Day 8 All Parts – Temples, Temples, Temples and Cooking

tl;dr Explored Chiang Mai old city’s temples, spoke with Monks, and did a Thai cooking class – 6 activities

Activity 1 – Temple after Temple:

Chiang Mai has a ton of temples (Wat) in and around the old city. At first, I had no idea how I was going to cover each one on my own, while trying to understand the significance of each one. After some googling, I came across Big Boy Travel Chiang Mai (googling that should work). This site has a walking guide with descriptions for Chiang Mai and the map is exportable into Google Maps so that you can follow it as you go. The guide has 27 sites, but only 23ish are temples. The guide also suggests a few places for lunch – I listened and was not disappointed.

Below are a bunch of my favorite pictures.

Activity 2 – Monk Chat

At one of the final temples I stopped by, I had the opportunity to speak with a few teenage Monks (the guide explains where). I spent about an hour chatting. It is good for the Monks because they get to work on their English. It was really interesting to learn about their lives and future plans. The Monks I spoke with were between the ages of 16 and 18. They wrote my name in Thai lettering, which I then tried to mimic (results below).

I highly recommend speaking with Monks through these programs if you have a chance.

Activity 3 – Relax at the Pool:

I had two hours of downtime between exploring Chiang Mai and the cooking class, so I decided to dangle my feet in the pool and catch up on some HP4.
Activity 4 – Basil Cookery Cooking Class:

I signed up for Basil Cookery on the recommendation of a friend. This is a must do activity while in Thailand. First of all, the food is delicious. Second of all, it’s fun. And third of all, you learn how to make your favorite dishes.

I chose to make drunken noodles, red curry, stir fry, veggie spring rolls, hot and sour soup, and fried bananas (dessert). Yes, 6 dishes for dinner – it is a lot of food.

The class starts with a stop at the local market to learn about the different ingriedients used in Thai cooking. After the market, we hop back into the minibus and head to the kitchen.

The class is run very well and even if other people are making different dishes, you still learn how to make their dishes. Also, at the end, they provide you with a recipe book so that you can go home and try it out.

Veggie Spring Rolls and Hot and Sour Soup

Activity 5 – Muay Thai Fight:

I decided to check out a couple of Muay Thai fights at a local arena. The one I went to (Thapae Stadium) is right inside the old city. It is 100% geared towards tourists. I’m not 100% sure if the fights were real or staged. It was still fun. I saw two TKOs.