I cannot say enough about our first day in Chiang Mai. It was one of the best days we have had in a long time. It went so smoothly. I think we are getting more comfortable being in another country and the prices here were so unbelievable cheap we were giddy all day long.

We got up and walked to get some breakfast. After that we found a tuk tuk to take us accross town to the bus station. We have to take a bus to the country of Laos to do a visa run tomorrow.

When you get into Thailand you get a tourist visa for 30 days, our time is up this week. In order to get more time in Thailand you have to leave the country and get another visa and then come back. You can do that every month if you want, but that would get very expensive. So we are heading to the capital of Laos to the Thai consulate there to get a 3 or 6 month visa so we can stay longer.

I am excited for our first visa run, even though I am a little bummed we have to leave Chiang Mai it is so cool! We are going to come right back after we get our Thai visa either in a couple of days or we might stay in Laos for a couple of weeks. We have to pay for a Laos visa when we enter the country, so we might explore a little to get our money’s worth. I mean seriously when will we ever been in Laos again?! I had barely heard of it before last week!

After we got our bus tickets for our visa run we headed back to our tuk tuk to go back to our hotel. And then we remembered that we are travelling and we should go do something fun! There was a bumper sticker in the taxi for the zoo, so for $3 he drove us 30 minutes accross town to the Chiang Mai zoo. The total admission for all four of us was $9.

If you are ever in Chiang Mai you MUST go to the zoo. It was by far one of the coolest things we have ever done and for sure the best zoo we have ever been to!

conner feeding the flamingos

Ok so the entire time we were there I saw about 3 zoo workers. In combination with the zoo being built into the lush jungles of Chiang Mai it made for a very wild and exciting zoo adventure. I must admit I was constantly looking over my shoulder for an escaped tiger. Jarrett thought I was being silly, but when you can pay 20 baht (75 cents) for meat on a stick to feed the large cats through the fence-uhh, I felt completely justified.

skewered raw steak for sale 

hehe-this is totally for real! we were laughing so hard, I didn’t even show the boys, I was afraid they would want to and I just could not handle it

We did however get to feed and pet the giraffes and the hippopotamuses! We could not believe it, we thought we won the lottery or something. Whenever are we ever going to get to touch such wild and amazing animals!? This day totally rocked.

It started pouring down rain after we got to the zoo. It was a downpour, but it was warm, so we kept going. After we were completely drenched we came across a lady selling umbrellas for $3 so we got some. There were the most random things to buy at the zoo. There was a 7-11 and we even found a Thai lady cooking local food so we stopped at her stall for a game of UNO and a warm lunch. Our total lunch bill was $4, drinks included.

a cool playground at the zoo

white plumeria tree at the zoo-our flower and reminder of Trek

After our super fun day at the zoo we headed back to our room. We needed to get warm and clean since we were soaking wet from the rain. We had plans to visit the night market we had read so much about, so we could get some cheap yummy Thai food for dinner.

taking a songthaew back to the hotel

Conner LOVES taxi rides in Thailand, no walking and the wind blowing in his face-his favorite

view from the taxi

the night bazaar of Chiang Mai

Thai chicken and rice

for dessert-25 baht which is 75 cents-a banana crepe with sweetened condensed milk on top

We were happily surprised with our first day in Chiang Mai. I think it is the first place that on the first day it surpassed our expectations. We are heading out to look for an apartment today in hopes this will be our home for the next 3 months. Right after our little visa trip to Laos.