Machete-wielding workmen once hacked their way through dense jungle, toting supplies and construction equipment up a steep mountainside. Their backbreaking efforts began in 1383 and produced Wat Phra That, a gleaming Buddhist temple that’s hard for visitors to Chiang Mai to miss. Perched high on Doi (Mount) Suthep, it’s visible from the city and appears on every list of must-see highlights in the area.
Take a comfortably familiar environment complete with western style cafes and jazz clubs, add a dash of the exotic, a splash of perpetual summer, a sprinkle of the affordability common throughout South East Asia and you’ve just cooked up something approximating life in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I’m probably talking out of school here because we’ve only ever been to four cooking classes in our entire lifetime, but if Siam Rice in Chiang Mai, Thailand, isn’t among the best cooking schools for tourists anywhere I’ll eat my Khao Soi.
Why do we think Siam Rice is so good? Because they nailed every single thing anyone could want in a cooking school.
Temples are to Thailand what cathedrals are to Europe. And having spent the better part of this year touring Europe’s cathedrals it’s not surprising that my mind wandered back there upon seeing Wat Rong Khun in the North of Thailand.
Buddha Statues at Wat Jed Yod, Chiang Rai Thailand
We choose Chiang Rai as a starting point for our Asian travels because it seemed like a low-key way to ease into Thailand. This small city in the north didn’t disappoint.
