First of all, thank you! Thank you for joining us on our travels. You made it to 50 followers and I am so grateful to each and everyone of you! Thank you so much!
After a cool, but rough night we arrived in Chiang Mai. Rob was a little bit feverish and we were worried. Luckily, it after a while and as we arrived in Chiang Mai the “fever” was gone. At the train station we found a taxi driver and he brought us to our guest house/hotel. At our drive we could see a glimpse of the city. At the hotel we had to show a lot of documents, more than we were ever asked since we started travelling through Thailand. We didn’t mind it at all, though I wanted to put Rob into bed as soon as possible.
While Rob was settling in his bed I walked around in search for a 7-eleven – they are never far. And I also used the time to walk around the neighbourhood a little bit. During the day I grabbed some flyer about Spas in town, because finally I wanted to have a traditional Thai massage. There were three Spas, one was hella expensive. One offered a hair treatment, that I wanted to try. On their website and on google maps it said, that they were temporarily closed. The last one (the first flyer I found) was about 7 minutes away, by foot. While I was checking out the neighbourhood I also looked for this spa. As I found I learned, that they were offering everything for half of the price. I didn’t hesitate and booked a massage for the following day. For 90 minutes I paid 500 Bhat, usually it would have been 1000 Bhat. To be honest, I would have gone for the 60 minutes, because they were cheaper. After all we are travelling on a budget and our travel itself already is a luxury.
The Spa is called Fah Lanna Spa and has a great atmosphere and nice people. The massage was relaxing and even popped some bones and joints. The lady who did this massage was nearly one and a half heads smaller than me. At the beginning she gave my feet a wash with limes and a scrub. I am still wondering if she was stunned by the amount of mosquito bites I had on my feet and legs. (Since Rob was sick the mosquitos loved me.) Before I went to the Spa I took a good shower and it was the best idea. The therapists are working with their whole bodies to get your muscles smooth again. For the massage she handed me some clothes. I could have wrapped myself three times in it and still would have some fabric. Of course, they are standardized so they could even fit … well, everyone.
700 years ago, Lanna was a kingdom in now northern Thailand, its capital was Chiang Mai. The kingdom of Lanna existed from the 13th to the 18th century. The temple Wat Chiang Mun was the first temple to be build, even before the city of Chiang Mai itself, in 1296 AD. Today the temple is located in the northern part of the old town. Today some Spas, especially the high-end Spas are referring to the Lanna-heritage of the area. During the 18th century Lanna became a tributary state under the kingdom of Siam. Which the Spas are also referring to.
The following night was a rough one. Rob had run out of his cough medicine and at first, we didn’t think about it at all. At two in the night I was kicking my ass for being so stupid. He was coughing so hard, that I was afraid he couldn’t breath anymore. I had to wait another three hours until the curfew was over, so that I could run to 7-eleven. I didn’t sleep that night and had trouble with my eyes as I was on my way. Previously, I had searched the internet for medicine that I could buy. One blog was talking about something called “Brown Mixture”. It was cheap and would supress the cough, but it contained opium. Luckily, I found another cough syrup, along with a kind of pills. Rob took those and I think we overdid it with all of the stuff. Because afterwards he had trouble with his stomach.
After that sleepless night I was tired and so was he. The following days consisted of me going out for groceries and walking around the neighbourhood and the city to see something. I found a mass of temples. Around the corner I found three or four temples. The only thing that was more often to be found were massage salons. In our street we have four. Same with the laundry service.
Actually, with our Guest House we found a good spot in Chiang Mai to stay in. One day, as I was walking around again, I found a local market, where the people sold fruits, vegetables and spices, but there were also some shops with clothes, baskets and a bunch of other stuff. At the clothes shop I found a cute skirt and was a little bit hesitant, but the next day I bought it. Next to skirt hang some pants. It was the same harems pants that were promoted last year on Instagram. At their online shop they wanted about 35 to 40 Euros for one pair, even more for the skirts with the same pattern. I had found similar harems pants a few weeks later at a Himalayan shop for 10 to 20 Euros less. And here in Thailand they want 140 Bhat (ca. 4 Euro).
At one evening I decided to go out while it was dark. Due to Covid-19 most shops and restaurants are closed in the evening, but I wasn’t there for shopping or eating, I just wanted to go outside while it was dark. In Egypt it would have been dangerous for me, but in Thailand no one bat an eye. As I walked through the old town I came across a big place where a lot of young people and even children practising on their skateboards, longboards and so on. I loved this scene and thought of photographing I, but I didn’t want to disturb the people so I just went on. And found beautiful flowers that I photographed against the night sky.
At first, we had booked our hotel in Chiang Mai only for one week, but after it became clear, that Rob was still sick, we decided to stay way longer. Our visa for Thailand will expire on the 27th of May and we talked to the hotel so that we could expand our stay in Chiang Mai. So far, they were only two or three other guests at the hotel.
One day I walked around to find two stores that I had seen as we had arrived in Chiang Mai and found not only those two stores, but a lot of other shops and even a market. At this time, I just went through a small market hall with lots of clothing and saw a street with even more clothes stores, not knowing, what was even further down the street. Stick around for the next entry and I will tell you!
Have a fantastic week!
-Toni
TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF 