We’ve officially been in Asia for a week! Now that we’ve shaken the jetlag, we’re getting the hang of early mornings to maximize our days, though this morning was especially hard to leave. Sukhothai was an amazing place, but we actually fell in love with our personal bungalow and the entire atmosphere at Sawasdee Sukhothai Resort. After a beautiful buffet breakfast, our hotel staff called us a tuk-tuk to the old town bus station. We had booked a 2nd class bus to Chiang Mai (from old Sukhothai) the day prior, which is always recommended as Old Sukhothai is not the first stop and it’s often full (approximately 200 baht each).
While we were waiting at the bus stop, there was an adorable baby sitting with the bus ticket salesman, who noticed us smiling at the baby, and handed the baby to Keeshia…boy was she excited!
We arrived to our hotel in Chiang Mai. Chedi Home, around noon, so we wanted to find a place to relax and get some lunch. The old town of Chiang Mai is pretty walkable, but we only really had this afternoon to explore because the next couple of days will be spent outside the town (bamboo rafting, waterfalls, and playing with elephants), so we decided to rent a scooter. We had planned to rent one tomorrow anyway, so we figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have it for an additional day (25 baht per day from Happy Days Shop right next to our hotel).
We rode in and around the old town and found the cutest little shop called Tikky Café, where we shared yellow curry seafood and pad see ew with pork. We also shared two delicious fruit smoothies. One was mango and the other pineapple, but I highly doubt you could go wrong with the others and the fresh fruit on display was beautiful.
After we had some food in our bellies, we rode around our scooter to see all the major temples: Phrasingh temple, Wat phan tao, Wat chedi luang worawihan, Three kings monument, Wat chiang man. We are continuously amazed by each temple that we have seen thus far, each so unique and beautiful!
After our own self-guided temple tour, we headed back to our hotel to get some rest before we hit the night market! Chiang Mai was our first planned laundry load, so we got our Scrubba bag ready only to find out that our hotel has laundry service…win! We bagged our laundry, reserved our Chiang Rai bus tickets for Monday morning, because those sell out quickly too (129 baht per person), and bought them at 7-Eleven…that’s right, bus tickets are available at any 7-Eleven.
One of our high school friends has also been traveling Southeast Asia, and he just so happens to be in Chiang Mai the same time as us! We walked around the Night Bazaar and had some dinner in the market.
Before our trip, we did our research on the best local food spots for every city we go to and we made sure to make a stop at Kai Thawt Thien Kheun aka Midnight Sticky Rice. They serve up late night fried meats with a side of sticky rice to all the locals. We ordered a small piece of crispy pork knuckle and it was the best thing we’ve ever had, especially after one too many Chang beers.
After a delicious snack, we made our way back to our hotel. We plan to wake up early tomorrow to go bamboo rafting on the Mae Wang River and go to the Sticky Falls. We have a big day of adventures tomorrow…so stay posted!