We were scheduled to fly to Chiang Mai today, a mountainous area 700+ km north of Bangkok, in one of the most northern provinces of Thailand. We had a relaxed morning because our flight wasn’t until lunchtime, and Scott was on a quest to get some fried chicken from a street vendor. He left me at a coffee shop near our hotel while he went on his search and he returned a few minutes later with fried chicken in hand. We enjoyed sitting on the patio sipping coffee (American prices) and Scott eating his chicken (Thai prices). I made friends with a stray cat that was also interested in the chicken and snuck it a few bits once Scott was done with it.

Our Grab picked us up and took us to the airport, although not the one we had flown into originally. There are two airports in Bangkok, and we were flying out of Don Mueang International Airport today rather than Suvarnabhumi. I made sure to verify this detail with our driver as soon as we got into the car. When we got to the airport and got through security I saw a sign advertising airport massages, and unlike in the US where you would pay a premium for such a thing, these were the same price as the ones outside the airport… dirt cheap. I was intrigued and Scott encouraged me to do it since we had time to kill. My muscles had finally recovered enough from our initial Thai massage we had gotten on our first day in Bangkok. Up until today I hadn’t even considered getting another one because I was still sore from the experience, and the thought of more abuse¹ was quite unappealing.

So I got my first airport massage. It was a hybrid of a chair massage and Thai massage, required no goofy pajamas, and I must say that it was much more relaxing than the first one and more similar to the ones I am accustomed to receiving in the US. I opted for the one hour option, and when it was done paid my $12, added a generous tip, and a bit loopy with relaxation, went to find Scott at our gate.

When it was finally time to board we were loaded crammed onto buses, standing room only, and bussed around the airport long enough that for a brief and horrifying moment Scott and I both wondered if we had mistakenly signed up for a bus ride to Chiang Mai rather than a flight. It turns out that they were taking us to the airplane rather than having the airplane come to our gate. We were on a budget carrier, and aside from their policy of no outside food or drink² (?!?!), it was not much different than any other flight we had experienced and we landed uneventfully an hour and half later in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai, despite being Thailand’s second biggest city, is quite small, with a population of about just over one million, compared to Bangkok’s nearly 11 million. The airport felt more like GSP’s and was easy to navigate. I was thrilled to find a little Moo Deng replica in the lobby and of course had to stop for a photo op. We were easily able to get a Grab to our hotel. We passed along the ancient brick city walls on the way in, and after snaking through a labyrinth of seemingly impossibly narrow alleyways, we were dropped off at Fang Chiang Mai a few minutes later.

Fang Chiang Mai was just lovely. It was clean and quaint and had a lush outdoor garden area with fountains and decorations. The proprietor personally escorted us up to the third floor to show us the room and its features. He asked us about our trip thus far and told us about some of the highlights of Chiang Mai. Thailand is often called “the land of smiles” and it was interactions like this that proved how the nickname was earned.

We unpacked and rested for a few minutes and then it was time to summon a Grab to take us to the Bo Sang Umbrella Festival, about 10 km away. Scott has a cool habit of searching for festivals and events when we are researching places to go and things to do and this was one of the things that popped up. I am glad it came across his radar because it was one of the highlights of our whole trip.

When we first arrived it seemed a bit sleepy and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The intel that Scott had found on the internet implied that the activities ended at 5 pm. This turned out to not be the case, but it would take us a while to figure this out, and that the festival’s activities actually started at 5 pm.

We started off by checking out the Umbrella Making Centre- part store, part museum, and home to artisanal umbrella makers busy weaving, webbing, assembling, and painting the delicate paper umbrellas, not a single one of the craftswomen less than the age of 75. After investigating the center we wandered into the festival proper which was still being set up. As the afternoon turned into evening the foot traffic increased and it became impressively crowded. The amount of umbrellas on display was splendid and they made a spectacular decorative backdrop, colorful and creatively themed. My favorite of all was the Moo Deng themed umbrella.

The food vendors were out in force and we enjoyed grazing our way down the street festival, sampling a wide variety of Thai food. I had paused to look at a booth featuring little plant bundles with something wrapped up inside them. A local Thai woman that spoke English helpfully told me about them. It turns out that it was “pandan rice,” a traditional Thai dish. Jasmine rice had been wrapped up in a Pandan palm leaf and steamed. I decided to try one and it was nutty, aromatic, and flavorful.

