Charming Chang Mai, a quaint ancient city with breathtaking vistas as it’s situated amidst the tallest mountains in Northern Thailand. Just an uncomfortable, sleepless, overnight 12 hour train ride away from Bangkok, where finance and ladyboys charge South East Asia’s city that never sleeps.

A humbled state of consciousness overcomes you as you approach the city center, weaving through an unusual kind of heavy traffic, one made up of tuk tuks, motorcycles, and pedal bikes, as you coast along the outer ring like schools of minnows swimming fiercely together downstream. A moat and what was once a protective wall encircles the heart of the city, its purpose was at one time to fend off neighboring Burma. Now the area within the walls is home to most of Chang Mai’s charm. The visually striking streets are lined with café’s, eateries, temples, chic guesthouses, message parlors, museums, shops, and bars, all rich with Thai culture and mystical history. We rented pedal bikes to explore the city and it’s relative peacefulness, the cooler climate in this part of Thailand allows for a full day of sightseeing without overheating. Political awkwardness is not in any way present and your only boundary here is altitude.

The highlight of my visit to Chang Mai was, in fact, the food. An abundance of healthy, holistic, organic and vegetarian cuisines occupy the city. Wheatgrass for breakfast, organic pad thai with tofu for dinner. Khun Churn deserves my honorable mention, and this restaurant alone is reason for me to go back. They do a vegetarian lunch buffet for 80 baht ($2.50CAD) but we opted for an ambient candle lit dinner on their stylish but laid back terrace. I recommend the Kaow Tang – Crispy Rice with a peanut and thai coconut milk sauce to start, the fried cashew nuts, the Kanom Hua Pak Gad – stir fried white radish cale with egg, bean sprouts, and Chinese chilli. The pomelo salad with deep fried coconut and lime juice was delish, and opt for the brown jasmine rice steamed with ginger. Khun Churn, Th Nimmanhaemin, Soi 17, Chang Mai, Thailand.

However what brought us to Chang Mai was a trekking adventure into the ‘jungle’ where farang flock to in search of something they’ve been missing in their everyday lives. I say jungle but the forestry is far from lush and in fact was very dry and not at all dense, mind you we were a mere 30 minutes from the city. I will never forget the initial hike that took us from the foot of the hills to the village that we were to spend the night. It was the longest, hottest, most difficult and strenuous hike of my life. Nearly entirely uphill, and so steep that often we were on all fours for traction, or using the trees surrounding us to hoist ourselves onwards. I’m not lying…I almost died. Not only am I so out of shape that a sprint across the street can wind me, but I have REALLY bad asthma. So we’re winded, without water, covered in dirt, sunburned, carrying all our belongings, it’s high noon, I’m gasping for air and losing oxygen to my brain, Audrey is in FLIP FLOPS, and our chubby Thai guide keeps cheerfully sprinting past us, telling us only 5 more minutes for the last 3 hours. My hell.

Upon finally arriving at the elephant camp where we were spending the night, we first spent a few minutes reflecting on the hike, or rather overcoming the shock, and then each one of us jumped into a filthy bone chilling ‘pool’ that doubles as an elephant drinking/bathing station. We rode these elephants around a bit later. Don’t even start with me on how wrong this is. I found out later that the elephant we rode was pregnant. Did you know elephants have a gestation period of 4 years?

It wasn’t even 9hPM and we were already trudging off to bed, at first excited at the prospect of sleeping high up in the mountains with nothing between us and the stars but sheer mosquito netting. I must have woken up but a mere hour later, painfully shivering until the sun rose. I’ve never been so cold, uncomfortable, and miserable in my life. It wasn’t an experience, it was the worst part of my trip. My body temperature has never dropped so low, I’ve never been so uncomfortable. This is all anyone talked about for a good portion of the morning.

We did some more trekking the next day, much easier than the first day by far. Most of us had headaches and couldn’t walk as result of the previous days hell. But we did and were rewarded with lunch at a beautiful secluded waterfall, and then visited some hill tribe villages by the road. We went white water rafting and bamboo rafting in the afternoon, although again it’s dry season so there really isn’t much excitement happening on the waters this time of year. On the way back to the city we visited a long neck tribe (the Kayan). I was disappointed at the realization that the village was in fact a tourist mecca and not one in which we could actually catch a glimpse of life under their brass coils. Nonetheless, the women’s appearance is unarguably intriguing. Every year, a lengthened new brass coil is added to the women’s necks and this begins at the ripe age of about 5. I always believed that their necks were actually stretched, when in fact the illusion of a stretched neck is created by the weight of the brass pushing down on the collar bone and compressing the rib cage. The women say they wear these rings as a form of cultural identity (beauty). It’s just remarkable to feast your eyes first hand upon the cultural variations in symbols of beauty. In Thailand, in Asia, in the middle east, anywhere, cultural interpretations of beauty is both fascinating and bewildering.

Charming Chiang Mai, an enchanting escape into the real Thailand and a keystone in any visit to Thailand. A city where Thai culture is easy to embrace, as it’s often misplaced on the lazy beaches of the south, and misunderstood in hectic Bangkok. My visit was shortened by time, and due to it’s proximity to the mountains Chiang Mai can sometimes only be used as jumping off point for hill treks, but there is much more to see and do in this lovely city. For travellers on a budget, I recommend the Top North Guesthouse for 250 baht / night. The rooms are nothing special, but they have a pool and the location is excellent. They DON’T have bed bugs.

Finally, I just have to mention that I charged through and finished The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand while in Chiang Mai, which was a daunting and difficult read and I now consider one of my literary accomplishments. This powerful and ingenious book was published in 1943 and is about a young architect and his struggle against conventionalism. Strong and detailed strokes in perfect form fill the 700 pages which are dense with universal themes, but most importantly a beautiful surface story. I recommend.

Today I’m supposed to be in Thailand, but instead of catching grenades in my teeth I’m finally catching up on some writing, editing, nail painting, etc.