Chiang Mai, Thailand

This post has been a long time coming (since I teased about it like 3 months ago, sorry!), but since I have returned from my travels and now have all the time in the world, I have no excuse not to write this up. Rightio so to pick up from where I left off, after Guangzhou I flew off to Thailand and spent New Years over at Bangkok. But before reaching Bangkok, we decided to take a pit stop at Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and whilst I can definitely say that I loved Thailand (minus a few issues here and there), I think I loved Chiang Mai just a tad more than Bangkok. My first impression of it was that it was a relaxing, laid back city, populated with copious amounts of hipster looking cafes and temples. Needless to say, my three days there were filled with endless coffee-drinking and temple seeking - which I loved! Everything was situated nearby everything else and the low-rise nature of the city made it feel very homely and neighbourhood-like. As the drill goes, here are a collection of some photos I took on this trip. Warning: This post is VERY photo heavy.

The sunrise over Chiang Mai as seen from the hotel I stayed at. Oh did I mention, the hotel rooms there are super huge?!

Sorry you have to see a shot of my feet but the hot springs there were too nice not to be mentioned here. Ahhh they were so relaxing, I think I could've stayed there forever.

Hehehe how cute are these? Looking at them just lifts my spirits :)

Ok for some reason I have a serious lack of food photos (maybe I was too keen to eat so I forgot to take some...can't blame me :p) but you can't go to Thailand and not eat more than your share's worth of mango. Yummmmm.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Aka the most well-known temple at Chiang Mai

The view of the city, taken from the temple which is located on top of a mountain. The weather wasn't particularly great that day though so you can't really see much. 

Other Temples

These are only a few of the hundreds of temples there. I'm not even kidding when I say that there are literally temples on every street there, maybe like 50m away from each other. I reckon you get bored of them pretty quickly but some are beautifully designed and well worth a look at.

Chiang Mai University

Apparently it's a tourist attraction cause there are even tour buses within the university that can take you around (and it's big enough for this tour to last a good half hour too). I thought the campus was quite pleasant and scenic, especially that lake. Do you see that photogenic lake?! Also, how cute are those elephant shaped hedges? Animal-shaped hedges are scattered everywhere around the campus and they're not just limited to elephants!

Wat Rong Khun, Chiang Rai

Technically not Chiang Mai but we took a day trip up to Chiang Rai and saw the white temple, also known as Wat Rong Khun. Definitely my favourite temple because of how majestic and grand it looked and it also had a touch of creepy (see the tree decorated in skull ornaments). Everything was so detailed, even the bathroom (the gold looking temple)!

Baan Dam, Chiang Rai

Also at Chiang Rai is the Black House Museum (aka a collection of black houses) which we also paid a visit to. This was slightly creepier than the White Temple cause each house was filled with dead stuffed animals and animal skulls and the like. Not my cup of tea really. But I thought the architecture of the houses was interesting. 

Apologies for the uber long post. Unfortunately I didn't really get to capture the essence of the city itself through my photos like all the cafes and the delicious food (omg Pad Thai and Som Tum soooo good) and the red trucks that we rode like taxis (very interesting experience). But I guess that's a learning point for next time. Next up: Bangkok!