Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand is the second biggest city after Bangkok, but far, far away from a similar city size. The inner city has about 150.000 inhabitants; counting in the wider area it is about a million. It is located near the highest mountain of Thailand; it is worth taking a bike up there for the beautiful view. Chiang Mai is a very laid back town, with most of the tourist attractions in the old city and around the night market. There is also a very interesting China town, where you can find a lot of good spices, herbs, teas and whatever the Chinese sell. You can take a short bus ride and drive up to Pai, a small hippie and backpacker place. The road there has something like 730 curves and sitting with a Thai driver you might really get car sick. Great experience. There are also the possibilities to visit Chiang Rai or go over the border to Laos.
There is a lot of street art and graffiti in Chiang Mai:
I was busy doing yoga at Freedom house, which offer drop-in classes for 250 Baht. Adam is a great teacher and it is worth checking out his classes. I had the feeling it really did me good. I also attended some Muay Thai classes at Evolve Boxing Studio. There are many choices in town, but since I don't have any experience and I decided with the cheapest option. 300 baht a session. It was worth it. Because I was the only guy there I received personal training, in which the teachers focused on getting my basic punches and kicks right. They pushed me to my limits, but never over it, which gave me always a good feeling without having the notion of being tortured by some crazy old school teacher. The facility is super modern and clean. They provide you with towels and boxing equipment, so you don't have to worry about anything. Once I went for work out in GoGym, a fitness studio, in which you can do any kind of workout styles from hardcore bodybuilding to street style fitness a la NYC's infamous Hannibal or also go for some Muay Thai, but you need to bring your own gear. Drop-in costs 60 Baht, which is next to nothing.
Car show at the East Gate:
The artificial river surrounding the old city.
The clay garden.
I rented a bicycle, which was a challenge driving it in Chiang Mai, since the Thais are mad drivers and among the highest death rates in traffic in the world. And Chiang Mai gets hot around March reaching its climax in May with hot and dry season. It can go up to 45 degrees Celsius. And there is no beach to cool off, just some lakes around.
At first I still was eating meat and spent some time at the various food markets at night, before switichng to a vegetarian diet. Chiang Mai had many good options for veggie food.
Chinese bao filled with minced pork and duck:
Thai breakfast: Yok. Vegetarian. And a pineapple shake with spirulina.
Simple omelet with rice for about 40 cents.
A mushroom dish, very tasty. Vegetarian.
Beetroot juice.
Saturday night market with a lot of great street food.
A coconute ball.
@ Taste of heaven. A veggie restaurant with two shops in town.
Rice porridge with almond milk and bananas @ CatHouse cafe.
Two poached eggs with garlic hummus and pita on a bed of tomatoes and sweet peppers @ CatHouse.
An avocado egg sandwich with a fresh ginger, orange and carrot juice @ Freedom yoga
Kimchi with tofu and a Kimchi pancake @ Korean restaurant.
Vegan breakfast tortilla filled with tofu @ CatHouse.
Vegan Burger with falafel @ Vegan heaven.
I was invited by one of my students to go eating with him, so I broke with my vegan eating. We went to this crazy dude two pictures below. It was an experience. All the Thais go there and there is a big line on the outisde of people waiting to get a seat. We had a bowl for two people (could have served three). It comes with noodles, filled dumplings, vege on the inside, two eggs, a soup with ribs. Wow. It really stuffs you. You get two drinks and dessert all for 290 Baht. And the owner of the place is a cartoon figur. And order placed with him he will shout through the whole place at the chefs in the kitchen. He had me cracking up. Thought I was in some samurai flick.
I spent one month in Chiang Mai and one month in HangDong at International House, where I did my CELTA certificate, one of the most intense experiences in my life. But now I am certified I can teach English in many different parts of the world. Doing your CELTA is like participating in a boot camp for teachers. The pressure is extremely high. As of the second day, teaching practice already starts and you are assessed constantly by your trainers. Every week you have to hand in a written assignment, a lesson plan for every teaching practice and if you have a language lesson (grammar, vocabulary or functions) an extra analysis sheet of the target language you are going to teach. I slept around 5 hours waking up early concentrating on my lesson preparations and writing my assignments plus learning all the material which was handed out during the input sessions. I often didn't sleep good with all that stuff going through your head. In the third week I had my doubts if I am really doing the right thing and if CELTA was the right choice. Getting into the fourth week then was absolutely a moment of relief knowing you passed your course. As much pressure it was, I did have the feeling I really learnt a lot thanks to my great tutors. Now I sit and observe different teachers without CELTA and I do wonder what they are doing.
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