Chiang Mai Livin'

Chiang Mai is a magic city. The ancient city of the Lanna Kingdom lies in its center surrounded by an old moat.

The old city is a labyrinth of lush alleyways. In some parts its a land of guest houses, but in all parts its a land of amazing food. Brant and I were overwhelmed at first at the amount of foreigners in this city, especially on the lane our guesthouse was on. It was no Koh San Road, no Disneyland type feel, but the traveler and ex-pat culture is entirely present.

Before we left San Luis Obispo, our dear friend and old stabbie, Dan Kallal, told us about a couple that used to live in the house in the 90's had moved to Chang Mai about ten years ago. He said they own a yoga studio somewhere in the city and that we should try to connect with them. Brant and I contacted Rose and John via email a couple of months ago, so when we rolled into town we set out to find Wild Rose Yoga Studio

We were in town a few days before heading over there. But one day, we set out to navigate the alleyways. We arrived just before a morning yoga class. John let us in and was entirely surprised and stoked that some stabbies were in his city. Apparently, we are the first from the big green house to visit them.

John said that Rose would be back to the studio at the end of the yoga class. Laurance, a beautiful girl from Belgium, was teaching a mindfulness yoga class, which sounded right up Brant and I's I-haven't-stretched-in-a month alley. So in our street clothes we joined the yogis for a wonderful stretch.

 After the class we met firey, beautiful Rose. Full of energy, she gave us information about her city that was invaluable, while also inviting us to dinner that very night.
That evening Brant and I walked back to the studio and hopped on the back of a couple of Rose's friend's motor bikes (our first Thai motor bike experience) and headed off to meet Rose's crew at an uber healthy japanese "macrobiotic" restaurant just outside of the east gate, almost to the Ping River (don't worry we had never heard of macrobiotic either, look it up on wikipedia)

We thanked our friends for the ride and sat down on pillows surrounding a huge low table under lanterns in a beautiful garden.

Surrounding the table was an eclectic group representing all corners of the globe, ex-pats, all in love with their slower paced life on this continent. What they all seemed to have in common was a love for healthy living and yoga.

We ate our fill of wholesome grain dishes and soba noodles, green tea, and pumpkin soup. We enjoyed a long thoughtful conversation with John, which as new comers to this community, felt very welcoming. Around 11 we all left the restaurant, and Brant and I walked back to our little guesthouse feeling very social and proud of ourselves for staying up so late.

Back on our empty Soi (lane) a lonesome poodle watched over the scene. 

The next few days were spent following Rose's advise on where to eat and what to do, while also getting my bent fork fixed at a local shop.

We met up with the same ex-pat crew a couple of other nights and enjoyed awesome conversations with so many interesting people doing inspirational things around the world: Outreach Yoga for Burmese women at refugee camps, scholarship programs for hill tribe people in northern Burma to attend college...bla bla bla, these people get stuff done. It felt super nice to build small relationships over the week and to feel apart of a community, even for three days. 

But, if it really comes down to one thing, Chiang Mai is really all about the food. Our favorite was the little family of restaurants affiliated with the organic farm and homestead community, Pun Pun. Turns out, that the intro to permaculture course we were about to take neighbors this famous Thai farm.

Pun Pun Farm was started by a man named Pi Joe, who after working for many years in Bangkok decided that there was something diametrically wrong with "modern" life. Remembering the village life of his youth, he longed to recreate a life of simplicity for him and his family. He purchased a piece of property and started growing food. His passion for simple living, seed saving, growing organic food, and preserving local knowledge has inspired thousands in Thailand and around the world. The farm has earthen homes for the 10 (or so) permanent families that call Pun Pun home, but every month hundreds of Thai people and a few foreigners come to the farm for self-reliance courses.

Rose and John said we needed to try their affiliated organic restaurants. The first, and probably our favorite was The Birds Nest Cafe. This place, hands down, has the best smoothie in Chiang Mai(and we tried a lot of smoothies). The passion fruit, avocado smoothie at this place will change your life. Brant and I retreated to the lovely ambiance and incredible food of The Birds Nest many times to write and hang out.

Overlooking Chiang Mai and taunting Brant lies one of the highest mountains in Thailand, a 5,028 foot climb. Brant couldn't leave without pedaling to the very top. Having sat around sipping smoothies and eating rich curries, I was pretty keen on getting some exercise. So on our last full day in the city we headed out to face the mountain. We weren't exactly prepared for the amount of exercise this entailed. It was a grind! 3 hours of climbing up some ungodly grades, we made it to the top. The views from this mountain, Doi Suthep, are incredible, especially when you get to the backside which overlooks a mountainous, city-free valley.

Apparently, if you keep pedaling from the point where I took the silhouette photos of Brant, there is a hill tribe coffee farm with a little cafe for you to taste and overlook the drying beans. We wanted to see this so so bad, but didn't give ourselves nearly enough time.

The sun set, and we weaved our way back down the mountain along some of the most incredible forest roads.

We FLEW down the hill. It was an incredible 15 mile decent, it seemed to last forever. On the way down we saw dozens of Thai cyclists pedaling up to enjoy the same feeling, many of them were on mountain bikes heading for a good ride on the dirt. We sped down the hill in the company of many cyclists as well, it's always an awesome feeling on a bike when you are far faster and more stable than the cars around you. In a trio of fellow bikers, we passed cars and simply enjoyed the blisses of decent.

At the bottom, we were a couple of hungry hungry cyclists, so we navigated our way to another Pun Pun establishment, and enjoyed another magnificent healthy meal: incredible Panang curry and a hardy salad.

The next day we packed for our trek up to the Panya Project, a 45 kilometer ride to the sight of our permaculture course. After packing, we spent the morning  with Aaron, one of Lauren May's friends, taking him to the last Pun Pun restaurant on our list. This one was in a Temple next to the Buddhist University. It sits under a Banyan Tree, and is another magical place. We said our goodbyes, ate our organic food, and headed back to finish our last errands and start pedaling.