The land of smiles: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Night bus adventure and travel tips

Why is this place considered the Land of Smiles, from my perspective and probably from a lot of people who visit it?

Let’s go step by step and let’s begin this other adventure together!

Chang Mai left me with a lot of incredible memories of smiles, freedom and with my heart really full, but how did I start this journey?

My journey to Chiang Mai started from Bangkok. You can find out more about the craziest city of Thailand here!

And then...

Little fun fact: let’s say that the beginning was not the smoothest, since I got to the Bangkok bus station to get my bus to Chang Mai and discovered that I bought a wrong bus that was going to depart 3 days after! I did not notice my mistake at the beginning and I only found out when I went to check in at the desk to a lovely lady that did not speak English at all.
Luckily, with a lot of google translate in the middle, she gave me the option to buy another ticket for the next bus and I could get to my destination as planned! Here you can already understand how nice and available are Thai people and how easy is to get around this country.

I booked my ticket on 12go Asia, which is an app that you need to download during your stay in Southeast Asia, it will make your life easier whenever you will need to book a bus, a train or a boat to move from one place to an other. It compares and offers you the different travel options available and you can book it directly through the app!

In the wait at the bus station, I was surrounded by a lot of travelers and local waiting for their bus to come, but I couldn’t catch any solo traveler, until I see this girl jumping off a Grab scooter (the most used Uber in Southeast Asia, there not only cars, but also scooters rides) that was going to take my same bus and we started talking.

Maybe I lost my previous bus for a reason, who knows!

Once I get on this two floor bus, I decide to sit on the bottom floor with this girl, Marie and we talked and slept through the trip. If you ever get a night bus in Thailand you will be surprised how, with a 18€ bus (for 9 hours of travel) you will get free snacks and a dinner. I personally didn’t know that, and I left my bus ticket on the bus which was necessary to get your free dinner at the service station. From there on I have learned that in Asia you always need to carry your paper tickets everywhere, because they are not very digitalized as we are in Europe or America, after Covid.

This service station didn’t look at all like the once we have in Italy. It looked like a huge cafeteria and I remember the feeling: I literally was in the middle of Thailand, not really sure where, but so hungry of adventures and with zero expectations.
At that exact moment I was also thinking about my parents, that were probably looking at my live location and not yet used to the fact that I was traveling alone and that I was in a really safe place, thinking where the hell is this girl going!

Fresh start and Hostel tips in Chiang Mai

In the morning, around 6:30 am, I finally arrive in Chiang Mai!

We decide, with Marie and another guy that was on the bus with us, to share a Grab and go to my hostel since I was the only one who had a hostel booked.

My hostel in Chiang Mai was probably one of my favorite hostels in my whole trip and I got there thanks to Natalie, a German girl that I met in Bangkok, that went to Chiang Mai a few days before me. The hostel name is the Green sleep hostel and it is located in the city center. I loved this place because it had such a great energy, from the staff to the backpackers that I met. It was the perfect hostel for me because it was a really social hostel, but without the partying side.

Usually, a lot of hostels that are considered “social’’ are party hostels, where every night there are drinking or partying activities. That was not the type of trip that I was looking to do, and the Green sleep hostel had everything I was looking for a hostel: chill vibes, activities and cool, friendly people!

I am focusing on this point because I think the choice of a hostel it’s crucial depending on your travel style. Of course you cannot always be lucky and probably you will find yourself in places that are not how they looked on the booking website or that don’t reflect what you were looking for. It is all part of the experience and the good thing in Thailand is that you can always book a place on the same day and you will find it at a cheap price!

Chiang Mai was quick as most of my stay in each place in Thailand, except for Koh Lanta (another island that I am going to talk about in another article pretty soon), but it was the place that made me realize how lucky, brave and happy I was.

As most of local people in Thailand, Chiang Mai gave us the good morning with a lot of smiles. The first smile was in a random coffee place, called Bannmarkarm, one of the few that was open at 6:30 in the morning and that made us stay until the hostel was ready for us to check in.
This Thai lady and her husband were the owners of this cute place that, as most of the local restaurants are part of their home, which means that we were basically having breakfast in their house or in a part of it.

Could I ask for more?

Thanks to the lady's recommendation, I tried for the first time the ‘’White coffee’’ which is a Malaysian coffee that comes from a white coffee seed and it’s indeed white colored. The taste of that iced coffee was so good, and the only difference from the normal coffee was in the sweetness. I could never find the same taste in a coffee in my whole trip and, it can seem stupid, but from that I learned that is so important to enjoy every moment of our life, as the Ichigo-ichie says, because it will never come back in the same way. For me that moment consisted in a taste, a pleasant and welcoming taste in an early morning in an unknown place in Thailand.

Discovering Chiang Mai

City Centre and temples

The Chiang Mai city center is full of Buddhist temples. I spent my day visiting a few of them and discovering again the tradition of getting your shoes off before going in and feel the energy of these sacred places. The Chiang Mai city center has a square shape and what I suggest you to do is just to get lost in it and you will end up with beautiful temples, restaurants and shops in front of you.

My first meditation session

In one of these temples, I ended up having my first meditation session, thank to my roommate Nadeshe, a girl from the Netherlands that became one of my best friends during my trip, since we continued part of our journey together after Chiang Mai and convinced me to travel to pay after. She was telling me that she met this American monk that moved to Thailand 12 years ago and he was hosting a free meditation class the next morning. I had my doubts about going since I didn’t see myself meditating at the time, but I wanted to leave everything that was coming to my way and this one was one of those things.

