Hello Thailand, I’m back! After quite a long distance detour I landed in Chiang Mai late Saturday night, feeling quite poorly from all the airtime (two flights later) and ready to jump straight into bed. I was also facing a time difference change again as for the last two weeks I’ve been two hours ahead, so by the time I got to my hostel, it was around midnight local time but 2am where I’d been so I was exhausted. I managed to sleep for about 10 hours which was incredible but woke up feeling even more poorly than falling asleep, luckily I knew that today was going to be a chill day. I needed to do some laundry, and just wanted to hang out in the sunshine. I took some cold & flu tablets, downed a Phizz and headed out to grab some lunch. I’ve missed fried rice sooo much since leaving South East Asia so headed to a local café to grab that and some natural yoghurt with fresh fruit hoping it would begin to cure me!

The rest of the day was really just chilled, I wanted to do some editing and hangout, I was catching up with a pal I met in Cambodia later in the day so didn’t have too much of a plan before that. I found myself on the beanbags by the pool just soaking up the sunshine and warmth that I’ve missed for the last three weeks. I made a bit of a plan for how I wanted to spend my time in Chiang Mai and booked some different bits before getting ready and heading out for the evening.

In the evening I met up with a friend, Alex, who I met back in Cambodia in early September. We’d travelled a bit of that country together and was excited to see him again in Thailand! We headed to the Sunday Night Market with some others too and had a wicked time, and ate so much good street food too. Spring rolls, mango sticky rice (an absolute fave!), chicken skewers & skin, banana roti, chocolate strawberries and even tried Gac juice, which was insane! It was really nice to head out and explore some of the old city whilst eating our way through the market. The Old Town is quite special, it’s full of temples and down every turn there is something picture worthy, you could spend a whole day just exploring that one square!

Day two I took part in a traditional Thai Cooking Class! It was super fun, I made four courses and dessert. On the menu was spring rolls for starters, followed by tom yum soup, pineapple fried rice and thai green curry, and dessert was mango sticky rice, all hand cooked by me, and it all tasted sooo good! I love Thai food so much and am always trying to create it back home but never quite get it right, but now I know how it’s done and cannot wait to take my recipes back to the UK with me to recreate at home when I return. I have to say though, the amount of food was insane, how I managed five courses I do not know, food coma pending!

Tuesday was the day of elephants! I was so excited for this and was definitely a ‘must do’ whilst in Thailand, especially the North where some of the most incredible sanctuarys are. It can be quite overwhelming seeing all the different places and tours online and deciding which one to go with, which is most ethical etc, so I went off some recommendations from other backpackers I’d met and visited Pon Elephant Sanctuary for the day and had the best time. We got to visit four different stations as part of our trip, which all had different opportunities to engage with the elephants. We got to bathe, feed, and walk with the elephants. We also got to see some adorable little baby elephants, one of which was only 33 days old!

I’m not going to lie, I was pretty scared when I first saw how huge the elephants were when I was stood next to them for the first time (I’m fairly tall but they’re huge!), but within the first 10minutes, I realised that they really are gentle giants and they just wanted to play. They’d use they’re trunks to nudge you to give them some bamboo to eat and would fill their trunks with water to splash all over you. I was smiling from ear to ear the whole time I was there. We had to walk between the different stations (the sanctuary was huge!) and just kept getting greeted by friendly elephants around every corner. Overall, a wonderful day that I’ll remember for a really long time.

In the afternoon we then visited Mae Wong Waterfall which was a great way to cool down. It was a long climb down, but so worth it when we got to the bottom! We had to climb down and across some bits where I was a bit hesitant that it was even possible but got there in one piece, including crossing a bridge made of just five pieces of bamboo (what on earth) across the part of the river where the waterfall broke at the bottom, it was pretty rapid water and I was definitely slightly concerned given there was nothing to hold onto earlier, a real test of balance! We spent a bit of time swimming in the part of the river that was safe and really enjoyed chilling out after a day under the sun before heading back to Old Town Chiang Mai for the evening.

Wednesday, day four, I was planning on visiting the Sticky Waterfalls, which looked insane. Imagine being able to climb a waterfall barefoot because your skin naturally sticks to the rocks? Anyway, it was a no go as I was super tired and feeling a bit poorly again, I can honestly say I’ve never been poorly so much! Travelling takes it out of me and I think I’m still trying to adjust to the heat again, as well as breathe from being super crazy busy for the last few weeks! I’m hoping I might have some time to come back to Chiang Mai before heading south as there’s still loads I want to do here, I didn’t even touch the temples and outer area of the city, and there’s so much charm here, I really do love it!

After a chilled day by the pool, doing some washing and just hanging out, we ventured out for some dinner, we found a cute little Thai restaurant down a side road and I had some of the best stir-fried chicken and cashews I’ve ever tasted! We then went on to a different night market in the evening to explore, get dessert (bets on getting sticky mango) and watch some of the live performances. I didn’t realise how big of a thing Halloween was in Thailand, and the night market was all themed towards it with decorations and people dressing up, and it still the day before! We had the best time dancing and signing to the live performances before heading back to the hostel for some drinks and bed.

Thursday I was tossing up between heading to the Sticky Waterfalls or heading into the jungle for some adventure. I ended up choosing the jungle and went ziplining and it was awesome! I completed 36 platforms with one being the longest in Thailand at 900m, so far the longest I’ve done was 700m in Croatia so it was a new record for me too! I headed to Skyline Jungle Luge Chiang Mai and it was a whole experience, ziplining, giant swing and jungle luge karting. There was only three of us taking part in this time slot so it was even cooler having the instructors be able to follow you across the zipline on a separate wire grabbing some of the coolest pics and videos ever! Only looking back did I realise how far away from civilisation we were and also how high, it was an insane experience and I’m so glad I did it.

Final day in Chiang Mai and today I was going to get a Thai Sak Yant tattoo. This was something I’ve always wanted to do and was so glad I could do it here! I actually booked this semi in advance as I didn’t want to be disappointed if I couldn’t get it done. Sak Yant tattoos are traditional tattoos which are done by Monks. The designs are really intricate and I was so happy with mine! I needed to try and plan when I was going to get it so it didn’t interfere with going swimming or waterfall climbing or snorkelling or anything else water related so it could heal properly so figured Chiang Mai was the perfect, and most traditional spot.

It was a whole experience and it started with an offering to the Monk and then they placed the stencil where you wanted it. The monk performed a blessing and then got to work! The design was completely freehanded, the stencil just an outline of the lines to keep to where you wanted it, it really was an incredible experience. The tattoo was done with bamboo and although it hurt a little more than a normal tattoo, was completely worth it for the design. After the tattoo was finished, the monk added some gold leaf and blessed it again, and then blessed me and added a little bracelet to my wrist for good wishes moving forward. It was honestly the best thing, I loved the whole experience and can only recommend anyone to do it! I went to Sak Yant Chiang Mai and paid 3000baht (around £60-70).

Chiang Mai over for now but cannot wait until a day I can return, I really have fallen in love with this northern city. It’s so chilled up here and everything just goes with the flow and at a much slower pace to the south of Thailand. Next stop, Pai! See ya there, Mads x