Day 124! Woah… it’s already been a week since my cousins arrived in Thailand?! That’s crazy! I’m looking forward to what the rest of the trip has in store. But enough thinking ahead, let’s live in the present because it’s time for our last day in Chiang Mai!

After yesterday’s long day of adventure, it was time to sleep in. We had a very lazy morning and slowly got ready for the day. 10:30am rolled around and we walked to the restaurant we ate at for breakfast two days ago!

I got a watermelon, lemon, and honey smoothie with a plate of garlic and chili chicken. It was a great way to kickstart the relaxing day and all of us thoroughly enjoyed our meals.

After breakfast, we went back to the hostel… where we experienced another minor travel scare.

Tomorrow, we head to the south to start our beach time on Koh Phangan. Mina was checking her plane ticket for tomorrow and noticed she booked the flight for today! Thankfully she realized today and had enough time to book a new flight.

Unfortunately she can’t be on our same morning flight to Bangkok, but she was able to get on the more important flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani.

With this crisis averted, it was time to set out for our activity of the day!

We went on a very hot 30 minute walk to our last hostel, Revolution. We wanted to enjoy the afternoon relaxing by the pool and we knew we would be able to use it even though we weren’t staying there.

I texted my friend Mia (who was in my travel group from Laos to Thailand) because she works at this revolution and I was actually able to see her for a little bit. She was pretty busy so we couldn’t really catch up, but if need be, she’ll be able to put in a good word for me if I want to volunteer at the Revolution in Koh Tao!

There were a lot more people in the pool than usual and they filled it up later with a bunch of plastic balls. Seeing that I was with my cousins, it only made sense that we juggle the balls (lots of impressed eyes were on us during this). But for the most part, we just relaxed, chatted, and relaxed some more.

Our Israeli friend, Yoni, came to the pool as well. It was nice to see him again and catch up on the past couple days.

After spending a couple hours at the pool, we got a Grab back to our hostel to shower and get ready for the evening.

Sunday is a big day of the week for Chiang Mai! Not only was it coronation day, but it was the Sunday Night Market! This market is the biggest in all of Thailand.

Before we walked to the market, we stopped by the food market nearby our hostel first. I got a cheap chicken Pad Thai, which was a great snack before all the different foods I would eat at the night market.

As the sun was quickly setting, we made our way into the center of the old city to start exploring the large market!

This market was insanely long and spanned the entire length of Rachadamnoen Rd (which is around a mile long). It took us over 4 hours to walk around the entire market too! There was also a 3 on 3 basketball game going on at the old city main gate, I’m not sure what it was for)

Throughout the course of the market, I ate a lot! I had a mango smoothie (30 Baht), a chocolate and a durian mochi (10 Baht each), a chocolate and banana muffin (10 Baht), a chicken skewer (10 Baht), and a set of 5 chicken gyozas (50 Baht).

So in total, I spent 120 Baht at the market on food and 29 Baht on a new cheap bracelet. It was a great excursion!

My cousins really enjoyed this market as well! They got lots of new clothes, gifts for friends and family back home, and food and drinks as well!

We also met up with Joya and Miri, who we will be seeing in Koh Phangan, and also literally walked into Keun from our Doi Inthanon trip!

After the night market, we went back to the hostel to shower, pack, and sleep. We have a very bright and early wake up tomorrow as we will be flying to Bangkok, then having a layover, and then flying to Surat Thani. Here we will catch a bus from the airport to the boat pier to catch the ferry to Koh Phangan!

It’s pretty crazy my cousins have already been here 7 days (8 nights)! Times really flying and I’m excited to enjoy one more week with them!!

– Elie