Chiang Mai, Thailand is in northern Thailand among the mountains. An extremely old city (founded in 1296) that maintains the strong cultural vibe, it is home to many breathtaking temples and religious structures. In recent years, there has been an increase in Westerns making Chiang Mai their home based on the beauty, infrastructure, and cost of living. We really enjoyed our time in Chiang Mai.
Things To Do in Chiang Mai
Visit the Wats
In Chiang Mai, we visited the Wat Prah Doi Suthep Temple. The temple itself is like most of the Wats in Thailand however, what set this Wat apart from the others we had visited was that it sat on top of a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai and there were large amounts of burning candles and incense throughout the temple. The temple was aligned with bells and people all throughout the temple were kneeling with flowers in their hands as they prayed.
Rent a bicycle and tour the Mae Rim Valley Countryside
We stayed at the Four Seasons Chiang Mai (Matt’s work trip!) and they provided complimentary mountain bikes and helmets to their guests. We took the mountain bikes out and toured the Mae Rim Valley for 4 hours. The scenery is beautiful. Be sure to bring plenty of water depending on the weather!
Eat Thai food
The food in Chiang Mai is wonderful. There is also a plethora of restaurants with vegetarian options. If you feel like staying in for the night, there are also local markets where you can buy fruit, vegetables, tofu, rice, noodles, etc.
Travel Tip: It is important to workout while traveling, especially after long flights because it helps regulate your body quickly to the new environment. We realize that you will be walking a ton, and yes that counts, but you still need to get your stretches and resistance training in so you don’t hurt yourself from being so stiff on the long flight.
Plus, you will be eating a ton of food to take in the culture 😉 We prefer to pack resistance bands in case we can’t find a gym. There are a ton of exercises you can do with these things in your Airbnb, hotel room or hostel. Find this and other tips on our Travel Tools page.
Things To NOT Do in Chiang Mai
Do NOT ride an elephant
It was not until we came back to the states that we started to research elephant camps and riding elephants. A nursing friend of mine mentioned to me that she refused to ride elephants because it was cruel. She had also been to Thailand and told me that she had been to this wonderful camp called, the Elephant Nature Park, that acts as a sanctuary for elephants that are disabled, orphaned or abused.
At this elephant sanctuary, visitors can bathe, feed, hug, and observe the elephants. Visitors are not allowed the ride the elephants and the elephants are never made to perform. The reasoning behind this is because when elephants are trained to allow humans to ride them, the process is very abusive and is often referred to as “the crush”.
The term comes from a literal interpretation of crushing the elephant’s spirit to be submissive to humans so that the animal will then perform. Needless to say, we did ride an elephant in Chiang Mai and in India but we will not be riding an elephant ever again.
Do NOT pet a tiger
On our bicycle ride through the Mae Rim Valley countryside, we stopped at the Tiger Kingdom. This was one of the scariest and saddest things I have ever seen. When you arrive you have the option of petting a baby tiger, medium tiger and large tiger or you can pet all three.
I chose to pet the baby tiger only, my husband chose option #3, all three sizes of tigers. Before you enter the Tiger Kingdom, the sign states, no refunds, no exceptions. As we entered into the Tiger Kingdom my senses were overwhelmed by the cute baby tigers being bottled fed by the trainers in the nursery. They were so cute and cuddly looking.
The place was very well kept, the floors did not have a leaf or branch on them. The employees, dressed in safari outfits were everywhere throughout the grounds, sweeping and spraying down the grounds with water. The first stop, the baby tiger. The tiger was about 40lbs. You had to take off your street shoes and put them into a locker, then put on a pair of black slip-on sandals provided by the facility before entering the cage with the trainer.
There was one trainer and one baby tiger in the cage. My husband and I entered and I immediately knew something was not right with the baby tiger. You could tell it was sleeping but when the trainer told me to get by the baby tiger to pose for a photo and he then told me I could pick up its paw, I could feel how limp and almost lifeless the baby tiger’s paw felt.
At that moment I knew that the baby tiger had been given a sedative of some sort. We did get our picture taken and we moved on to the next cage, the medium tiger. We moved onto the next phase of the tour, the medium tiger. There was a couple already in the cage with the medium tiger.
We stood outside of the cage watching the couple get their photo taken when all of a sudden the tiger’s head turned quickly and the man in the cage made a sound. The two trainers inside the cage started to try and distract the tiger while ushering the couple to sit down on a bench inside the cage. The one trainer was tapping a bamboo stick on the cages ground to get the attention of the tiger while the other trainer was tapping on an ice block in the corner of the cage to get the tiger’s attention off the couple.
The couple looked concerned and the man grabbed down at the back of his heel and on his hand, you could see blood. After about 1 minute of distracting the tiger and having the couple slowly inch their way out of the cage, all was well. We think the tiger scratched the man’s heel. There were no major injuries but needless to say, my husband did not go in the medium or large tiger cages that day! After leaving Thailand we did some research on the Tiger Kingdom and found out that although the company may have good intentions, these poor animals are basically living a prison sentence.
The Tiger Kingdom does run a breeding program however, these hand-reared tigers cannot be released into the wild. The tigers are completely reliant on humans for food and care thus rendering them unable to protect themselves in the wild. This should have us asking ourselves, where do the funds raised by this facility for their “conservation efforts” go? Needless to say, I lesson learned. I will not support companies that promote selfies with animals and have trainers who carry bamboo sticks to “tame” their animals.
Traveled March 2015