Bangkok, Thailand Highlights
Bangkok was our first official stop on our SE Asia adventure. The city has endless amounts of temples, museums, restaurants and malls to explore. Here are the highlights of what we were able to see in the short 4 days we spent in the city.
Visiting the University
Zach showed me Chulalongkorn University and the Sasin Business School campus housing where he studied abroad while he was in business school. It is a gorgeous campus but he was only there for a short time in 2014 because of the shutdown Bangkok protests that led to the University canceling classes.
So Many Shopping Malls!
I was amazed by the enormous shopping centers that are spread throughout the city. We literally spent all day mall hopping on a quest to find Zach new Nike Frees in his size. My favorite mall that we visited was ICONSIAM which has endless floors of stores and a beautiful rooftop where we sat and ate lunch while enjoying the view of the river and city.
Temples and Grand Palace
We took a tour of the Temples and Grand Palace with a friendly local tour guide. Before our trip Zach mentioned that a lot of tourists wear “elephant pants” in Thailand and I finally got to experience what he meant. You are not allowed to wear shorts or tight pants into the temples so many people stop at the nearby shops and purchase loose fitting pants aka elephant pants (many of them actually had elephants printed on them).
We visited the Grand Palace where we also saw the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We took a short tuk tuk ride (my first tuk tuk ride ever!) to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The level of artistry and detail of the temple buildings is absolutely amazing. It was also interesting to see the evolution of the temple architecture. The 5th King of Thailand sent his son abroad to learn about technology and design in other countries and we were able to see that in the buildings that he had constructed after his time abroad.
Food & Drinks
We were pretty jetlagged during our stay in Bangkok and our appetites were all over the place so we didn’t experience as much of the food scene as we wanted to. Our favorite food stop was actually an expat BBQ place called the Smokin’ Pug. It had fantastic food and drinks with a relaxed blues vibe.
Chiang Mai, Thailand Highlights
Our Thai Christmas Celebration
After exploring Bangkok, we took a short flight up to Northern Thailand where we are staying at an AirBnB in the hip Nimman area of Chiang Mai. Although there are many festive Christmas decorations and cheerful holiday music playing in Chiang Mai, Christmas is not a big holiday to celebrate here. Lucky for us that means everything is open on Christmas Eve and Christmas!
On Christmas Eve we decided to walk to the Olde Town and visit the Chiang Mai City Arts and Cultural Centre. It is a great museum for learning about the history of Chiang Mai and how the local culture has evolved to the present day. We headed back to Nimman for a relaxing couples massage at Lantana Massage and Spa which was much needed after the hours of driving and flying we have done over the past couple of weeks. Massages in Chiang Mai are super inexpensive (~$20/person!) so we will definitely take advantage of this while we are here.
After our massage, we had the most unique coffee experience at the Roast8ry Lab. This place reminded us of a coffee version of Canon (for those of you who are not familiar, Canon is a great whisky bar in Seattle with very uniquely presented cocktails). The taste, presentation and latte art at Roast8ry is world class...seriously, their baristas have won tons of world championship awards! I took a latte art class once and could barely make a heart without spilling and burning my hand so it is unreal that they can make such amazing designs. You can see what I mean on their instagram page @roast8ry!
We finished off our Christmas Eve with a delicious local Thai dinner at Hong Tauw Inn in Nimman. We hope your holiday celebrations are merry & bright and we look forward to sharing our New Year’s adventures with you next week!
