’t any kind of coincidence because all of these celebrations follow the lunar calendar. The one I was going to in Chiang Mai is called Loy Krathong, and it pays respect to water spirits. It is celebrated over a few days, and I arrived just in time for the first night.
Sydney was also in Chiang Mai with a travel group, but was only going to be there for a couple of days. We agreed to try to find each other at the festival and catch up for a short time. As I was leaving, I met Franziska, an Austrian girl who was also staying at the hostel.
“Are you going into town?” She asked, “Do you want to walk there together?”
And that was how I made my first friend.
We walked to a bridge where thousands of people were gathered. People were lighting lanterns and setting them free, and releasing beautifully decorated rafts into the water. I felt a bit awkward with Franzi at first, since we didn’t know each other at all yet, but overall I was happy to be exploring the festival with another person.
While we were there, she recognized a couple of people whom she had met at a hostel in Bangkok. They all excitedly greeted one another — not having known that they would all run into each other in another city. I didn’t put much weight into this interaction. I felt a bit shy, and I assumed that I wouldn’t see these people again.
Franziska and I bought rafts from one of the many sellers, made wishes, and released them into the water. Eventually we found Sydney, and we walked through the long rows of craft sellers and updated one another on some of the highs and lows we had experienced during the last couple weeks since we’d last seen one another.
The next day, Franziska and I got breakfast together. She had a lot of stories to tell and strong opinions. She had a biting sense of humor too. She was from Austria, but had lived in Germany for the past couple years, and wanted to go back to school to become a social worker and support children with difficult home lives. She loved going to raves, though lamented about how she used to attend far more when she was younger. She was somewhat of a DJ prodigy when she was a teenager, playing at clubs, and making herself known in the scene. She was also the type of person who enjoyed having arguments with bigoted people online. She had a confidence about her that inspired me, and I hoped that some of it would rub off on me.
After breakfast, we decided to look at temples in the area. Franzi texted Owen, one of her friends that we had run into at Loy Krathong, but whose face I couldn’t remember, to join us. Meeting Owen, a cheeky boy from the U.K., was an immediate delight. He carried around a 360° camera everywhere we went, and was passionate about making music. He had come to Asia to plan a surprise for his older brother, whom he was very close with. His brother was traveling through Vietnam with his girlfriend, and Owen had colluded with his family to plan his appearance. Before surprising his brother in Vietnam though, he had planned some days in Thailand.
As we were walking through the immense heat, and looking at all of the impressive temples, Owen told us that he had reached out to his friend, Ina, a girl he had met in Bangkok, and that she’d be joining us soon.
Ina approached us with a camera around her neck, smiling warmly. That’s maybe one of the best words to describe Ina: warm. Despite being from Germany, a country often stereotyped for stiff or cold personalities, she had a deep sensitivity and emotional honesty that I really resonated with. Ina was very knowledgeable and clear-eyed about the environmental and social ills which plague our world, and yet she was still able to walk through life with so much kindness. It can be so easy to let the weight of the world get you down and to give into negativity and a dooming, “everything is fucked,” mentality. Sometimes it’s hard to avoid. But I really believe that knowing about the darkness of the world and maintaining hope and taking action for change, is part of the cure.
Plans were made to hike the Wat Pha Lat (Monk’s Trail), a large jungle temple. It has been hiked by many a monk in decades past, and now we were going to do it too. We hailed a tuk tuk and rode the 15 min drive to the base of the trail. There we met up with Timon, another mutual friend that Owen had befriended while in Bangkok. He was from the Netherlands and had plans to travel through Asia for months.
He wore an ankh around his neck which, in its very simplified definition, is an Egyptian hieroglyphic that symbolizes life. It was a very fitting symbol for him because he exuded so much light in every step. It was like he bounced, not simply walked, through life, and life was the fuel that coursed through him.
The trail wasn’t super long, taking under an hour to complete, but it had its challenges. It got pretty steep at points, and we had to walk on uneven terrain, hopping over large rocks and ducking under low hanging branches. I had doused myself with bug spray, but it was no match for the mosquitos and I tried to ignore the itching I felt.
We eventually reached the summit of the trail, and walked around the grounds admiring the temples, statues, and greenery that filled the area. We had arrived late in the day however, and only had limited time. The sun was beginning to set, and we knew we’d have to trek back to the road in the dark.
There was a gentle dog there, who I believe lived at this temple among the monks, who Franziska had played with and pet. I was wary of petting dogs without obvious owners, but Franzi, a huge dog lover, didn’t have those hesitations. When we were getting ready to leave, the dog ended up escorting us the entire way down. It was incredible. We all had our phone flashlights on to help illuminate the way, but it was this dog who I was most keenly following for reassurance that we were going the right way and would not trip.
I joked that the dog was a reincarnated monk, but who knows? Maybe he was. He certainly knew how to guide. And once we reached the road, he left us and ran back up the mountain.
Walking along the main road, we found a small row of outdoor eateries and sat down at one. We didn’t see any tourists, almost every table was full, and the menus were all in Thai, so we assumed it had to be good. I picked something at random, I don’t even remember what it was, but I gobbled it up because I was so hungry from the hike.
