After leaving Koh Lanta, we flew from the Krabi airport to a completely new area of Thailand for both of us: the northern city of Chiang Mai.

I have always heard amazing things about Chiang Mai, but didn’t have the chance to visit during my last trip – I didn’t have enough time. Once we realized we’d have some extra travel time in Thailand, we made it a priority to experience the scenery, food, and culture of northern Thailand.

(Note: This post is a continuation of our Asia travels. The most recent post before this one is linked here.)

Day 7: Koh Lanta to Chiang Mai

After a mini-bus ride across Koh Lanta and some time aboard a ferry, we flew out of the Krabi airport to Chiang Mai. We arrived quite late in the evening and had missed dinner due to hours of transportation and a flight delay. After checking in to our hotel, we headed to the night market for an evening meal.

Chiang Mai is known for its night markets, and we were excited to try our first one. As we arrived close to closing time, we managed to get a table at one of the sought-after food stalls, Suki Changphuak, for some delicious stir-fry. We were lucky to be eating later, as people sometimes wait for hours to eat food from this incredible stall!

Day 8: Exploring the Nimman Neighbourhood

We spent our first morning in Chiang Mai walking around the Nimman neighbourhood, known for its hip decor and interesting collection of shops, cafés, and restaurants. A highlight of the area for me was visiting the Roast8ry Lab café, where I had one of the tastiest coffees ever – served in a cocktail glass with a hint of mango.

We spent the morning and afternoon exploring the neighbourhood, getting around using Anywheel bikes. While it was convenient to travel farther from our hotel without needing a taxi, the busier streets of Chiang Mai were not particularly bike-friendly. We got very unlucky upon our return to the hotel when the skies opened up with rain, getting us absolutely soaked!

That evening, we attempted to escape the rain by visiting the evening markets around the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. There was a fantastic setup of various types of delicious foods, mostly stir-fries and curries, which we enjoyed picking and choosing from to create our dinner. This was our first time trying Khao Soi, a delicious Thai curry with noodles that is a specialty of northern Thailand. We spent the rest of the evening walking around the marketplace, which definitely catered to tourists. It was a fun evening and great to stay out of the rain.

Day 9: Temple Tour and Night Market

We dedicated our second full day in Chiang Mai to sightseeing some of the many temples the city is famous for. These temples varied in size, with beautiful gold statues and imagery, and their interesting architecture. After a morning of temple visits, we had an amazing lunch at a nearby restaurant, dining on more green papaya salad and Khao Soi.

After a day of walking around, we headed back to the first night market we visited for dinner. We had read more about this market, called the Chang Phuak Gate night market, and learned that one of the stalls, known for its crispy pork, was made famous by Anthony Bourdain (called the Cowboy Hat Lady). We also preferred this night market over the other one as it felt more authentic and we’re not huge souvenir shoppers – we are definitely travellers who are much more interested in the food of a market than anything else! We again had a delicious meal and enjoyed people-watching with some cold drinks.

Day 10: Cooking Class Experience

Our final full day in Chiang Mai began with a relaxed morning, as we had signed up for a cooking class that would take up most of our afternoon and evening. We spent the morning walking around, trying Hainanese chicken and rice for a light lunch before our big evening. It is advertised in English as “boiled chicken”, which doesn’t sound particularly appetizing, but we enjoyed it! We quickly learned that the deliciousness of the dish depends on mixing up a blend of sauces yourself to season it.

We did some research before choosing a cooking class, wanting a full experience in a smaller group with like-minded tourists. We ended up going with a company advertised at our hotel, called Passionfood Cooking School, and it was awesome. Our group was very small, with just four of us.

Our class started with our instructor taking us to a market, where we learned about the various ingredients we’d be using. The most interesting part was learning about vegetables, seasonings, and other ingredients we hadn’t heard of or didn’t know were used in Thai cooking, such as palm sugar and dried shrimp.

Back in the kitchen, we began prepping the foods. There was a lot of chopping and grinding of spices using a mortar and pestle. The biggest takeaway from this class was that Thai food beautifully balances sweet, spicy, salty, and bitter flavours in so many creative ways.

For our starter, I made a papaya salad and George made fresh spring rolls. I was surprised how little chili pepper had to go into the salad to make it so spicy!

For our main course, George and I both made Pad Thai, and I made Tom Yum soup while George made a coconut soup called Tom Kha. We learned that you are supposed to eat the soup with the stir-fry, so we prepared one after the other. I could immediately see where I had gone wrong in my previous attempts to make Pad Thai at home as our instructor coached us through the process. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed learning some valuable techniques and tricks in cooking these amazing dishes ourselves.

Next up was our curry, which we made a curry paste for and then cooked. I made a Massaman curry while George made a green curry. Our only complaint at this point in the class was that we were starting to get very full as we ate our dishes after preparing each one. Our instructor also helped us prepare Thai iced tea, a delicious mix of black tea, milk powder, and sweetened condensed milk, as well as mango sticky rice, a sweet sticky rice dessert served with fresh mango.

Our cooking class was one of the highlights of our time in Thailand! If you have the chance to participate in a cooking class while travelling, you should definitely take it. It is insightful, interesting, and helps you develop a deeper appreciation for the food you’re enjoying while travelling (and once you’re back home!). After learning how many intricate techniques and how much knowledge is required to prepare these dishes well, it is also incredibly humbling. I, for one, know I have a lot of stir frying ahead of me before my pad Thai in Canada tastes anything like the ones I’ve had in Thailand.

Day 11: Transition Day in Bangkok

We were sad to leave Chiang Mai, but excited for the next steps in our adventure. Day 11 of our journey was a transitional day, flying back to Bangkok and spending the night before our flight to Singapore the next morning. George had woken up on this day not feeling particularly well, so upon returning to Bangkok, we took some time to rest. We stayed at a hostel near a metro station, and while George rested I went for a walk to a local shopping centre to take a look at the plethora of skincare products available to the Thai market (honestly a tourist attraction in itself if you love learning about skincare as much as I do!). Our big outing of the day was dinner at a restaurant recommended by my friend Willow, who used to live in Bangkok. The restaurant is called “Sit and Wonder,” and it was delicious!

An interesting perspective I was able to gain from visiting Thailand for the second time was being able to make observations of how the country has changed over the last 7 years since last visiting. The biggest differences I noticed the time around included the presence of smart phones everywhere, the appearance of many, many marijuana shops everywhere due to its legalization in Thailand in 2022, and the noticeable shift toward more sustainable practices (such as water refill stations and encouragement of the reduction of plastic waste) in our accommodations and other public areas such as shopping malls.

Returning to Thailand was such a gift. I was able to share parts of the country and culture that I loved with George, as well as discover new places, foods and experiences with him. Thailand was one of those countries that I have always hoped to return to, and I feel so lucky to have been able to do so relatively soon after my original visit.

Next up: Singapore and Kuala Lumpur!

For my next posts, I’ll be covering our travels in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, our final stops on the mini-tour before our main destination of India.

Thanks for reading!