The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.”
–Anna Quindlen
I have to give a shoutout to the hostel I stayed at, Cozytel in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We were staying in hostels throughout the entirety of our trip, so we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice hotel stay. Thailand was sooo inexpensive that there were so many more amazing hotels offered at hostel rates than we thought. I highly recommend you stay at Cozytel if you're ever in Chiang Mai. Their staff is extremely friendly, greets you with a cold refreshment upon entry, helps you with your luggage, and are just so helpful during your entire stay.
The front desk agent suggested we try out some of the outdoor activities that are local to the area and offer shuttle services from the hotel to the destination. We were sort of playing it by ear with booking tickets to attractions and activities, so this batch of recommendations was perfect.
Here's a front view of our hotel since we got in late the previous night!
We stopped by this local cafe before our adventure to see the temples. I ordered a Thai iced tea and boy was did it hit the spot.
This was the first of many temples we visited. There are literally so many, you could probably just walk a couple minutes out of your hotel and find a beautiful temple.
Here's another one we visited.
We also took rides on these little vehicles called tuk-tuk's! It's basically their version of a taxi, but be careful since they drive pretty fast!
Aren't these temples just gorgeous???
All of the temples we visited require you to cover up, so I wore a cardigan inside to cover up my shoulders. If you're wearing short bottoms, many temples offer these cover-up's so you don't have to miss out on enjoying the amazing temples.
Next we stopped for lunch at Hot Chilli Coffee and Sweets. It looked like such a cute little cafe from the outside that I had to check it out. We had such a wide array of fruits and veggies, which is one of the main reasons we wanted to come to Thailand in the first place. All the fruits were incredibly ripe and juice since they were in season. The famous papaya salad I keep having is called som tam. It is a spicy salad made from shredded unripe papaya, chilis, fish sauce, sugar lime and a couple other ingredients. It sounds crazy all together, but trust me when I say that it is SO DELICIOUS!
After lunch, we stopped by this local store called By Design. They house custom crafted items such as clothing and jewelry (click here to check out a post on my fashion blog with some earrings that I picked up from By Design). I absolutely love visiting little places like this for souvenirs, too!
Here's a bunch of tuk-tuk's parked in front of each other!
I was soooo excited for the next activity in the line up. I purposefully wanted to end our month-long Asia trip with Thailand because they are famous for their intense massages! I figured since we'd be backpacking for weeks, this would be a great way to treat ourselves for the last leg of the trip. I highly recommend trying out Lila Thai Massage! Their service was amazing, quick and the staff was all so friendly.
The Canteen was our dinner spot for this night, and I was so excited because I had seen this place when we went out for dinner on the first night. It was some of the best food I had on the entire Asia trip, as well as overall in my life in terms of tapas. We ordered it seemed like the entire menu, but how else are you supposed to do tapas? ;)
If you know me you know I ALWAYS ask for extra sauce, especially if it's garlic aioli like The Canteen had. UGH I want to have this meal again so bad!
Thanks so much for reading this post! Stay tuned for some more exciting outdoor adventures in Thailand!
Until next time,
Viv