Chiang Mai: Beyond the Tourist Trail

I am currently feeling a level of comfort that I haven’t felt since our time on Guam. While Braxton and I were on a walk this afternoon he said “I really like it here, it feels calm”. When an eleven year old boy is picking up on that you know a place has a relaxed vibe. I think it’s a combination of things. We are surrounded by nature, navigating this city feels easy, and the beds/pillows here are the most comfortable we’ve had all year! We have been enjoying spending our time exploring beyond the typical tourist trail.

Small Things Bringing Us Joy

Alexis and I go for a walk every morning before school. It is so quiet and peaceful in the mornings. We walk past the sweetest little man who sweeps leaves off the sidewalk and he always smiles and says “Krup” which I think is a shorthand way of saying hello. It brings a smile to our faces every time!

There are these beautiful flowering trees that drop orange flowers everywhere. That combined with the cool crisp air really makes it feel like fall weather!

We recently met a family from China that was staying in the condo above ours. When we first met them, we said hello in Thai and the woman responded in English. She commented that her English wasn’t very good, but she was able to carry on a conversation really well. We all enjoyed talking to them and learning about their life in China. This is the type of encounter we love to have during our travels. We exchanged information with them and I hope we keep in touch. Maybe one day we will visit China.

A Local Favorite We Stumbled Upon

I went for a solo walk last week and stumbled upon what is quickly becoming our favorite place to eat. It’s a tiny little place and has the best food we have eaten in Thailand so far. The owner is very friendly and each time we’ve gone we have tried something new. Dave’s current favorite is the Mango Curry and mine is the Pineapple Fried Rice. Also, I love her sign!

A side note about something I noticed during our first visit to this restaurant. There have been times during the year when a significant change about one of us sticks out. As we were waiting for our food, the kids were playing a game of “who can catch the mosquitos mid-air with their hand”. In the past we would have been annoyed with the bugs and wished we picked a table inside (this entire restaurant is open air). Now, we just make it a game. I sure hope we can keep this tolerance going forward!

Local Food Stands and A Marathon of Future Planning

We explored the food at a couple local food stands the other night. We got Samosas at the first one (delicious) and Pad Thai at the second one (not delicious). You never really know what you’re going to get with these.

Dave and I recently spent a ridiculous number of hours booking some of our future travel plans. A common theme during our planning is that nothing goes quite as smoothly as we would like. Our internet speed here (and really a lot of places) is pretty awful. The number of times we’ve had sites time out or crash after we’ve entered all of our travel information is laughable. Regardless, it feels great to have it done. Now we can focus all our attention on enjoying the rest of our time in Chiang Mai!