This was actually meant to be a solo trip to Chiang Mai where the Thai Raw Til 4 Vegan Fruit Festival is happening. But I was even happier when my all-time best friend, Vanessa could hop along.
In 6 days, we conquered Chiang Mai, a city in a mountainous region of Northern Thailand, where its truly made for both vegans and vegetarians to live. Though it isn’t as zen-like and yoga-friendly as Bali, it has a whole string of eateries that served vegan or vegetarian food and plenty of FRUITS!
We took Air Asia which flies us directly from Singapore to Chiang Mai!
We hop on to a taxi to bring us to the city from the airport. It isn’t too far away and the journey to our hotel which was found within the old city (that squarish boxed-up region you see on the map) took us about 20 minutes. There is a taxi counter at the arrival hall and the taxi fares they quote us is quite standard. It’s about 150 baht or approximately SGD 5.80
The view right outside our hotel.
Since we are staying here for 5 nights in Chiang Mai, I thought it would be good if we could stay in different parts of Chiang Mai and experience different types of accommodation. I booked mine through booking.com and agoda.com but because there were too many accommodations to choose from, we were quite spoilt for choices. But thank goodness, the two accommodations we chose so far was pretty good especially Buri Gallery House which is strategically located in the Sunday Night Market street.
The pool size was small and it wasn’t well-maintained. I wouldn’t mind a dip if only the water is clean.
We had air-conditioned rooms with a small balcony. The rooms has this nice rustic kampong feel to it. It was clean and tidy. Not anywhere close to a 4-star standard but it is decent enough as there was air-con and hot shower.
We have breakfast in their cafe every morning.
We decided to head out of the old city by foot. On day one, we spent alot of time walking and roaming around the city.
We walked pass this hippie area called The Harbour Chiang Mai which has several Japanese restaurants and cafes.
There were groups of teenagers struttin’ their stuff as they practiced their dane steps in front of those big mirrors glued to the wall. It’s probably one of those cool hang-outs for students who are studying in that area.
The weather there was terribly hot as the sun came beating down on us. We just had to bury ourselves with ice cream.
Wualai Saturday Night Market
The Saturday Night Market is quite huge but not as extensive as the Sunday Night Market. It starts from the streets outside of the old city. A visit to the night market is a must actually if you are here for the weekend because the might market is one of the highlights in Chiang Mai. It’s nothing like those night markets in Taiwan, Singapore, Bangkok or any other place. Chiang Mai Night Market is one of a kind – selling unique handicraft items, food, clothes, accessories, beauty products and even household items at affordable prices.
Touring around the Night Market can be a very inspirational thing to do as I was left in awe by how creative the Thais are in recycling materials to make it reusable again.
What about transforming old jeans into wallets and purses? It’s pretty cool as a wallet. It really reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of the Thai people.
These bottles of fruit and vegetable juice stalls were popular among tourists. After so much walking and shopping the whole day, it’s important to hydrate yourself with some nutritious juice.
We settled our dinner at the night market over fruits, mango sticky rice and juices.
