Chiang Mai Trip

October 20-24, 2019

For our October break, we had our first Thailand visitor, Colt's dad, Gary. We decided to take a trip toWe flew into Chiang Mai, which is a popular tourist town north of Bangkok. The flight was only 1.5 hours. :) We rented a car and headed to our hotel. We dropped off our bags and headed out to the Sunday Night Market for some people watching and food.

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Day 2

After a good night's rest and a yummy breakfast at the Mountain View Guest House, we headed out for a day of driving and site-seeing. Our first stop was two hours north of Chiang Mai at the Kolak Date Farm.

Sarah driving for the first time in Thailand. 😊

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Checking out the dates. These are the last few of the season, protected with bags.

From the date farm, we went to Hinoki Land, a "Hinoki wood kingdom" in the atmosphere of the first replica in Japan. It was beautiful! 

    

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You could rent kimonos to wear while walking around the park. These girls were treating Zamin like a celebrity. They let me get in on the photo too. :)

On Day 3, we went to the Chiang Mai Elephant Home. I decided there were too many videos and pictures, so made a post just for that day. :)

This is the Chang Phuak Gate, also known as the North gate, one of the gates to enter the Old City. This is a picture from the roof patio at our hotel. There is a famous night market across the canal with several food stalls. Here are a few pictures of the food we sampled. :)

So much yummy food. Our favorite was braised pork leg, followed by mango sticky rice for dessert. We also tried durian sticky rice, which was good, but liked the mango better. :) 

                                            

One day for lunch, we walked to a well known restaurant that serves Khao Soi, which is an amazing Northern Thai curry dish. Later that day we visited a matcha tea shop and has some dessert.

On our last day, we drove up a mountain, Doi Suthep, to a beautiful (and busy) temple, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Located high in the hills above Chiang Mai, this magnificent temple was commissioned by King Kuena, ruler of the region from 1367-1388. We tried to get up there early in order to avoid the crowds, but apparently everyone else had the same idea. :)

     

Well, there's our trip to Chiang Mai. I could have written loads more, but I'll let the pictures do the talking, so I could just get this posted. It's taken me long enough already. :)