Chiang Mai

            This is truly one of our new favorite places.  Friends Lincoln and Alicia have described Chiang Mai as the Portland of Thailand and it was not long before we saw why.  Still very much a cosmopolitan city, Chiang Mai is SO much more laid back than Bangkok.  We could feel the difference as soon as we stepped off the train.  The old part of town maintains remnants of the original fortress wall that surrounds it.  There are coffee shops on nearly every corner as well as quaint boutique shops (“put a bird on it”), as well as casual eateries.  If that isn’t Portland enough, nearly every street has a bike lane and we have seen many folks out peddling around.  We took a stab at biking ourselves (see “Going Tandem in Thailand” for details).

            We arrived in Chiang Mai last Sunday after a long 14 hour overnight train.  This time our bunks were sequestered in a pod of 4 bunks with the lower ones functioning as bench seating during daylight hours.  Our neighbors were two Thai bamboo tattoo artists traveling to Chiang Mai for the first time.  Phu (pronounced like “poo”) and Toto live and work on  Koh Phi Phi (pronounced like “pee pee”). They were both very kind and amusing to converse with during the ride.

            We essentially had one day in Chiang Mai before we would be leaving for three days for a trekking adventure in the mountains to the west of the city.  Sunday night in Chiang Mai plays host to an extraordinary craft fair (much like Last Thursday in Portland, only bigger and craftier with less unicycles and hipsters).  Two streets in the old city are shut down to traffic and become flooded with locals and tourists picking their way among the hundreds of merchants that line both sides as well as the middle of the street.  We were taken with the beauty of the various crafts, the peaceful and mellow crowd, and the incredible organization of the whole thing.  People moved up one side and down the other in such an orderly fashion.  It was really refreshing after experiencing the chaos of the streets and markets in Bangkok.  Additionally, the street food options were as diverse as they were plentiful.  We stuffed ourselves on pork satay, fried rice, noodles, curry and this delicious cupcake/pudding concoction…all for about $3….not bad.  We returned to our room early to rest up for 3 days of adventure in the mountains.  Little did we know all of the coolness that awaited.