We've been in Thailand for two and a half weeks now, and I'm loving it! There are quite a few differences between Chiang Mai and home, so I'd thought I'd share some of those with you.
- Crossing the road can be challenging as most intersections don't have stop signs or traffic lights unless it's a major road.
- Sidewalks exist but often aren't designed to walk on; or if they are people park mopeds on them. And sometimes people drive on sidewalks.
- It's hot.
- And humid.
- And rainy.
- Get used to it.
- Bug spray is more important than sunscreen.
- Tattoos are a lot cheaper here. A one hour tattoo is 900 baht – slightly less than $30
- Guitars are also cheap.
- Pretty much everything is less expensive here.
- It's easy to eat for less than $5/day.
- 7-11s or '7' as most people call them, are on most blocks, and you can find almost anything you need there.
- One size fits all is NOT one size fits all, it's one size fits some 🙁
- The food is AMAZING!!
- Aside from the obvious Pad Thai, try the different soups and rice dishes. Papaya salad is really good. So is rotee. All fruit I've had so far has been delicious, don't let it's odd name or weird appearance fool you. And smoothies are absolutely amazing – especially the sweet summer smoothie at Zion Cafe. Everything at Zion is good – living upstairs is both good and bad…
I think that pretty much sums up Chiang Mai. I'm not a city person by any means, but I do enjoy it here, and love that most things are within a 30 minute walk 🙂
