After a hard-core tour through the jungle, it was time for some city livin’. Our next stop in Thailand was a place we were long overdue to visit: Chiang Mai, the second largest city in the country behind Bangkok and the largest in the North. Check out this video I put together of our time there:

Chiang Mai is a well-known favorite for backpackers and digital nomads, and a perfect place for city and mountain lovers. In the old part of the city, where we stayed, there are 4 main kinds of shops: restaurants, knick-knack stores, hostel/coffee shops and massage parlors. Thai massage is all over the city, and our fellow Swiss trekkers from our journey in Mae Hong Son had actually spent 8 days getting certified in Thai massage in an intensive course! Very cool.

Day 1: Flowers, a Reunion, and Muay Thai Boxing

We arrived to our hostel in the old city around noon to drop off our bags while our room was prepared. The woman behind the desk gave me a map of the old city and pointed out some nice temples that we should see. We were about to head out the door when she said, “oh, wait! I forgot!” As it turned out, the annual Chiang Mai flower festival had just happened that weekend, and there was still time to see the display. She said we should definitely check it out, even though it was in the opposite direction of the temples toward which she had pointed us. We said, “sure!” and headed out.

And what a display it was! The park at the Southeastern corner of the city was brimming with beautiful colors and topiaries shaped like elephants, deer, and pandas. There were fountains and pools of water glistening under the cloudless, pristine sky, with white bridges bending over them. What a treat for this to be our first experience in this northern Thai city nestled in the mountains.

After heading back to the hotel and coating Mr. Potential Lobster in sunscreen, we energetically ran back outside to go see some of the several hundred temples in the city. They did not disappoint.

But after a few temples, our exhaustion from the 3-day trek caught up with us and it was time to take it easy for a bit. We grabbed a beer at a cafe and then headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. This night would be the night of a very special reunion for me with a friend of mine whom I have known literally from infancy and throughout childhood and adolescence. We were seeing each other for the first time in over a decade. And what a wonderful reunion it was!! Alex and I picked up right where we left off and the whole night was full of nothing but smiles, warmth, and surprise at just how much our lives have gone in similar directions from our different interests but intense curiosities about the world. For dinner, we did the best thing possible, which was to share a bunch of great Thai food: pad thai, khao soi, spring rolls, and a few different curries. I have to say, I really love living in China. But when I come to Thailand, I am reminded of what it’s like to have local food that bursts with wonderful flavors no matter what you order or where you eat it. Delicious comes nowhere close to the word I’m looking for.

Afterward, Seth and I went to see a Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) fight, which happens every night except for Sundays at 9 at this location — Muaythai Thaphae — but the show starts at 9:30. Two years ago, we went to see a lucha libre show in Mexico City, so when we saw an ad for Muay Thai, we thought it would be cool to check out Thailand’s national martial art. The experience was energizing. Below is a picture of the program: there were 6 fights in the lineup, with the 4th round being the main event. On the right hand side is everybody’s weight — yes, in pounds!

The first event was two boys no older than 13, then some slightly older men. The third event were two small, powerful women, and I suppose the main event were two experienced boxers. After the 4th fight was an intermission of a choreographed sword fight, apparently catering to the Chinese audience (the script is in Chinese, but I would be lying if I told you I understood it. I see the words “you,” “Thailand,” and “come”). The 5th and 6th rounds were female and male fights, respectively, each with a foreigner who studied muay thai. The woman was Canadian, and towered above her Thai opponent, whom she defeated swiftly. The man was a South African, who went into his fight swinging: much more aggressively than any of the contenders we had seen until that point, who usually spent the first round or so getting a feel for their opponent’s distance and strength. It was really fascinating to watch, and I’m glad we were able to witness it.

We got back to the hotel around midnight and passed out on our first comfortable bed in five days, sleeping like the dead and waking up slowly the next morning.

Day 2: Nimman, Craft Tea, Markets, and Jazz

We met Alex for some Burmese food at lunch time, which was, as all the other food we have eaten in Thailand, outrageously good. One thing we ate was a tea leaf salad. Alex explained that, traditionally, tea leaves were not boiled in Thailand, but rather eaten in fermented form called “miang”. This salad included peanuts and chilis, and the fermented tea leaves had a taste and consistency similar to miso, if miso could be made into leaves: salty and savory. Unfortunately I was too excited to eat the salad to take a picture of it. So you’ll just have to trust me that miang is really good, and could be the next superfood on the market if anybody can get the public to be interested in eating tea instead of drinking it.

We walked around the trendy part of Chiang Mai called Nimmanhaemin where the digital nomads live in packs (but apart) and long-term backpackers stay for a lot cheaper than the old part of the city. Seth ate coconut and taro ice cream! (If you’ve never heard of it, taro is a root starch commonly found in Asia similar to a potato, but with a slightly higher carbohydrate content.) It was real good.

