My First Week Back In Chiang Mai - It's All Very Familiar 🙂

5 months ago

I have been in Chiang Mai for almost a week already. It's been good to 'land' here a bit and feel into how I want to structure my days. My initial plan for Chiang Mai was to spend at least a month here but now I think I'll stay until the end of January (that's when my visa expires). I think I will come back to Thailand after that but probably go to an island for some beach time. But I just love Chiang Mai. Well many do, it's already very busy here.

Below you see a picture of the view from the top floor of the apartment building where I'm staying. I booked this place for 2 weeks because I wasn't sure if I was going to like it and also a bit unsure how long I wanted to stay. Now it's fully booked until January so I have to find a new place in a week. I have looked a bit but then I came up with the idea to go to Pai for a week or so. Pai is a small 'hippie' town north of Chiang Mai that I didn't visit the last time I was here. It's one of the most popular tourist destinations in Northern Thailand though so I won't be alone! But still, I feel the desire to go there and that's the whole point of my travels, to feel into what I want to do.

I haven't really done so much here in Chiang Mai yet. It took some days to find a routine and also to adjust to the time. I have actually been working almost full days since I arrived. I feel very motivated and my plan is to work at least until lunch more or less every day. And the place I'm in now is great for that.

That being said I have walked 15 000 - 20 000 steps a day. I usually end up walking a lot when I'm traveling. Just to get to places and to have a look around. Now I'm also a 15-minute walk outside of the Old Town (last time I stayed in the Old Town). Below you can see a bit of the wall surrounding the Old Town.

As always when I'm traveling a lot of focus goes into finding food that feels good for me to eat; i.e. healthy mostly vegetarian food. That's no problem here in Chiang Mai, it's kind of a food haven, also for vegans, but still, they use so much sugar here, you have to pay a lot of attention to avoid it. There are plenty of markets here with a lot of food stalls, below you see one of them. And you can eat really well here for not much money. (That's one reason I like Chiang Mai so much).

And of course, the cheap massages you can get here! The last time I was in Thailand I had a massage every other day, more or less. A couple of days ago I had lunch with a friend that I met here 7 years ago. She and her husband have come here every year for the last 20 years or so (except one year during the pandemic). They are also Swedish and it was really nice to see her again after all this time. They will stay here until early February so our plans are quite aligned for the near future 🙂 Anyway, she told me that the cheap massage place that's located on the Wat Pan Wean temple grounds still is around. You pay 180 Bath for an hour Thai massage (which is about 5 USD). I was there yesterday and I wasn't disappointed! Below you see the temple building from outside the wall.

Overall it has been very nice to walk around and to discover that Chiang Mai feels very familiar. The owner of the apartment building where I'm staying told me that a lot changed during the pandemic but a lot of places from 7 years ago are still here.

Below you see a typical building here in Chiang Mai.

And of course all of the temples.

There's a small public park in the southwest corner of the Old Town. My Swedish friend told me that every day there's free yoga in the park, on the platform you see in the picture below. A lot of international yoga teachers come to Chiang Mai and this seems to be a nice initiative, every week the schedule is updated. I haven't yet participated in a class there since they are mostly in the morning and I have prioritized work but as it'll become busier I wouldn't be surprised if they add a class in the afternoon soon. That would be perfect for me. (So far I have done yoga at home).

The park has a running track and many people are doing different kinds of sports here. It's not a big park but it's very well-maintained. As I guess you can tell from the pictures I was there just before sunset. (It gets dark here around 6 pm).

I think that's it for now. I have loose plans to visit a temple next week that's a bit outside of the city center and that's not so touristy. I want to avoid the big herds as much as possible. If I end up going I might post about that 🙂