Day 92! It’s another travel day! We’re heading down to a city I really enjoyed last time I was in Thailand, Chiang Mai! It was more of a day of relaxing than adventure. But my friend Dan and I went for a night of entertainment, which you’ll find out soon enough what it entailed!

Today is another travel day! However, there was no reason to wake up early, so I tried to sleep in.

Key emphasis on tried because I woke up at 7:30am and apparently was ready to start the day.

I decided to partake in the hostels free breakfast this morning. But part of the deal is you need to cook it for yourself! I’ve really missed cooking, so this was a nice addition to my morning routine.

I then FaceTimed my parents for our weekly FaceTime!

As always, it was great getting to see them and catch up on the hip and happening back home.

I then had a quick FaceTime with my cousins Ben and Sam! We chatted a bit about packing for their trip to Thailand, but kept it short since we didn’t have much to talk about this week. Nonetheless, it was nice to chat with them!

Just before 11am Toby, Dan, Sam, Abi, and I strapped on our backpacks and headed on a short walk to the bus station.

We were the only ones left of our crew as people had to be in Chiang Mai/Pai at different times, but we plan on meeting back up in a day or two!

Usually when traveling buying a bus ticket at the station is the cheapest option. So we took a gamble, the ticket was 305 Baht ($8.32) which was just about how much it was online. However, we didn’t have to rush anywhere so there was no need to book in advance.

There were no busses that could take all 5 of us until 1pm, so we found some seats and sat in the shade of the bus station on another very hot day.

We chatted for a bit and then Abi and I dove into some online chess matches. After playing a number of games, I decided to do a quick run to a nearby 7-11 where I bought lunch.

When I finished, I got up to throw my trash away. I noticed there was a bus near where ours would be, so I went to investigate. Turns out, it was our bus!

I went to tell the others and we made our way to load the bus for our 3ish hour ride to Chiang Mai!

The seats were very spacious on this bus! They even gave us a little snack and some water too (which made me remember my black bean bun on my 30+ hour bus ride from last August).

The ride was nice, but not much to note. I chatted with my friend Sam, started my new book, took a nap for an hour, and listened to a playlist my friend Ryan made for me!

After 3.5 hours we made it to Chiang Mai, Thailands second largest city!

We immediately called a Grab and piled in for a ride to our hostel (we unfortunately were too far away for a walk in the 104 degree Fahrenheit heat).

We arrived at our hostel, Smile Robotist Hostel, and were immediately welcomed by a caring and energetic host! He gave us a map with all his suggestions for what to do in chiang Mai. We’ll use this when we come back to the city after our silent retreat. But for now, we put our stuff down and headed out for a quick dinner because Dan and I had a 6:30pm appointment to catch.

It took us a bit to find a restaurant to eat at and in the end split ways with most of our crew. But I ended up enjoying a Thai basil chicken with rice, which is a dish I’ll be eating a lot of now that I’m back in Thailand!

Once we finished eating, Dan and I hopped in a grab for our evening activity (everyone had their own plans for the night). Our plan was to go see the new Dune movie!

We got a quick Grab ride and showed up to the theater just in time. The movie theater was in a ginormous mall, which was packed with locals!

The movie theater itself was pretty packed too. As we were waiting for the movie to start, there were some very intense anti drunken driving ads and a pretty long video to pay respects to the Thai monarch.

I wasn’t expecting this and it was a very interesting thing to see before starting the movie! I’m not really sure how receptive the crowd was about it, but there was a part that asked everyone to stand and no one did…

After that, Dan and I enjoyed 2.5 hours of amazing cinema! A lot of my friends back home have been telling me I HAVE to see the movie and it lived up to the hype. The music gave me chills and the story was spectacular! I’d highly recommend it to any sci-fi fans, but of course watch the first one before you see it.

Dan ended up buying an absurdly large popcorn before the start of the movie… and I mean, this thing has to be the biggest popcorn bucket I’ve ever seen!

We thought it was so comical that we were going to bring it with us for after the movie when we met up with friends. But on the way out of the theater, a local was asking us for money for food. So Dan gave her the rest of the popcorn.

We then hopped in another Grab and made our way to another hostel where our friends were at. But when we got dropped off, we realized we went to the old building of the hostel. So we had to walk another 15 minutes to the right spot.

We didn’t stay super long before we headed back to our hostel for bed. But I met a few new travelers that I might see down the road!

It was another day of travel, but I ended it with much needed relaxing and entertainment! The traveling isn’t done yet, as tomorrow we’ll be heading to one of my favorite spots in Thailand, Pai! We will be staying there until our silent retreat, so I’ll have some time to relax in one spot.

This Thailand adventure is already off to a great start and we’re only a few nights in!

– Elie