Fifteenth Stop→CHIANG MAI
Yui and Caro, back in Thailand! We stayed in the city of Chiang Mai for five days and also met my Mum there who would join us for the rest of our trip. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city of Thailand. However, the population is just around 150,000. The city is home to many universities, the biggest being the Chiang Mai University with approximately 35,000 students. The city therefore has a very hip and creative side to it which was a welcome diversion for me after all the traveling around the more rural Laos.
One place we visited during our stay was the Chiang Mai University Art Center which holds regular exhibitions and showcases art created by their students. I found it very interesting to see that many of the exhibited pieces were linked to the traditional side of Thailand which demonstrates the importance of the country's culture and tradition for young Thai people.
Another thing that surprised me were the countless independent coffee shops which offer high quality coffee to a very fair price. It's actually not that surprising however as Chiang Mai is surrounded by the Thai highlands, an area where many coffee plantations of the country are cultivated by rural tribes. Many of the shops are decorated very uniquely with a lot of attention to detail, once again emphasizing the creativity of the city.
Most of the tourist come to Chiang Mai for its historic and cultural side. Especially the many buddhist temples, so called wats, are particular places of interest for travelers. Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep is a beautiful temple on a mountain overlooking the city for example, while the remains of Wat Chedi Luang, which date back to the 14th century, are located in the old city.
And so, as Chiang Mai was the last stop before going back to Bangkok, Yui's and my journey is slowly coming to an end. As I've already written an entry about Bangkok, the next and last entry of this "88 days"-project will be a summary or conclusion of some sort about the trip as a whole. So I hope to "See you" again one more time for that☆彡