This episode is called "Chiang Mai 2025"
2025 Jul 20
When we arrived in Chiang Mai, we were greeted by our transfer driver. My friend MN wowed him with his Thai. Those lessons and all the fanboying have really paid off! The driver said we had arrived at the perfect time because there would be a night market nearby. Sure enough, upon arrival, we found a night market right on our street. Needless to say, our first night started off strong with shopping.
We went window shopping first and then grabbed dinner. Afterward, we walked around the Tha Phae Gate. CH was busy exploring the gate while MN and I trailed behind. MN drifted off and started chatting in Thai with a woman at one of the stalls. I wasn’t in the mood to talk, so I quietly wandered away and caught up with CH instead.
About half an hour later, MN returned, saying he’d enjoyed the conversation and was surprised to find himself alone. I told him he looked like he was hitting it off, so I gave him space. He laughed and said, “Yep, that’s the kind of friendship we have.” We all cracked up.
Not long after, a man from the US approached us and asked if we were from Indonesia. (For context: Filipinos and Indonesians often share similar physical and linguistic traits.) He had overheard us speaking and thought it was Indonesian. When we told him we were Filipinos, he said he’d lived in Cebu for a time and even spoke to us in Tagalog. He was rusty, but I was still impressed. He turned out to be a polyglot. He was switching between Tagalog, English, Korean, Spanish, and Thai. We also spoke with his Korean camerawoman. It was chaotic but fascinating, juggling all those languages. Not perfectly smooth, but still a win. It made me think that if we had the same privilege of exposure, we would’ve nailed fluency, too.
They were interviewing people in Chiang Mai about happiness, encouraging everyone to answer in their native language. I didn’t catch their account handle, and honestly, I’m glad—I don’t think my anxiety could handle watching myself on someone else’s page.
After that interesting encounter, we went back to proper shopping.
At one shop, the vendor started teaching us Thai, specifically colors, because he thought it would help while bargaining. I can’t remember most of them now, but I appreciated both the gesture and his patience.
We finally headed back to the hotel with tens of thousands of steps on our phones and what felt like just as many shopping bags in our arms.
2025 Jul 21
“Gutted” that’s how we felt when we realized we didn’t have much time left in Chiang Mai. It’s such a beautiful place, and two nights weren’t nearly enough to explore every corner.
We started the day early with a trip to two mountain temples. We hired a Grab to Doi Suthep. Originally, we had planned to see just one temple, but the driver explained that public transportation wasn’t easy to find up there. He offered to wait for two hours for an additional fee and even handed us a “menu” of tourist spots to choose from. In the end, we settled on two temples: Doi Suthep and Wat Pha Lat.
Doi Suthep
At Doi Suthep, we arrived just in time for an early-morning ceremony. The sangha (community) and the bhikkhus (monks) were gathered in the temple’s center, chanting. We stood quietly at the side, watching.
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After the ritual, we wandered through the temple grounds—the meditation areas, the ordination spaces, and the terrace overlooking the city skyline. The intricate art on the ceiling was stunning. Standing there, gazing at the horizon where the sky meets the city, I felt an unexpected sense of peace.
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Wat Pha Lat
If Doi Suthep was grandeur, Wat Pha Lat was serenity. This temple is the perfect image of “temples in the mountains” and “meditation in nature.” The scenic location makes it effortless to stay present—you hear birds chirping, water rushing through the river, and the forest humming around you.
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Chiang Mai City Tour
This part isn't really an official tour. We roamed around the city on our own.
We went to MAYA Lifestyle Shopping Center. It's a posh place to shop! We were looking for shirts to buy back home, we weren't able to find any here (any that we are willing to spend for) but we still roamed around and had a look at how posh people shop like.
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We do really want to buy Chiang Mai shirts so we went to a night market also in the City Centre. We had our eyes stuck to the road while looking for places to buy from, when suddenly CH shouted "Uy, 100% Thai Cotton" like it was a surprise that you can actually find clothes that are 100% Thai cotton in Thailand. I laughed more strongly than I should have. He explained that he thought the shirts were only 100 baht.
After buying stuff and eating, we went back to Tha Phae Gate without being interviewed and took shittons of photos of my friend MN. He was inspired by the photographs he saw from the actors he was watching.
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Final Thoughts
Our last night in Chiang Mai left us wanting more. This is definitely going to be in our itinerary in our future trips.
My friends compared the city to Baguio, one of, if not, the coldest cities in the Philippines. Where it was a good mixture of urban but slow and peaceful living.
Not to mention, the location of our hotel is amazing! We were right in the middle of the old city and everything was accessible. I highly-recommend Asaya House.