The session was in English and lasted one hour. There were other international travels and as soon as we got there, we go to get a meditation pillow, sit in the lotus flower position (crossed legs) and close our eyes, following the instructions of the monk.
It was very hard for me to concentrate and not to fall asleep actually, but I will never forget the feeling after getting out of that temple: I felt light, proud of myself for being able to slow down and take time for myself in a way that I never did before. I couldn’t stop smiling and thinking about it.

At the time, I didn’t know that a few months later I would discover a book about meditation, that it’s been my guide to live a better life in a world that always makes you in doubt and goes so fast and makes you feel so small. But we are just a drop in this world and all the drops are necessary to fill up the ocean.
The book is called “Profondo come il mare, leggere come il cielo”, by Gianluca Gotto.

Night Markets

Another attraction that characterizes Chang Mai are the Night Markets. The one I have visited was The Chiang Mai night market Walking street The markets offer, from delicious traditional food, made in front of you, to clothing and jewelries of any kind.
As a cloth passionate I was about to buy my first pair elephant pants, tie dye dresses and handmade bags, but I reminded to myself that I was just at the beginning of my trip and I couldn’t carry anymore weight on my shoulders that the one I already had and also, most importantly, I had a budget to fit in.

I bought dinner from one of the stands of the night market and I experienced my first time eating my favorite dish of Thailand, Papaya Salad. I don’t love boring salads (I ate too many of them during my time in university), but this one was not one of them. The mixed tastes of sour, spicy and sweet from the lime juice, the chilly and the peanuts all smashed together was just amazing.
The lady made it in front of us using a huge grinder where she was smashing all the spices and mixing the papaya in it. It was very physical since it required strength and she was not stopping making salads for lots of people on the line, but still she had a smile on her face and was joking with us about the spiciness we could handle in the dish!

Another typical dish that I tried for lunch in a restaurant is the Khao Soy, which is a spicy creamy soup, served with crunchy noodles, a must try in Chiang Mai!

The happiest day: the elephant sanctuary

Some feelings are just unexplainable and I still struggle explaining to people (and to myself) what I felt while traveling in Southeast Asia, especially in some specific context, like the one I am gonna try to express to you in this paragraph.

At the end of my second day in Chiang Mai, I felt something similar to the happiness and disbelief that what you are living is actually really happening and not a dream, but you still feel it’s a dream. It happened to me I think just once before this day in Chiang Mai and it was after meeting my love, Francesco.
It’s a hard feeling to explain, and I will try to open my heart and share with you what this day in The Elephant sanctuary looked like. So read it till the end!

I had it very clear, I had to visit an elephant sanctuary once in Chiang Mai, but I wasn’t sure which one to choose, since there are so many centers that take care of elephants there and that are open to visitors. I wanted to make sure to choose one that was really taking care of elephants and not using them as a tourist attraction. After some researches a found the perfect match on Get Your Guide, and if you click it will take you directly to the experience I did with them.
Our guide was a funny Thai man, which explained us a lot of curiosity about Thai culture and showed us how the elephants were well treated in this sanctuary.

Bamboo Rafting

I started my day getting on a bus that picked me up from my hostel and we drove 1 hour to a river, where our first activity was going to take place and guess what, it was a Bamboo Rafting!
The Bamboo boats are made completely by hand by the locals that were driving us and only 4 people can sit on one. It’s an actual little flat “boat” where you have to be prepared to get wet and have a lot of fun!
Our driver was a young man, and he was using a bamboo stick as a paddle, and he also made me paddle and spoiler.. we actually didn't drown!

The best part of the bamboo ride is that you get the change to see how local people live in this area. From their little markets on the edge of the river, to kids that have a bath in these waters and wave at you with a big smile.
Something I admire and love of Thai culture is how people, even from a very young age, appreciate every little thing and live it to the fullest. Us occidentals are not used to this, we always want more and more and we are never satisfied with our life. We should all travel to these countries and learn that every non-material little thing is precious.

The gentle giants

After the Bamboo rafting we finally arrived in the actual sanctuary where our giants friends were living.
The first introduction was with an elephant mom and her baby. They were in a closed space since the little elephant was still very young and it would have been dangerous for him to interface with other elephants. We fed them and then moved more into the jungle to meet the rest of them.

During the walk we met a tenant of the sanctuary which was walking two elephants. One of them was deaf and very sensitive and we had to approach to him in a more delicate way compared to the other once, following their guidelines.

We walked the elephants to our lunch spot and once we got there we mixed some specific ingredients (turmeric, pineapple and bamboo roots) in a giant grinder and fed them directly with our hand. Then if was our turn to eat some pad Thai rolled in a banana leaf: yes lunch was included in our Get Your Guide pack.

The end of a magical day

In our day to day life, we are usually used to interact with pets such as cats or dogs and, personally, as a kid I would have never imagined that one day I would play with mold and bath in a river with the elephants.

I have always been an animal lover, not afraid of interfacing with them (except for insects) and when I was actually playing very close with the elephants my thought was: how can we create such a deep connection with an animal we have never interfaced with and never met before as an individual? I guess there is no real explanation for that, but what I am certain of, elephants are really sensitive, innocent and empathetic animals, they are basically giant kids, that give trust to all humans in the sweetest way.

Was I afraid to be close to such a big creature? The answer is no, simply because they just make you feel comfortable and safe at first sight, which is something very hard to feel nowadays, sometimes even with humans.

So, in conclusion, go to Chiang Mai, explore this beautiful place full of smiley people and wild nature and don't skip the experiences that life throws at you, especially if they are unexpected, EMBRACE them!