The train station at Chiang Mai isn’t too hard to navigate (and has platforms long enough for the train!) so we found it easy to find our transfers to the hotel. We were staying at the People Place Building 2, which is near the night markets, but quite a walk to the old town and the main drag.
Leaving the Chiang Mai train station
We had a bit of free time in Chiang Mai around the homestay, and spent a lot of time wandering around shopping, having massages, getting coffee, etc. We visited the local markets a couple of times, and I was ecstatic to find the textile area where I picked up a few rolls of patchwork trim.
One of the highlights of Chiang Mai was giving alms to the priests in the morning. People sell pre-prepared baskets of food to locals and tourists to give to the priests as they walk to the temple in the morning. The priests give a blessing before continuing on their way, and share the food amongst the other priests when they all arrive at the temple.
The homestay was a few hours out of Chiang Mai, and we stopped along the way to have lunch at a lovely restaurant where we were demonstrated how they make rice noodles. Basically a rice flour slurry is made, then is dripped into boiling water. Once the noodles are cooked, they are made into nests. This restaurant introduced us to butterfly pea tea, which is blue until an acid like lemon juice is added, when it turns purple.
On the way to the homestay, we also stopped at a market to pick up supplies for the cooking class, and try a few specialties, like the rice crepe. Delicious!
We also stopped at a mushroom farm, to pick mushrooms. There were a few very friendly dogs living there, who wanted to help out as much as possible! They also had a few gorgeous-looking fruits growing, like dragonfruit.
The homestay was great. There was a big dormitory for us to sleep in, and an open-air kitchen where we each had a station to cook our meals. We made fried chicken, pork, curries and veggie dishes. When we had made all of our food, we were entertained by some local kids who performed Thai dances and music for us. Then we all had to join in!
We finally tried some of the famous Thai Blue Rice, which is basically a sticky rice coloured with the tea from Butterfly Pea, which we’d tried earlier. It was delicious with mango!
Our final night with the group was at a hot pot restaurant in Chiang Mai, where we chose foods from the buffet to cook in the hot soup at our tables. Then we waved a fond goodbye to our fellow travellers and to Soon, our guide, and L and I headed to the airport to fly down to Phuket for a bit of R&R.
Two Weeks Away 