New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai

Taking the overnight train to Chiang Mai! We are quite surprised at how well the organization runs here overall. We pick up our pre-purchased ticket at a ticket office, then later go to the train station with all our belongings. The station is modern and the display immediately shows which train is on which platform. We get some delicious cheap food at the station and before we know it, we're already sitting in our seats on the train to Chiang Mai. Not only is the organization great, but the train itself is top-notch (clean, well-equipped), so we have a good journey (although with little sleep, mostly due to jet lag). In Chiang Mai, we find a charming, cozy city (we only saw the inner core of the city, as Chiang Mai is actually a big city) with many cafes and even more temples, some of which we visit. Our hotel opened just three days ago, so we get to sleep in a brand new room. The owners are also super nice, so we soon feel like we're staying in a host family rather than a hotel. Even though we haven't even checked in properly yet, the owner offers us all sorts of fruits and breakfast items (e.g. skewers with pork, coconut rice in a banana leaf) and tells us why each one is now typical "Thai". We spend our first day visiting temples and taking a cooking class in the evening, which we are picked up for by a minivan. Interestingly, the cooking class is a bit larger than expected, so after a short visit to the market, we find ourselves with almost 40 other tourists at an "Eco Farm" in the countryside outside of Chiang Mai. Our first thought is that it's almost a mass event, but then our group of 8 gets to cook a bit off to the side, so we feel like the others are not even there anymore. Our group consists of six Germans and a funny couple from Las Vegas, who immediately catch our attention because they toast with their own champagne and then open the wine and find everything "incredible" and "unbelievable", especially after they have cooked "the best food ever". We smile and enjoy such an illustrious company. Everyone gets to prepare a spring roll, a curry, and a soup in their own wok, and in the end, we are happy with our dishes, which all turn out to be a bit spicy but still delicious.

The next day, we take a trip to the hot springs, which is really worth it! We have to wait a bit in traffic because many locals, who already have New Year's holidays, also want to go to the springs, but in the end, the journey is very rewarding. Among almost 800 people (Claudio says 1000), we are almost the only non-Asians, and that's very nice. First, we buy a basket of eggs, which we hold in the first spring, which is 100 degrees hot. The air is filled with the smell of cooked eggs, but not sulfuric, and next to us, geysers spray water into the air, so we cook eggs in the hot spring in the drizzle. Many other people are also waiting for their eggs to become hard. Unfortunately, our cooked eggs are inedible as they seemed to have been soaked in a brine before and have a consistency like candle wax and taste very salty. We later give the remaining eggs to our taxi driver and he is happy (I wonder if he liked the eggs... or did he throw them out the window at the next corner?). After that, we dip our feet into the 55-degree hot water first and pull them out screaming because it's way too hot - the Thais around us laugh heartily at us! It goes better in the 40-degree hot water and even better in the 38-degree pools. After a foot and calf massage (heavenly), we head back to the city. Speaking of massages: here in Thailand, at least in the touristy cities, it seems that you can find massages literally on every corner - chairs are often set up on the street where people get a massage - whether there's a bar or a big road next door doesn't seem to bother in the least.
Our New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai looks like this: first, we stroll through the huge evening market, which is currently being set up. Something remarkable happens to us: just as we pass a small pavilion with 2-3 "officials" (soldiers? police officers?), one of them blows a whistle and as if on command, all passers-by (all. Even all tourists who had no idea, just like us) stop and the national anthem plays loudly. For a moment, we feel like we're in a flash mob, or like we're playing the musical chairs game, just without chairs. When the music dies down, we all continue walking as if nothing happened. We have our New Year's Eve dinner at the street market, sitting on the ground with beer from the "kiosk", enjoying delicious fresh street food... and it's wonderful! There are fried mushroom chips, fried veggie pockets, samosas, spicy pork sausage (tastes great with lemongrass), a whole squid for Elena, soup, coconut pancakes, and a Nutella-strawberry pancake for Claudio. At the hotel, we pick up our previously purchased lanterns and then go to the Tha Phae Gate to see the lanterns rise. Even from a distance, we can see the lanterns in the sky, and it looks like a close starry sky, except that all the stars are moving. Arriving at the gate, the atmosphere is much more chaotic, as there are so many people, the traffic is pure chaos, and the bars are already playing loud music. We try to tune out the chaos and focus on the beautiful lights, and we release three lanterns ourselves with good wishes for 2019, hoping they come true. Tomorrow we will continue our journey to Laos, so in that sense: Kapun Ka (Elena), Kapun Krab (Claudio) - which simply means "Thank you".