A week with Luca – The city of Happiness: Chiang Mai

As soon as we set our feet on Chiang Mai soil I remembered why I came to live in Thailand. That city has a huge concentration of great energy –and memories for me. We stayed at Mi Casa, a lovely boutique guesthouse nearby Tae Phae Gate. We rented bikes and went around the walled city and visited some of the many temples. We got a massage at the Blind Massage School. Lujan and I felt and breathed happiness.

Then it was time to complete a pending dream. Two years and a half before, while at massage school, I felt so happy that I decided to tattoo that feeling forever on my arm: มีความสุข (happiness). Unfortunately, during the last two weeks there I became very ill and I did not feel like anyone pocking on my skin with a needle. This time, encouraged by Lujan, I walked in the tattoo store again and did it. Lujan was not planning on getting one but ended up with an exclusive design of an elephant on her leg.

Three hours later we came out of the tattoo store and it was dark. We left our bikes at the guesthouse and walked to the Sunday Market. This market is set on Ratchadamnoen Road every Sunday evening and, different from the pitiful Phuket weekend market, it showcases the most beautiful crafts made by the Northern tribes of Thailand. There are also musicians, chair massages and a huge variety of street foods.

The next day we exchanged the bicycles for motorcycles and drove to Wat Doi Suthep, a magnificent temple on the top of a hill, which has fantastic views of the whole city. On the way down we decided to stop at the zoo. I was skeptical because of my experience of the Phuket Zoo. At the Phuket Zoo they exploit the animals. There are elephant and crocodile shows and animals on display for the tourists to get pictures. On the contrary, Chiang Mai’s zoo is beautiful and the animals look like they are well taken care of. The only challenge was that the zoo is very hilly and extensive and we ended up exhausted.

Roof Top Bar

As a magical coincidence, my friend Sharon from massage school was visiting Chiang Mai at the same time (Massimo and Monica were also in the city but they ruined the magic by not contacting me). We met Sharon and Paul, her husband, at their hotel and walked to the Night Bazar. We had a delicious dinner at a seafood restaurant among the shops. Then Lujan and I did a night out at The Roof Top, a bar with wooden floors, rugs, cushions and paper lanterns. There we hanged out with our tattoo artist, “A”.

The next morning Sharon and Paul took us on a ride to Chiang Rai. We stopped at a spa and had coffee grown in Northern Thailand. An unusual thing happened there: when we came out of the restroom, we paid the fee and the man that collected it called me back. I thought that maybe I had paid the wrong amount. Instead, he asked me to extend my arm and placed a black leather bracelet with metal spikes around my wrist. Then he smiled and let me go. We wondered if this man just enjoyed giving lost and found items to the toilet visitors… Sharon had planned to visit the White Temple but it was raining too much and we decided to return. In the way back we stopped at a place where they sold beetles for fighting. It is strange, what people find amusing.

We spent the afternoon at Blue Diamond, my favorite restaurant in Chiang Mai. The small dining room is packed with homemade baked goodies (many of them gluten free), organic foods of all kinds, natural beauty products, kombucha, goat yogurt, and a wide range of super foods. Around it there is a lush garden of orchids and a small stream with golden fish. If I had to spend the rest of my life in one place, it would be at the Blue Diamond.

With sadness, we took the bus back to Bangkok that evening. A new adventure began!