Thailand is the biggest gift I’ve given myself. I justified that I deserved it for graduation after so many years of restless evenings at the library. It turns out Thailand doesn’t need justification…

I was very lucky to have the best travelling buddies with me, Lisa and Sara, both of whom are my classmates (soon-to-be colleagues!) It took us a few weeks to plan this end-of-school trip, but the end result was well worth it. We were going to spend three weeks visiting this fabulous country dubbed as the Land of Smiles.

First stop: Chiang Mai. Nothing short of breathtaking, Chiang Mai was our cultural layover. Blessed with beautiful landscape and a wide variety of wildlife, this city is more laid-back than the overpopulated and smoggy capital Bangkok. We stayed at 3B Boutique Bed and Breakfast, which was extremely cozy at a very reasonable price. Very little hotels have rooms with three separate beds, but this one did and it made a world of a difference after so many hours of travelling.

To start it all, we took a class to learn Thai cuisine with Baan Thai Cookery School (more info here). The teacher was very friendly and spoke English fluently. The experience was unique as we really learned the complete process of making the dish from going to the market to choose our ingredients, to cutting and preparing them, to cooking them and to finally eating it all! For the duration of one afternoon, we had the option of selecting three dishes to cook amongst more then twenty choices. Now, I’m a pro at making Pad thai, Green curry with chicken and Water chestnut in coconut milk!

I definitely recommend this cooking class because it brought us closer to the local life. It was also a great place to meet fellow travelers from all over the world. Despite the 40 degrees Celsius temperature and the smouldering heat coming from the many woks, this is definitely the best souvenir you can bring home after the trip (provided you’re still able to reproduce the taste of these dishes back home).

Chiang Mai is also the place to come closer in contact with Thailand’s exotic animal kingdom. Beware, however, of places that sedate or drug the animals. It really is an experience of a lifetime to interact with these beautiful creatures, let it not be tarnished by unethical animal treatment. We did our best to research the places we were visiting, knowing, of course, that the information was limited to what was available on the web and traveler forums.

Time of visit: June 2012