There were interactive opportunities scattered throughout and Scott found an umbrella that was there for the crowd to paint/sign/decorate and he painted our names on it. We then found a little side street with a stage and decided to sit and sip some Chang beers, and unlike festivals back home where it is a giant production to verify your age with your ID and then get or buy a wristband at a dedicated booth before you can then use tickets to buy stupidly overpriced beer, there was none of that monkey business here and the beer was cheap and easy to buy from vendors. We were sitting at a table outside of a building when a monk came out of the building and offered us each an orange which we happily accepted. And then I saw a puppy. It turns out that we were sitting outside a monastery (to be fair, they’re everywhere) and this one had a sleeping puppy on its stoop. I asked the monks for their permission to pet it, pantomiming my intentions, them indicating that it was ok, and then I proceeded to make friends with it.

Refreshed from the beer, oranges, and puppy kisses, we headed back into the main part of the festival. I would love to know how many kilometers of street the festival included because it seemed to stretch out indefinitely. We continued to snack our way down the length of it and stopped at various interesting stalls and stores. Scott popped into a hardware store to look around- a Home Depot it was not, but it was interesting to see what all they carried. The beers eventually caused a need for a toilet and Scott had the smart idea of walking around a small school grounds to see if there were restrooms, and sure enough there were. We encountered our first squatty potties³ here but opted instead for one of their Western counterparts that were thankfully available in neighboring stalls.

We came across some more interactive booths and Scott was able to swirl his choice of paint colors onto water and a festival volunteer then dipped a folding paper hand fan into the water. His fan came out with loops and splashes of red, purple, and yellow. They stuck it in a plastic bag for us and we carried on. We then encountered a station where you could paint your own umbrella. Scott suggested I do it and I was resistant at first, for the very practical reason of not wanting to get paint on my clothes. He harassed me until I gave in. I picked out a lime green umbrella and sat down at the table. I painted some vines and flowers on my umbrella and was actually pleased with how it turned out. I carried it around the rest of the evening and was careful not to touch the wet paint and was proud of myself for not getting paint on myself.

The festival hosted a beauty pageant for several ranges of ages and the Little Miss Bo Sang Umbrella Festival Pageant was scheduled for this evening, so as it got later we started seeing more and more little contestants, all dolled up in traditional Thai costume dresses with elaborate buns and makeup. Toddlers and Tiaras, Thailand edition. One of the parents of a contestant even had her little one walk out and pose for us to take pictures when they noticed us admiring her costume. It was a cute and authentic moment.

We were making our way back out of the festival to start thinking about summoning a car to take us back to Chiang Mai when we came across a caricaturist. I pointed out to Scott that we hadn’t accomplished the relationship milestone of having a caricature of us made and that we should do it, especially since it was less than $6. He agreed and we sat to have ourselves subjected to the artist’s whimsical interpretation of us. Our noses caught hell, but it was a cute representation of us and we got a laugh out of it, and we carefully carried the drawing around Thailand for the rest of our trip.

It was a bit of a struggle to find a Grab or Bolt back into town and I felt the same sense of nervousness that I had felt the night before when we were so far out of a big city and unable to readily find a ride. We did eventually find one and I would like to send her an apology, wherever she might be, because we had bought an item as a gag gift to give to a friend that we mistakenly left in her car, and I hope that she got a laugh out of it when she found it.

We were exhausted but had received a recommendation to go to a rooftop bar in Chiang Mai, called Rise⁴, and tonight was realistically the only night that it would work out. We rallied and had the driver drop us off. We were rewarded with a stunning view of the city lights and an elaborate mirror tile mosaic covered elephant statue once we got up on the rooftop. We had drinks (very much American prices) and rehashed our fun evening. We stopped at an ATM on our way out and an American couple from Montana noticed our caricature and stopped to admire it. They had been coming to Chiang Mai for years and they ended up giving us a restaurant recommendation for a place that would turn out to be one of our favorite meals of our trip. A quick Bolt ride later we were back at Fang Chiang Mai and were happy to see our (hard) bed waiting for us.