824. The Road to Pai | Day 1 (& travel update!)

I'm currently in Bangkok as I make this post. We arrived here a few days ago and planning to stay for a month again. As you may know, we've been in Chiang Mai the last month. As luck would have it, Bangkok decided to announce new restrictions literally the day after our arrival. We are now in a semi-lockdown. :( The main thing that affects us is that all restaurants/cafes cannot offer dine-in service anymore, only takeout and delivery. This is very unfortunate and inconvenient for us as we usually go to cafes each day to work on our laptops (or to read). I am way more productive that way. Also when we are out exploring the city, we have to eat as well meaning without dine-in service, we can't really do that. The way takeout orders are packaged, lack of seating and the extremely hot temperatures makes it impossible for anyone to really eat outdoors. They still allow malls to remain open (though all seating is taken away), gyms, pools, parks etc. I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't so hot though - there's only so much time we can handle being outdoors in a day without anywhere to sit/eat/drink. This is very detrimental to businesses as well (on top of their current struggles with the lack of tourists)..I think it would make more sense if they allow 50% capacity or something.

When this happened back in Toronto, I didn't mind it as much (at all) since I lived there but it's a different case when you're "on vacation". We are currently in Bangkok for 1 month and these restrictions will last for 30 days so pretty much our entire stay lol. It would have been better to remain in Chiang Mai (or have chosen another destination) but now it's too late. I will not complain too much though as we have been pretty lucky with all the previous places visited this trip up until mow.

Anyways maybe now I will have more time to catch up on my blog posts. While in Chiang Mai we did a roadtrip one weekend to visit Pai/do the Mae Hong Son loop. Then to go from Chiang Mai to Bangkok where we are now..we did another week-long roadtrip with several stops along the way. I really loved both roadtrips. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way, many unique sites and rural mountain villages. Northern Thailand is really beautiful. I feel most people visit Bangkok or the islands when they come to Thailand, but I would definitely recommend exploring the north as well.

The journey from Chiang Mai to Pai is super mountainous and consists of over 700 turns. Some very sharp turns and on extremely steep hills. It's very scenic but not fun if you have motion sickness. I get motion sickness SUPER easily so this time I decided to take motion sickness pills as I wanted to enjoy the ride. Luckily it worked and I felt ok the entire journey there. I really enjoyed the drive there. It's one of those times when the journey is equally as nice as the destination.

A very beautiful cafe as we left Chiang Mai. It was like a garden. Very peaceful and relaxing.

A witch-themed cafe along the way. Chiang Mai/Northern Thailand has a lot of cafes, many with cool themes and designs. I think spending a month there got me really into cafes so that's why I'm extra annoyed by the closure of them in Bangkok. I was really looking forward to visiting different ones here.

WWII Memorial Bridge

Pai Canyon

This part was quite terrifying

The cute cottage we stayed in

View from our front door



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823. Chiang Mai Part 4 | Last Day

Today is already our last day here in Chiang Mai. I'm really behind on my posts of course..I still have some left from Koh Samui left lol. Maybe in Bangkok I'll be able to catch up a bit and then I can go back to "daily posts"..or at least more recently updated posts. Keeping up with a travel blog while full time travelling and full time working is not easy. Tomorrow morning our driver will pick us up to begin our week-long roadtrip down to Bangkok. As with every place before, I will miss this city/our daily routine here..Anyways here are some more photos from around the city!

The old city part of Chiang Mai is surrounded by this moat with sections of the old wall still faily intact

The trees here are really cool with some crazy roots/trunks. I wonder how old they must be..

Neighbourhood laundry machines

Chiang Mai has a LOT of coffee shops. Graph is a very unique one. I've posted about them in a previous post if you remember. They do mixed drinks all containing coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker at all but I do like their "Monochrome" drink. They have several locations around the city. This one is their largest one I believe..it's like a gallery/loft space. Very beautifully designed!

Bella Goose, our breakfast place. We've been coming here pretty much every day now for breakfast while working on our laptops. This place is frequented by all expats and tourists.

First tuk tuk ride of Thailand. I just wanted to try it once but it was not really enjoyable. I really loved the tuk tuks in Iquitos as it felt like a more authentic experience. Here it just felt like a tourist activity.

This old couple has a food stall right beside the building we're staying (Astra Condo). They are so nice and friendly. We have dinner here most of the time now. I will miss them when we leave!

So cute they even have a photo of themselves on the menu. If you are wondering about the price..50 THB is only $2 CAD!

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822. Chiang Mai Part 3 | Snapshots

So now we are down to our last few days in Chiang Mai. We will leave later this week and have a roadtrip planned with our driver to visit Chiang Rai (just in time as COVID restrictions have recently been lifted), Lampang, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya then back to Bangkok where we will stay for about a month again. I'm most excited for Sukhothai and Ayutthaya..I love UNESCO historical places.

Here are some more random photos taken around Chiang Mai.

A beautiful cafe named Fern Forest Cafe. We sat in the garden outside but they also have a beautiful interior:

There was also a pond with the largest koi fish I've ever seen! They had some fish food there so we could feed the fish as well (fish feeding is a very popular activity around Thailand I noticed)

We first learned this (the hard way) in Koh Samui that ants are literally everywhere in Thailand and if you leave something out for even half an hour, this happens (look closely)! In Koh Samui, I would buy dog treats to give to street dogs. We stayed in a house and one night I left a bag open..the following morning the bag was FULL of ants with a huge line of them coming and going. It was so disgusting.

I think this is a popular night market here in Chiang Mai. Unfortunately now it looks like this (thanks to COVID). We have not been able to experience any night markets here yet which is a shame as I think Chiang Mai usually has a lot.

The view from our building's rooftop

A mall's motorbike parking lot

Origins by Lewis Dartnell. It's super interesting and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. I would recommend if you like Sapiens/Homo Deus as well. It talks about how the physical earth shaped our history and how we live; how humans evolved and society came to be the way it is today.

My new outfits! Love Pantone.

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