Adventures on my first day off!

*Bear with me! These next two blog post are from Sunday, June 3^rd. I’m still trying to catch up on my past blog posts as time and internet allows.*

On Sunday, Emily and I had our first day off!  Emily’s dad has a friend who lives here in Chiang Mai and she offered to take us out for the day. King came to pick us up at 8am on Sunday morning along with her husband and their two precious little girls, Pai and Fai. They were so kind and generous to us! Although they did not speak English very well, they told us little bits of information and facts about each place we went. They were so sweet and truly “wined and dined us” the entire day (It is extremely offensive and rude if you turn down any food or drink in Thai culture…I have never consumed as much food in my entire life as I did that day! :) ).  Emily and I had a wonderful time and we got to visit so many amazing places in Chiang Mai and see more of this beautiful city. 

King and her family took us to:


·         The Doi Suthep Temple: The temple where they believe Buddha’s bones are buried. It turns out that the day we visited was the day before Buddha’s birthday. (June 4^th) On our drive up the mountain to Doi Suthep, we noticed large groups of people dressed in all white, walking up the mountain. King told us that they were Buddhists making a pilgrimage up the mountain out of respect to Buddha on his birthday. When we got to the top of the mountain, before ascending up the high stair case to the temple, we saw the many festivals going on and vendors selling their “Buddha themed” goods. King’s husband bought us fresh orange juice and some snacks before our climb. On our way up to the temple, we had people stop us and ask Emily and I to take a pictures with them, since we were “faraong.” :) I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the temple, so if you haven't seen/heard of this temple, PLEASE Google image this place! It was truly spectacular and unlike anything I have ever seen in my life (Look out for another blog post on my thoughts of the temple).  

·         Hmong Village, a Hill Tribe village with a museum and a small market filled with lots of goods that the village people make by hand. It was a beautiful village with a great view of the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai. They also had gorgeous flower gardens that went straight up the side of the mountain.

·         Bhubing Palace, the king of Thailand’s winter palace. There were some AMAZING flower gardens filled with the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen!! (But your rose bushes are better than the ones they had Dad! ;) )

·         Giraffe Café, an amazing buffet style restaurant with lots of delicious Thai food to try and beautiful fruit. The walls of the restaurant were all glass and we got to watch giraffe’s and lions (not in the same enclosure) while we ate. King followed me around to make sure I tried (and ate!) everything they had. Thai people take great pride in their food! 


·         U-Mong temple, one of the oldest temples in Chiang Mai.

·          A café called “Dailycious”, where we had coffee and cheesecake.


·        Rimping Market, a grocery store with a lot of imported western goods. King told us it had lots of “foreign” food and was really excited to take us there. Forgetting where I was, I was thinking food that was foreign to me. However it was a store much like the ones we have at home…it was very similar to an HEB. :)


·        B2S Bookstore, Emily and I spent most of our time looking at Thai cook books. Again in the foreign (English) section.


·         Walking Street, which is a huge night market open on Sundays. They have a lot of handmade goods here too! We also tried our first Mango Salad (at King’s request. ;) ) If anyone wants anything special from Thailand, please let me know! We will definitely be going there again. ;)

After Walking Street, King brought us home around 11pm. It was a full day, but we had a blast with King and her family! 

Entering the Bhubing Palace   

A foggy view of Chiang Mai from Doi Suthep   

Palace grounds

More palace grounds

Hmong Village

A bell they believe that "sends" prayers up to Buddha 

U-Mong temple, over 700 years old. It was very beautiful inside and was full of  intricate tunnels.