Chiang Mai I Love You, But You're Making Me Wet

Note: this is my second post today. Check out my Australia recap below.

I had grand aspirations of posting a couple blogs while in Chiang Mai for four nights and five days. After all, I for once had a private room with FREE (FREE!!!) WiFi within it.

But as it tends to happen, when you have plans for one thing, they typically turn into something else entirely.

Case in point: Chiang Mai during the Songkran Festival.

It turns out it is really, really fun.

Not only that, but for the whole of my time there, I was wet. Even now, As I'm sitting here on my flight from Chiang Mai to Ko Samui, my shoes are completely soaked.

The reason why is that the Songkran Festival (the celebration of the Thai New Year - sawadee pee mai everyone!) comes to life in the form of the world's most massive water fight (that is a legit statement - they set the record the other day in Bangkok as 3,774 people were soaking each other for 10 minutes in one city square). Not only that, but it lasts for a week and brings everyone from monks to small children to tourists to old Thai grandmas into the fight.

It is monumental chaos with thousands and thousands of people in the city involved at any given moment.

It's both a gift and a curse - when you want to stay dry, it is virtually impossible - but no matter what, it quickly becomes a lot of fun as well. My opening salvo was 2.5 hours of the most fun I've ever had. I looked like the Joker hit me with laughing gas the whole time, partially because it is such a communal experience.

Besides the Songkran festival though, my time in Thailand was tops all over. Whether I was off making friends at the Beer Buffet (an immensely popular night at a bar in the President Hotel in which you get unlimited Heineken for 4 hours for 150 baht...or $5), checking out temples (like the immense and resplendent Wat Phra That Doi Suthep that was on top of a nearby mountain that overlooked the city) or, best of all, taking a cooking class at Siam Rice Cooking School, I was having a marvelous time. Throw in the fact that the people are some of the warmest and most genuine and inviting people you will ever meet, and I was in love with the place.

The city is just loaded with things to do. The list of things I wanted to do but couldn't (it turns out Songkran also ups the amount of visitors, thus the amount of people robbing me of a chance to do things I wanted to) was enormous but highlighted by the Patara Elephant Farm, in which you adopt an elephant for the day, feeding them, bathing them, swimming with them, and just caring for them. Obviously that would have been great...but I guess I will just have to go back.

I hate to say this, but one of my favorite things about the city is how inexpensive it was. After Australia, I needed a breather, and this was it. For my own room with a king bed, air conditioning, a tv with satellite, maid service, and a whole lot more, I was spending $20 a day - which was far less than every place I stayed in New Zealand or Australia AND was way nicer and my own room (private time is necessary every once in a while). Plus, the staff was very helpful and friendly (when I was looking into going to Ko Samui, I asked the guy who ran the place about the recent floods - Tony - and he asked guests until he found someone who had been recently so he could better answer my question).

Besides that, I managed to eat a dinner of pad Thai, gyoza, bottled water and gelato for 85 baht...or a little less than $3. Beer when not in glorious buffet form was around the same. Bottled water alone cost me around 5 baht...or around 16 cents.

It was insane.

I was in paradise, and in 4 days of doing a ton of stuff and living pretty extravagantly, I spent around $200.

Amazing.

Chiang Mai is without a doubt one of the best places I've ever been. It was hard to leave it, but with everything booked up and my desire to get a diverse Thai experience, it was time to go. Pictures will go up on Facebook soon probably, although I must say Songkran limited my picture taking because of how dangerous it was to have a non water proof camera out during it.

Here's hoping the rest of Thailand can live up to Chiang Mai's greatness. 3 days and nights in Ko Samui (and surrounding islands like Ko Tao and Ko Pha Ngan) and then one day in Bangkok left, and I find it likely that Thailand will surpass New Zealand as my favorite country so far on my trip.

More on that later, but for now, I ask everyone this: who is coming with me next year?

Music of the day: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - "Home" ("Home is wherever I'm with you")