Travel-Trotter

Chiang Mai a well known expat, digital nomad enclave has lived up to it’s billing.  Founded in 1296 it was once a walled city with a moat, its old town still has some gates and partially crumbling walls outlining a huge square.  The square is full of markets, restaurants, temples, ruins and everything else you would want from an ancient city.  Although heavily overrun by tourist the charm of the city shines through.  It is also one of the culinary capitals of Thailand if not Southeast Asia.  The city of 800,000 people is also well know for it’s adventure seeking ie.. rafting, waterfalls and zip-lining but also for it’s elephant sanctuaries.

We arrived too late on Saturday to explore the city and just fell into our beds for a much needed rest.  The next morning we went out in search of food, we sought out the restaurant (Kanjana) that our friends Jen and Brian had recommended.  The girls had pancakes because you know, why not.  I had soup because I’m obsessed with Thai soups and it didn’t disappoint.  We walked around the city to get our bearings a bit, it seems like a very manageable city unlike Bangkok.  That night we visited the Sunday night market which was incredible, lots of tourists, trinkets, food, and I finally found some loose green tea to purchase.

The next day was Monday and back to school, it was fun doing video conferencing with friends in Wisconsin who were still on Sunday night.  Hhhhheeellllloooo from the future.  After school we did some pool time as we all needed a chill day.  Maddy ventured out on the motor scooter that is available with our condo rental.  She seemed to do just fine on it and it seems to be the most convenient way around the city.

Tuesday we took a cooking class with the kids and met another family from Australia that was travelling with their kids so we had great fun cooking and chatting.  We cooked a soup, a noodle dish, curry and a dessert; they were all fantastic.  I chose drunken noodles and it turned out to be the most exciting with lots of flames.

Wednesday we finished our school and invited our new Australian friends over for a pool date and splashed around the entire afternoon.  It is so much fun to meet new friends as we get a bit sick of each other being around each other 24 hours a day.

That night we met up with Chrissy a principal at the local international school, she is a friend of one of Maddy’s vchiefs.  We had dinner with her and had a lovely time.