Explore. Dream. Discover.: Chiang Mai

So the first stop on my Stray adventure was Chiang Mai. This city was great with beautiful scenery and great food. The mountains surrounding the city were amazing. The two highlights of my stay in Chiang Mai were my moto adventure with Kim and a Thai cooking class. I met Kim from Winnipeg while I was on the Stray tour and we had an awesome day driving up a mountain to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. I was not confident in my moto driving abilities so she did all the driving but it was definitely an adventure. Check out the pictures below.

Let the adventure begin!

Stairs to Doi Suthep

Doi Suthep Temple. The amount of gold was blinding!!

Random Temples on the way down the mountain! We had a photo shot.

Only two Canadians would find the only hockey sign in Asia. We had to turn around and take our picture with it.

The second highlight was a Thai cooking class. Would you believe I met 3 French Canadians in the class. The cooking class was great and hanging out with them after was awesome. The one down fall was getting super lost on my way back to my guest house. I tried to practice my French a little bit but it was pretty much a disaster. To date this day was my largest interaction with Canadians in one day.

Making Cashew Chicken

Serving Pad Thai

Mango Sticky Rice is amazing!!!

Good times with my Canadian friends.

Enjoying my cooking efforts!

As I write this I think about how sad I am that I can’t get a pineapple shake whenever I want. They were amazing. I can’t even count the number I had while I was in Laos and Thailand. Generally the food in Asia was great and I wish I could re-create lots of things at home. The food I made at the cooking class was awesome and I hope I can show off some of my Thai culinary skills when I get home. I made the best cashew chicken and I have a new love for mango sticky rice.

So you all know I do dumb things but I think this story takes the cake. I sent a few of you an email about this incident and decided the information would stop there but I have decided to take the plunge and put it in my blog, you all deserve a good laugh. It is my Christmas gift to all of you. The story started with me getting a Thai Massage on my last night in Thailand. So when you get a Thai Massage they give you special clothes to wear. Before I headed to get my massage I had to go to the bathroom. This is where the story gets very sketchy. So in the process of going to the bathroom I dropped my clothes in the squat toilet. I am sure many of you have never used a square toilet. I have included a picture of one below. This is not the exact one I dropped my clothes in but it will give you the idea.

Anyone who has ever used a squat toilet truly understands how disgusting this story really is. So let me continue with the story. So I quickly grabbed them out, almost gagging as I did this. I then headed off to get my massage. So when I was supposed to be relaxing and enjoying my massage I was thinking I have to put my squat toilet clothes back on after this massage. So yes I did the most disgusting thing ever I put the clothes back on after. To make matters worse they offered us tea after the massage so I had to sit drinking tea in my disgusting clothes. I was almost running back to my guest house to get the clothes off. When I got back almost everyone I knew at the guest was in the lobby. They were waiting for me to head out for a drink. Needless to say I ran upstairs and had a shower. Update on the clothes, I hand washed them immediately and then got them washed again at my guesthouse. Many of my friends said they would have thrown out the clothes but when you only have a few clothes to work with this is not an option. I hope you are all laughing at my expense.

One last event in Chiang Mai was Muay Thai Boxing. This not an event I would attend again but I am glad I experienced it once. It was pretty violent and intense. The fighters were young boys, young adult females and adult men.