Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

After 3 weeks in Myanmar, we had to recover from the many impressions and traveling in Chiang Mai. We managed this quite well with the pool in our hotel, Thai massages, and the delicious food and juices.

Of course, we also had some outings planned. On one hand, there were temples to visit in northern Thailand, and on the other hand, we were very impressed by the elephants at the Elephant Nature Park (https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/), as you can hopefully see from the pictures. Feeding and showering the elephants was incredibly fun! :-)

In addition, we spent a day attending a Thai cooking class so that we can cook such delicious dishes at home (if we can find all the ingredients in Switzerland...they have very special vegetables and spices here!). Pad Thai, fried rice, spring rolls, curry paste and various curries, Tom Yum soup, chicken in coconut milk, mango with sticky rice...we cooked and ate everything until we were full!

To see more of northern Thailand, we went to Chiang Rai for 4 days, where we visited the white temple (with about 1000 Chinese tourists!). We also took trips to the nearby mountains.

We spent money on souvenirs at some hill tribes, and also visited the tea plantations and the Royal Garden. Because we sent 7.5kg of souvenirs and junk back home from Chiang Mai with DHL (arrived within 4 days!), there is now space in our backpacks for the next few weeks.

By the way, the death of the king is visible everywhere. Most Thais wear black clothes, and black and white mourning ribbons and huge pictures of the king are hung in front of all temples and public buildings. Even all ATMs have a mourning text and a picture of Bhumibol as their greeting screen.

Yesterday, we flew from Thailand to Laos and we will be in Luang Prabang for the next few days, where there is also a lot to discover. But more about that in the next entry...