We also happened to be in Chiang Mai during the Chinese New Year festival, and one way people celebrate the new year is with lion dances (for more info on Chinese New Year, check out episode 35 where we talk all about it!). In downtown Chiang Mai on this day, then, there were lion dancers outside a mall getting ready for their performance. We should have stayed to watch, but thought we would be seeing them later in the day. We didn’t, which was a shame! But at least we got to see a lion dance costume up close, consisting of two dudes: one is in the back bent over, holding the hips of the guy in front. He often lifts up the one in front when the lion jumps! These guys must have the strongest backs and hamstrings of anyone.

Anyway, from the lion dancers we made our way across town to a place called Monsoon Tea, where Alex was meeting a friend. We got to listen to the story of Monsoon Tea, which was totally fascinating: the brand was founded by a Swedish man who had 15 years of experience in the Spanish tea industry. He decided he wanted to find a way to support a sustainable form of production, which brings us here. 99% of tea in the world is farmed in long rows on tea plantations, but it also grows wild in the forest and used to be cultivated that way. When the British started colonizing the globe, jungles started to be stripped away for more efficient production and to keep up with demand. Monsoon Tea only buys from farmers who get their tea out of the jungles, and pay a little extra with the agreement that they don’t strip the land. There’s at least one farm we were told about in which the tea is grown on a former conventional plantation under the agreement that 1,000 trees of 50 different species were planted on the land. Additionally, tea is harvested by tearing off half a leaf every time, so that the plant continues to grow. There’s also no need for pesticides: jungle spiders do all the work. And if that wasn’t enough really cool stuff, Monsoon Tea is like the craft beer of teas: their menu is full of interesting combinations and flavors, and, served hot or cold, is drunk cold out of a wine glass with ice (or tiny transparent tea cups when served hot).

I chose the iced “Sweet Memory Black,” a black tea with hints of chocolate, cherry, and apple. No kidding! It was amazing, and I walked away with two bags of loose tea. Seth chose the iced “Shangri La Blend,” an oolong with blue lotus, orange, vanilla, and rose. Equally delicate and flavorful. We really liked this place.

At this point, we were fully caffeinated and ready to hit the city again. Alex, at this point a master scooter driver, took us on the back of his bike (Thai style!) to an open-air market in Chinatown where we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering, laughing, and feasting on tropical fruits, different kinds of pad thai, ice cream, spring rolls, doughnuts, and fried dumplings. We grabbed a beer and drank it by the river while waiting for the Chinese New Year festivities to begin.

Expecting a lion dance, we were a bit surprised to find that there was instead a beauty pageant of boys and girls (mostly girls) aged 3 to about 13 dressed up in super elaborate Thai and Chinese dress. It was adorable, and as cultural observers we did our best to withhold judgment on the nature of pageants. As it turned out, the lion and dragon dances would be the following day after the new year celebrations.

We dipped out of the pageant around 9 and headed to a cool jazz club nearby called Thapae (named after the old city gate nearby). It turns out that the jazz scene in Chiang Mai is very good, and is not made up of Westerners traveling through: it’s local Thai people who are super talented. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to enjoy some live music like that.

We moved on to another bar called North Gate Jazz Co-Op, which was more crowded, also with amazing Thai musicians who play there almost every night of the week. I mean, damn. These places were really cool. I can definitely see why people like living in Chiang Mai, and would put it high on my list of super-liveable Southeast Asian cities along with Hanoi and Shenzhen, all for very unique reasons.

We topped off the night with some drunchie bar food around the corner: I had one last khao soi (the Northern Thai specialty: coconut curry with chicken and noodles) before we left Northern Thailand, Seth had some red curry and rice with chicken, and Alex got a stir-fried rice with seafood.

We said our last farewells (hopefully not for so long this time), and after 30 years I finally conceded that it was definitely me who pooped in the bathtub when we were babies. Sidenote: it is totally hilarious that our parents took a picture of this for photographic evidence. I do not have the photo, but it exists out there somewhere. Here’s a better, more updated one, though:

So! Now, Seth and I are on our way to our 3rd stop of the trip: Koh Samet, an island off the coastal city of Ban Phe, a 4-hour drive from Bangkok. We are in a car with Mr. Lee, who is driving us from the airport. We have agreed with him that he will come back to Ban Phe on Sunday to drive us back to Bangkok so there is no middleman (the airport) taking part of his fee, and we pay a reduced price so everybody wins! Unless, of course, he kills us. Haha! Just kidding. He’s very sweet. I don’t think he will kill us.