After that, we walked into town to join the continuing festivities of Loy Krathong. There was a parade going on, and we watched the floats, dancers, and bands walk by until we all eventually dispersed in favor of much needed rest. We also agreed to plan a day together at Doi Inthanon National Park.
I had a solo morning the next day. Although I had loved meeting and hanging out with everyone, I needed to recharge. I went to Chiang Mai’s Chinatown and lazed about. I didn’t do anything too interesting. I walked through the streets, popping in and out of stores to window shop, bought a cheap bucket hat to protect me from the potent sun, and then sat at a cafe to escape the heat and sipped on a creamy avocado smoothie. It was so thick that I could have eaten it with a spoon, which was perfect for the heat of the day. By this point I was already in a group chat with my new friends, and we were keeping each other posted on our whereabouts. I suggested meeting at a nearby night market for dinner, and luckily everyone was on board.
To get there, I booked a Grab bike. I mentioned Grabs before, and described them as the same thing as Ubers, but there’s a key difference. You can not only book cars and tuk tuks through there, but you can also book a bike. When you book a bike, you ride on the back of someone’s motorcycle. This ended up being one of my favorite ways to get around because it was so much cheaper than the car options, and you got to feel the breeze and watch the city around you.
There were hundreds of different options at the night market, and we all ordered food from many different stalls, and shared everything so we could all taste new things. It was pretty incredible that I was hanging out with all these people who, in the grand scheme of things, I had just met, but we were already sitting around a table and sharing food like we’d known each other much longer.
After eating, Franzi and Owen left to head to bed, but Ina, Timon and I still had energy to hang out. We walked around a bit, and then decided to buy a joint to share among us.
When I first visited Thailand five years ago, weed was very illegal, but these days there are dispensaries everywhere. We purchased a joint and a lighter, and then found a chill spot by the bridge, overlooking the water, to sit down and smoke it.
I cherished this moment. It was like we were experiencing the ending of a cheesy coming-of-age film. We were up late in a new place that also felt old, learning more about each other’s inner lives, and talking about life. The difference between the film version is that we were all in the late twenties-early-thirties range, but we’re allowed to come of age too, you know. Anyone can.
Doi Inthanon National Park
We signed up for a guided excursion to Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest peak, but accidentally had gotten an extra ticket. Franzi and I walked around our hostel to try and find someone who might want to join us (because that’s normal hostel behavior). She asked a few people who all said they couldn’t go, and then we met Tommy.
He was laid back in a chair on a small balcony on the second floor. He had an accent that confused me because I couldn’t place it. I later learned that he was from the U.K., but had also lived in Australia and was presently living in the Netherlands, so it made sense. Luckily, he had no plans and was down to join.
The crew and I met up with the day guide, and rode in a van for roughly 2 hours to get to the park. We saw waterfalls, walked through nature trails and rice fields, and also saw the King and Queen Pagodas. The pagodas looked really beautiful against the blue sky of the day, and the surrounding gardens were lush and well-cared for. I was perhaps a bit underwhelmed by the pagodas because I had already seen several magnificent temples during my travels but hey, I’m not complaining.
During the lunch break, Timon and I were sitting next to each other. In our conversation, he told me about his brother who had passed away years ago from leukemia. I was stunned by this information and told him that I had lost a brother too. I can’t recall the exact details, but the ankh he wore on his neck had either belonged to his brother, or was given to him by his brother. Maybe both were true. Whatever the real facts, it doesn’t really matter. The point is that he carried his brother with him everywhere he went. I understood the feeling too.
As the day was wrapping up and we shuffled onto the van, everyone agreed to not loving the tour. It was very driving heavy, and a bit too structured. The van drove us all from place to place, and we didn’t get a sweat-inducing hike like we had all expected (and hoped for). Despite this, it was still so beautiful to walk through the park, and I enjoyed the company I was with.
Huai Kaeo Waterfall
My last couple of days in Thailand, I went to the Huai Kaeo Waterfall two days in a row. One day with Ina and Owen, and the next day with Ina and Franziska. We hiked up the large slippery rocks of the area, and jumped into the cold natural pools of the waterfalls. I saw groups of locals, as well as children and tourists, hanging out and bathing around there as well. I even spotted a monk swimming in a nearby pool. It was lovely to be in a place so beautiful, and so unsupervised and unchanged.
Many of my new friends were heading to Pai next (a city about 3 hours from Chiang Mai) and asked me if I was going to come too. I wanted to go with them and, in another life, I would have. But like other moments throughout the trip, I already had plans. I had a flight booked to Krabi and there, I would meet up with Sydney again. Next we would be exploring two Thai Islands for the next week.
I’ll never forget the time I spent in Chiang Mai. It wasn’t about what I did at all, but the people I was surrounded by. I felt proud for overcoming some of my shyness and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. And in many ways, it helped me believe more in fate. I had been so afraid of feeling bored and alone, but got the gift of community instead.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again in part V! ❤
Read: Part V
